The review of life is a central practice in the life of fraternity. lt fosters a disciplined and deliberate discernment upon the call of God addressed to each of us individually and. when reflected upon in fraternity. it leads to an appreciation of the group's ecclesial vocation. Its fundamental theological principle is well articulated in Chapter 11 of the Vatican ll Document. Gaudium et Spes: The People of God believes that it is led by the Spirit of the Lord. who fills the earth. Motivated by this faith. it labors to decipher authentic signs of God's presence and purpose in the happenings. | needs. and desires in which this People has a part along with other people of our age. For faith throws a new light on everything. It manifests God's design for total vocation. and thus directs the mind to solutions which are fully human. We recognize that Brother Charles understood and lived by this dynamic of faith when we find him writing, "the soul who lives by faith is full of fresh thoughts, fresh tastes, fresh judgments: fresh horizons open up before him..." The Review of Life rests on two fundamental facts: (1) God acts through the events, or at least more forcefully through certain events of our lives to become present, to manifest his love and to bring us to renew and deepen our union with Him. (2) The Holy Spirit is truly among us, especially as we seek Jesus together as brothers. It is the Holy Spirit who in some way is heard through the fraternity members and through their reflections on the "event" presented. 

When we regard the importance of all the happenings of our lives. we can appreciate Brother Charles' love for Jesus of Nazareth. For Charles, Nazareth is where we meet Jesus in the "ordinariness" and hiddenness" of all that makes up our days. Each event is potentiality religious in importance. Our Christian faith has revealed to us the central event of Salvation - the Paschal Mystery. Our whole life, therefore, is lived within this dying and rising of the Risen Lord in our lives. By our baptism we know that we are immersed in this saving reality. Our vocation is to come to live out the mystery, meaning and movement of Jesus in our lives, to throw on every cross the light of the resurrection. In the light of Jesus' Word to us, each event of our lives can lead us to put on the mind and heart of Jesus, our brother, to make his attitude ours. In every event, therefore, God is calling us to discover him, to walk with Him often not knowing where we are going. He is calling us to see him, though an event may be all confused and full of contradictions, mixed with our selfishness, doubts, pride and fears. The effort on our part is to respond to the God who is calling us to break through these barriers. Frequently we find new barriers or go back behind old ones. As much as we search on our own to discover this calling. at times we are more aware of the help we need to see the God who is present. to see how he might be present. and to walk with him This help in part comes from the Holy Spirit through our brothers in fraternity. The fraternity can assist us in discovering in all the events and associations of our daily life the many spiritual guideposts that Jesus places along our path in order to bind us to himself . We do not share a review of life by talking about general problems, general concerns, either of the Church or of ourselves and the world, by offering psychological analysis of a situation, nor by theorizing on ministry. The dialogue with our brothers on one particular "'fact" of our lives must be grounded, incarnated, in something real. The review of life helps us truly live in the full light of faith. In the review of life we are not speaking of a detailed examination of conscience, but rather of a prayerful examination of Christ's working in us. It is really a corporate effort at the "discernment of spirits," examining the impulses of our hearts and our bright ideals in the light of the Gospel and the presence of Christ and our brothers. The "fact" mentioned may be a specific conversation or occurrence, a decision to be made, an opportunity before us. etc. Above all, the concreteness of the "fact" and the movements of the heart, our feelings and emotions, which accompany it are most important. Perhaps the question we are most trying to answer is: "In the midst of all that I am doing for Christ, what is Christ doing within me?" By narrating the details of the event and listening to what goes on within us as we share, we seek to know whether we are moving toward or away from the Lord. We must be faithful both to revealing the humanness of the event in all its detail and to discovering our Living God present there. 

Because of the deeply spiritual quality of the review of life. one must prepare well in prayer and with scripture. He should prepare first of all on the desert day and immediately by the ''hour'' of adoration which precedes the review of life. To think up 'facts'' and blurt them out in a fraternity meeting without prayerful preparation in the light of Christ's Word will not lead to a very fruitful realization of the possibilities of renewal offered by the review of life. For here two or three are gathered together" in the name of the Lord, looking in faith at events of salvation. 

