Chiara Lubich’s visit to Geneva

Oct 17, 2002 | Non categorizzato

The theme of “spirituality for unity” affecting all domains of life and humanity is central to Chiara Lubich’s message and is of great interest as well as to the organisations hosting her visit in Geneva: “the World Council of Churches, the Protestant Church of Geneva and the Bossey Ecumenical Institute. Rev. Dr. Konrad Raiser, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, in extending the invitation to Chiara Lubich for the visit, noted her “vital contribution to the ecumenical movement”. He stated, “our numerous initiatives in the spiritual and religious area, but also in the political, economic and social sphere, demonstrate the potential of common witness and the need for efforts to restore communion. This is evidence of the importance of spirituality in today’s context, and of its extremely precious and decisive contribution not only to the unity of the churches but to that of humanity as a whole”. Her program includes a seminar for students and faculty of the Bossey Ecumenical Institute on Saturday, 26 October and worship at St. Peter’s Cathedral at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, 27 October. The program with the World Council of Churches on Monday, 28 October, will include public discussion on the theme “Spirituality and communion” as well as smaller exchanges on spirituality and socio-economic and political processes. The visit coincides, with an ecumenical gathering of bishops who are friends of the focolare Movement in Morges, convened by Cardinal Miroslav Vlk, Archbishop of Prague. Participants in the gathering will join Chiara Lubich during her visit to Geneva. This is the third visit of Chiara Lubich to the World Council of Churches. The previous visit took place in 1967 and 1982. For more information or to schedule interviews, contact WCC Media Relations, +41-22-791-6421. Schedule of Events open to the Press and the Public during Chiara Lubich’s visit to Geneva, 25-29 October 2002. The protestant Church in Geneva welcomes Chiara Lubich A noted moment during her visit to the city of Calvin will be the religious service scheduled to take place in St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva on October 27 at 10:00 a.m. with present representatives of various Christian communities. After Grossmuenster last year (historical church of Zurich, cradle of Reformed Church), St. Pierre Cathedral ranks second in importance among the Churches of Reformation Chiara Lubich has been invited to offer her experience of unity. In November 2001, numerous ecumenical encounters took place with Chiara Lubich, bishops and church leaders from different nations present. Following this, Konrad Raiser, pastor and secretary general of the WCC; pastor Joel Stroudinski, president of the protestant Church in Geneva; and Professor Ioan Sauca, director of the Bossey Ecumenical Institute, invited Chiara Lubich to Geneva for a new phase in ecumenism.

It is our vocation to highlight Mary

Oct 16, 2002 | Non categorizzato

Q. – This morning at St. Peter’s Square there was a sizeable group of focolarini, of people who adhere to the Movement founded by Chiara Lubich. The Pope gave them a letter and there is no doubt that this Movement, more than any other… is founded on a precisely Marian charism. So we interviewed Chiara Lubich. Let’s listen to what she told us about the rosary and her personal experience with regard to praying to Mary. A. – I really think that the Holy Spirit present in the Pope moves at the same rate as the Holy Spirit who works in the world. One thing quite popular nowadays is the Marian profile of the Church, that is, that profile von Balthazar spoke about, which encompasses also the petrine and other profiles. And, precisely in consonance with this, the Pope launches anew this wonderful prayer which has now become a real splendour. Q. – The Pope adds five new mysteries to the rosary, the “mysteries of light”. What is the significance of this? A. – I think it’s something very important, because after the tradition we had of reciting the rosary in that particular way, now other five mysteries have emerged. But they are indeed necessary! They truly complete the other mysteries. In the rosary there was something about the period before the baptism of Jesus, but there was nothing from then on up to the beginning of his passion.The public life of Jesus was lacking, which is full of light, and in which he manifests himself as the son of God. I was really very happy. The rosary is truly a synthesis of the entire Gospel, so it is indeed – as the Pope says – a contemplative prayer. Reciting it, and thinking of each mystery, one can re-live all the life of Jesus, naturally accompanied by Mary. And this is important, because it is not just any kind of prayer, in which you say one Hail Mary after another. It is a contemplation. It is a synthesis of the truths of Christianity. And really, after that tragic attempt of 11 September, in which the Pope himself spoke of having seen also the forces of Evil with a capital E, it was necessary to go against it with the forces of Good with the capital G. Therefore not so much wars, but prayer! And also, we strongly feel the urgent need for the world’s goods to be shared in order to silence terrorism. Therefore the rosary – which is now emrging as something new – is what we truly need in this moment. Q. – Chiara, today the Pope gave you a letter in which he entrusts to the Focolare Movement the prayer of the rosary. A. – Our Movement is actually called “Work of Mary”, although it is better known as the Focolare Movement. Our norm is this: to strive to repeat Mary and to be a continuation of hers as much as it is possible. Now, this having entrusted to us … first of all, it’s a great honour, and also a commitment, it is a great joy, because – I’d like to say – it is our vocation to highlight Mary. Q. – Mary, also as someone who helps us to bring Christ into our life, who helps us to understand Christ, she is a like a way, a go-between. A. – Absolutely, absolutely! She is the white background on which He, Jesus, shines. I think that we cannot reach Christ without Mary. She is the way which the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, found to bring Christ on earth. Q. – Who is Mary for you? A. – For me, Mary is something magnificent. She is the concentrate of all the charisms, especially the charism of charisms, which is love, charity. For me, Mary is the figure of the Christian, and in a particular way, of the woman. Now that there is the tendency, I don’t know, to make woman imitate, to put her as an equal of man, perhaps looking for means we do not agree with, like making her become a priest. I think instead that the vocation of the woman is that of imitating Mary. She brings love, which is the only thing that will remain in the next life; because in the next life many things here on earth, like the heirarchy and the sacraments, will no longer exist, only love will remain. Now she is the witness of what will remain. Q. – What can you say to those people who see the rosary instead as a simple repititive prayer, people who cannot grasp the great spirituality it contains? How is it possible to really encounter Mary in the rosary? A. – I remember one time I was at Assisi. I was accompanying a group of evangelicals, and there, on a wall, we found a rosary. A pastor took this rosary and said: “But, what’s the use of it? Why do you always repeat Hail Mary, Hail Mary…?” When you love a person – I said – you would like to tell him or her a thousand times: I love you, I love you, I love you. It is not a repetition, it is a craving of the heart. So, as she is our mother, our model, she is the one who gave us the most precious thing, which is Jesus, we’ve got to tell her this a thousand times. And this is the meaning of those 150 times in which we repeat the Hail Mary every day.

Letter of the Holy Father to Chiara Lubich

Oct 16, 2002 | Non categorizzato

To Miss CHIARA LUBICH President of the Work of Mary (Focolare Movement) 1. With joy and affection I extend my cordial greetings to you and to the participants of the General Assembly of the Work of Mary, now being held at Castel Gandolfo. Thank you for the best wishes you sent me on this anniversary which marks the beginning of the 25th year of my ministry in the Apostolic See of Peter. I have always felt the spiritual presence of the adherents of the Focolare Movement and admired their effective apostolic activity in the Church and in the world. I particularly appreciate the Work of Mary for the valid contribution it offers in the quest of its specific aim, that is, the promotion of communion through the dialogue it pursues and carries out within the Catholic Church, with other Churches and ecclesial communities, as well as with various religions and with people who do not have any religious affiliation. 2. As you are verifying and planning during these days the life and activities of the Movement, I am pleased to express once again my esteem and appreciation for the apostolic activity you carry out and for the multiple initiatives you promote, so that the Church may become ever more “the home and the school of communion” (Novo millennio ineunte, 43). You know quite well – and you constantly take this into consideration in all your endeavours – that concrete activities must be preceded and animated by a robust spirituality of communion, as the guiding principle of education wherever individuals and Christians are formed (cfr ibid). I am thinking, in this regard, of the numerous branches of the Focolare Movement: the children and young people, the families, the priests and religious; I am think of your presence in the parish and diocesan communities, in the various ambits of society and culture. I thank you dearest (focolarini) and I encourage you to go ahead everywhere in bearing witness to God Love, the One and Triune God, who shines forth in Christ and in his Church. 3. Furthermore, deepen evermore that characteristic spiritual bond which unites you to Mary Most Holy: in fact, your Work is named after Her. Nurture a faithful devotion towards the Virgin, Mother of the one and holy Church, the Mother of unity in love. On this special occasion, I would like to ideally hand over to the focolarini the prayer of the Holy Rosary, which I re-proposed to all the Church as a preferential way of contemplating and assimilating the mystery of Christ. I am certain that your devotion to the Holy Virgin will help you to highlight this initiative of a year dedicated to the Rosary. Offer your contribution so that these months may become an occasion for interior renewal for every Christian community. 4. The Year of the Rosary will be, also for you, a stimulus to intensify the contemplation of Christ through the eyes of Mary, in order to conform yourselves to Him and to radiate His salutary presence in your environments. I know that I can especially entrust to your prayers the mystery of Jesus crucified and forsaken as the way to contributing towards the realization of his utmost desire to bring unity among his disciples. Certain that you will always remember the Successor of Peter, I assure you of my prayers and, wishing every success for your Assembly, I willingly impart my Apostolic Blessing on each one of you and on the entire Movement. From the Vatican, 16 October 2002 IOANNES PAULUS II

