© Copyright, don Divo Barsotti, C.F.D.; don Serafino Tognetti, C.F.D., Settignano; Julia Bolton Holloway (juliana@tin.it), Fiesole, Italy

COMUNITÀ DEI FIGLI DI DIO/COMMUNITY OF

THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD

NOTIZIARIO/NEWSLETTER

OCTOBER, 1998

Don Divo Barsotti, C.F.D. In Cristo/In Christ. 9-10 June.

FROM THE FATHER

BROTHERLY LOVE AND THE SIGN OF GOD

Dearest ones,

We are the Sons and Daughters of God. Our name not only says who we are, but places upon us a law, the most necessary of all laws. To be just sons and daughters is not to say that we have achieved our divine vocation. Newly born, the baby already possesses a human nature, is a human being; but with the years we ought first to find that we live as humans an existence in rapport with our parents in a sense of full responsibility in the sight of God and of the world, in a full consciousness of what it means for each of us to be human. If so many years are necessary to achieve our own nature's potential, how much more would be required to achieve our divine vocation? Probably, for most of us, all the years of our lives are not enough.

In our lives the human being grows and increasingly acquires independence from parents and becomes more distinct from brothers and sisters: living increasingly our own life. But the human being, through baptism, is the child of God, only living the pilgrimage which is achieved though ourselves in our vocation in as much on the contrary as we live more and more our dependence on God. Thus, the law of humankind is God Himself, but that bond would be impossible were it not for God Himself living within us; through this it can be said that the one law of the Christian is the obedience to the Holy Spirit, and thus the abandonment to God.

And thus it comes about that in stages the soul grows in grace as is comes close to God and ones itself always more intimately to Him, thus even more profoundly, becoming more alive, more universal in its communion with all. There cannot be separation where love reigns. If God is the law, the bond, of humankind, God is love Himself, that love which makes us one with all, one with God Himself.

It would be important to repeat what we have always said by underlining this time what it is truly to be a sign and a guarantee of our pilgrimage of the brotherly love bionding us together. Many of those who have come to know us marvel at the bonds of love uniting us, though there are such natural differences, gender, age, work, temperament. It is a marvel also for us to feel ourselves so united, though in a year we have few occasions for coming together; yet each such encounter is always a celebration. And perhaps this is the charism of our Community? Is this the work to which the Lord calls us? We have always affirmed that the Community does not have secondary goals; but the unique one that 'ones' us is Love. Love is the purpose, the goal, the end.

And love achieves unity. Amongst us there is no separation between heaven and earth, between present life and life after death, and we live already a life eternal, in God's presence, we live here and now the present life of communion with the saints; placed upon us from this moment is the life of true communion, living, with the saints. How can we separate our selves from them in the life of time if God Himself already lives in us? Who believes in Christ has eternal life, who lives in Him dwells in the immensity itself of God. It would not be our love if it united only those of us who live in time. The sensible experience which rules for now on earth does not exclude and does not hide this immense communion of love, through which all are in each one who is truly a child of God, and through which also each one of us is mysteriously alive and present in the heart of all.

Dearest ones, how we ought to thank God for the calling which we have received! How much echo for me the words which the Holy Father has given to us: 'I pray through each of you that each one remain faithful to your vocation'. Thus can the prophecy and the prayer of the Supreme Pontiff be truly fulfilled. In these words we have received as it were the seal of God.

The Father

Notices

Book of the Month: During the month of September we read Joshua and Judges. The Australian CFD is reading the Gospel of Matthew.

(Where words are so underlined click on them with your mouse and you will be taken to other related documents, in this case the account in the August Notiziario on Matthew. When you are finished with them return to this document by clicking on the Back button on your top bar line, generally to the left hand side of your browser. The one next to it, also useful, is the Forward button.)

Autumn Season: Takes place Wednesay 23, Friday 25, Saturday 26 September.

Prayer is for priestly vocations and for the sanctification of consecrated souls. The collection is for the Family's account. We recall that those who have made Vows keep the related observances on the seasonal days, and that all are invited to live these days in penance.

BIBLICAL INSERT

THE DEUTERONOMISTIC HISTORY

At this point we wish to indicate the group of books, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, whose source can be determined to be from a common tradition, traditionally called the 'Deuteronomistic History'. Judaism collects these books under the title of 'Minor Prophets', sensing a true prophetic activity on the part of the authors. These are surely men of the Spirit when recounting the deeds of the People of Israel, from the Conquest of the Promised Land to the Coming of the Kings, placing emphasis upon persons and significant events from the perspective of the Covenant of God with His People, a Covenant begun at Sinai and ratified in the Testament. The same historical mediation that was begun with Deuteronomy is now continued, seeking to read in history God's faithfulness and his destined interventions shaping his Promise concretely.

