Interview with Alberto Posada: General Coordinator of the Christian Life Movement

We share with you this interview with Alberto Posada, General Coordinator of the Christian Life Movement (CLM), in which he shares his reflections on his personal life and his close apostolic link with the Movement. We will learn about his experiences in Colombia and Peru up to his recent appointment.

Alberto also offers us an in-depth look at how the CLM can collaborate in the evangelizing and reconciling mission of the Church. He also addresses the essential role of the Virgin Mary in the life of the CLM.

Roots and experiences in the Christian Life Movement

You were born in Medellin and have served apostolically in various places. How have these experiences shaped your identity in the CLM?

I became involved as a university student through a congress of Catholic university students organized by the CLM in Medellín, and then I had the experience of living for nearly 12 years in Peru, where I had my initial Sodalit formation. I found an apostolic field of impressive variety and richness, spiritually, culturally, in its different regions, and in so many concretions of the charism, being the place where the CLM was born.

The experiences of leading Marian groups, participating for many years in faith services – particularly in preparation for confirmation –, participating in pilgrimages and many expressions of charity lived in solidarity services such as missions, Christmas is Jesus, Caja del Amor were very intense.

Then I returned to Colombia with a position of authority in the Sodalit community and always closely linked to the CLM, my natural place of apostolate, both in Medellín, as well as in Bogotá and Cali, cities where I have lived for the last 12 years.

Here too I found a variety of apostolic manifestations, mainly in the formation of young and adult lay people, and in initiatives with emphasis on the evangelization of culture, in solidarity and in spiritual direction, with retreats and personal accompaniment.

These experiences have left a mark on me that marks our vocation to holiness, according to the personal call of each one, participating in communities of faith, and sent on an apostolic and evangelizing mission in the Church that has no borders: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel” (Mk 16:15).

As you look back on your life and your vocation, is there a key moment or experience in your relationship with God and in your apostolic service at CLM? Also, what is the most important thing you consider to have received from the Lord through your experience at CLM?

“One of the first experiences of great personal and apostolic wealth was precisely some missions led by Fr. Carlos Keen (with whom we began this beautiful mission in the General Council of the CLM) and in which I was able to live the experience of sharing faith in community, of wonderful landscapes where we contemplated the gift of creation, of celebrating faith together with the local population, around the mystery of the Eucharist, prayer with the word of God, the praying of the rosary of dawn (in the bitter cold and a little sleepy).

We shared the little we had in the community and lived very closely the experience of the apostolic mission as in the time of Jesus, with what was essential, allowing ourselves to be cared for with the few resources and generosity of the inhabitants (in Atma, near Huaraz) and announcing the Gospel, visiting the sick and bringing that message of love and hope, in such remote and underprivileged places. Since then I have not stopped participating in missions every year, according to my possibilities.

I would not like to miss the opportunity to also mention the importance of my encounter with God, particularly in the meditation of His Word, both in the prayer of lectio (which José Alfredo Cabrera, SCV, taught me to pray, and which now enjoys the glory of God), as well as in the prayer of the liturgy of the hours, and in meditations and contemplations in the style of the Ignatian Spirit.

Could you share with us any personal anecdotes that have marked your life within the CLM?

In 2007, there was a very strong earthquake in Ica, Peru, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, which destroyed many houses and unfortunately left many dead and injured. One of the affected areas was Chincha, where the Sodalit community, the Santa María School and the CLM are located.

The members of the Lima-based MOVEC organized ourselves to carry out some solidarity missions in which many volunteers participated and many trucks were filled with food and basic necessities. I remember during the visit, the desolation of the people sitting in the ruins of their houses and not knowing what to do, it was very hard. However, as the days went by (we camped in the school), the people welcomed the visits of the missionaries and the little help we were able to distribute with great appreciation.

In one of them, in a tent settlement where several families were located, we delivered food packages and basic necessities, and we stayed playing with the children.

It was a surprise when the families, at lunchtime, invited us to stay… But they didn’t even have enough to support themselves for the week! And when we refused, they insisted so much that we enjoyed the best lunch I have ever had in my life in an improvised outdoor dining room, where we saw the love of God in a small community of victims and volunteers, eating the same food together (a great image for me of what the Eucharist is).

Challenges and hopes after the VI CLM Assembly

You have mentioned that you welcome this call with joy and under the intercession of Saint Mary. What role does the Virgin Mary play in your life?

Mary is a school of Christian life for me and through her I have learned to know, love and serve the Lord Jesus better. It was the passage of the Annunciation that led me to say yes with her to the call that God made me to serve in the General Coordination of the MVC. Her testimony of being a young woman who accepts being the Mother of God speaks to me of her total trust and humility to cooperate with the abundant grace that God pours into her life.

I believe that this “Fiat” is something that marks my vocation and also my response to this call, which is not easy to pronounce in the face of such a great and challenging mission, which in itself overwhelms me, but precisely for this reason it makes me believe more in the Providence of God, in the intercession of the Virgin, in the collaborative apostolic work with the General Council, and having her among us like the apostles at Pentecost, so that we may never lack the grace of the Spirit that strengthens us, makes us brave and does not allow us to be afraid.

As you take on the role of General Coordinator of the MVC, what is your vision for the Movement in the next five years?

