The year of Unification has begun: let us put the gifts received to good use

April will see the conclusion of the long journey of preparation for the birth of the Southern Europe Region, which will see Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain united in a single governance structure. However, this appointment promises to be a stage in the profound reconfiguration that emerged from the 31st Chapter, which will affect the entire Congregation accompanied by the New Management Committee.

Download the : Letter of COMITATO NUOVE DIREZIONI 

The logo, which represents the road to be travelled together in the future, is among the first ‘gifts’ offered by this Committee – which is a direct emanation of the Implementation Committee – spurring us on ‘in search of a global path together … through a renewed contemplative dialogue along the way’.    

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To these “gifts” offered from within the Congregation to better respond to the needs of our mission, we wish to integrate those received from the Three Kings, as Pope Francis surprisingly presented them to us at the Angelus on the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord. They invite us first of all to gather in an attitude of deep gratitude for the Grace of living this time of “Crisis and future of the Church” and of humanity (cf. Father Antonio Spadaro in the recent No. 4140 of the magazine Civiltà Cattolica), in co-responsibility & complementarity for a structural renewal of governance and mission BP.

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We were invited to change our gaze to the gifts of the Magi, no longer those offered by them (gold, frankincense and myrrh) but those received, that is, those that enabled the Magi to fulfil their mission: the Call, the Discernment and the Surprise.

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“The first gift is the gift of the call. The Magi did not sense it from reading Scripture or having a vision of angels, but felt it while studying the stars. This tells us something important: God calls us through our greatest aspirations and desires. The Magi were astonished and disturbed by the novelty of the star and set off towards what they did not know. Educated and wise, they were fascinated more by what they did not know than by what they already knew. They felt called to go further… God calls us, he calls each of us, every day, he calls us here and he calls us today, in our world.

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“They know how to distinguish between the goal of the journey and the temptations they find on the way. How important it is, brothers and sisters, to know how to distinguish the goal of life from the temptations on the way! To know how to renounce what seduces, but leads onto a bad path, in order to understand and choose God’s ways! Discernment is a great gift; we must never tire of asking for it in prayer. Let us ask for this grace! Lord, give us the ability to discern good from evil, the best from what is not best.”

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“Perhaps they were expecting a powerful and prodigious Messiah, and they find a child. Yet they do not think they were mistaken, they know how to recognise him. They welcome God’s surprise and live their encounter with Him in wonder, adoring Him: in smallness they recognise the face of God. Humanly we are all inclined to seek greatness, but it is a gift to know how to truly find it: to know how to find greatness in the smallness that God so loves. Because this is how one meets the Lord: in humility, in silence, in adoration, in the little ones, in the poor.”