History of Satellite Teams

These teams were called Satellite Teams (ST) by the ERI, undoubtedly influenced by their visit to the Johnson Space Centre in Houston and they drew the analogy with the communication, liaison and exploration that man-made satellites accomplish.

The ERI asked Carlo & Maria-Carla Volpini to ensure the general coordination between and liaison with these new satellite teams.  Five teams were set up from the start: Pedagogy, Reflection and Research, Formation, Mission and finally Communication.  They work for a period of 4 years.

During this stage, the Satellite Teams worked on and created the following documents and study topics: ‘How to Pilot a New Team,’ ‘Days for the Teams of Our Lady,’ ‘Jesus-Christ at the centre of Christian Life,’ documents for the Formation of Responsible Couple for the Sector, young couples and ‘The Teams of Our Lady Couples on Mission.’  This work gave unity and a new dynamism to communication within the Movement.

In 2006, the ERI restructured the Satellite Teams by analysing what had been accomplished.  For this second stage, the ERI appointed To & Zé Moura Soares as the general coordinators and Father Ricardo London as the single Spiritual Counsellor for all the Satellite Teams.  This second stage began in October 2007 and finished in April 2012 and produced the following documents:

The Pedagogy Team

• The Team meeting (official document)
•  Study Topic: ‘The Team Meeting‘
•  Study Topic: ‘The Mystic of the Endeavours and the Sharing’
•  Study Topic: ‘The Teams of Our Lady Couples on Mission’

The Christian Formation Team

• ‘Christian Formation in the Teams of Our Lady: a Way’
• ‘For Initial Formation’
• ‘For Permanent Formation’
• ‘For Specific Formation’
• ‘Vocabulary Specific to the Teams of Our Lady’

The Elder Teams

•  ‘The Teams of Our Lady and their Elders’

The Young Couples

• ‘Young Couples in the Teams of Our Lady Today.  What does that mean?’

Father Caffarel

• ‘Henri Caffarel: Prophet of the Sacrament of Marriage’

Spiritual Conjugality

• Spiritual conjugality
• Study Topic: ‘The Way of Spiritual Conjugality in the Couple’

Using the questions raised at the International College and analysing the reality of the Movement and the Church in the world of today, the ERI set up 3 Satellite Teams, 2 of which are permanent: Pedagogy and Reflection & Research and 1 which is temporary, Christian Formation.  Furthermore, they decided to create two work groups on sexuality, one from Europe and the other from the Americas.  These two groups merged to form the Evangelising Sexuality Satellite Team.
These Satellite Teams were approved at the International College held in Bordeaux in 2013 and began their work in the October of that same year.
Hereafter follows the aims, composition and tasks of each Satellite Team currently active:

The Pedagogy Team

Aim
To deepen and actualise all aspects of the Movement’s structure and to develop tools to support the formation plan of each Super-Region.  This Satellite Team has revised all documents concerning the Endeavours in order to update them and make sure that they correspond as closely as possible to each Team member’s life. They are available in the Document section of this site:
a) Conjugal Dialogue and the Sit-Down
b) Private and Married Prayer
c) Listening to the Word of God
d) Rule of Life
e) Retreat

Reflection and Research Team

Aim
Organise a documentation centre for the Teams of Our Lady
Inventory, archive and update the extant publications of the Super-Regions and Regions attached to the ERI
Organise a database
Complete a comparative revision of extant documents checking that they are in line with the pedagogy, charisma and mystic of the Teams of Our Lady
Potentially make recommendations to the ERI about documents that could become official Teams of our Lady documents, depending on their content and their importance
Make the international Teams of Our Lady’s website’s database available to the Super-Regions and Regions attached to the ERI

The database has been set up already and the basic information has been entered

Christian Formation Team

Aim
The aim is to configure a basic catechetical plan for Teams of Our Lady members so that they can deepen their knowledge about our religion and our Church.
The point of departure is the Movement’s concern to fill in the gaps in certain Team members’ Christian formation by offering them the possibility of enriching their Christian life.  Christian education is to be understood as an integral and permanent process, which a) carries the person or the couple to different stages of maturity in their faith and in their spiritual, pastoral and community life; b) begins at a certain moment of their life and never ends; c) must be constantly nourished in the doctrinal, pastoral and spiritual perspective and d) answers the necessity of bearing witness to the Gospel in our current world.
This team’s work began on October 12th, 2013 at a meeting in Bogota, Columbia.

Tasks for 2014-15
A Christian Formation plan has  been drawn up using the methodology or basic elements of a formation process based on the theology of The Road to Emmaus.  The content is based on  eight classes: Old Testament, New Testament, Christology, Ecclesiology, Sacraments, Liturgy, Spirituality and Morality.  The Bible, the Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church are sources of Faith for the accomplishment of the vocation and mission of every Christian.  We, as Teams of Our Lady members, must know and better understand these sources of Christian faith.

The platform of christian Formation  is accessible in the documents section of this website.

Evangelising Sexuality Team

Aim
The aim is to help Teams of Our Lady couples to look at sexuality in a new way and also to invite them to link the different themes connected to sexuality to their Conjugal Dialogue. In Bogota at the end of 2013, an American work group made up of couples from Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, the USA and Columbia got together to reflect on the topic of evangelising sexuality.  This temporary group worked together for a year, defining the perspective, topics and central theme with which the future Evangelising Sexuality Satellite Team will work.  Simultaneously, another work group was formed in Europe at Fatima, Portugal with couples from Spain, France and Belgium.  Then n Paris in October 2014, the two work groups merged and the new Evangelising Sexuality Satellite Team started.

The document Sexuality and Spirituality which helps couples to dialogue on these themes is available in the documents section of this site.