Rosarium Virginis Mariae

Oct 15, 2002 | Non categorizzato

 INTRODUCTION 1. The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, which gradually took form in the second millennium under the guidance of the Spirit of God, is a prayer loved by countless Saints and encouraged by the Magisterium. Simple yet profound, it still remains, at the dawn of this third millennium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness. It blends easily into the spiritual journey of the Christian life, which, after two thousand years, has lost none of the freshness of its beginnings and feels drawn by the Spirit of God to “set out into the deep” (duc in altum!) in order once more to proclaim, and even cry out, before the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour, “the way, and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6), “the goal of human history and the point on which the desires of history and civilization turn”.1 The Rosary, though clearly Marian in character, is at heart a Christocentric prayer. In the sobriety of its elements, it has all the depth of the Gospel message in its entirety, of which it can be said to be a compendium.2 It is an echo of the prayerof Mary, her perennial Magnificat for the work of the redemptive Incarnation which began in her virginal womb. With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer. The Popes and the Rosary 2. Numerous predecessors of mine attributed great importance to this prayer. Worthy of special note in this regard is Pope Leo XIII who on 1 September 1883 promulgated the Encyclical Supremi Apostolatus Officio,3 a document of great worth, the first of his many statements about this prayer, in which he proposed the Rosary as an effective spiritual weapon against the evils afflicting society. Among the more recent Popes who, from the time of the Second Vatican Council, have distinguished themselves in promoting the Rosary I would mention Blessed John XXIII4 and above all Pope Paul VI, who in his Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus emphasized, in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, the Rosary’s evangelical character and its Christocentric inspiration. I myself have often encouraged the frequent recitation of the Rosary. From my youthful years this prayer has held an important place in my spiritual life. I was powerfully reminded of this during my recent visit to Poland, and in particular at the Shrine of Kalwaria. The Rosary has accompanied me in moments of joy and in moments of difficulty. To it I have entrusted any number of concerns; in it I have always found comfort. Twenty-four years ago, on 29 October 1978, scarcely two weeks after my election to the See of Peter, I frankly admitted: “The Rosary is my favourite prayer. A marvellous prayer! Marvellous in its simplicity and its depth. […]. It can be said that the Rosary is, in some sense, a prayer-commentary on the final chapter of the Vatican II Constitution Lumen Gentium, a chapter which discusses the wondrous presence of the Mother of God in the mystery of Christ and the Church. Against the background of the words Ave Maria the principal events of the life of Jesus Christ pass before the eyes of the soul. They take shape in the complete series of the joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries, and they put us in living communion with Jesus through – we might say – the heart of his Mother. At the same time our heart can embrace in the decades of the Rosary all the events that make up the lives of individuals, families, nations, the Church, and all mankind. Our personal concerns and those of our neighbour, especially those who are closest to us, who are dearest to us. Thus the simple prayer of the Rosary marks the rhythm of human life”.5 With these words, dear brothers and sisters, I set the first year of my Pontificate within the daily rhythm of the Rosary. Today, as I begin the twenty-fifth year of my service as the Successor of Peter, I wish to do the same. How many graces have I received in these years from the Blessed Virgin through the Rosary: Magnificat anima mea Dominum! I wish to lift up my thanks to the Lord in the words of his Most Holy Mother, under whose protection I have placed my Petrine ministry: Totus Tuus! October 2002 – October 2003: The Year of the Rosary 3. Therefore, in continuity with my reflection in the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, in which, after the experience of the Jubilee, I invited the people of God to “start afresh from Christ”,6 I have felt drawn to offer a reflection on the Rosary, as a kind of Marian complement to that Letter and an exhortation to contemplate the face of Christ in union with, and at the school of, his Most Holy Mother. To recite the Rosary is nothing other than to contemplate with Mary the face of Christ. As a way of highlighting this invitation, prompted by the forthcoming 120th anniversary of the aforementioned Encyclical of Leo XIII, I desire that during the course of this year the Rosary should be especially emphasized and promoted in the various Christian communities. I therefore proclaim the year from October 2002 to October 2003 the Year of the Rosary. I leave this pastoral proposal to the initiative of each ecclesial community. It is not my intention to encumber but rather to complete and consolidate pastoral programmes of the Particular Churches. I am confident that the proposal will find a ready and generous reception. The Rosary, reclaimed in its full meaning, goes to the very heart of Christian life; it offers a familiar yet fruitful spiritual and educational opportunity for personal contemplation, the formation of the People of God, and the new evangelization. I am pleased to reaffirm this also in the joyful remembrance of another anniversary: the fortieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council on October 11, 1962, the “great grace” disposed by the Spirit of God for the Church in our time.7 Objections to the Rosary 4. The timeliness of this proposal is evident from a number of considerations. First, the urgent need to counter a certain crisis of the Rosary, which in the present historical and theological context can risk being wrongly devalued, and therefore no longer taught to the younger generation. There are some who think that the centrality of the Liturgy, rightly stressed by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, necessarily entails giving lesser importance to the Rosary. Yet, as Pope Paul VI made clear, not only does this prayer not conflict with the Liturgy, it sustains it, since it serves as an excellent introduction and a faithful echo of the Liturgy, enabling people to participate fully and interiorly in it and to reap its fruits in their daily lives. Perhaps too, there are some who fear that the Rosary is somehow unecumenical because of its distinctly Marian character. Yet the Rosary clearly belongs to the kind of veneration of the Mother of God described by the Council: a devotion directed to the Christological centre of the Christian faith, in such a way that “when the Mother is honoured, the Son … is duly known, loved and glorified”.8 If properly revitalized, the Rosary is an aid and certainly not a hindrance to ecumenism! A path of contemplation 5. But the most important reason for strongly encouraging the practice of the Rosary is that it represents a most effective means of fostering among the faithful that commitment to the contemplation of the Christian mystery which I have proposed in the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte as a genuine “training in holiness”: “What is needed is a Christian life distinguished above all in the art of prayer”.9 Inasmuch as contemporary culture, even amid so many indications to the contrary, has witnessed the flowering of a new call for spirituality, due also to the influence of other religions, it is more urgent than ever that our Christian communities should become “genuine schools of prayer”.10 The Rosary belongs among the finest and most praiseworthy traditions of Christian contemplation. Developed in the West, it is a typically meditative prayer, corresponding in some way to the “prayer of the heart” or “Jesus prayer” which took root in the soil of the Christian East. Prayer for peace and for the family 6. A number of historical circumstances also make a revival of the Rosary quite timely. First of all, the need to implore from God the gift of peace. The Rosary has many times been proposed by my predecessors and myself as a prayer for peace. At the start of a millennium which began with the terrifying attacks of 11 September 2001, a millennium which witnesses every day innumerous parts of the world fresh scenes of bloodshed and violence, to rediscover the Rosary means to immerse oneself in contemplation of the mystery of Christ who “is our peace”, since he made “the two of us one, and broke down the dividing wall of hostility” (Eph 2:14). Consequently, one cannot recite the Rosary without feeling caught up in a clear commitment to advancing peace, especially in the land of Jesus, still so sorely afflicted and so close to the heart of every Christian. A similar need for commitment and prayer arises in relation to another critical contemporary issue: the family, the primary cell of society, increasingly menaced by forces of disintegration on both the ideological and practical planes, so as to make us fear for the future of this fundamental and indispensable institution and, with it, for the future of society as a whole. The revival of the Rosary in Christian families, within the context of a broader pastoral ministry to the family, will be an effective aid to countering the devastating effects of this crisis typical of our age. “Behold, your Mother!” (Jn 19:27) 7. Many signs indicate that still today the Blessed Virgin desires to exercise through this same prayer that maternal concern to which the dying Redeemer entrusted, in the person of the beloved disciple, all the sons and daughters of the Church: “Woman, behold your son!” (Jn19:26). Well-known are the occasions in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries on which the Mother of Christ made her presence felt and her voice heard, in order to exhort the People of God to this form of contemplative prayer. I would mention in particular, on account of their great influence on the lives of Christians and the authoritative recognition they have received from the Church, the apparitions of Lourdes and of Fatima;11 these shrines continue to be visited by great numbers of pilgrims seeking comfort and hope. Following the witnesses 8. It would be impossible to name all the many Saints who discovered in the Rosary a genuine path to growth in holiness. We need but mention Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, the author of an excellent work on the Rosary,12 and, closer to ourselves, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, whom I recently had the joy of canonizing. As a true apostle of the Rosary, Blessed Bartolo Longo had a special charism. His path to holiness rested on an inspiration heard in the depths of his heart: “Whoever spreads the Rosary is saved!”.13 As a result, he felt called to build a Church dedicated to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Pompei, against the background of the ruins of the ancient city, which scarcely heard the proclamation of Christ before being buried in 79 A.D. during an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, only to emerge centuries later from its ashes as a witness to the lights and shadows of classical civilization. By his whole life’s work and especially by the practice of the “Fifteen Saturdays”, Bartolo Longo promoted the Christocentric and contemplative heart of the Rosary, and received great encouragement and support from Leo XIII, the “Pope of the Rosary”. CHAPTER I CONTEMPLATING CHRIST WITH MARY A face radiant as the sun 9. “And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun” (Mt 17:2). The Gospel scene of Christ’s transfiguration, in which the three Apostles Peter, James and John appear entranced by the beauty of the Redeemer, can be seen as an icon of Christian contemplation. To look upon the face of Christ, to recognize its mystery amid the daily events and the sufferings of his human life, and then to grasp the divine splendour definitively revealed in the Risen Lord, seated in glory at the right hand of the Father: this is the task of every follower of Christ and therefore the task of each one of us. In contemplating Christ’s face we become open to receiving the mystery of Trinitarian life, experiencing ever anew the love of the Father and delighting in the joy of the Holy Spirit. Saint Paul’s words can then be applied to us: “Beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being changed into his likeness, from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2Cor 3:18). Mary, model of contemplation 10. The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary. In a unique way the face of the Son belongs to Mary. It was in her womb that Christ was formed, receiving from her a human resemblance which points to an even greater spiritual closeness. No one has ever devoted himself to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as Mary. The eyes of her heart already turned to him at the Annunciation, when she conceived him by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the months that followed she began to sense his presence and to picture his features. When at last she gave birth to him in Bethlehem, her eyes were able to gaze tenderly on the face of her Son, as she “wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger” (Lk2:7). Thereafter Mary’s gaze, ever filled with adoration and wonder, would never leave him. At times it would be a questioning look, as in the episode of the finding in the Temple: “Son, why have you treated us so?” (Lk 2:48); it would always be a penetrating gaze, one capable of deeply understanding Jesus, even to the point of perceiving his hidden feelings and anticipating his decisions, as at Cana (cf. Jn 2:5). At other times it would be a look of sorrow, especially beneath the Cross, where her vision would still be that of a mother giving birth, for Mary not only shared the passion and death of her Son, she also received the new son given to her in the beloved disciple (cf. Jn 19:26-27). On the morning of Easter hers would be a gaze radiant with the joy of the Resurrection, and finally, on the day of Pentecost, a gaze afire with the outpouring of the Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14). Mary’s memories 11. Mary lived with her eyes fixed on Christ, treasuring his every word: “She kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19; cf. 2:51). The memories of Jesus, impressed upon her heart, were always with her, leading her to reflect on the various moments of her life at her Son’s side. In a way those memories were to be the “rosary” which she recited uninterruptedly throughout her earthly life. Even now, amid the joyful songs of the heavenly Jerusalem, the reasons for her thanksgiving and praise remain unchanged. They inspire her maternal concern for the pilgrim Church, in which she continues to relate her personal account of the Gospel. Mary constantly sets before the faithful the “mysteries” of her Son, with the desire that the contemplation of those mysteries will release all their saving power. In the recitation of the Rosary, the Christian community enters into contact with the memories and the contemplative gaze of Mary. The