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INTRODUCTION
We have used the term "ACIT Commitment" in the singular, as a reference to the link that each
member has with the TA. When speaking of other commitments, reference is being made to
specific applications that derive from a vocational calling.
The first part lists notable characteristics of ACIT members in the dimensions of spirituality,
Church, family, work and profession, study, faith development, the social and political
dimension and the associative dimension.
Membership of the Teresian Association in an ACIT association gives rise to the question of
rights and duties. This section uses legal language to express the mutual commitments of the
member and the Association that derive from membership of the Teresian Association.
There are other facets of the life and management of each association and of the Teresian
Association that affect the life and commitment of ACIT members. These will be included in
further chapters in local Directories. It is necessary to specify concrete means to help live out
this commitment with its concomitant rights and duties.
1. They recognise Jesus Christ to be the centre of their lives and the foundation of the Teresian
Association. The mystery of the Incarnation provides the meaning and archetype of the
humanism that they profess.
2. They find in Christ, the Crucified Lord, the strength, the power and the only guarantee for
the transformation of the world.
3. They recognise the place of Mary in the life of the Teresian Association, she who was a
privileged witness as she followed Jesus.
- They learn from Mary to accept the Word as a gift and to respond in fidelity.
- They celebrate her on her feast days and in the liturgical seasons of Advent and
Pentecost.
- They treasure the various manifestations of devotion to the Mother of God in the
Christian world and consider the Rosary to be a prayer of the Teresian family.
4. Their way of life is inspired by the early Christians, as recommended by Saint Pedro Poveda:
- Prayer and study are essential dimensions of the vocation of ACIT members.
- They must strive in their everyday life and activities to make space in which to
receive the word of God and for personal prayer. In their prayer they enhance their
spiritual life, comprehend difficulties and discern circumstances.
- They often take part in the Eucharist to nourish themselves spiritually. Its
celebration should be central in the lives of members. This is especially meaningful in
celebrating the Lord's Day.
- They often receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation as a meeting with God's mercy,
especially at important liturgical moments such as Advent and Easter. This is an
opportunity for personal and communal conversion.
- After the manner of the early Christian communities, ACIT members come together
to pray and celebrate. In their prayer they take to themselves the sorrows and hopes
of humanity, join in solidarity with it, and grow in faith and fellowship love.
- They seek, as far as possible, to keep at least three days free annually for a retreat in
an atmosphere of serenity and silence.
- They grow in faith and fellowship love. They welcome and value each member as
she/he is. They accompany each other in personal growth.
- They make a lifestyle of solidarity and sharing.
- They announce the Gospel boldly.
5. St. Teresa of Avila is for ACIT members, as for all TA members, a teacher of prayer. In her
they recognise a model of courage in service, detachment and attractive spirit.
6. They esteem and appreciate their own vocation, which they live out with the other members
of their own ACIT association and all members of the Teresian Association, sharing coresponsibly in developing its life and mission.
Church dimension
1. Members live deeply their sense of being Church, which for Pedro Poveda is a distinctive
feature of the Teresian Association.
2 They make the Church of Jesus present there where they give coherent witness to Gospel
values and carry out the mission of the Teresian Association.
3. They update responsibly their being and belonging to the Church.
4 They carry out their mission in communion with the universal Church and the local churches
through their own charism. They are actively involved in:
- Programmes geared towards youth, family and education.
- Promotion and training of lay people through organisations and departments proper
to each local church and episcopal conference.
5. The parish is the ordinary place where one is born and grows in faith. It is typical of the
members of the Teresian Association to collaborate through their charism in pastorally
animating the parish community.
6. They promote ecumenical and interreligious dialogue.
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Family
1. They recognize the importance of the family as a basic and essential element of the
community and a key agent of personal and social development; within it are forged the
Christian values of faith and human relations.
2 They become aware of their responsibility within their own family.
3 They strive to make the family, as a domestic church, a special environment, where its
members grow and empower each other in mutual respect and everyday service, particularly
towards its weakest members, and in mutual witness to forgiveness and joy.
4 They bring to life Pedro Povedas educational approaches in bringing up their own children.
5. They see their own experience of family life as responsibility towards other families, allowing
for the different family situations present in our societies.
6 They are involved in promoting women, sharpening their sense of her dignity and role in the
family, society and the church.
7 They encourage each other to live the intimate community of life and love to which Christian
spouses are called within marriage, sharing the common task of being responsible parents,
generous, human and Christian.
8 They pay special attention to formation on issues to do with family, and to diocesan pastoral
guidance on family issues, and are actively involved in family ministry programmes.
Study
1. ACIT members acknowledge that study, inseparable from prayer, is an essential dimension of
the Teresian Association. Both are necessary for a critical and constructive presence in society.
2 The thinking of the Founder gives rise to our continuing obligation to study, reflect and
commit to specific times for this task.
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Formation
1. The mission of the Association sets out for all ACIT members the range of their action and
presence in the world, and guides the direction of their formation.
