Life of the Congregation

The life of the Congregation, since this is what we are talking about, flows like a long river with many tributaries, the sole origin of which is a word, that of the saint of Betharram. In 1949, Fr Duvignau scj faithfully collected these words in a single volume destined at the time for a french readership. The time had come to offer the Spiritual Doctrine in a new setting. Here it is with an added attraction.

In 2013-14, while the General Council was engaged in putting the letters of St. Michael Garicoits on the official website of the Congregation in four languages, Fr. Beñat Oyhénart SCJ was engaged in a related work: developing a new edition of the Spiritual Doctrine.

The goal was to provide not only newly printed copies (the first 1949 edition is out of print), but also to create a layout for a more user-friendly identification of quotations from the Doctrine, by adding numbers to the margins of the text, to be reproduced in all other language editions. Since the readership of the Doctrine is no longer, as in 1949, exclusively French, a reference system for all languages has become necessary.

This new layout was employed by the Etchecopar Region which is about to publish the Spanish edition. Thus with this way of numbering the text, common to both languages, references to quotations from the DS will be valid in both French and Spanish.

The English edition, especially useful for our young people in formation, is already a work in progress.

While still awaiting an Italian edition of the Doctrine, the Spiritual Master, translated by Mr. Mario Grugnola with the collaboration of Fr. Ernesto Colli SCJ, will soon go to press.

In the past, references to the Spiritual Doctrine indicated the page number where the quote appeared in the French edition, e.g.: DS 112.

Now, the reference in the new edition, will indicate the number (inscribed in the margin) of the paragraph in which appears the quoted text, e.g. : DS § 101.

PS: Like all Betharramite source documents published in the past, our present Rule of Life still refers to the 1949 French edition of the DS. Not to worry ! This new 2014 edition also carries the old 1949 page numbers in a small black box. (Pictured here)