The sources drawn upon by the authors are as alway most varied: oral and written traditions; popular tales. All the centuries between the entry into Palestine (circa 1200 B.C) to the institution of the Monarchy (circa 1010 B.C.), to the slow decadence up to the destruction of Jerusalem (586 B.C.), are not only aspects of historical narration. Each book is pervaded by a prophetic spirit, which meditate upon the present in the light of history, projecting these into the future as well. Here is always a waiting, an attention paid to an advent which must come, as a fulfillment.

Such is the Christian life: we Christians always live in a tension which impells us to overcome whatever happens, however inadequate, poor, and incomplete we may be. If we live this hope for a fullness of communion and reconciliation, of participating in a 'coming', it will be fulfilled in the personal and interior encounter with Jesus.

Joshua

After Moses' responsibility, Joshua became the charismatic head of the people of Israel, from when they saw the Promised Land in the east, crossing the Jordan. To him was given the task of leading the Tribes to the conquest of the Land promised to the Patriarchs. He was only an instrument in the sacred story, for it is God himself who, faithful and unchangeable in his word, who leads and guides the people.

The first part, chapters 1-12, tells of the crossing of the Jordan, from the conquest of Jericho and the two decisive battles: one, against the coalition of the five Amorite kings of the south, in which they could count on the alliance with the city of Gabeon, in consequence of which the Gabeonites entered and became part of the tribes of Israel: the other against the king of Azor, the Galilean city. The author of the book notes how God's intervention brings about man's collaboration: the fidelity of the Covenant and the faith in the Word. It is as if a continuum, history progressing and hope animating Joshua and calling all the people to fidelity.

The continuity is not in the events nor in the men, but it is in the Faith itself. It is not a nostalgic recalling of the past, praising that which was but is no longer, but a desire to recycle in different forms and modes a unique event, valid for ever, restoring it to its original value. And it is in this sense that the restoration of the practice of circumcision at Galgala and the first celebration of the Passover, after the years in the desert, can be understood.

The historical continuity seems also to have another characteristic, that of unity. Some tribes of Israel (Reuben, Gad and part of the tribe of Manasse(, had already taken the land to the east, but Joshua recalled them to fight with their brothers, so that all could enter into their rest. Division and selfishness amongst those destined to the same Promise was not acceptable.

Another episode of relief is that of the prostitute Rahab, who helped Joshua's men and for this was saved from death along with her family, at the destruction of Jericho.

This is not the first time in the books of the Hebrew Scriptures where we read of such an openness to outsiders from Israel. God is father to all, even of those who seem, on the face of things, not to know Him.

The second part, Chapters 13-21, describes the assignment of territories to the various Tribes. What follows in fact is a description of Israel in the time of David and of Solomon. In effect for the most part the territories were already conquered. This treats of the first fulfilling of Moses' labours. At the assembly at Silo, at which all Israel was gathered, the last lands were assigned in accordance with this, but actually Judah, Joseph, Ephraim had the west, and Reuban, Gad and Manasse, the east already enjoying a certain amount of stability.

The third part, Chapters 22-24, speaks of a great religious assembly at Sichem, in the centre of Palestine. Joshua, now old and near to relinquishing the leadership of the people, organizes a solemn renewal of the Covenant. It is a true and proper return to their origines with the promulgation of a Law. The recall to history is based upon its roots in Abraham. We are not talking about taking up again some myth but of reclaiming a concrete history, in order to find identity. As a holy people renewing its Covenant, it finds itself and renews itself, which are moments indispensible to spirituality. The greatest danger is that of living banally the events of our personal history, losing existential consistency and continuity. To pause, recall to memory and be amazed are conditions for taking up the pilgrimage again.

Judges

This book recounts the facts of Israel's history, after Joshua's conquest to the beginning of the monarchy, a period from the thirteenth to the eleventh centuries before Christ. After Joshua's departure, the united Tribes finds themselves in difficulties and most of all from infidelity (they conform to the practices of the Canaanites, even to worshipping other gods), and disunity. The neighbouring population profits from this situation, invading the territories. In this situation, the people recognise their own fault and return, repentent, to the Lord who causes charismatic people to arise, with the abilities of military leaders, of liberators. This leads to the Israelites' victory.

It is necessary to note that the author wants to show the religious sense of the events that are narrated. Chapter 2 of the book explains this sense: 'The Israelites did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord' (Judges 2.11) . . . .When the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judges and freed them from the hands of the enemies (2.19) . . . .But when the judges died the people turned to greater corruption than had their fathers (2.19).

