Our hope is Christ

At the annual Rimini Meeting in Italy there were 4 witnesses to hope in impossible situations. One of the persons interviewed was the Trappistine superior, Mother Marta Luisa Fagnani. Mother is the superior of a small Trappistine monastery in Azer, Syria.

The video of Mother Marta Luisa, OCSO begins at 33:40.

The witness of Mother Marta Luisa is critical for us Oblates to attend to at this time. Our hope is Christ.

KEEPING HOPE ALIVE WHEN EVERYTHING SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE. TESTIMONIES FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD

 

34th Rimini Meeting gathers, Pope sends message

The 34th Meeting for the Friendship Among the Peoples opened in Rimini, Italy on 18 August. The for this year is “The Human Person: a State of Emergency.”

The Holy Father through the Secretary of State to His Holiness, Tarcisio Card. Bertone, SDB, sent a letter to the bishop of Rimini, the Most Reverend Francesco Lambiasi.

The Meeting is a work of members of Communion and Liberation and it draws around 800K, from Italy and many countries beyond. In past years the Meeting has welcomed the brilliant contributions, among many, of Blessed John Paul II, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, the Servant of God Father Luigi Giussani, Benedict XVI (when he was the CDF Prefect), Ennio Morricone, David Rosen, Tony Blair and Carl A. Anderson.

The Program for this year…

Here’s Pope Francis’ message…

Most Reverend Excellency, I would like to address with joy the Holy Father Francis’ cordial greeting to Your Excellency, to the organizers and to all the participants in the Meeting for the Friendship Among the Peoples that is now being held for the 34th time. The theme chosen – The Human Person: a State of Emergency – captures the great urgency of evangelization, which the Holy Father following His predecessors, has underlined many times and which caused in Him deep considerations that now I refer here below.

In his first Encyclical, Redemptor hominis (cfr. n. 14), the beatified John Paul II wrote that “man is the way for the Church.”

This truth is still valid, especially in this period in which the Church is called to rediscover its own mission, focusing on the essential and searching for new paths for evangelization, in a more and more globalized and virtual world and in a society more and more deprived of stable reference points.

Man remains a mystery, irreducible to whatever image society creates and the power of the world tries to impose to him. The man is a mystery of freedom and grace, of poverty and grandness. But what does it mean: “Man is the way for the Church?” And especially, what does it mean for us today to walk through this way?

Man is the way for the Church because he is the road that God Himself walks on. From the dawn of humanity, after the Original Sin, God has begun to search for man. “Where are you?” He asks Adam, who is hiding in the garden (Gen 3, 9). This question, that appears at the beginning of the Book of Genesis, and that doesn’t stop resonating throughout the entire Bible and in every moment of the history that God, throughout the millennia, created with humanity, reaches its highest expression through the incarnation of the Son. In his commentary on John’s Gospel, Saint Augustine affirms that: “Remaining with the Father, [the Son] was truth and life; taking our flesh, He became the way” (I, 34, 9). Therefore Jesus Christ is “the chief way for the Church,” but since “He is also the way for each man”, man becomes “the prime and fundamental way for the Church.” (Redemptor hominis, 13-14)

Jesus affirms “I am the gate” (John 10,7): that means, I am the access portal for every man and everything. Without passing through Christ, without concentrating on Him the gaze of our heart and mind, we would not understand anything of the mystery of the human person. Therefore, almost inadvertently, we will be forced to acquire from the world our criteria of judgment and action, and every time we get closer to our brothers in humanity, we will be like those “thieves and robbers” that Jesus talks about in the Gospel (John 10,8). Even the world is in fact, in its own way, interested in man. The economic, political and social power needs man to maintain and inflate itself. And for this reason, the power frequently tries to manipulate the masses, it creates desires to eliminate the most precious thing man possesses: his relationship with God. The power fears those men that have a relationship with God because this relationship sets them free.