Rosary, a contemplative prayer 12. The Rosary, precisely because it starts with Mary’s own experience, is an exquisitely contemplative prayer. Without this contemplative dimension, it would lose its meaning, as Pope Paul VI clearly pointed out: “Without contemplation, the Rosary is a body without a soul, and its recitation runs the risk of becoming a mechanical repetition of formulas, in violation of the admonition of Christ: ’In praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think they will be heard for their many words’ (Mt 6:7). By its nature the recitation of the Rosary calls for a quiet rhythm and a lingering pace, helping the individual to meditate on the mysteries of the Lord’s life as seen through the eyes of her who was closest to the Lord. In this way the unfathomable riches of these mysteries are disclosed”.14 It is worth pausing to consider this profound insight of Paul VI, in order to bring out certain aspects of the Rosary which show that it is really a form of Christocentric contemplation. Remembering Christ with Mary 13. Mary’s contemplation is above all a remembering. We need to understand this word in the biblical sense of remembrance (zakar) as a making present of the works brought about by God in the history of salvation. The Bible is an account of saving events culminating in Christ himself. These events not only belong to “yesterday”; they are also part of the “today” of salvation. This making present comes about above all in the Liturgy: what God accomplished centuries ago did not only affect the direct witnesses of those events; it continues to affect people in every age with its gift of grace. To some extent this is also true of every other devout approach to those events: to “remember” them in a spirit of faith and love is to be open to the grace which Christ won for us by the mysteries of his life, death and resurrection. Consequently, while it must be reaffirmed with the Second Vatican Council that the Liturgy, as the exercise of the priestly office of Christ and an act of public worship, is “the summit to which the activity of the Church is directed and the font from which all its power flows”,15 it is also necessary to recall that the spiritual life “is not limited solely to participation in the liturgy. Christians, while they are called to prayer in common, must also go to their own rooms to pray to their Father in secret (cf. Mt 6:6); indeed, according to the teaching of the Apostle, they must pray without ceasing (cf.1Thes 5:17)”.16 The Rosary, in its own particular way, is part of this varied panorama of “ceaseless” prayer. If the Liturgy, as the activity of Christ and the Church, is a saving action par excellence, the Rosary too, as a “meditation” with Mary on Christ, is a salutary contemplation. By immersing us in the mysteries of the Redeemer’s life, it ensures that what he has done and what the liturgy makes present is profoundly assimilated and shapes our existence. Learning Christ from Mary 14. Christ is the supreme Teacher, the revealer and the one revealed. It is not just a question of learning what he taught but of “learning him”. In this regard could we have any better teacher than Mary? From the divine standpoint, the Spirit is the interior teacher who leads us to the full truth of Christ (cf. Jn 14:26; 15:26; 16:13). But among creatures no one knows Christ better than Mary; no one can introduce us to a profound knowledge of his mystery better than his Mother. The first of the “signs” worked by Jesus – the changing of water into wine at the marriage in Cana – clearly presents Mary in the guise of a teacher, as she urges the servants to do what Jesus commands (cf. Jn 2:5). We can imagine that she would have done likewise for the disciples after Jesus’ Ascension, when she joined them in awaiting the Holy Spirit and supported them in their first mission. Contemplating the scenes of the Rosary in union with Mary is a means of learning from her to “read” Christ, to discover his secrets and to understand his message. This school of Mary is all the more effective if we consider that she teaches by obtaining for us in abundance the gifts of the Holy Spirit, even as she offers us the incomparable example of her own “pilgrimage of faith”.17 As we contemplate each mystery of her Son’s life, she invites us to do as she did at the Annunciation: to ask humbly the questions which open us to the light, in order to end with the obedience of faith: “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). Being conformed to Christ with Mary 15. Christian spirituality is distinguished by the disciple’s commitment to become conformed ever more fully to his Master (cf. Rom 8:29; Phil 3:10,12). The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Baptism grafts the believer like a branch onto the vine which is Christ (cf. Jn 15:5) and makes him a member of Christ’s mystical Body (cf.1Cor 12:12; Rom 12:5). This initial unity, however, calls for a growing assimilation which will increasingly shape the conduct of the disciple in accordance with the “mind” of Christ: “Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5). In the words of the Apostle, we are called “to put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27). In the spiritual journey of the Rosary, based on the constant contemplation – in Mary’s company – of the face of Christ, this demanding ideal of being conformed to him is pursued through an association which could be described in terms of friendship. We are thereby enabled to enter naturally into Christ’s life and as it were to share his deepest feelings. In this regard Blessed Bartolo Longo has written: “Just as two friends, frequently in each other’s company, tend to develop similar habits, so too, by holding familiar converse with Jesus and the Blessed Virgin, by meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary and by living the same life in Holy Communion, we can become, to the extent of our lowliness, similar to them and can learn from these supreme models a life of humility, poverty, hiddenness, patience and perfection”.18 In this process of being conformed to Christ in the Rosary, we entrust ourselves in a special way to the maternal care of the Blessed Virgin. She who is both the Mother of Christ and a member of the Church, indeed her “pre-eminent and altogether singular member”,19 is at the same time the “Mother of the Church”. As such, she continually brings to birth children for the mystical Body of her Son. She does so through her intercession, imploring upon them the inexhaustible outpouring of the Spirit. Mary is the perfect icon of the motherhood of the Church. The Rosary mystically transports us to Mary’s side as she is busy watching over the human growth of Christ in the home of Nazareth. This enables her to train us and to mold us with the same care, until Christ is “fully formed” in us (cf. Gal 4:19). This role of Mary, totally grounded in that of Christ and radically subordinated to it, “in no way obscures or diminishes the unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power”.20 This is the luminous principle expressed by the Second Vatican Council which I have so powerfully experienced in my own life and have made the basis of my episcopal motto: Totus Tuus.21 The motto is of course inspired by the teaching of Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, who explained in the following words Mary’s role in the process of our configuration to Christ: “Our entire perfection consists in being conformed, united and consecrated to Jesus Christ. Hence the most perfect of all devotions is undoubtedly that which conforms, unites and consecrates us most perfectly to Jesus Christ. Now, since Mary is of all creatures the one most conformed to Jesus Christ, it follows that among all devotions that which most consecrates and conforms a soul to our Lord is devotion to Mary, his Holy Mother, and that the more a soul is consecrated to her the more will it be consecrated to Jesus Christ”.22 Never as in the Rosary do the life of Jesus and that of Mary appear so deeply joined. Mary lives only in Christ and for Christ! Praying to Christ with Mary 16. Jesus invited us to turn to God with insistence and the confidence that we will be heard: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Mt 7:7). The basis for this power of prayer is the goodness of the Father, but also the mediation of Christ himself (cf. 1Jn 2:1) and the working of the Holy Spirit who “intercedes for us” according to the will of God (cf. Rom 8:26-27). For “we do not know how to pray as we ought” (Rom 8:26), and at times we are not heard “because we ask wrongly” (cf. Jas 4:2-3). In support of the prayer which Christ and the Spirit cause to rise in our hearts, Mary intervenes with her maternal intercession. “The prayer of the Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary”.23 If Jesus, the one Mediator, is the Way of our prayer, then Mary, his purest and most transparent reflection, shows us the Way. “Beginning with Mary’s unique cooperation with the working of the Holy Spirit, the Churches developed their prayer to the Holy Mother of God, centering it on the person of Christ manifested in his mysteries”.24 At the wedding of Cana the Gospel clearly shows the power of Mary’s intercession as she makes known to Jesus the needs of others: “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3). The Rosary is both meditation and supplication. Insistent prayer to the Mother of God is based on confidence that her maternal intercession can obtain all things from the heart of her Son. She is “all-powerful by grace”, to use the bold expression, which needs to be properly understood, of Blessed Bartolo Longo in his Supplication to Our Lady.25 This is a conviction which, beginning with the Gospel, has grown ever more firm in the experience of the Christian people. The supreme poet Dante expresses it marvellously in the lines sung by Saint Bernard: “Lady, thou art so great and so powerful, that whoever desires grace yet does not turn to thee, would have his desire fly without wings”.26 When in the Rosary we plead with Mary, the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit (cf. Lk 1:35), she intercedes for us before the Father who filled her with grace and before the Son born of her womb, praying with us and for us. Proclaiming Christ with Mary 17. The Rosary is also a path of proclamation and increasing knowledge, in which the mystery of Christ is presented again and again at different levels of the Christian experience. Its form is that of a prayerful and contemplative presentation, capable of forming Christians according to the heart of Christ. When the recitation of the Rosary combines all the elements needed for an effective meditation, especially in its communal celebration in parishes and shrines, it can present a significant catechetical opportunity which pastors should use to advantage. In this way too Our Lady of the Rosary continues her work of proclaiming Christ. The history of the Rosary shows how this prayer was used in particular by the Dominicans at a difficult time for the Church due to the spread of heresy. Today we are facing new challenges. Why should we not once more have recourse to the Rosary, with the same faith as those who have gone before us? The Rosary retains all its power and continues to be a valuable pastoral resource for every good evangelizer. CHAPTER II MYSTERIES OF CHRIST – MYSTERIES OF HIS MOTHER The Rosary, “a compendium of the Gospel” 18. The only way to approach the contemplation of Christ’s face is by listening in the Spirit to the Father’s voice, since “no one knows the Son except the Father” (Mt 11:27). In the region of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus responded to Peter’s confession of faith by indicating the source of that clear intuition of his identity: “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 16:17). What is needed, then, is a revelation from above. In order to receive that revelation, attentive listening is indispensable: “Only the experience of silence and prayer offers the proper setting for the growth and development of a true, faithful and consistent knowledge of that mystery”.27 The Rosary is one of the traditional paths of Christian prayer directed to the contemplation of Christ’s face. Pope Paul VI described it in these words: “As a Gospel prayer, centred on the mystery of the redemptive Incarnation, the Rosary is a prayer with a clearly Christological orientation. Its most characteristic element, in fact, the litany- like succession of Hail Marys, becomes in itself an unceasing praise of Christ, who is the ultimate object both of the Angel’s announcement and of the greeting of the Mother of John the Baptist: ’Blessed is the fruit of your womb’ (Lk 1:42). We would go further and say that the succession of Hail Marys constitutes the warp on which is woven the contemplation of the mysteries. The Jesus that each Hail Mary recalls is the same Jesus whom the succession of mysteries proposes to us now as the Son of God, now as the Son of the Virgin”.28 A proposed addition to the traditional pattern 19. Of the many mysteries of Christ’s life, only a few are indicated by the Rosary in the form that has become generally established with the seal of the Church’s approval. The selection was determined by the origin of the prayer, which was based on the number 150, the number of the Psalms in the Psalter. I believe, however, that to bring out fully the Christological depth of the Rosary it would be suitable to make an addition to the traditional pattern which, while left to the freedom of individuals and communities, could broaden it to include the mysteries of Christ’s public ministry between his Baptism and his Passion. In the course of those mysteries we contemplate important aspects of the person of Christ as the definitive revelation of God. Declared the beloved Son of the Father at the Baptism in the Jordan, Christ is the one who announces the coming of the Kingdom, bears witness to it in his works and proclaims its demands. It is during the years of his public ministry that the mystery of Christ is most evidently a mystery of light: “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (Jn 9:5). Consequently, for the Rosary to become more fully a “compendium of the Gospel”, it is fitting to add, following reflection on the Incarnation and the hidden life of Christ (the joyful mysteries) and before focusing on the sufferings of his Passion (the sorrowful mysteries) and the triumph of his Resurrection (the glorious mysteries), a meditation on certain particularly significant moments in his public ministry (the mysteries of light). This addition of these new mysteries, without prejudice to any essential aspect of the prayer’s traditional format, is meant to give it fresh life and to enkindle renewed interest in the Rosary’s place within Christian spirituality as a true doorway to the depths of the Heart of Christ, ocean of joy and of light, of suffering and of glory. The Joyful Mysteries 20. The first five decades, the “joyful mysteries”, are marked by the joy radiating from the event of the Incarnation. This is clear from the very first mystery, the Annunciation, where Gabriel’s greeting to the Virgin of Nazareth is linked to an invitation to messianic joy: “Rejoice, Mary”. The whole of salvation history, in some sense the entire history of the world, has led up to this greeting. If it is the Father’s plan to unite all things in Christ (cf. Eph 1:10), then the whole of the universe is in some way touched