Religious life openly seen, in the constant exercise of the faith, unmasked the weakness and the falling away. There is always a need for renewing the faith, and this is shown by God when things turn to worse and there is need of powerful help. God does not forget His children, His faithfulness and His patience are for ever.

From Chapter 3 to Chapter 17 the deeds of the Age of the Judges are narrated and it seems in that narration that the major concern is whether God would intervene and save them. Their faith never lessens and, in the Bible, faith and truth are the same. The names of the twelve Judges are handed down, the same number as of the tribes of Israel but only the deeds of six of them are recounted.

Deborah the Prophetess, whose song is one of the most poetic parts of the Bible, Gideon with his military band, Jephta whose vow he believes he is obliged to keep, because what is offered to God cannot be taken back, and Samson the Nazirite, consecrated to God, and who falls short of his consecration, but repents and reacquires his strength, invoking God.

From Chapters 17 to 21 are narrated various events of the Age of Judges, but these are not related to any particular Judge.

Bibliography

A. Girlanda. Antico Testamento/ Old Testament. Ed. Paoline.

D. Barsotti. Meditazioni sul Libro di Giosue. Ed. Queriniana.

PRIESTS FOR EVER

In the month of August we have witnessed something very special, here in the Casa San Sergio. There have been amongst us the priests of the Community, for three days of prayer, coming to know each other and sharing. The inherent problems of a good outcome of this encounter were bound rather by Father's condition, but the Father at this time was something unbelievable. Who did not see and who did not live these moments with him, would never have understood this.

Prostrated by weakness, which first took from him the capacity to see (or at least to read), then even of movement, he became like a new-born in need of help from all, and we of the Casa San Sergio, being much charged with this assistance, lived through this task as something difficult to express in words; that between us there passed a new kind of tenderness: on his part the need to ask, on our part, the opportunity that we give what we were able, even in the humblest offices. It was not possible at first, to understand that the Father would be capable of trusting us so much in his weakness, something which liberated in him a knowledge of the waves of struggling tenderness, which could not be held back . . . waves which returned when in the night in his room it was necessary to tuck in his covers and to hold his hand in silence, siltently understood in the shining of these eyes now become so transparent. A room, his, in which I had thought before he would never re-enter.

Whatever was to happen, the problem was whether to cancel this meeting of priests or hold it, the Father being so ill. I was undecided. Agostini, instead, insisted upon it, having originated it.

Thus we were divided, not knowing precisely how to conduct these days. The Father, returning to Casa San Sergio in a few days, after a month in hospital, said to us he would guarantee the Mass, and his Sermon; for the rest we trusted in silence, in prayer, in Agostino's help with his bluntness.

And it was truly a surprise. The Father, with his voice broken by sobbing, more than speaking, gave to us the living image of what it is to be the priest, while the rest marvelled at the immediate capacity for union and friendship that was created amongst the priests.

What was needed was to see that they remained together, prayed together, speaking of and confronting the various difficulties. Ample space was given for silence, for silent, personal prayer, for hours of adoration together, trusting altogether to the Holy Virgin of the Madonna del Sasso together with the novices of the Fourth Branch, all of which took place in an atmosphere which seemed to be as if . . . magical, surreal, impossible.

I made ten thousand reflections on the need that priests have to remain close together, of being seen often together, and to pray together, by one and the other, to feel themselves friends, and to be sustained. Feeling this calm joy of being here together, it seemed to me absolutely impossible that a priest should be tested by the temptation to become slack and by other temptations of whatever sort, so much does this type of life appear fine to me. But, I repeat, it seemed as if a dream . . . . To us of the Common Life they have said we are sustained by our prayer, and that has filled us with joy but also has made us ashamed, because we ought to have prayed even more.

The Father then . . . watched them tenderly. And that tenderness inspired even himself, sitting in the wheelchair, with all his priests around the altar, so small at the side of the imposing size of don Francesco Bazzoffi and of don Vittorio Lauri!

For the first time discourses were not given on the identity of the consecrated priests in the Comunita dei figli di Dio, as if they ought to be defined. It was felt not to be so important. There was need rather to pray together, to strengthen us in prayer and in the Mass, in offering ourselves to the Lord renewing our own priesthood with our consecrated brothers.

It is only to praise and thank the Lord that brings to us, while we are in life, the beauty of this union between us and this friendship.

Such a communion puts down all evil and gives to our souls a new strength and sweetness, which only God can or knows how to give.

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of priesthood; thank you for our priests in the Community!

Father Serafino.