This is the state of emergency of the human person the Meeting for the Friendship Among the Peoples has chosen as its main theme this year: the urgency to give back man to himself, at his highest dignity, to his own uniqueness and preciousness of each human existence from his conception to the natural end of life.

It is necessary to take into consideration again the sacredness of man and, at the same time, to strongly state that only in the relationship with God, that is in the discovery and adhesion of one’s own vocation, that man can achieve his true stature.

The Church to which Christ entrusted His Word and Sacraments takes care of the greatest hopes, the most authentic possibility of fulfillment for man, in any place and any time. What a big responsibility we have! Do not keep just for us this precious treasure that everybody, aware or not, is looking for himself or herself.

Let’s meet with courage all the men and women of our time, children and old people, “wise” people and those without education, young and families. Let’s meet everybody and do not wait the others to look for us! Let’s imitate in this our Divine Master, who left His Heaven to become man and to be closed to everybody. Let’s bring the perfume of Christ’s love (2 Cor 2,15) not only in churches and parishes, but in every environment. In the schools, in the universities, in workplaces, in hospitals, in prisons; but also in the city squares, in the streets, in the sport centers, in places where people gather. Don’t be greedy in giving what we have gained without any merit! Let’s not be afraid to announce Christ in favorable or unfavorable occasions (2 Tm 4,2) with respect and frankness. This is the Church’s task, this is every Christian’s task: to serve men and look for them even in the social and the most inner spiritualist corners.

The condition of credibility of the Church in its mission of mother and teacher is its fidelity in Christ. The openness towards the world is accompanied and, in a certain sense, is possible thanks to the obedience to the truth of which the Church itself cannot dispose. “The Human Person: a State of Emergency” thus signifies the urgency to go back to Christ, to learn from Him the truth about ourselves and the world and with Him and in Him to go and meet every man, especially the poorest, for which Jesus has always manifested His predilection. And poverty is not only material. There is a spiritual poverty that grips every contemporary men. We are poor in love, thirsty for truth and justice, beggars of God, as wisely the servant of God Father Luigi Giussani has always underlined. The greatest poverty is in fact the lack of Christ, and until we do not bring Jesus to people, we would have done too little for them.

Your Excellency, I hope these brief thoughts may help those who are taking part in the Meeting. His Holiness Pope Francis assures everybody His closeness in prayer and His affection. He hopes that the meetings of these days may light in the hearts of all the participants a fire that nourishes and sustains their testimony of the Gospel in the world. And we send a particular Apostolic Benediction to You, to all the responsible people, the organizers of this manifestation, as well as those who are present.

Windows into Heaven –Knights of Columbus Museum exhibits Russian icons

I am always looking for the way heaven touches earth. Perhaps you are, too. The image that comes to mind is the finger of God touching that of Adam in a painting done by Michelangelo. I also recall that the Incarnation is a manifestation of the beauty of heaven touching the ordinariness of earth and making our existence forever beautiful. These are some thoughts on an experience of “Windows into Heaven: Russian Icons and Treasures” at the Knights of Columbus Museum (New Haven, CT). Though the icons aren’t in their original liturgical context, they nonetheless open the heart and mind onto something and someone beautiful. The icons, for me, are more than nice pieces of Christian art; they truly are positions of grace that allow my desires to be opened anew by an experience with the Divine Majesty. There is an emphasis here on the personal relationship we have with the Trinity. To say otherwise is to neglect a piece of your humanity because the beauty of the icon does invite us to a different way of living the faith.

kofc icon collage.jpg

I was just reading an address of Cardinal Ratzinger on beauty. An amazing act of the Spirit to allow me to see the icons and then reflect with Ratzinger on the experience. He had addressed the annual meeting organized by members of Communion and Liberation in August 2002. A paragraph sticks out:


To admire the icons and the great masterpieces of Christian art in general, leads us on an inner way, a way of overcoming ourselves; thus in this purification of vision that is a purification of the heart, it reveals the beautiful to us, or at least a ray of it. In this way we are brought into contact with the power of the truth. I have often affirmed my conviction that the true apology of Christian faith, the most convincing demonstration of its truth against every denial, are the saints, and the beauty that the faith has generated. Today, for faith to grow, we must lead ourselves and the persons we meet to encounter the saints and to enter into contact with the Beautiful.

