Models of Community Life as Tools for Witnessing to Solidarity with The Poor: A Case Study of The Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent De Paul, Eritrean Province
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Date
2017
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Tangaza University College
Abstract
Since the beginning, God revealed Himself with His loving plan of salvation to humanity in the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. The life of the Holy Trinity is the perfect model of life in common for all humanity in general and in particular, for those who live in community as a spiritual family of God. Jesus and His apostles lived as a community, and this continued into the birth of the Church, after Pentecost in the community of the first Christians. The religious, who assume community life imitate the model of the community life of the first Christians, through observing their own charisms. The Company of the Daughters of Charity live community life for the sake of the service of Christ in the poor. This implies putting emphasis on the authentic community life to form a spiritual family in which God dwells and takes the lead as the Father of the community. This is an essential factor for witnessing to solidarity among the people they serve; for the Daughters of Charity, service of the poor is an expression of the love of God. This paper aims at rekindling and restoring awareness about the necessity of living true fraternal life in community, which makes visible the love of God to others; humanity, especially for those whom society rejects and marginalizes. The study examines and discerns in depth values lived by the sisters in order to re-appreciate and re-live them and identify the challenges of fraternal life in order to sensitize and motivate members of the community to overcome the challenges and work together in building up a desirable community life. The investigation uses the descriptive design and analysis. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, a mixed research design, involving qualitative and quantitative approaches is used. The study uses the Community Cohesion approach for analyzing the community life of the Daughters of Charity in the Province of Eritrea. The literature review presents in detail the understanding of the Church, the Company of the Daughters of Charity and other scholarly works, of the necessity of living authentic religious community life to witness to the love of God. The study uses the stratified and random sampling design for the selection of participants in the study. The sample includes sisters in authority and other members of communities in other types of services, including Seminary Sisters. Data is gathered through questionnaires and interview guides from the field. For data presentation, tables, pie charts, frequencies and percentages are used. For the data analysis of the qualitative findings, SPSS is used, and quantitative findings are arranged in the thematic form, and it is interpreted according to each theme in relation to the objective of the study. The findings of the data provide some insights into authentic community life in view of a boosted service of the poor. At the end, the research proposes some possible suggestions, which could build up the fraternal life of communities in view of the mission of charitable service to the needy.
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Keywords
Models of Community, Life, Tools for Witnessing, Solidarity, Solidarity, Solidarity, St. Vincent De Paul