THE FATHER'S POETRY

I have always felt the fascination of poetry: a human expression apparantly fleeting, but in reality gifted with an enormous capacity to transform, reclaim, give life. You can imagine the joy of being invited by Teresita to present Father's poetry to a group, when it is already in their acquaintance.

For the gathering I meditated on his books, Cor ad Cor/Heart to Heart, La parola e silenzio/The Word is Silence, Pensieri extravaganti/Extravagant Thoughts, Le prime e le ultime/The First and the Last, Miracolo della vita/Miracle of Life, from which I chose the poems for the group. One does not plumb the depths of poetry if one reads hurriedly, or even without a preparation of the mind for it. Each poem requires at least a brief lingering in meditation; in particular those of don Barsotti who so profoundly confounds poetry and prayer.

For the group I sought to present the argument in the simplest mode possible, separating the themes. I knew this would be impossible, because poetry, like the Spirit, cannot be placed in pigeonholes, which would be like enbalming a corpse. In the presentation I explained my embarrassment which hid from view the knowledge that Father's poems are most beautiful but because of this need to be protected.

Among the forms of guarding them was that of avoiding saturation. Indeed too many beautiful things, altogether, do not result in a full appreciation, risking their being excluded in turn. Just as when we visit a museum and think, in turn, upon so many works of art; that in the end we no longer contemplate, just look. When reading Father's poetry what is constantly present is his desire that then becomes the object of his poetry and which gives rise to the title of one of his poetry collections: the word is silence.

With this thought we can begin, on a hot afternoon at the end of July, meditating upon his poetry according to these themes: immanence and transcendence, evil, eternity, death, the Father's autobiography (which in turn, to a great extent is the biography of the Community itself). When we speak of the Father's autobiography we cannot forget the poets and saints with whom he has been in contact. During this talk we have touched upon how poetry does not wish to be pigeonholed; poetry, like the Spirit, is free, is life. It is centripetal and centrifugal at the same moment, reclaiming the internal, but carried also into the external. It holds as one these two immensities, the I and the World.

We need to take account of the many protagonists involved, in meditating upon this poetry: there is not only the Father, the Community, but the whole world and . . . that we are here too in the first person, we who read, we with our interpretation, even our sensibilities, our world. And all these can co-exist so well because there is God Himself.

To conclude: we must take account of what could be restrictive and coercive in sorting out the themes of the Father's poetry.

Together, not without marvelling, that the Father's poetry is a shelter from burning heat and is not only unity but forms unity.

Rita Ciardulli (CFD Bologna)

Word is Silence

God is naked:
so ought we to be nude
when speaking with God

Words are but a garment
which hide Him.

Only Silence speaks.

LITURGICAL NOTES

SCRIPTURE READINGS

As regards scriptural readings - the Lessons - in the Liturgical Offices of the Hours, we should remember that the emphasis during the Reformation was concentrated above all on the Bible, on the scriptural readings of the Office of Readings, which was greatly in need of revision and renovation. In the early times of the Church, the reading of the Word of God was placed in an absolute context of the liturgical prayer of the Christian community.

Following that it became the norm in the monasteries to read the Bible through entirely each year. This prevailed especially in the Cluniac monasteries. It was only in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries when the personal prayer of the monks became progressively separated from the choral recitation in the Offices, that the Bible readings were notably shortened and reduced in number to give the monks the chance to pay attention to their private devotions. A similar lack was averted by the reforms of the Renaissance; and the Tridentine Reform of St Pius V reduced the hagiographic readings, of the saints' lives, which are often legendary and apocryphal, to take advantage of scripture reading instead. But hagiographical readings again took over from those of the Word of God. Before the liturgical reform of Vatican II, the scriptural pericopes were all too brief and not often easy to understand. Thus the Council, in establishing a greater amount of reading of the Word of God, has done no more than to take up a need avoided previously by all the Church. The riches of Scripture in the present liturgical prayers of the Church are, in large part, needed for deepening the mystery of Christ in the light of the Word of God.

Holy Scripture, in fact, 'comes from the Church's ordering itself, not chosen by first one, then another, according to favourite passages, but ordering the mystery that the bride of Christ selects according to the annual cycle that goes from the Incarnation to the Nativity, to the Ascension, to the day of Pentecost and of waiting in blessed hope and the return of the Lord' (General Institute of the Liturgy of the Hours, henceforth IGLH from 'Institutio Generalis de Liturgia Horarum', p. 140). The IGLH instead demonstrates particular attention also to underlining the careful rapport and dependence which must take place between the Word of God and Christian prayer.

We can emphasize another important aspect: scriptural readings in the Liturgy of the Hours should not be considered as a fact by itself. It is in fact carefully related to the readings that are carried out during the celebration of the Eucharist. From this we can see the need to use the two cycles of Biblical readings without falling into sterile repetition.