I would not really speak of my vision, but of the vision that we have discerned together in the Assembly in a spirit of synodality, open to what the Spirit wanted to show us. The fruit of this meeting, and with much preparatory work by the Council, is that we have drawn up a final document that contains not only the practical concretions, but also the spirit of what we have experienced in a reflection that bears the motto of the Assembly: “Always in motion”, which I strongly encourage you to read and meditate on, and I ask you to work together between the Council and the localities to carry forward what we have expressed in an organic and clear way as guidelines and conclusions in the different areas and fields.

On a personal level, I see that God continues to call us to continue to delve deeper into the great gift of baptism that makes us sons and daughters of God and to unfold it in all its richness in the particular vocation of each one of us, in the different areas in which the Lord calls us to live and serve.

We are a small portion of the body of the church, but small like a flame in the darkness, which can give light and warmth to many who walk in darkness and who seek to find an authentic and true answer and that this answer has a Name and is a person: Jesus.

During the VI Plenary Assembly, you mentioned the importance of ‘seeing where we have come from and where God is sending us to evangelize’. Could you elaborate on what this call means for you personally and for the mission of the CLM?

First of all, trying to look with supernatural vision, we come from God and we go towards Him… We are pilgrims, members of the Church, with a rich tradition and a living faith and our destination is heaven.

Certainly, in the recent history of the Movement we have lived through very difficult times, also of crisis, of pain, but at the same time with very strong signs of renewal and reconciliation, as expressed in the spirit with which the VI Assembly was experienced.

Experiencing the wounds of the body of Christ is not easy, just as it is not easy to experience the scourge of sin in our personal, family, community, social and ecclesial realities that we face every day, but we are very aware that we carry divine grace in earthen vessels and that the paschal mystery opens the doors to the eternal life that we long for, the fruit of the life in the Spirit that the Lord Jesus brings us and that we seek to welcome with openness, humility and effort.

As a result of the work of the VI Plenary Assembly, we can see that the Lord is inviting us to be very united to Him; to strengthen and protect our apostolic communities; to “preserve the freshness and vitality of the charism”; to develop a general itinerary of integral formation; to a continuous spiritual discernment of the apostolic action to which God is calling us, as well as to grow in the processes of institutionalization and internationalization, advancing in the process of renewal of the statutes.

One of the highlights of the Assembly was the spiritual family experience. How can this experience be fostered in the CLM communities?

I believe that this experience of being a family is already very present, even if we look at the video of the V Plenary Assembly in Aparecida, it is a word that appears very strongly and expresses the richness of what we have received as a gift and that is lived in the places where we are present.

A spiritual family is one that shares the same charism in its different realities: in particular vocations, in the family, in institutions and in so many expressions of our apostolic realities, particularly strong when they are translated into commitment and belonging to the CLM that marks the lives of so many people who share an identity and mission in the Church and a call to holiness, service and apostolate, with their own accents and style.

The experience of my family reality also marks an important milestone in my vocation and apostolic service. I can share some elements that help me seek to live and promote these values in the life of the CLM: dialogue, listening, solidarity, care and concern for others, sharing the lights and shadows of one’s own struggles, celebrating faith together, always celebrating life and the important milestones of each one, loving one another, etc.

This is what I see in a very testimonial way in many families of the Movement and in the communities of consecrated people and it is a wealth that we are called to treasure, constantly renew and make shine.

Agents of reconciliation and Marian spirituality in the CLM

Since the CLM is a portion of the Church, how can it collaborate in a concrete way in its evangelizing and reconciling mission?

I like the question very much because a great challenge today is the individualism present in culture, even in the Church itself. That is why we have a great challenge to be agents of reconciliation within the Church itself. We are the Church, we are the body of Christ and we are aware of our contribution to communion and mission in the Church, as St. Paul says in 1 Cor 12, 12-27.

I believe that the attitudes we are invited to cultivate are those of Mary: “she who understands and meditates on the Word of God and praises Him with her life, testimony and words” (Magnificat), who welcomes the gift of the Holy Spirit (Incarnation), who is generous in serving others (Visitation), who is attentive to those in need (the wedding at Cana), who trusts in her husband and cares for her family (flight to Egypt), who keeps and preserves the things of God in her heart, without making any distinction between persons (visit of the kings and the shepherds), who does not judge and is surprised by the mystery of her Son (in the loss and finding in the Temple), who is a Mother because she listens to and puts into practice the word of God (when Jesus asks: who are my mother and my brothers?), because she trusts in her Son and his promises (the wait before the death of Jesus), who is not afraid of pain and redemptive suffering (in the encounter with Jesus on the way to Calvary), who remains standing before the Cross and accepts the will of God. (Jesus on the Cross) and who welcomes us as children at the command of her Son (Woman, behold your son), to finally exalt with joy and happiness with the Resurrection of Christ (see meditation of Saint Ignatius in his EE) and accompany the fearful disciples so that the Holy Spirit may be poured out upon them at Pentecost and they may go throughout the world to announce the Gospel, even in the midst of persecutions (Acts of the Apostles), to finally intercede from heaven for all of us as Queen of all Creation, at the side of her Son (Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin).

Finally, what message would you like to share with CLM members who are meeting you for the first time in this role?

I would like to invite all of you to pray the act of consecration to Saint Mary daily  and, to the extent of your ability, the daily rosary, whether personally, as a family, or in a community.

May it be She, our Mother, who guides us to the encounter with her Son the Lord Jesus and helps us to find him in the meditation of the Word, in frequent participation in the Eucharist, in the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and in so many forms of personal and community devotion that help us to put the center on Jesus Christ and to fill ourselves with the love of God that, like a source of living water, is poured out in the apostolate and service to others.