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

“The Feeling of Things, the Contemplation of Beauty”

Rimini Meeting 2002


Take the time this summer to visit the KofC Museum and be inspired! Allow yourself to be wounded by beauty, as Ratzinger said.

Luigi Giusanni had gift for deciphering signs of the times, Ignacio Carbajosa Pérez tells Rimini


Ignacio Carbajosa Prez.jpgWe continually need to get to the heart of who our influences are as people. That is true of Father Luigi Giussani who is being spoken of not only as the founder of the ecclesial movement of Communion and Liberation but also because his cause for canonization is now being studied. Father Ignacio Carbajosa Pérez, 45, said of Father Luigi
Giussani, “For me the most striking thing was to hear this man with this love
for my humanity, finally, to find someone who knew very well what is my
humanity and then looked upon it in a sympathetic way.” (Read more of what Father Ignacio told David Kerr here at The Rimini Meeting 2012.)


Father Ignacio, a Madrid native and currently an Old Testament professor at Madrid’s San Damaso Institute, was part presentation at The Rimini meeting 2012 on “Education, Identity and Dialogue.” Perhaps the text will be available soon.

Rimini Meeting 2012

Rimini 2012.jpgTHE most significant cultural and religious meeting in the world is held in the late August: “Rimini Meeting” in the seaside town of Rimini (Italy). From 19-25 August, The Meeting coordinated by members of Communion and Liberation attracts numerous speakers and more than 800K.

What is the Rimini Meeting, you ask? The answer is here
The work of the Meeting has been in progress since the late 1970s and it debuted on the world stage in 1980… and counting…generating a culture of dialogue and understanding among people.

This year’s theme is “By Nature Man is Relationship to the Infinite.”
Pope Benedict XVIs August 10th letter to The Meeting can be read here. (Must read!)

August 20 kick off review video presentation
Several video clips from the week’s Meeting can be viewed here. It’s really essential to spend the time listening to what’s happened (and happens to people).

One of the reviews of the Rimini week is seen here, produced by Rome Reports who has been ably following the progress of the Meeting.
The coverage of The Meeting is the best thus far in English followed at the link above, however, there is some information that is old and needs updating. Staying current in other languages is a challenge for the CL movement, one that is still somewhat an Achilles’ heel. But instead of swimming the River Styx we’ve moved to the banks. Media coverage in English is getting better (though our American works need help!)
An American equivalent of The Rimini Meeting is the New York Encounter held yearly in January. In 2013, the NYE will run 18-20 January.

Pope Benedict writes to The Meeting 2012


The Holy Father, Pope Benedict closely follows The Meeting. He was in attendance several years ago, as was John Paul II in 1982. Picking up from Father Luigi Giussani’s thinking of “life as a vocation”, the Pope reminds us that everything is answered in relationship to the Infinite. On July 11, 2012 I posted a piece called “The Vocation to Life” which is essential reading if you want to know more of what the Pope, Giussani and Christianity is all about.

The Pope’s letter for the 2012 Meeting follows (emphasis mine).

To the Venerable
Brother Monsignor Francesco Lambiasi,

Benedict XVI.jpg

 Bishop of Rimini 

I wish to extend my
cordial greetings to you, to the organizers and to all the participants in the
Meeting for Friendship among Peoples, now in its XXXIII year. The theme chosen
this year – “The nature of man is a relationship with the infinite” – is
particularly significant in view of the approaching start of the Year of Faith,
which I have willed to proclaim to mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of
the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.