by the divine favour with which the Father looks upon Mary and makes her the Mother of his Son. The whole of humanity, in turn, is embraced by the fiat with which she readily agrees to the will of God. Exultation is the keynote of the encounter with Elizabeth, where the sound of Mary’s voice and the presence of Christ in her womb cause John to “leap for joy” (cf. Lk 1:44). Gladness also fills the scene in Bethlehem, when the birth of the divine Child, the Saviour of the world, is announced by the song of the angels and proclaimed to the shepherds as “news of great joy” (Lk 2:10). The final two mysteries, while preserving this climate of joy, already point to the drama yet to come. The Presentation in the Temple not only expresses the joy of the Child’s consecration and the ecstasy of the aged Simeon; it also records the prophecy that Christ will be a “sign of contradiction” for Israel and that a sword will pierce his mother’s heart (cf Lk 2:34-35). Joy mixed with drama marks the fifth mystery, the finding of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple. Here he appears in his divine wisdom as he listens and raises questions, already in effect one who “teaches”. The revelation of his mystery as the Son wholly dedicated to his Father’s affairs proclaims the radical nature of the Gospel, in which even the closest of human relationships are challenged by the absolute demands of the Kingdom. Mary and Joseph, fearful and anxious, “did not understand” his words (Lk 2:50). To meditate upon the “joyful” mysteries, then, is to enter into the ultimate causes and the deepest meaning of Christian joy. It is to focus on the realism of the mystery of the Incarnation and on the obscure foreshadowing of the mystery of the saving Passion. Mary leads us to discover the secret of Christian joy, reminding us that Christianity is, first and foremost, euangelion, “good news”, which has as its heart and its whole content the person of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, the one Saviour of the world. The Mysteries of Light 21. Moving on from the infancy and the hidden life in Nazareth to the public life of Jesus, our contemplation brings us to those mysteries which may be called in a special way “mysteries of light”. Certainly the whole mystery of Christ is a mystery of light. He is the “light of the world” (Jn 8:12). Yet this truth emerges in a special way during the years of his public life, when he proclaims the Gospel of the Kingdom. In proposing to the Christian community five significant moments – “luminous” mysteries – during this phase of Christ’s life, I think that the following can be fittingly singled out: (1) his Baptism in the Jordan, (2) his self-manifestation at the wedding of Cana, (3) his proclamation of the Kingdom of God, with his call to conversion, (4) his Transfiguration, and finally, (5) his institution of the Eucharist, as the sacramental expression of the Paschal Mystery. Each of these mysteries is a revelation of the Kingdom now present in the very person of Jesus. The Baptism in the Jordan is first of all a mystery of light. Here, as Christ descends into the waters, the innocent one who became “sin” for our sake (cf. 2Cor 5:21), the heavens open wide and the voice of the Father declares him the beloved Son (cf. Mt 3:17 and parallels), while the Spirit descends on him to invest him with the mission which he is to carry out. Another mystery of light is the first of the signs, given at Cana (cf. Jn 2:1- 12), when Christ changes water into wine and opens the hearts of the disciples to faith, thanks to the intervention of Mary, the first among believers. Another mystery of light is the preaching by which Jesus proclaims the coming of the Kingdom of God, calls to conversion (cf. Mk 1:15) and forgives the sins of all who draw near to him in humble trust (cf. Mk 2:3-13; Lk 7:47- 48): the inauguration of that ministry of mercy which he continues to exercise until the end of the world, particularly through the Sacrament of Reconciliation which he has entrusted to his Church (cf. Jn 20:22-23). The mystery of light par excellence is the Transfiguration, traditionally believed to have taken place on Mount Tabor. The glory of the Godhead shines forth from the face of Christ as the Father commands the astonished Apostles to “listen to him” (cf. Lk 9:35 and parallels) and to prepare to experience with him the agony of the Passion, so as to come with him to the joy of the Resurrection and a life transfigured by the Holy Spirit. A final mystery of light is the institution of the Eucharist, in which Christ offers his body and blood as food under the signs of bread and wine, and testifies “to the end” his love for humanity (Jn 13:1), for whose salvation he will offer himself in sacrifice. In these mysteries, apart from the miracle at Cana, the presence of Mary remains in the background. The Gospels make only the briefest reference to her occasional presence at one moment or other during the preaching of Jesus (cf. Mk 3:31-5; Jn 2:12), and they give no indication that she was present at the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist. Yet the role she assumed at Cana in some way accompanies Christ throughout his ministry. The revelation made directly by the Father at the Baptism in the Jordan and echoed by John the Baptist is placed upon Mary’s lips at Cana, and it becomes the great maternal counsel which Mary addresses to the Church of every age: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). This counsel is a fitting introduction to the words and signs of Christ’s public ministry and it forms the Marian foundation of all the “mysteries of light”. The Sorrowful Mysteries 22. The Gospels give great prominence to the sorrowful mysteries of Christ. From the beginning Christian piety, especially during the Lenten devotion of the Way of the Cross, has focused on the individual moments of the Passion, realizing that here is found the culmination of the revelation of God’s love and the source of our salvation. The Rosary selects certain moments from the Passion, inviting the faithful to contemplate them in their hearts and to relive them. The sequence of meditations begins with Gethsemane, where Christ experiences a moment of great anguish before the will of the Father, against which the weakness of the flesh would be tempted to rebel. There Jesus encounters all the temptations and confronts all the sins of humanity, in order to say to the Father: “Not my will but yours be done” (Lk 22:42 and parallels). This “Yes” of Christ reverses the “No” of our first parents in the Garden of Eden. And the cost of this faithfulness to the Father’s will is made clear in the following mysteries; by his scourging, his crowning with thorns, his carrying the Cross and his death on the Cross, the Lord is cast into the most abject suffering: Ecce homo! This abject suffering reveals not only the love of God but also the meaning of man himself. Ecce homo: the meaning, origin and fulfilment of man is to be found in Christ, the God who humbles himself out of love “even unto death, death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). The sorrowful mysteries help the believer to relive the death of Jesus, to stand at the foot of the Cross beside Mary, to enter with her into the depths of God’s love for man and to experience all its life-giving power. The Glorious Mysteries 23. “The contemplation of Christ’s face cannot stop at the image of the Crucified One. He is the Risen One!”29 The Rosary has always expressed this knowledge born of faith and invited the believer to pass beyond the darkness of the Passion in order to gaze upon Christ’s glory in the Resurrection and Ascension. Contemplating the Risen One, Christians rediscover the reasons for their own faith (cf. 1Cor 15:14) and relive the joy not only of those to whom Christ appeared – the Apostles, Mary Magdalene and the disciples on the road to Emmaus – but also the joy of Mary, who must have had an equally intense experience of the new life of her glorified Son. In the Ascension, Christ was raised in glory to the right hand of the Father, while Mary herself would be raised to that same glory in the Assumption, enjoying beforehand, by a unique privilege, the destiny reserved for all the just at the resurrection of the dead. Crowned in glory – as she appears in the last glorious mystery – Mary shines forth as Queen of the Angels and Saints, the anticipation and the supreme realization of the eschatological state of the Church. At the centre of this unfolding sequence of the glory of the Son and the Mother, the Rosary sets before us the third glorious mystery, Pentecost, which reveals the face of the Church as a family gathered together with Mary, enlivened by the powerful outpouring of the Spirit and ready for the mission of evangelization. The contemplation of this scene, like that of the other glorious mysteries, ought to lead the faithful to an ever greater appreciation of their new life in Christ, lived in the heart of the Church, a life of which the scene of Pentecost itself is the great “icon”. The glorious mysteries thus lead the faithful to greater hope for the eschatological goal towards which they journey as members of the pilgrim People of God in history. This can only impel them to bear courageous witness to that “good news” which gives meaning to their entire existence. From “mysteries” to the “Mystery”: Mary’s way 24. The cycles of meditation proposed by the Holy Rosary are by no means exhaustive, but they do bring to mind what is essential and they awaken in the soul a thirst for a knowledge of Christ continually nourished by the pure source of the Gospel. Every individual event in the life of Christ, as narrated by the Evangelists, is resplendent with the Mystery that surpasses all understanding (cf. Eph 3:19): the Mystery of the Word made flesh, in whom “all the fullness of God dwells bodily” (Col 2:9). For this reason the Catechism of the Catholic Church places great emphasis on the mysteries of Christ, pointing out that “everything in the life of Jesus is a sign of his Mystery”.30 The “duc in altum” of the Church of the third millennium will be determined by the ability of Christians to enter into the “perfect knowledge of God’s mystery, of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:2-3). The Letter to the Ephesians makes this heartfelt prayer for all the baptized: “May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, so that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power… to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (3:17-19). The Rosary is at the service of this ideal; it offers the “secret” which leads easily to a profound and inward knowledge of Christ. We might call it Mary’s way. It is the way of the example of the Virgin of Nazareth, a woman of faith, of silence, of attentive listening. It is also the way of a Marian devotion inspired by knowledge of the inseparable bond between Christ and his Blessed Mother: the mysteries of Christ are also in some sense the mysteries of his Mother, even when they do not involve her directly, for she lives from him and through him. By making our own the words of the Angel Gabriel and Saint Elizabeth contained in the Hail Mary, we find ourselves constantly drawn to seek out afresh in Mary, in her arms and in her heart, the “blessed fruit of her womb” (cf Lk 1:42). Mystery of Christ, mystery of man 25. In my testimony of 1978 mentioned above, where I described the Rosary as my favourite prayer, I used an idea to which I would like to return. I said then that “the simple prayer of the Rosary marks the rhythm of human life”.31 In the light of what has been said so far on the mysteries of Christ, it is not difficult to go deeper into this anthropological significance of the Rosary, which is far deeper than may appear at first sight. Anyone who contemplates Christ through the various stages of his life cannot fail to perceive in him the truth about man. This is the great affirmation of the Second Vatican Council which I have so often discussed in my own teaching since the Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis: “it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man is seen in its true light”.32 The Rosary helps to open up the way to this light. Following in the path of Christ, in whom man’s path is “recapitulated”,33 revealed and redeemed, believers come face to face with the image of the true man. Contemplating Christ’s birth, they learn of the sanctity of life; seeing the household of Nazareth, they learn the original truth of the family according to God’s plan; listening to the Master in the mysteries of his public ministry, they find the light which leads them to enter the Kingdom of God; and following him on the way to Calvary, they learn the meaning of salvific suffering. Finally, contemplating Christ and his Blessed Mother in glory, they see the goal towards which each of us is called, if we allow ourselves to be healed and transformed by the Holy Spirit. It could be said that each mystery of the Rosary, carefully meditated, sheds light on the mystery of man. At the same time, it becomes natural to bring to this encounter with the sacred humanity of the Redeemer all the problems, anxieties, labours and endeavours which go to make up our lives. “Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you” (Ps 55:23). To pray the Rosary is to hand over our burdens to the merciful hearts of Christ and his Mother. Twenty-five years later, thinking back over the difficulties which have also been part of my exercise of the Petrine ministry, I feel the need to say once more, as a warm invitation to everyone to experience it personally: the Rosary does indeed “mark the rhythm of human life”, bringing it into harmony with the “rhythm” of God’s own life, in the joyful communion of the Holy Trinity, our life’s destiny and deepest longing. CHAPTER III “FOR ME, TO LIVE IS CHRIST” The Rosary, a way of assimilating the mystery 26. Meditation on the mysteries of Christ is proposed in the Rosary by means of a method designed to assist in their assimilation. It is a method based on repetition. This applies above all to the Hail Mary, repeated ten times in each mystery. If this repetition is considered superficially, there could be a temptation to see the Rosary as a dry and boring exercise. It is quite another thing, however, when the Rosary is thought of as an outpouring of that love which tirelessly returns to the person loved with expressions similar in their content but ever fresh in terms of the feeling pervading them. In Christ, God has truly assumed a “heart of flesh”. Not only does God have a divine heart, rich in mercy and in forgiveness, but also a human heart, capable of all the stirrings of affection. If we needed evidence for this from the Gospel, we could easily find it in the touching dialogue between Christ and Peter after the Resurrection: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Three times this question is put to Peter, and three times he gives the reply: “Lord, you know that I love you” (cf. Jn 21:15-17). Over and above the specific meaning of this passage, so important for Peter’s mission, none can fail to recognize the beauty of this triple repetition, in which the insistent request and the corresponding reply are expressed in terms familiar from the universal experience of human love. To understand the Rosary, one has to enter into the psychological dynamic proper to love. One thing is clear: although the repeated Hail Mary is addressed directly to Mary, it