2. Each person is an agent of their own formation. The formation process of ACIT members is
geared towards helping them to progressively internalise the faith and spirit of the Association,
so as to embody their own original ACIT vocation.
3. They commit themselves to receiving a formation suited to the demands of their vocation
and mission:
- To explore in depth the writings of Pedro Poveda and the teachings and history of the
Association, documents from Assemblies along with the general documents of the
Teresian Association.
- To update their Christian and theological formation.
- To acquire the cultural basis needed for responsibly fulfilling the mission of the
Association.
4.- Formation in the Teresian Association is an ongoing process founded on a basic initial
formation. The Association offers ACIT members the means to achieve this: a reference group,
a training programme and personal accompaniment.
5.- The initial formation process of the ACIT member takes place throughout the stages that
constitute her/his process of personal integration into the Association, from the first
application to know the Association up to permanent commitment.
.-6 This process should be planned in a realistic and flexible way so that each person integrates
into her/his life the basic aims identified along the formation programme and develops all
her/his capacities in fulfilling the mission.
7.- Formation is for the ACIT member a lifetime responsibility. On-going formation aims to
keep alive and active those motives underpinning their option for Christ in the Teresian
Association and make possible an evangelising presence in a changing society.
Socio-political dimension
1. The ACIT member shares in building the political community, fulfilling her/his civic duties.
She/he commits to defending human rights and to cooperate in a society that promotes human
dignity.
2 Participation in civil society is a particular way of fulfilling her/his civic and professional duties.
Members maintain an active presence in society, integrating faith and life. They interpret
reality with Gospel criteria and leave themselves open to its challenges.
3 They collaborate in the formation of a responsible citizenship that is democratic, critical, and
lived as an element of social cohesion and peaceful coexistence.
4 Where an ACIT member works as a member of a political party she/he undertakes this
activity in a personal capacity and in harmony with their ACIT vocation. She/he will respect the
pluralism within the Teresian Association.
5 Carrying out the mission may, in certain circumstances, demand that she/he take an explicit
and public personal stance. In this case she/he will take on this responsibility in coherence
with Gospel values and her/his own ACIT vocation.
6 When the collective defence of human rights demands that people take a defined and public
stance, members of the Teresian Association present in a country or region may pronounce
themselves as a TA group of that place, after dialogue with the relational channel and
discernment with the appropriate authority.
Associative Dimension
1. Membership of the Teresian Association requires its members to responsibly take part in
developing its life and mission, promoting unity and dynamic fidelity to the foundational
purpose.
2. They actively participate in developing the common mission project in local realities.
3. Members ask for and offer fraternal help and solidarity among each other, as an appropriate
way of living out the commitments required to fulfil the purpose and mission of the
Association.
4.The ACIT members promote communion and communication among all members of the
Teresian Association through the different channels of relationship and participation.
5.They support and maintain their own Association and share in the support and maintenance
of the Teresian Association, sharing cultural, professional and economic resources.
6.They encourage vocations in the Teresian Association through their personal witness and by
making the Association known in its unity and diversity of commitments.
7.They promote the mission of the Teresian Association by convening people and groups that
adhere to its aims and participate in its activities and join it as part of the Teresian Association
Movement.
4. To study and explore in depth the writings of Pedro Poveda and acquire a deeper
knowledge of the doctrine and history of the Teresian Association. They ought to complete
the training and formation indicated in the General Programme of Ongoing Formation.
5. To know the documents coming from the General Assemblies that are relevant to them,
such as the communications from the President of the Teresian Association and the General
Council.
6. To be responsible for the training and formation of the people who approach the ACIT
association and come to learn how to live the Christian life with this charism and to
accompany them in the different stages of their formation leading to their commitment as
ACIT members.
Participation in the life of the local ACIT Association and of the Teresian Association
The ACIT members have the right :
1. To participate actively in the life of their own association and in carrying out the mission of
the Teresian Association with the particular characteristics of their association.
2. To participate, in the way that is already set up, in the Assembly of All Associations ad
experimentum in order to make decisions that involve the whole Teresian Association with
respect to lines of mission and spirituality that affect all members and associations.
3. To be co-responsible, together with the members of the Primary Association, in carrying out
the mission in each context.
4. To be responsible for the aims of the Association together with the Advisory Board.
5. To encourage different teams, projects, reflection groups, study and prayer groups in order
to enlighten and transform reality in the light of faith.
Information
ACIT members have the right:
1.To have access to publications on the doctrine of the TA.
2.To be informed of the life of the TA and their own Association.
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3.To receive communications from the President of the TA and the General Council in the five
languages that TA texts and documents are normally published.
4.To receive information on the economic management of the ACIT Association.
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4. To get to know and participate in the committees through which the Council of Culture and
the General Department of Formation carry out their programmes and projects and to
support the Department of Information.
5. To participate in the preparation, setting up and development of the Common Mission Plan
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