How is the "event" communicated in the group? The earliest process goes back to Canon Cardijn and his work in Belgium. The procedure. as it was adapted in Jesus-Caritas. is quite simple. It is designed to facilitate communication. While each group has tailored the process to its specific style, it is usually expected that each person in no special order, submit briefly and succinctly to his brothers in fraternity the concrete event which has been previously prepared on the desert day or during some other prayer time. Another way of putting it might be that each brother presents to his brothers the concrete situation within which he has sensed God's presence and wherein he has been searching for God's Will. The group respects each person's faith sharing, offering support and being willing to explore and to challenge as invited to do so by the brother sharing. It is important that the brother presenting express to the group what he needs most from the group at that time. Each person should have the time to share, although on a given day one brother might need more help to explore his life situation and how God is calling him. While each brother might not need his faith reflection explored, each one needs to be acknowledged for what he has shared. Experience has shown that fifteen to thirty minutes for each brother usually is sufficient. If we are committed to be present to and be open with one another in the review, honesty usually grows the longer the fraternity is together. Then we learn to listen better, and gradually grow in intimacy and honesty to the point where we are drawn to take more personal responsibility before God for each other. Some brothers have expressed the experience as coming to reverence and adore Jesus present in the brothers as He is present in the Eucharist. Of course, we might feel anxious at first. We can fear being accepted for who we are. being thought of differently. We may think we have nothing to offer our brothers. In times of sharing we might also fear offending our brothers, coming on too strong, asking our brother to do something that we ourselves are not doing. or pointing out our brother's excuses or self-deception. We fear all these things might separate us from each other. All these can gradually be overcome. We must be very respectful of what or how much a brother chooses to share in any review. With this regard and reverence for one another. we assist one another to approach the Lord with our lives. 

Brothers have come to appreciate how sharing the review can complement and encourage other relationships of spiritual direction and the sacrament of reconciliation. For many brothers the review itself has given them invaluable spiritual guidance, while others have been led to seek a spiritual director. As the review has brought some to experience in depth God's mercy and tenderness, they have reacquainted themselves with the richness of the Sacrament of Penance. Some have become each other's confessors. Brothers come to recognize what is important to share in the review and what they need to share with their spiritual director or confessor. For each brother, however, the review fosters a growing capacity and desire for noticing more clearly. understanding more profoundly. and choosing more freely and generously God's love for him and Jesus' invitation to follow him. By joining a fraternity. we are saying we need one another and are willing to risk expressing that need. We do not want to present ourselves as being only self-contained. self-assured. or self-confident. thus keeping our brothers from either trusting us or helping us. Our faith in the presence of Christ and his Spirit in our midst helps us to share with our brothers our own feelings and insights. however stale they may seem. We might find it difficult to take responsibility for others, so we must assure each other that we want each other to do so and together seek ways in which this can be done most helpfully. Humility, simplicity. openness. and a real concern for our brothers are all indispensable qualities for growing in sharing the review The goal of the review. therefore, is not to solve our brother's problem directly or to make an infallible statement that "thus and so is clearly the will of Christ for you '' Rather we place our brother in the presence of Christ and under His Word. In this faith climate we open ourselves to the reality of his situation and help him to deepen his understanding and strengthen his spirit to respond faithfully to the invitation of Christ himself. While this presumes honesty and frankness, it presumes mutual respect and love even more. The review of life might involve, if a brother expresses such a need, going into the background of a situation, questioning him on specific matters, giving practical advice or opinions, restoring the reality of a badly distorted view of a problem, etc.. The aim of such exploration, if requested, would be simply trying together to see Christ and His Will in all the "facts." The fraternity does not make decisions for a member, though it may encourage him strongly in one direction or another. A decision is always up to the individual brother. When asked to enter into such an exploration, we always need to avoid judgementalism or artificial preaching, replacing them with care and confidentiality. What each brother is asking of his brothers in fraternity is to help him live faithfully his commitments as a Christian priest and member of Jesus-Caritas. He is basically entrusting his commitment to his brothers in Christ Jesus. That is a fearful thing to do and comes only gradually under the influence of grace and love. It is in this deepest sense that our commitment in Jesus Caritas is not to the structures of fraternity but to the Lord and the individual members of the fraternity. 

Jesus Caritas Fraternity of Priests -- An Overview of Spirituality and Method, (Fifth Edition, April 1987), sometimes called the 'American Experience'