is to Jesus that the act of love is ultimately directed, with her and through her. The repetition is nourished by the desire to be conformed ever more completely to Christ, the true programme of the Christian life. Saint Paul expressed this project with words of fire: “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). And again: “It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). The Rosary helps us to be conformed ever more closely to Christ until we attain true holiness. A valid method… 27. We should not be surprised that our relationship with Christ makes use of a method. God communicates himself to us respecting our human nature and its vital rhythms. Hence, while Christian spirituality is familiar with the most sublime forms of mystical silence in which images, words and gestures are all, so to speak, superseded by an intense and ineffable union with God, it normally engages the whole person in all his complex psychological, physical and relational reality. This becomes apparent in the Liturgy. Sacraments and sacramentals are structured as a series of rites which bring into play all the dimensions of the person. The same applies to non-liturgical prayer. This is confirmed by the fact that, in the East, the most characteristic prayer of Christological meditation, centred on the words “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”34 is traditionally linked to the rhythm of breathing; while this practice favours perseverance in the prayer, it also in some way embodies the desire for Christ to become the breath, the soul and the “all” of one’s life. … which can nevertheless be improved 28. I mentioned in my Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte that the West is now experiencing a renewed demand for meditation, which at times leads to a keen interest in aspects of other religions.35 Some Christians, limited in their knowledge of the Christian contemplative tradition, are attracted by those forms of prayer. While the latter contain many elements which are positive and at times compatible with Christian experience, they are often based on ultimately unacceptable premises. Much in vogue among these approaches are methods aimed at attaining a high level of spiritual concentration by using techniques of a psychophysical, repetitive and symbolic nature. The Rosary is situated within this broad gamut of religious phenomena, but it is distinguished by characteristics of its own which correspond to specifically Christian requirements. In effect, the Rosary is simply a method of contemplation. As a method, it serves as a means to an end and cannot become an end in itself. All the same, as the fruit of centuries of experience, this method should not be undervalued. In its favour one could cite the experience of countless Saints. This is not to say, however, that the method cannot be improved. Such is the intent of the addition of the new series of mysteria lucis to the overall cycle of mysteries and of the few suggestions which I am proposing in this Letter regarding its manner of recitation. These suggestions, while respecting the well-established structure of this prayer, are intended to help the faithful to understand it in the richness of its symbolism and in harmony with the demands of daily life. Otherwise there is a risk that the Rosary would not only fail to produce the intended spiritual effects, but even that the beads, with which it is usually said, could come to be regarded as some kind of amulet or magic object, thereby radically distorting their meaning and function. Announcing each mystery 29. Announcing each mystery, and perhaps even using a suitable icon to portray it, is as it were to open up a scenario on which to focus our attention. The words direct the imagination and the mind towards a particular episode or moment in the life of Christ. In the Church’s traditional spirituality, the veneration of icons and the many devotions appealing to the senses, as well as the method of prayer proposed by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in the Spiritual Exercises, make use of visual and imaginative elements (the compositio loci), judged to be of great help in concentrating the mind on the particular mystery. This is a methodology, moreover, which corresponds to the inner logic of the Incarnation: in Jesus, God wanted to take on human features. It is through his bodily reality that we are led into contact with the mystery of his divinity. This need for concreteness finds further expression in the announcement of the various mysteries of the Rosary. Obviously these mysteries neither replace the Gospel nor exhaust its content. The Rosary, therefore, is no substitute for lectio divina; on the contrary, it presupposes and promotes it. Yet, even though the mysteries contemplated in the Rosary, even with the addition of the mysteria lucis, do no more than outline the fundamental elements of the life of Christ, they easily draw the mind to a more expansive reflection on the rest of the Gospel, especially when the Rosary is prayed in a setting of prolonged recollection. Listening to the word of God 30. In order to supply a Biblical foundation and greater depth to our meditation, it is helpful to follow the announcement of the mystery with the proclamation of a related Biblical passage, long or short, depending on the circumstances. No other words can ever match the efficacy of the inspired word. As we listen, we are certain that this is the word of God, spoken for today and spoken “for me”. If received in this way, the word of God can become part of the Rosary’s methodology of repetition without giving rise to the ennui derived from the simple recollection of something already well known. It is not a matter of recalling information but of allowing God to speak. In certain solemn communal celebrations, this word can be appropriately illustrated by a brief commentary. Silence 31. Listening and meditation are nourished by silence. After the announcement of the mystery and the proclamation of the word, it is fitting to pause and focus one’s attention for a suitable period of time on the mystery concerned, before moving into vocal prayer. A discovery of the importance of silence is one of the secrets of practicing contemplation and meditation. One drawback of a society dominated by technology and the mass media is the fact that silence becomes increasingly difficult to achieve. Just as moments of silence are recommended in the Liturgy, so too in the recitation of the Rosary it is fitting to pause briefly after listening to the word of God, while the mind focuses on the content of a particular mystery. The “Our Father” 32. After listening to the word and focusing on the mystery, it is natural for the mind to be lifted up towards the Father. In each of his mysteries, Jesus always leads us to the Father, for as he rests in the Father’s bosom (cf. Jn 1:18) he is continually turned towards him. He wants us to share in his intimacy with the Father, so that we can say with him: “Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6). By virtue of his relationship to the Father he makes us brothers and sisters of himself and of one another, communicating to us the Spirit which is both his and the Father’s. Acting as a kind of foundation for the Christological and Marian meditation which unfolds in the repetition of the Hail Mary, the Our Father makes meditation upon the mystery, even when carried out in solitude, an ecclesial experience. The ten “Hail Marys” 33. This is the most substantial element in the Rosary and also the one which makes it a Marian prayer par excellence. Yet when the Hail Mary is properly understood, we come to see clearly that its Marian character is not opposed to its Christological character, but that it actually emphasizes and increases it. The first part of the Hail Mary, drawn from the words spoken to Mary by the Angel Gabriel and by Saint Elizabeth, is a contemplation in adoration of the mystery accomplished in the Virgin of Nazareth. These words express, so to speak, the wonder of heaven and earth; they could be said to give us a glimpse of God’s own wonderment as he contemplates his “masterpiece” – the Incarnation of the Son in the womb of the Virgin Mary. If we recall how, in the Book of Genesis, God “saw all that he had made” (Gen 1:31), we can find here an echo of that “pathos with which God, at the dawn of creation, looked upon the work of his hands”.36The repetition of the Hail Mary in the Rosary gives us a share in God’s own wonder and pleasure: in jubilant amazement we acknowledge the greatest miracle of history. Mary’s prophecy here finds its fulfilment: “Henceforth all generations will call me blessed” (Lk 1:48). The centre of gravity in the Hail Mary, the hinge as it were which joins its two parts, is the name of Jesus. Sometimes, in hurried recitation, this centre of gravity can be overlooked, and with it the connection to the mystery of Christ being contemplated. Yet it is precisely the emphasis given to the name of Jesus and to his mystery that is the sign of a meaningful and fruitful recitation of the Rosary. Pope Paul VI drew attention, in his Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus, to the custom in certain regions of highlighting the name of Christ by the addition of a clause referring to the mystery being contemplated.37 This is a praiseworthy custom, especially during public recitation. It gives forceful expression to our faith in Christ, directed to the different moments of the Redeemer’s life. It is at once a profession of faith and an aid in concentrating our meditation, since it facilitates the process of assimilation to the mystery of Christ inherent in the repetition of the Hail Mary. When we repeat the name of Jesus – the only name given to us by which we may hope for salvation (cf. Acts 4:12) – in close association with the name of his Blessed Mother, almost as if it were done at her suggestion, we set out on a path of assimilation meant to help us enter more deeply into the life of Christ. From Mary’s uniquely privileged relationship with Christ, which makes her the Mother of God, Theotókos, derives the forcefulness of the appeal we make to her in the second half of the prayer, as we entrust to her maternal intercession our lives and the hour of our death. The “Gloria” 34. Trinitarian doxology is the goal of all Christian contemplation. For Christ is the way that leads us to the Father in the Spirit. If we travel this way to the end, we repeatedly encounter the mystery of the three divine Persons, to whom all praise, worship and thanksgiving are due. It is important that the Gloria, the high-point of contemplation, be given due prominence in the Rosary. In public recitation it could be sung, as a way of giving proper emphasis to the essentially Trinitarian structure of all Christian prayer. To the extent that meditation on the mystery is attentive and profound, and to the extent that it is enlivened – from one Hail Mary to another – by love for Christ and for Mary, the glorification of the Trinity at the end of each decade, far from being a perfunctory conclusion, takes on its proper contemplative tone, raising the mind as it were to the heights of heaven and enabling us in some way to relive the experience of Tabor, a foretaste of the contemplation yet to come: “It is good for us to be here!” (Lk 9:33). The concluding short prayer 35. In current practice, the Trinitarian doxology is followed by a brief concluding prayer which varies according to local custom. Without in any way diminishing the value of such invocations, it is worthwhile to note that the contemplation of the mysteries could better express their full spiritual fruitfulness if an effort were made to conclude each mystery with a prayer for the fruits specific to that particular mystery. In this way the Rosary would better express its connection with the Christian life. One fine liturgical prayer suggests as much, inviting us to pray that, by meditation on the mysteries of the Rosary, we may come to “imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise”.38 Such a final prayer could take on a legitimate variety of forms, as indeed it already does. In this way the Rosary can be better adapted to different spiritual traditions and different Christian communities. It is to be hoped, then, that appropriate formulas will be widely circulated, after due pastoral discernment and possibly after experimental use in centres and shrines particularly devoted to the Rosary, so that the People of God may benefit from an abundance of authentic spiritual riches and find nourishment for their personal contemplation. The Rosary beads 36. The traditional aid used for the recitation of the Rosary is the set of beads. At the most superficial level, the beads often become a simple counting mechanism to mark the succession of Hail Marys. Yet they can also take on a symbolism which can give added depth to contemplation. Here the first thing to note is the way the beads converge upon the Crucifix, which both opens and closes the unfolding sequence of prayer. The life and prayer of believers is centred upon Christ. Everything begins from him, everything leads towards him, everything, through him, in the Holy Spirit, attains to the Father. As a counting mechanism, marking the progress of the prayer, the beads evoke the unending path of contemplation and of Christian perfection. Blessed Bartolo Longo saw them also as a “chain” which links us to God. A chain, yes, but a sweet chain; for sweet indeed is the bond to God who is also our Father. A “filial” chain which puts us in tune with Mary, the “handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1:38) and, most of all, with Christ himself, who, though he was in the form of God, made himself a “servant” out of love for us (Phil 2:7). A fine way to expand the symbolism of the beads is to let them remind us of our many relationships, of the bond of communion and fraternity which unites us all in Christ. The opening and closing 37.At present, in different parts of the Church, there are many ways to introduce the Rosary. In some places, it is customary to begin with the opening words of Psalm 70: “O God, come to my aid; O Lord, make haste to help me”, as if to nourish in those who are praying a humble awareness of their own insufficiency. In other places, the Rosary begins with the recitation of the Creed, as if to make the profession of faith the basis of the contemplative journey about to be undertaken. These and similar customs, to the extent that they prepare the mind for contemplation, are all equally legitimate. The Rosary is then ended with a prayer for the intentions of the Pope, as if to expand the vision of the one praying to embrace all the needs of the Church. It is precisely in order to encourage this ecclesial dimension of the Rosary that the Church has seen fit to grant indulgences to those who recite it with the required dispositions. If prayed in this way, the Rosary truly becomes a spiritual itinerary in which Mary acts as Mother, Teacher and Guide, sustaining the faithful by her powerful intercession. Is it any wonder, then, that the soul feels the need, after saying this prayer and experiencing so profoundly the motherhood of Mary, to burst forth in praise of the Blessed Virgin, either in that splendid prayer the Salve Regina or in the Litany of Loreto? This is the crowning moment of an inner journey which has brought the faithful into living contact with the mystery of Christ and his Blessed Mother. Distribution over time 