Volunteering
“All of us can cooperate as instruments of God for the care of creation”
Laudato Si’ 14
The main purpose of the Volunteer program, in Assisi, is not service. But it is the life experience. That is why the experience is something broader, there is accommodation with other Volunteers, there are meetings, there is free time and immersion in creation, there is prayer, there is training and walking along the year with other Volunteers.
Volunteers play a crucial role in making the message of Laudato si’ known among the pilgrims who visit Assisi, a very important task as the ecological crisis continues to get even worse each time. At the same time, service is also marked by hope, harmony, and inner peace.
Registration as a Volunteer is done through the form. Upon completion, the Volunteer is contacted with an email to complete the registration, entering his or her availability in a shift schedule, and providing detailed information about his or her stay. The email provides the “Volunteer Portrait” i.e., the Rule with all the characteristics of the Volunteers, the link to the online training, and the link to access (if desired, in italian) the Volunteer whatsapp chat, to learn about the experiences and other members of this family. In addition, online meeting times, such as the Angelus every Friday, and zoom training are organized periodically.
Training with videos is one such step. It consists of about 5 hours in total of videos (composed of pills of about 10-15 minutes each), with which self-assessment questionnaires are associated, allowing learning to be monitored. It serves to have an in-depth training on the life and places of Francis and Clare, all material that will come in handy with the pilgrims, but above all it serves for the volunteers to taste the places with different eyes.
Upon arrival in Assisi, the coordinating team of the Center welcomes, with a moment of welcome and initial prayer. It provides the Volunteer with information about the service and accommodation, and hands out the Volunteer’s kit. He also introduces the new arrival to the existing group.
The service, which will take up half a day (morning or afternoon, as desired or needed) can be of two types:
- With groups booked at the Laudato Si’ Center (LS Retreats, prayer times, pathways or conferences), where we have more time and a schedule defined by us;
- With groups or pilgrims in transit to the Shrines, where the service is limited to small introductory information, a polite welcome, and logistical support to the friars or the diocese.
So it may be that, on the days when the Volunteer is here, there will be no groups booked or in one’s own language; but one can still perform the service with physical presence, starting already with a smile, or helping to give support.
The accommodations available for Volunteers, for a choice of one or more weeks, consist of self-managed apartments with single or double rooms. Cleanliness and tidiness are the responsibility of the Volunteers, under the supervision of the coordination team. It will be the responsibility of the Volunteers to leave the apartments in a decent condition, equipped with the necessities to welcome future volunteers, as a gesture of welcome and charity.
Let the volunteer’s day be marked by prayer in and with creation, giving high priority to moments of prolonged silence and “ecological spirituality” (LS 216). For example, with morning praise contemplating the rising sun, or the Laudato Si’ Chaplet at any time of the day (alone or together with other volunteers), or the Angelus at noon – also participating weekly in the online Angelus with other Volunteers, daily Mass, or contemplation of the sunset with the Laudato Si’ Chaplet.
For Mass, which is optional on weekdays, it would be advisable for the volunteer to choose a place of the heart, among the Assisi shrines, to live the Eucharistic experience with the community. An option for community prayer in creation together with the other volunteers could be the Via Creationis (for example, once a week) or any other option from the Movement’s Prayer Book.
The importance of these moments of contemplative prayer in creation comes from the Paradox of “Contempl-Action”, which is at the heart of the “Laudato si charism” of our Movement. In fact, the volunteer walks in the footsteps of St. Francis and Jesus himself, whose lives are models of “Contempl-Action” that combined prolonged prayer in nature (Francis’ hermitages and Jesus’ “solitary places” in the mountains, desert, etc.) with active service and preaching in the cities.
A particularly valuable moment of the week is the day of contemplative silence in the forest, either in the sacred woodland of the Hermitage of the Carceri, where St. Francis prayed at Mount Subasio, or in the Forest of Francis. This is a key time to deepen the volunteer’s “conversion to ecological spirituality.” So it is essential to turn off the cell phone that day and enjoy the gift of silence immersed in creation.
But most of all… We hope that each of you will live this in a spirit of providence, as you make your time and talents available, and the Lord will offer you this beautiful opportunity for life…