Even the modern Liturgy of the Hours consists of two cycles of Biblical readings. 'One is inserted into the book of the Liturgy of the Hours . . . the other is contained in the supplement to the Liturgy of the Hours' (ILGH 145). Thus we ought not only to refer to the Scriptural readings present in the Liturgy of the Hours, because these are only brief Biblical readings, whose liturgical value is clearly affirmed by the ILGH: 'The brief reading is chosen according to the quality of the day or the time of the celebration: it should be read and heard as a true proclamation of the Word of God. This has the scope of proposing with force and with concision some sacred sentence and to deepen the teaching of certain more brief passages to which, in the continuous reading of Sacred Scripture, less attention might be paid' (IHGL 45).

The choice of the Biblical pericope regarding the Office of Readings is based on the following objectives:

- to make a more substantial meditation upon Sacred Scripture, presenting the entire scope of the story of salvation.

- to underline with more force the existing rapport between Biblical reading and the moment in the liturgical year.

- to harmonize the readings at the ferial Mass with the readings of the Liturgy of the Hours, to make the Liturgy of the Hours more a unit with the Eucharistic celebration.

As regards the fundamental criteria that have determined the choice of the brief Biblical readings present in the modern Liturgy of the Hours, the following are explanations:

- it is sought to present the particular character of the day of the week other than the diverse Hours of the day;

- it excludes the sentences taken from the Gospel, according to an ancient liturgical tradition of the Church.

- the Biblical readings at Vespers are chosen only from the New Testament, because they following the Canticle which is always from the same origin.

THE CALL OF CALLS

We are truly without words. The colours that lack names grow in number like a silent, underground river. There are some who have read Gregorio Sannino's book, announced almost silently in the Notiziario some months ago. Then the Father in the following number, opened it with an article about Gregorio. But there was still nothing in front of these pages. What was this suffering, this mystery, hidden from himself? The young Belgian priest, Eduoard Poppe, who will soon be beatified, left in his writings a statement that mortification is a good thing, the best for prayer, but that the best of all is suffering. Is it truly the best thing? But who can speak of it, who could tell something of it? Surely one who has passed through the valley of suffering as had Edouard Poppe.

All, more or less, have their own burdens of hardship and suffering, and therefore can speak of what is pain. But all, whatever can happen to us, can live this either as obstacle to fullness, or whether as something to remove, can live in the midst of the knowledge of God, so to say as a privileged state. These people begin to say things that we do not further understand, such as the paroxisms of St Veronica Juliana, 'More suffering, more suffering, my Lord', of St Teresa of Avila, 'Suffer or die', and of many more saints.

In the Community we had a young man, Gregorio Sannino, who at a certain point, gradually, entered into the different way of seeing, and who began to write incredible things. Those who knew him remember him as a fine young man, always calm and serene, even during his long illness. That is to say: a normal young man. This normal young man tested by illness, was so normal that at a certain point he wrote, 'For many years I have lived in nothing, but with a burning thirst that no one has succeeded in stopping. While I force myself to live like the others, I feel already as if all is temporary, waiting for something I do not know but which I desire. One day I knew pain and in the pain I knew God. Our encounter was characterized by violence; my soul exploded and could finally breathe with all the expansiveness that had always been repressed. From then on, while remaining in the world of time, I have always breathed more the air of that infinity.

Today I love pain, not because in it there might be something that is pleasurable, but because it is the thing that made me meet God, and I would say more, through the pain God continues to speak to me. It is a language that is little known by the world, but those few who know it truly possess a treasure.

Others have begun to read this book (Nel Dolore conobbi Dio/In Pain I Knew God) and they write that they remain stung, struck, disturbed. Who is the person who speaks genuinely the truth, and who does it in a simple style, without any posing. He writes to his sister, to friends, and certainly Gregorio would be amazed to know that his letters would one day end in being a book. 'From when the good Lord is so pleased as to give my soul its health - he wrote in 1959 to the Father - always the things about the body mean less; so that now I consider my body today as a valid instrument in the hands of God to receive precious suffering, I could say that what is a burden and a hindrance for the flights of the spirit. The will of God - that is joy for the heart that I have known - is identified for me in suffering, that is the vocation of vocations, the call of calls, given that it might be a rare privilege. My body which remains flesh sighs often, and from these laments I retrieve the certainty of truly possessing something to offer to God.

This writer is a boy of 26, confined to bed. The words come from a different world. What is the experience of God in Gregorio? It is what we ought to discover, because Gregorio is a gift that was given through the first of us in the Community. A pearl which was buried at 37 (Gregorio died in 1961), but who now - who knows why now - is a mysterious writing hand, exumed, leaving us wordless.