38. The Rosary can be recited in full every day, and there are those who most laudably do so. In this way it fills with prayer the days of many a contemplative, or keeps company with the sick and the elderly who have abundant time at their disposal. Yet it is clear – and this applies all the more if the new series of mysteria lucis is included – that many people will not be able to recite more than a part of the Rosary, according to a certain weekly pattern. This weekly distribution has the effect of giving the different days of the week a certain spiritual “colour”, by analogy with the way in which the Liturgy colours the different seasons of the liturgical year. According to current practice, Monday and Thursday are dedicated to the “joyful mysteries”, Tuesday and Friday to the “sorrowful mysteries”, and Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday to the “glorious mysteries”. Where might the “mysteries of light” be inserted? If we consider that the “glorious mysteries” are said on both Saturday and Sunday, and that Saturday has always had a special Marian flavour, the second weekly meditation on the “joyful mysteries”, mysteries in which Mary’s presence is especially pronounced, could be moved to Saturday. Thursday would then be free for meditating on the “mysteries of light”. This indication is not intended to limit a rightful freedom in personal and community prayer, where account needs to be taken of spiritual and pastoral needs and of the occurrence of particular liturgical celebrations which might call for suitable adaptations. What is really important is that the Rosary should always be seen and experienced as a path of contemplation. In the Rosary, in a way similar to what takes place in the Liturgy, the Christian week, centred on Sunday, the day of Resurrection, becomes a journey through the mysteries of the life of Christ, and he is revealed in the lives of his disciples as the Lord of time and of history. CONCLUSION “Blessed Rosary of Mary, sweet chain linking us to God” 39. What has been said so far makes abundantly clear the richness of this traditional prayer, which has the simplicity of a popular devotion but also the theological depth of a prayer suited to those who feel the need for deeper contemplation. The Church has always attributed particular efficacy to this prayer, entrusting to the Rosary, to its choral recitation and to its constant practice, the most difficult problems. At times when Christianity itself seemed under threat, its deliverance was attributed to the power of this prayer, and Our Lady of the Rosary was acclaimed as the one whose intercession brought salvation. Today I willingly entrust to the power of this prayer – as I mentioned at the beginning – the cause of peace in the world and the cause of the family. Peace 40. The grave challenges confronting the world at the start of this new Millennium lead us to think that only an intervention from on high, capable of guiding the hearts of those living in situations of conflict and those governing the destinies of nations, can give reason to hope for a brighter future. The Rosary is by its nature a prayer for peace, since it consists in the contemplation of Christ, the Prince of Peace, the one who is “our peace” (Eph 2:14). Anyone who assimilates the mystery of Christ – and this is clearly the goal of the Rosary – learns the secret of peace and makes it his life’s project. Moreover, by virtue of its meditative character, with the tranquil succession of Hail Marys, the Rosary has a peaceful effect on those who pray it, disposing them to receive and experience in their innermost depths, and to spread around them, that true peace which is the special gift of the Risen Lord (cf. Jn 14:27; 20.21). The Rosary is also a prayer for peace because of the fruits of charity which it produces. When prayed well in a truly meditative way, the Rosary leads to an encounter with Christ in his mysteries and so cannot fail to draw attention to the face of Christ in others, especially in the most afflicted. How could one possibly contemplate the mystery of the Child of Bethlehem, in the joyful mysteries, without experiencing the desire to welcome, defend and promote life, and to shoulder the burdens of suffering children all over the world? How could one possibly follow in the footsteps of Christ the Revealer, in the mysteries of light, without resolving to bear witness to his “Beatitudes” in daily life? And how could one contemplate Christ carrying the Cross and Christ Crucified, without feeling the need to act as a “Simon of Cyrene” for our brothers and sisters weighed down by grief or crushed by despair? Finally, how could one possibly gaze upon the glory of the Risen Christ or of Mary Queen of Heaven, without yearning to make this world more beautiful, more just, more closely conformed to God’s plan? In a word, by focusing our eyes on Christ, the Rosary also makes us peacemakers in the world. By its nature as an insistent choral petition in harmony with Christ’s invitation to “pray ceaselessly” (Lk 18:1), the Rosary allows us to hope that, even today, the difficult “battle” for peace can be won. Far from offering an escape from the problems of the world, the Rosary obliges us to see them with responsible and generous eyes, and obtains for us the strength to face them with the certainty of God’s help and the firm intention of bearing witness in every situation to “love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col 3:14). The family: parents… 41. As a prayer for peace, the Rosary is also, and always has been, a prayer of and for the family. At one time this prayer was particularly dear to Christian families, and it certainly brought them closer together. It is important not to lose this precious inheritance. We need to return to the practice of family prayer and prayer for families, continuing to use the Rosary. In my Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte I encouraged the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours by the lay faithful in the ordinary life of parish communities and Christian groups;39 I now wish to do the same for the Rosary. These two paths of Christian contemplation are not mutually exclusive; they complement one another. I would therefore ask those who devote themselves to the pastoral care of families to recommend heartily the recitation of the Rosary. The family that prays together stays together. The Holy Rosary, by age-old tradition, has shown itself particularly effective as a prayer which brings the family together. Individual family members, in turning their eyes towards Jesus, also regain the ability to look one another in the eye, to communicate, to show solidarity, to forgive one another and to see their covenant of love renewed in the Spirit of God. Many of the problems facing contemporary families, especially in economically developed societies, result from their increasing difficulty in communicating. Families seldom manage to come together, and the rare occasions when they do are often taken up with watching television. To return to the recitation of the family Rosary means filling daily life with very different images, images of the mystery of salvation: the image of the Redeemer, the image of his most Blessed Mother. The family that recites the Rosary together reproduces something of the atmosphere of the household of Nazareth: its members place Jesus at the centre, they share his joys and sorrows, they place their needs and their plans in his hands, they draw from him the hope and the strength to go on. … and children 42. It is also beautiful and fruitful to entrust to this prayer the growth and development of children. Does the Rosary not follow the life of Christ, from his conception to his death, and then to his Resurrection and his glory? Parents are finding it ever more difficult to follow the lives of their children as they grow to maturity. In a society of advanced technology, of mass communications and globalization, everything has become hurried, and the cultural distance between generations is growing ever greater. The most diverse messages and the most unpredictable experiences rapidly make their way into the lives of children and adolescents, and parents can become quite anxious about the dangers their children face. At times parents suffer acute disappointment at the failure of their children to resist the seductions of the drug culture, the lure of an unbridled hedonism, the temptation to violence, and the manifold expressions of meaninglessness and despair. To pray the Rosary for children, and even more, with children, training them from their earliest years to experience this daily “pause for prayer” with the family, is admittedly not the solution to every problem, but it is a spiritual aid which should not be underestimated. It could be objected that the Rosary seems hardly suited to the taste of children and young people of today. But perhaps the objection is directed to an impoverished method of praying it. Furthermore, without prejudice to the Rosary’s basic structure, there is nothing to stop children and young people from praying it – either within the family or in groups – with appropriate symbolic and practical aids to understanding and appreciation. Why not try it? With God’s help, a pastoral approach to youth which is positive, impassioned and creative – as shown by the World Youth Days! – is capable of achieving quite remarkable results. If the Rosary is well presented, I am sure that young people will once more surprise adults by the way they make this prayer their own and recite it with the enthusiasm typical of their age group. The Rosary, a treasure to be rediscovered 43. Dear brothers and sisters! A prayer so easy and yet so rich truly deserves to be rediscovered by the Christian community. Let us do so, especially this year, as a means of confirming the direction outlined in my Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, from which the pastoral plans of so many particular Churches have drawn inspiration as they look to the immediate future. I turn particularly to you, my dear Brother Bishops, priests and deacons, and to you, pastoral agents in your different ministries: through your own personal experience of the beauty of the Rosary, may you come to promote it with conviction. I also place my trust in you, theologians: by your sage and rigorous reflection, rooted in the word of God and sensitive to the lived experience of the Christian people, may you help them to discover the Biblical foundations, the spiritual riches and the pastoral value of this traditional prayer. I count on you, consecrated men and women, called in a particular way to contemplate the face of Christ at the school of Mary. I look to all of you, brothers and sisters of every state of life, to you, Christian families, to you, the sick and elderly, and to you, young people: confidently take up the Rosary once again. Rediscover the Rosary in the light of Scripture, in harmony with the Liturgy, and in the context of your daily lives. May this appeal of mine not go unheard! At the start of the twenty-fifth year of my Pontificate, I entrust this Apostolic Letter to the loving hands of the Virgin Mary, prostrating myself in spirit before her image in the splendid Shrine built for her by Blessed Bartolo Longo, the apostle of the Rosary. I willingly make my own the touching words with which he concluded his well-known Supplication to the Queen of the Holy Rosary: “O Blessed Rosary of Mary, sweet chain which unites us to God, bond of love which unites us to the angels, tower of salvation against the assaults of Hell, safe port in our universal shipwreck, we will never abandon you. You will be our comfort in the hour of death: yours our final kiss as life ebbs away. And the last word from our lips will be your sweet name, O Queen of the Rosary of Pompei, O dearest Mother, O Refuge of Sinners, O Sovereign Consoler of the Afflicted. May you be everywhere blessed, today and always, on earth and in heaven”. From the Vatican, on the 16th day of October in the year 2002, the beginning of the twenty- fifth year of my Pontificate. JOHN PAUL II 1 Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 45. 2 Pope Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus (2 February 1974), 42: AAS 66 (1974), 153. 3 Cf. Acta Leonis XIII, 3 (1884), 280-289. 4 Particularly worthy of note is his Apostolic Epistle on the Rosary Il religioso convegno (29 September 1961): AAS 53 (1961), 641-647. 5 Angelus: Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, I (1978): 75-76. 6 AAS 93 (2001), 285. 7 During the years of preparation for the Council, Pope John XXIII did not fail to encourage the Christian community to recite the Rosary for the success of this ecclesial event: cf. Letter to the Cardinal Vicar (28 September 1960): AAS 52 (1960), 814-816. 8 Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 66. 9 No. 32: AAS 93 (2001), 288. 10 Ibid., 33: loc. cit., 289. 11 It is well-known and bears repeating that private revelations are not the same as public revelation, which is binding on the whole Church. It is the task of the Magisterium to discern and recognize the authenticity and value of private revelations for the piety of the faithful. 12 The Secret of the Rosary. 13 Blessed Bartolo Longo, Storia del Santuario di Pompei, Pompei, 1990, 59. 14 Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus (2 February 1974), 47: AAS (1974), 156. 15 Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10. 16 Ibid., 12. 17 Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 58. 18 I Quindici Sabati del Santissimo Rosario, 27th ed., Pompei, 1916, 27. 19 Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 53. 20 Ibid., 60. 21 Cf. First Radio Address Urbi et Orbi (17 October 1978): AAS 70 (1978), 927. 22 Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. 23 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2679. 24 Ibid., 2675. 25 The Supplication to the Queen of the Holy Rosary was composed by Blessed Bartolo Longo in 1883 in response to the appeal of Pope Leo XIII, made in his first Encyclical on the Rosary, for the spiritual commitment of all Catholics in combating social ills. It is solemnly recited twice yearly, in May and October. 26 Divina Commedia, Paradiso XXXIII, 13-15. 27 John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte (6 January 2001), 20: AAS 93 (2001), 279. 28 Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus (2 February 1974), 46: AAS 6 (1974), 155. 29 John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte (6 January 2001), 28: AAS 93 (2001), 284. 30 No. 515. 31 Angelus Message of 29 October 1978 : Insegnamenti, I (1978), 76. 32 Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 22. 33 Cf. Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, Adversus Haereses, III, 18, 1: PG 7, 932. 34 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2616. 35 Cf. No. 33: AAS 93 (2001), 289. 36 John Paul II, Letter to Artists (4 April 1999), 1: AAS 91 (1999), 1155. 37 Cf. No. 46: AAS 66 (1974), 155. This custom has also been recently praised by the Congregation for Divine Worship and for the Discipline of the Sacraments in its Direttorio su pietà popolare e liturgia. Principi e orientamenti (17 December 2001), 201, Vatican City, 2002, 165. 38 “…concede, quaesumus, ut haec mysteria sacratissimo beatae Mariae Virginis Rosario recolentes, et imitemur quod continent, et quod promittunt assequamur”. Missale Romanum 1960, in festo B.M. Virginis a Rosario. 39 Cf. No. 34: AAS 93 (2001), 290.