To speak of man and of his yearning for
the infinite means, first and foremost, to recognize his constitutive
relationship with the Creator
. Man is a creature of God. Today this word –
creature – seems almost passé: we prefer to think of man as a self-fulfilled
being and master of his own destiny. The consideration of man as a creature
seems “uncomfortable,” because it implies an essential reference to something
else, or better, to Someone else – whom man cannot control – who enters in
order to define his identity in an essential way; a relational identity, whose
first element is the original and ontological dependence on He who wanted us
and created us. Yet this dependence, from which modern and contemporary man
attempts to break free, not only does not hide or diminish, but luminously
reveals the greatness and supreme dignity of man, who is called into life in
order to enter into relationship with Life itself, with God.

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Continue reading Pope Benedict writes to The Meeting 2012

‘American dream’ fulfilled in Jesus

The Catholic News Agency carried a story by David Kerr on Chris Bacich the US leader of Communion and Liberation (CL) this week at the Rimini Meeting in Italy.
Notable in Chris’ interview is that Chris puts his finger on the reality of Christian faith today when he speaks of those who find in CL a “real willingness to grapple with the real life, everyday culture in which [they] live, while showing no fear” because they “recognize that the encounter with Christ, and his presence in our life, is the answer to this desire for a life that is better, that is great, that is worthwhile and fruitful.”

As point of clarification, CL is not a “lay ecclesial movement”; it is technically improper to call the ecclesial movements “lay ecclesial movements” because the movements are not limited to the lay faithful, but are open to the ordained as well. Many of the movements have ardent followers who are deacons, priests and bishops in the movements. Therefore, not “lay ecclesial.”

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The Meeting (Rimini) 2012: By Nature, man is relation to the Infinite

RM logo.pngThe Meeting, as it is known in shorthand, is quickly approaching (19-25 August). This is its 33rd year. This cultural event now draws nearly 800,000 people from across the globe.

The theme of the 2012 meeting is “By Nature, man is relation to the Infinite.”

The brief video on The Meeting was produced by Rome Reports.
One of the last items is a note that our own NY CL member Dr Elvira Paravincini will be making a presentation on her work as a neonatologist and the hospice she founded. Blessings on Elvira and her work.
Dr Paravincini with several other healthcare professionals, many of them belonging to CL, the MedConference is a key event in the US for talking about faith and the practice of medicine. This year the MedConference is running 19-21 October in Florham Park, NJ.

Carl Anderson addressed the Rimini Meeting ’09

The Rimini
Meeting
, mentioned here before, invited Carl Anderson, the
Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus to address the more than 700,000
attendees on August 28, 2009. In his address he spoke about the common,
practical spirituality of the Knights as influencing works of Charity. Knowing
that “Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs, and lovely in
eyes not his”, Anderson advocated a life of charity that spurs all people –at least it ought to– to build a civilization of love based on real, lasting hope.

CAnderson RM 09.jpg

The point for
Catholics is not to set up another group of “do-gooder” structure no
matter of the brilliance of the idea which has no grounding in the dignity of
man and woman and/or with some vague understanding of Christianity, but to form
a companionship, friends who are rooted in Christ Jesus. Only then can we
truly, actually care for another. Many can argue rightly that people who have
no faith or don’t share faith in Christ can build a loving and caring society.
True and there are bountiful examples of this being done all around the world.
But for those who claim to be Christians, substance over sentiment is what
drives. I don’t do something and meet Christ. Rather, I have met Christ and
therefore I live differently with myself and with my brothers and sisters
around me. Otherwise we have beige Catholicism and we don’t need more of that
stuff.

In my opinion, Carl Anderson touches on this point: our Christian lives
are not sustained by a something but a someone: Christ who sacrificed himself
for us on the cross and then rose from the dead. This is the hope Christians
have. If we forget this point then we Catholics are no different than the Elks
lodge and that may be OK for some but I think being Catholic means something
more: that we come to know our God is a personal way through helping others.
Ask yourself: How am I different after I’ve done something for my neighbor? Has
my life in Christ changed, or not? Mr. Anderson draws on sacred Scripture &
Theology as well as the works of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Particularly
re-read Deus caritas
est
.

Carl Anderson’s talk can be read here