Our Family Assistants have recieved a circular in which it is said that a meeting in the year 1998-99 should be dedicated to Gregorio's book of collected letters. Whoever is given the task of preparing this meeting should seek, very simply, after having read the text, to illustrate to the brothers and sisters the teaching which is in it, drawing from it our brother's theological pilgrimage, which passed from nothing to God (his words) through the privilege of pain.

I invite you all to take up this book in your hands. It is our text: we ought to have it. Gregorio is a brother of the Comunita. We feel him as such! He died some years ago, and few now knew him, but now he has come out of silence and wants to speak. Again an aspirant, writing to Anna Maria Cipollaro, a sister in Florence, expressed it thus: 'Reading his letters I understood the Comunita better: I seem unworthy of entering to become part of you (You, Gregorio? And us then?), but God wills it and I have learned to will what God wills. Who knows but that one day we shall not all meet. It shall be a day of great celebration for us and for God'.

'I have learned to will what God wills . . . ' So you wrote, Gregorio, yet one might think this a mad phrase. Not to write, but to live. To the sister Anna Maria in Florence, it prophesies the joy of a Comunity meeting. Now both are dead, and truly our desire is that this feast of which you speak be prepared for you, in such a way that you truly can meet all of these. Thank you, Lord, for what you have done through Gregorio; thank you for having given him to us.

Father Serafino

FAMILY LIFE: CASA SAN SERGIO

12 July Three sisters from Sri Lanka are at Casa San Sergio: today they make their Vows in the Third Branch, and will live an experimental form of the common life at Argenta, in the Province of Ferrara. The Father is truly happy. He sees in this expansion of the Comunita a sign of the Lord's favour. We shall help all these sisters fit into our family, with prayers and with affection. Their names? Dammika, Annusha and Nishanti. They are not difficult names. Just repeated them a thousand times!

14 July The Father can now scarcely see. The date of the cateract operation is fixed, which is good, upon the day of his patron, San Camillo de' Lellis, patron of hospitals and of doctors. He will be operated on at the Hospital at Torregalli, stay a couple of days, then return home. For a happy convalescence . . . Alas, no: for something worse now happens.

18 July It was to be the Father's 61st anniversary as priest, but late in the night, Father got up, went to the bathroom, lost his balance, fell and fractured his femur. Immediately helped by Brothers Elia and Bernardo (the only ones who heard the sound of Father's fall), they first carried him to his room, then after a quick consultation, to Emergency, where they arrived at five in the morning. Unfortunately it is a break and he is once again in hospital.

22 July The day of St Mary Magdalen, the Father's leg was operated on, with prothesis being applied. It took two hours, with a local anaesthetic, and was most successful. The problem is not so much the pain of the leg as the suffocating heat in Florence and the fear of the long bed rest (the Father's circulation and respiration are poor) and of bed sores.

31 July St Ignatius of Loyola. The Father is moved from hospital to a rehabilitation clinic. He can get to his feet, but it is so much work. The clinic is not far from Settignano but the heat is truly ferocious. The Father is patient: 'Finally I have something to offer to the Lord', he says. The 6 August (Transfiguration), Father celebrates Mass in the clinic, sitting in a chair. I am so moved that I cannot speak. The few who were present will not easily forget his old figure bowing to the altar, to the Host, the one thing which the Mystery of Love becomes. The days pass and the Father begins to be rather tired, the specific exercies now are finished and he feels so far from the Casa San Sergio, from his own monastic family: it is now almost a month since the Father has been away and we decide to continue physiotherapy at Casa San Sergio.

15 August. Father returns on the feast day of the Assumption of Most Holy Mary. Elia carries him. Entering the building, Father breaks into sobs. It is this thanks for being here again.

18 August. The meeting of the CFD priests begins. In the morning it is beautiful to see all of them (there were indeed so many, thirteen priests in all, about the altar in the small chapel filled with the Community), celebrating together with Father, who watches them with great tenderness. The last day two of them are consecrated: don Vittorio of Grosseto and don Gianni of Bologna. In this day our CFD pilgrimage stopped at the house of Marta Robin, who offers so much for priests. We feel here her influence.