From all over the world, directors of the Focolare Movement re-united at Castelgandolfo

Oct 14, 2002 | Non categorizzato

The first phase of the Assembly was dedicated to deepening the development of the Movement (now present in 182 nations) especially on the fronts of communion among new and old charisms within the Catholic Church, Christians of 350 churches and ecclesiastic communities, fraternal relations established with persons and Movements of other religions among which Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists and also with persons of other non-religious convictions, all involved in one objective, that of the Focolare Movement, to contribute to recompose the human family in unity and brotherhood. The second phase of the Assembly was dedicated to a few days of retreat and voting. Culminating moment, audience with the Pope who delivered to Chiara Lubich an awaited message. Together with Chiara there were two representatives of the General Council during the hand-kissing of the Pope. At the Assembly where present 10 men and women focolarini, observers of the Assemby, belonging to the Romanian Orthodox Church of Antioch, the Anglican Church, the Evangelic-Lutheran Church and the Reformed Church of Holland and of Switzerland. The Focolare Movement, established December 7th, 1943, begins it’s 60th year of life. Every six years the General Assembly of the Focolare Movement re-unites its directors at the central level with its 22 branches – including the world of youth and teens, families, priest and religious orders, bishops, parish and diocesan communities and of various sections of society (economy, politics, culture, communications, education, art, health) – together with the directors of 72 territorial zones of the 5 continents in which the Movement exists. The Assembly is summoned for the election of the president, of the vice co-president and of the general advisers.  

Facing Strife and Winning

Sep 4, 2002 | Non categorizzato

    The largest television network in the Philippines gave live coverage to a ceremony in which The Council for Philippine Affairs awarded the “Bukas Palad” center “for its political determination in facing great strife.  Its experimental programs consider the human person in his/her entirety and have proven successful in serving the poorest among the poor”. Accepting the award at the Center was one the first members of the Focolare Movement in the Philippines, Irene De Los Angeles, recognized as “a people’s hero … for the humanitarian service and development of the community that is exemplified and incarnated in nearly 20 years of programs and activities at the center”. Rising in one of Manila’s poorest neighborhoods, the Center has brought about a profound social transformation. The motivation for the award recognizes the roots for such social involvement in an “unyielding spirit, faith in God and unconditional love for all brothers and sisters in the infinite possibility of serving the poorest among the poor”. During the ceremony, Irene De Los Angeles accepted the award in the name of the Focolare Movement, especially the numerous families of “Bukas Palad”, whom she called the true protagonists. She said the spirituality of communion, which began by discovering that God is Love, is the interior force driving their work towards unity between the rich and poor. The Council of Philippine Affairs was founded in 1998 by a few people united in their desire to encourage the building of a society in which everyone has access to fundamental rights. The Council promotes quality in public service as well as moral responsibility with professional competence and transparency in government and society. Therefore, it gives recognition to individuals and groups which promote both democratic participation as well as communitarian heroism.

For Integral Development

Sep 4, 2002 | Non categorizzato

Also in Tagaytay, Cebu e Davao “Bukas Palad” is a center in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Manila and focuses on the integral development of the person, the family and the society. Similar centers have begun in Tagaytay, near the Peace Citadel, as well as in the heart of the Philippine Archipelago in Cebu, and the far south in Davao where there is a large Muslim population. 23 Assistance programs reaching more than 6000 families: more than 3,200 children and teens are taught in the schools and colleges; more than 7,000 people receive care in the ambulatories; food and milk are distributed daily to more than 2,000 children; 1,872  children are sustained in adoption-from-afar programs; the TB prevention programs have been awarded for their efficiency; loans to begin small businesses have been given to 1,600 families; 259 families have had their houses repaired while 285 have been hooked up to running water and sewage systems; while numerous courses on family planning using natural methods are offered. Local Production: tailoring, carpentry, ice cream, bread and other food shops create their own merchandise and sell them at low prices to more than 4,500 families. Some News: a computer school for youth; a summer workshop for youth and couples. 50 lower-.income homes have been built for our poor families. In the four centers in which “Bukas Palad” is subdivided, 60 persons are working full time along side 330 volunteers. Many of these have adhered to the life and spirit of the Movement over the years. A Place to Meet Persons of Other Religions:  From the beginning, “Bukas Palad” has been a place to encounter Buddhists from Japan, Taoists from Cebu and Muslims from Davao. People of different convictions have worked at the center and discovered the beauty of the Christian community. The Awakening of a Social Consciousness: “Bukas Palad” has cut deeply into the Philippine social fabric awakening a social consciousness that the country has often lacked. Embassies, banks, schools, hospitals and various NGOs, therefore, have begun helping and now hundreds of people are involved. The Beginning:   A group of young people began the center in 1983, calling it “Bukas Palad” which means “with open hands”. They took as their motto the words “Freely you have received, freely you shall give” (Mt 10,8). They began with very little – 2,000 pesos (around $150) from the sale of used clothes. With that sum they began a small ambulatory. It was a miserable area along a canal: a long row of make-shift houses without plumbing or electricity, but full of illness, criminality and desperation. As soon as the word spread that such a center had begun, young people from all directions began coming to offer their assistance. They understood that God wanted more from them. A doctor here and there was not enough, neither was the good will of a few nurses. Various members of the Movement began offering their service.

The Mirror

Aug 10, 2002 | Non categorizzato

Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Clare of Assisi 2002, which has always been commemorated from the beginning of our Movement, not only at the Center, but wherever the Movement is present around the world. Today, as in other years, we remember St. Clare and we’ll compare a detail of her journey towards God with our journey.

To look at Jesus as in a mirror in order to imitate him

One concept that regards this saint, and that we have not yet emphasized, is one we could express in this manner: “The mirror, the mirrors.” It is the image of the mirror which calls to mind precisely what St. Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians: “All of us, then, reflect the glory of the Lord with uncovered faces; and that same glory, coming from the Lord, who is the Spirit, transforms us into his likeness in an ever greater degree of glory” (2 Cor 3:18).

In her letters to Agnes of Prague, which are part of several writings in which she speaks of her own need to be radically faithful to the Gospel, Clare invites the sisters to look at Jesus as if they were looking in a mirror, a mirror that in its humanity reflects back divinity. She wrote: “Fix your eyes on the mirror of eternity, (Jesus) … and be totally transformed in the image of his divinity.” (FF 2888) “And since this vision of him is … a spotless mirror, bring your soul to this mirror every day and constantly search out your own face there so that you may be adorned … with all the virtues as it should be for you as daughter and beloved spouse of the high King.” (FF2902) Saint Clare was inviting Agnes to look to the Spouse and also to imitate him, making the same choices he made, his same actions, his same gestures. “If you suffer with him,” she continues, “with him you will reign; if you weep with him, with him you will rejoice; if you die on the cross of tribulation in his company, with him you will possess … for all eternity, the glory of the heavenly kingdom …; you will participate in the eternal goods … and you will live for all ages to come.” (FF2880) By imitating him Agnes becomes that Jesus in the mirror. But then, having become such, she can in turn be a mirror for the sisters.

An uninterrupted chain of mirrors from Jesus to the world: the Franciscan Movement

St. Clare says that this is how one creates an uninterrupted chain of mirrors from Jesus to the world. Jesus is the mirror of Francis. Jesus and Francis are the mirror of Clare. Jesus, Francis and Clare are the mirror of Agnes. Jesus, Francis, Clare and Agnes are the mirror for the first sisters who, in turn, become mirrors for the future ones. The future sisters, looking at the first sisters, become the mirrors for those who live in the world. Those who live in the world become mirrors of Jesus for everyone.

Thus by perfectly reflecting Christ, Francis and Clare, the first friars and the first sisters, have given birth to the Franciscan Movement: one of those ecclesial realities that from time to time bring back into the Church the Gospel in its radicality, to give it new life, to renew it, to reform it.

The demands of the charism of unity: to live unity in order to live Jesus

For us too, even though we are small and unworthy, we too have been invested with a similar task: to give life, to develop, to spread in the world a charismatic reality. It has happened to us too to perform a duty which is to live and help others to integrally and radically live the Gospel, looking at Jesus as if in a mirror. The very first notes we have about our Ideal of life at its onset, affirm: “We need to be another Jesus.” Therefore we are asked to mirror ourselves in him. To achieve this we see that Saint Francis and Saint Clare were given a charism, that of poverty by the Holy Spirit. We have been given the charism of unity. And it is precisely through unity that we can be another Jesus, be Jesus. Remember the definition of unity given in a letter written back in 1947: “Oh, unity, unity, what divine beauty! We have no words to describe it: it is Jesus.” Yes, it is Jesus. So then we began to understand that by loving one another, we would accomplish unity and Jesus would be in our midst… and in each one of us. To live unity was and is synonymous with living Jesus, and in this way the whole Gospel.

