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Origins All modern CLCs trace their origin to the Sodalities of Our Lady set up in 1563. The history of the English and Welsh CLCs goes back to Stephen Brinkley, a printer who joined the Sodality in Cologne under Fr Francis Coster sj co-founder of the movement with Fr John Leunis sj. He brought back the idea of the Sodalities to England and during penal times English Jesuits ran sodalities to form lay apostles. Brinkley, with some friends, set up a printing press at Stonor Park to publish the books of St Edmund Campion. Eventually all were executed. With the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773, the Sodalities lost their link with Ignatian Spirituality and became a mass movement. Reform began in 1948 when Pope Pius XII, himself a Sodalist, exhorted us to go back to our roots and rediscover our true identity. Sodality Cell Movement In 1954, Fr Bernard Basset was made National Chaplain of the Sodality. He had already transformed the wartime RAF lay training movement into the Cell Movement whose aims were to form lay apostles. Now he set about merging the two as the Sodality Cell Movement. Ignatian Spirituality was there in the background, but emphasis was on regular national campaigns, such as writing to newspapers, trying to insert Christian morals into society, a strong push to “Put Christ Back into Christmas” and a deep commitment to Third World issues. International Reform At World level, efforts towards reform were moving forward. One particular need was to rewrite the common rules, which were very inflexible and far from the vision of the first Sodalists. So a huge worldwide consultation took place, both through letters and through visits of Fr Louis Paulussen sj, the World Chaplain. In 1967, at a historic meeting in Rome of representatives of 38 national communities, including England and Wales, the rules became our General Principles and we adopted our new name. This was because the meaning of the word “sodality” had been lost, and we wanted a name to express our new-found identity. National communities were free to adapt the title and in England and Wales we called ourselves the Christian Life Movement (CLM) for some years before we changed over to Christian Life Community. The Spiritual Exercises Changing the name was one thing; gradually emphasising the Spiritual Exercises “as the specific source of our spirituality” was quite another. The gospel enquiries of the old cell movement, still widely used in the 1960’s and 70’s, had taught us to pray on the Gospels and apply them directly to our lives, but few had direct experience of the Exercises. Gradually more and more members made retreats, first sharing in groups then individually guided; first residential, more recently in daily life. Then some members did the full individually guided Exercises, usually in daily life, and now we are beginning to offer them to people in a group too. Many CLC members have trained as prayer guides and spiritual directors, leading others in prayer and in the full exercises. Apostolate In the Cell movement, the emphasis was on national campaigns, but gradually each member learnt to discern where God was calling them, personally, and the national campaigns ceased. All CLC members are active in the service of others, both in the ordinary events of their daily lives and in the “extra” activities which they undertake, whether it be in their parishes or in the wider community in which they live. Our life is essentially apostolic. The Development Worker Project In 1991, radical change was made to the way CLC operated. For the first time we employed a full time development worker. This was largely due to the generosity of the Society of Jesus and other members of the Ignatian family as well as that of our own members. The effect of this move was seen in an increase in the number of local communities as well as an increased awareness of the contribution we can make to the Ignatian family at large. In total, we employed successively three development workers over a twelve year period up. In 2001, the Society of Jesus suggested that we might be becoming too dependent on them and proposed that they pay for a management consultant to help us look at our way of proceeding. They agreed also to fund a Development Worker for two more years to give us time to reorganize ourselves. Now our regions deal with enquirers and assist with the formation of new groups. We have changed in many other ways as well; all for the better. The result is that CLC and the Jesuits are much closer. The above article is taken from “Christians in the World” – The handbook of CLC in England and Wales. |
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