22 August. An important day for the Australian CFD. Peter Xuereb, the young aspirant (Australian, of Egyptian origin) arrives from Australia to test his vocation in our Common Life. He had never before been out of Australia and arrived in Settignano speechless . . . so many different things, so many 'ancient' things for him. Scarcely had he arrived at Casa San Sergio that he was taken to the Father's room, who was impatiently waiting for him. They hugged each other in silence (I have never seen Father hug someone for so long . . . ). Two days before in Australia had been the Mass to say goodby to Peter. A fax from Adrian reported it thus: 'He leaves with our deepest prayers. We have gone with him to the airport: his father was also there who does not understand that Peter is doing. His father has said the classic words, in the imminence of this departure, 'I am about to lose a son'. Father and son both were crying. All were moved by this scene. We entrust him to your love and to your benevolence, and we pray that with this what we have become shall be a flower amidst the Community. A flower that shall return to us in the fullness of time'. We all pray for Peter, and we feel he is a precious gift. He has left all as a closed box, coming from the other part of the world in trust, inspired only by blind faith in the Lord. We gather Peter like a son and a brother.

23 August . The Rector of the Seminary at Fiesole dropped in unannounced at Casa San Sergio to say there were two places free in the Seminarians' pilgrimage to Lisieux and he invited Elia and Stefano. No sooner said than done: our two left immediately and so joyously. An aside: in the Common Life we ought always to have a suitcase ready . . . always be prepared. The Father was the first to be prepared for such a surprise. He said: 'It is a grace for all'.

WE PRIESTS OF THE CFD

CFD Priests' Meeting, 18-21 August, 1998

The appointment was for Tuesday 18 August, at the House of the Redemptionist Sisters, a splendid sixteenth-century villa immersed in the green hills that arise around Florence. This year Father Serafino has done things grandly!

The joy in seeing each other again, after the fast of the last year, was indeed great: present were don Remo Resca and don Gianni Cati, both from Bologna, don Costanto Bianchi and don Francesco Bazzoffi of Florence, don Elio Scaldalai of Pordenone and the below signed don Pierluigi D'Antraccoli of Lucca. The next day don Vittorio Lauri from Grosseto, don Francesco Yang from Flroence and don Piero Riggi from Sommatino (Sicily) arrived. One could see the priests reflecting a little on the composition of the Community which lives and grows in all Italy, and now, they tell me, even in Australia!

Each morning we went to the Casa San Sergio to concelebrate Mass with the Father and those of the Common Life, then returned to the Sisters to spend the rest of the morning in prayer, and in the afternoon to make a retreat led by Father Agostino, and exchange amongst ourselves. We spoke on prayer and the Word of God of priests, and in particular of priests consecrated in the CFD.

In practice the schedule was that of the Casa San Sergio. Serafino remained with us all day Wednesday, while Agostino never left us, he having the responsibility to guiding us during these days. Thursday we all went up to the Madonna del Sasso to put our lives and our ministry under the maternal protection of Maria.

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The Madonna del Sasso with the Open Bible above the Altar.

Friday the 21, commemorating St Pius X, during the Eucharist don Gianni Cati and don Vittorio Lauri were consecrated at the hands of the Father.

Now, the Father. He was doing very well after the operation on his femur, but I must say, I who have known him for 40 years, that he becomes always richer, closer and sweeter. To see him is enchanting, to hear him, moving, because his words are always less knowledge and always more wisdom! He was very happy with our presence and one could see this from his shining eyes, from his smile, and from the abundance of tears. In all the sermons he spoke of the priesthood and of its mission. I supply but one phrase: 'It is with your life as priests that you must give the assurance to the people that God truly exists and is no utopia'.

At the end of the last Mass the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life sang the Canticle of St Sergius. We carry that away in our hearts as a memory of our communion with all the Community.

These were most beautiful days, filled with grace.

We priests feel that this annual meeting here at Casa San Sergio is an irreplaceable need and requirement. We should also note that we ought to even more intensify our rapport with all the Community and find the possible means for an even more significant presence.

We ask for prayer and the help of all and we salute you in our Lord Jesus.

Don Pierluigi D'Antraccoli

NEWS FROM ENGAGED COUPLES

We are two couples of engaged people, one for six years, the other for seven. This fact has brought us to find a growth and maturity amongst couples that can be in harmony with our interior needs. We explain this to friends and married couples who have had the experience of pre-wedding courses, to deepen the discourse. For these persons the course was a most beautiful experience, and above all 'very taking'. This experience they shared sent us into a tailspin, have sensed from their accounts much superficiality which did not go with our taste.

One evening we found ourselves speaking with Giovanni Virone and explaining to him our perplexity. Giovanni offered humbly to be available to help guide us and thus began a journey of faith for couples expecting marriage, with several hourly meetings. After the second meeting the Holy Spirit 'had made us his victims', and we abandonned all fear, all perplexity regarding the precariousness of our work which prevented us from setting and fixing the date of our marriage. Thus the Sunday of Pentecost, 31 May, convinced and trusting, abandoning all to Providence, we came to church to fix the date of our marriage, to take place the next summer. We let this surprise Giovanni, our family and even ourselves.