Unity: soul and aim of the Gospel

One day a small but significant light along our journey clarified this new aspect for us. The words of the Gospel seemed like newly sprouted plants on a large plot of land. We realized that each plant’s little root was set deeply in Jesus’ last will and testament, in the unity which lay beneath the whole plot of land. And the root received life from it. It was a 3D image of how we should consider Jesus’ last will and testament and its relationship with the other words of the Gospel, and how to live one word, unity, and all the others. We better understood that unity is not a particular virtue. In fact, it’s not listed among the virtues. It is not only Jesus’ highest word. It’s not just the fundamental theme of his testament. Unity is the soul of the whole Gospel, of the whole Scripture. It is aim that the whole Gospel tends toward. And, because it is the effect of charity, we could also say that it’s the summary, the synthesis of the Gospel.

We saw that we needed to live the words in view of unity. Yes, because it is not evangelically correct to live poverty for the sake of poverty, but for the love that leads to unity, or obedience for the sake of obedience, but everything needs to be in view of unity. The same could be said for every beatitude, as well as for the ten commandments, and for that which the first Testament requires, the Testament Jesus said he had come not to abolish but to complete. And now we understand why the Holy Spirit urged us to put into practice each month a different sentence of the Gospel so that in time we would make it to live them all. They open up unity like a fan. And we can mirror ourselves in them so as to become like Jesus, another Jesus, and in this way reflect him to others. We could ask ourselves today: are we in some way a mirror of Jesus? Do we mirror Jesus for the others?

To mirror ourselves in the Gospel in order to become a mirror of Jesus

In this regard I’d like to mention one of our dreams from the early days. We used to say: “If, for some absurd hypothesis, all the Gospels were destroyed, we would like to live in such a way that people, seeing our actions, seeing Jesus in us, could re-write the Gospel: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ (Mt 19:19); ‘Give and gifts will be given to you’ (Lk 6:38); “Do not judge’ (Mt 7:1); ‘Love your enemies’ (Mt 5:44); ‘Love one another’ (Jn 15:12); ‘For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them’ (Mt 18:20).”

Well lately we realized, with gratitude to God, that if we haven’t yet reached this goal at least we are on our way. I could tell this was true, when we were working on collecting the so-called fioretti for the book the St. Pauls Press asked us to prepare, to present some evangelical episodes of the life of the Movement. They reveal the effort we have made to align ourselves, to look at ourselves, we could say, in the mirror of the Gospel, and how the Lord consequently intervened just as he promised. Now, since we’re celebrating, let’s read some of them so as to give praise to God and thank those who, by living them, used the Gospel, Jesus, as their mirror and now, through the fioretti, can become a reflection of him for many. May Jesus make us all mirrors of him and of the Gospel so as to be a mirror for many others.

A travelling bag hanging on the door

Aug 10, 2002 | Non categorizzato

We are in Innsbruck, in the middle of winter. It’s 10:00p.m. and it’s freezing cold outside. I put on my warm windbreaker and set out quickly for home. A young man stops me and asks me to buy his heater for 300 shillings. He explains to me that if he doesn’t pay up his boarding expenses by the end of the day, the landlady is going to put him out on the street. My first reaction is: “I’m sorry, but I can’t.” I have in my wallet exactly 323 shillings, enough money to cover my expenses for the second half of February. Every shilling is already accounted for to buy what I need like bread, butter, and so on. My friends are away for a winter holiday and I can’t ask anyone else for a loan. While I continue walking, it occurs to me that I have at least a warm room, whereas that man has nothing at all. I remember the words of the Gospel: “Give and gifts will be given to you”. I turn around and call out to him; I give him the 300 shillings; he can keep the heater for himself. While I’m on my way home, a sense of anxiety begins to come over me: I really don’t know how I am going to reach the end of the month. But as soon as I arrived, what do I find? A large travelling bag hanging on the door of my room. Surprise! It contains bread, smoked ham, eggs, cheese, honey, butter: all things that a hungry student dreams of. To this day I don’t know who hung that travelling bag on the door of my room.

The Builders of a New Civilization of Love

Jul 31, 2002 | Non categorizzato

At the WYD in Toronto, inter-religious dialogue played an important role in opening horizons in the consciousness of the young people at a time in history when the encounter between faiths and cultures appears to be the only antidote to the tensions threatening the world.

For three days St Patrick’s Church set the stage for songs, dances, sketches, video’s and a fireworks of testimonials of young members of different religions who shared the Focolari spirit of unity. In fact, the Canadian Church had asked the Movement to organize the event. North American media was surprised to discover Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist youth participating at WYD in Toronto.

Personal stories told how the ’art of loving’ transforms one’s life, heals wounds, opens new avenues, unites youth of different cultures and creeds, and still respects everyone’s own identity.

They described how the art of loving is rooted in the golden rule, that is “do onto others as you would have them do onto you”, which is common to all religions: Metta, a Thai Buddhist once accused of being brain washed by Christians, later convinced the Buddhist school of his ideas. The Hindu, Avinash, described how his encounter with “Teens for a United World” in Bombay led to the discovery of a life rich with values.

A Jewish journalist and a Muslim Imam from the United States also spoke. One of the Christian witnesses was Alice from Burundi. She told the story of how she forgave those who killed part of her family.

Together with members of the other tribe, she has become a point of reference at the University for youth from the two ethnic groups in conflict. The youth welcomed with great joy the President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, Cardinal Francis Arinze, who said, “At this point, dialogue is an irreversible component of the Catholic Church.”

Chiara Lubich launches “Brotherhood as a political category” – an absolute necessity after Sept. 11.

Jul 1, 2002 | Non categorizzato

“Brotherhood as a political category is the most innovative answer to the tensions and conflicts in the world today, both in individual states as well as local administrations,” a key passage from the message Chiara Lubich launched from Rimini where she was invited by Mayor Alberto Ravioli. The city and provincial administrators desired that this message take off from their city, which is a capitol of tourism and hospitality, cosmopolitan by tradition.

Rimini’s congress building was filled with more than 5000 people, including many youths, on June 22. Present were around 40 politicians: mayors and members of parliament as well as Bishop Mariano De Nicolò. Introducing Chiara Lubich, Sergio Zavoli highlighted how the wealth of her interior charisma has incarnated into a system of values for everyday reality as well as for the political sphere. He called her a “witness and protagonist of a new, reasoned out, hope”. Hope was well expressed by the Founder of the Focolari in her message which centered on “Brotherhood and peace for the unity of people”. Three words she defined as “tremendously pertinent today after they paradoxically emerged in many people’s minds as an absolute necessity in the aftermath of the Sept. 11th tragedy.” She recalled the “many networks which are already working to connect peoples, cultures and diversities” thanks to the ecclesial communities growing not only in Europe, but all over the world.

Chiara called the “Movement of Unity”, comprised of politicians who take on brotherhood as a political category, a concrete example. Emanating from the Focolari in 1996, the “Movement of Unity”, she said, is “not a new party, but a vehicle for a new political praxis and culture.” Members of the majority are enabled to dialogue with the opposition, for example. “Those in government recognize the positive contributions of the opposition which helps them exercise their governmental control. Opposition is channeled through a criticism that is constructive and tends to correct and improve the functioning of government instead of obstructing it. This favors the search for the best solutions for the community, the well-being of which can only be fully guaranteed if both the government and the opposition are allowed to exercise their proper role.” She noted such striking political results as those seen in the opposing factions of Northern Ireland”. She cited the imbalance between the rich and poor nations as a fundamental cause for terrorism, “an imbalance that cries out for a greater sharing of wealth. But such a response is impossible until humanity is overtaken by an ardent desire for, and commitment to, universal brotherhood”. Prof. Stefano Zamagni then presented the ’Economy of communion’ project, calling it a new economic paradigm. Launched by Chiara Lubich over ten years ago, today it inspires more than 750 companies throughout the world. A presentation of the business park soon to be realized near the Loppiano Citadel followed. Jorge Braga De Macedo, President of the United Nations Economic Cooperation and Development Organization called it an “important proposal for economists working for development in the world’s poorest nations”. In an interview with Città Nuova, Mayor Ravioli said, “Today Chiara showed us – and Rimini is proud to have launched this message – that new instruments are necessary. The Economy of Communion together with brotherhood and unity among peoples are new instruments. They are concrete steps towards peace and unity.”

[:it]Rimini, citta’ aperta alla “pace nella giustizia”

Jul 1, 2002 | Non categorizzato

[:it]Telegramma del Presidente della Camera dei Deputati

Jul 1, 2002 | Non categorizzato

“Not merely an academic, but a spiritual experience”

Jun 19, 2002 | Non categorizzato

“This meeting has been a spiritual experience, not just an academic exercise. We have all experienced the closeness of God. We were given an introduction to the Christian tradition, which we already knew something about. But it was Chiara’s personal and spiritual experience, her experience of God, which enriched us in a special way, because it is so similar to what our own saints have experienced.” This is what the Director of The Bharatiya Sanskriti Peetham Cultural Institute of the Somaiya University of Vidyavihar (Bombay), Dr. Kala Acharya, declared in an interview with Vatican Radio. Preparations began well in advance in India and at the Center of the Focolare Movement in order to meet everyone’s high expectations. The symposium went well beyond the expected. Something new and great began making itself felt from the very start. In her greetings, Chiara Lubich confirmed the impression that everyone had in their heart. “I think an unknown horizon is being thrown wide open before us.” Cardinal Ivan Dias, archbishop of Bombay was present at the opening, as well as Mons. Felix Machado who represented the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. “The various scholars profoundly expressed their traditions and convictions in a climate of openness and brotherhood,” explained Prof. Giuseppe Zanghì, co-head of the Focolare Movement’s Centre for Interreligious Dialogue. “Everything was carried out at a high academic level, while at the same time was penetrated and nourished by an intense spirituality. Truly, we were mutually enriched. On our part, we were introduced into an ancient culture that certainly holds human treasures, but not only human. I am not afraid to acknowledge that it also contains important divine wealth as well, which we need to make our own so that dialogue is sincere.” The Focolare Movement’s Centre for Interreligious Dialogue organized the symposium together with Prof. Kala Acharya. Future Prospects The President of the Somaiya University and son of the founder, Dr. Shantilal K. Somaiya: “Chiara will be coming to visit India in January 2003. There is continual progress in our relations as well as a profound unity and reciprocal love. Dialogue is at the top of the agenda for the Third millennium. I am certain that Religions will learn to understand each other as well as live and work together for humanity’s benefit. This is the objective.” Dr. Kala Acharya: “What we have started will certainly have a following, and I am sure it will flourish.” Prof. Zanghì: “A window has been opened, a reality which will have important developments. ” Interesting first fruits: A representative of the Rissho Kosei-kai Japanese Buddhist Movement was present as an observer. A similar encounter with Buddhists is being projected for 2003. An Audience with the Pope On Wednesday, June 19, the participants of the Symposium were present at the Pope’s General Audience in the Paul VI Hall. The Pope greeted them and a group photo was taken. Who is the Pope for the Hindus? Dr. Somaiya: “He is a great spiritual leader.” Dr. Kala Acharya: “For the Hindus, a Saint is a Saint. It is something that goes beyond religious boundries … And the Pope is the great Saint whom I respect.” (from an interview with Vatican Radio)

[:it]Torino, capitale della fraternità

Jun 1, 2002 | Non categorizzato

[:it]La politica e l’innocenza

Jun 1, 2002 | Non categorizzato

[:it]Torino, capitale della fraternità – Rilancio di una vocazione iscritta nella sua storia

Jun 1, 2002 | Non categorizzato

[:it]Il Movimento dell’unità e la fraternità politica

Jun 1, 2002 | Non categorizzato