Charisms in Communion: A young religious recounts
Speaking recently at the Focolare’s General Assembly (September 2014) Alessandro, a young Religious who shares the spirituality of unity with other young Religious, had this to say: “How great! I was recently in contact again with Jacopo, Gianluca, Alessandro, Alberto, Matilde, Jenny and many others! And happy memories of that beautiful experience we shared during that last meeting in Loppiano returned to my mind. I hope I can see you all again soon! I feel a strong need and desire to be in communion with them for a while. Do you want to know who those people are? You’re right, I didn’t tell you who I was talking about. They’re all men and women Religious from many different charisms, with whom we are in constant contact, with whom I live in a great friendship that always fills my heart.” At that meeting over a hundred young men and women Religious from 36 countries and belonging to 56 Religious families, gathered around the slogan: Yes! We choose the Gospel. The meeting was prepared with much enthusiasm in view of 2015, the year that will be dedicated to consecrated life, but it will also be one further step on a journey by people who have chosen to follow the Gospel that reaches beyond the diversity of charisms. The presence of Cardinal Braz de Avis, Prefect of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Apostolic Life, highlighted the importance of their meeting. On that occasion “Don João” as he likes to be called, said: “The Pope loves you and our congregation is your home.” Alessandro went on to say: “It was the Lord puting us together, making us experience the joy of donating our charisms to one another. It was just beautiful and answered our deep need: that of having other young consecrated people with whom we could share simple things, concrete things, everyday things from our consecrated life. We found out that we have the same moments of difficulty and darkness, and we told each other how we try to overcome them. Sharing those experiences in order to live them together was like taking a deep breath, like opening the windows of the heart not only onto our own charisms, but on all the charisms of the Church, indeed, on the whole world! That universal breath made us fly high!” Alessandro’s experience seems to echo what Pope Francis said during the general audience in St Peter’s Square on October 1, 2014: “Woe, then, if these gifts become a reason for envy and division! As the Apostle Paul reminds us in his First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 12, all charisms are important in God’s eyes and, at the same time, no one is irreplaceable. This means that in the Christian community we are in need of one another, and every gift received is acted fully when it is shared with brothers, for the good of all. This is the Church! And when the Church expresses herself in communion, in the variety of charisms, she cannot err.”