These meetings helped us to understand the sacrament of marriage, so that we could grow in the Lord as consecrated persons towards the knowledge of the Bible and the Catechism. We have passed from a traditional knowledge to a shared wisdom of being as in eternity, the one for the other, through a holy pilgrimage in the family, helped by the grace which gives the sacrament. We have chosen the theme of reflection for this time the phrase 'I am the Bread of Life'. Jesus helps us in this waiting period to prepare ourselves, sustaining us in the Eucharist.

Giuseppe and Maria Catena, Michele and Rosa

P.S. We read in this chronicle that a brother of the Community spontaneously put himself at the disposition of a young engaged couple for these meetings in preparation for their marriage, in a series of encounters that must have been a trial. This community service is truly beautiful, more than might be realised, but the fruit of a readiness that goes above other things (tiredness from the day, the needs of one's own family, etc.)

HAVE YOU READ 'MONASTICISM AND MYSTICISM'/ MONACHESIMO E MISTICA?

After the summer holidays when many of us go to the mountains, to the seaside, we take upon our normal lives again. The Community again takes up its meetings, its gatherings, its retreats, and the calendar tells us of the visits of our superiors.

The Community is a great support for the spiritual life. It sustains us, instructs us, unites us. The Community is a means for answering more fully the Lord's invitation to sancity. The Father Founder puts at our disposition a great amount of writing that helps us . . . Father's writings, his Diary, are tangible proof of a spiritual life all turned upon this theme. All Christians are to live a transcendent life as the Gospel suggests. The CFD brings to traditional monasticism a new thing: the laity who are to be consecrated. These accept the 'monastic' life, the 'mystic' life, while remaining in the world. Each aspirant ought to come to the consecration conscious of being forced to live God's will, seeking only God, imitating Jesus, watching within and confronting sin within through Jesus' parables for self correction. The consecrated person should help his brothers and sisters, his neighbours, avoiding all forms of pettiness.

The Father has written a little book titled Monachesimo e mistica/Monasticism and Mysticism. It underlines the mysticism of the monk. It flows in the reading and invites us to a concrete spirituality. 'The life of the monk' says the Father, 'is all lived in the presence of Christ' (p. 32). The pilgrimage of the monk is his descent into the most intimate depths where God dwells. In this depth he achieves the wedding of the soul with the Word; from this depth come 'the stars of the morning' (1 Peter 1.19) which announce the day that will dawn' (p. 52).

Nella (Community of Bari)

FROM AUSTRALIA

Our names are Brian and Carmel Miller. We live in Coburg, a suburb north of Melbourne. We met at university and have been married for 16 years. We have four children.

Our journey has been long and varied but there have been a few constants which have kept us going forward: our shared faith in God, a desire to offer hospitality to others, our family and our enjoyment of music. We shared some very special times with Don Serafino and he showed us how we could be part of this new 'Community' starting in Melbourne.

The last few years have been testing ones for us. Sometimes we have felt like the Chosen People wandering in the desert before they reached the Promised Land.

When we returned to Melbourne to live nine years ago, we were devastated. Our dream of living in community had been shattered and we had nowhere to go. We still believed that God would show us the way, the next step, if only we remained faithful.

In one episode, we heard about a community in the hills near Melbourne. We had an interview with the chaplain for about 3 hours - very intensive - and went home. A week later we got a letter inviting us to work on an Aboriginal mission in the outback! It was a misunderstanding; we did not go.

As time went by, there were times when we felt God had forgotten us. We had our hands full bringing up the children and we had to keep reminding ourselves what values were important. It was hard to keep a routine of daily prayer without support from others. In our parish, too, groups and programmes would be set up but we did not feel drawn to them. Sometimes we blamed each other for our troubles and we had to learn to be more caring.

(Brian writes:)

There is a little church in the city which has the last Mass in Melbourne on Sunday at 10pm. On the Feast of the Ascension, I went there by myself. I was expecting a quiet Mass because it was so late but it was a hive of activity. I couldn't get a seat so I sat on the floor. The priest said that if we were feeling lost, we should pray to the Holy Spirit for the next 7 days with the words "Show me what you want me to do". This touched me deeply and I found myself making that prayer each day in the lead up to Pentecost.

We had already met Adrian at this stage but the Comunita had not made an impression on us. That changed a couple of weeks later with don Serafino's visit.

We had the Rosary at our house one Sunday and the house was full, even our parish priest came to meet don Serafino. Our bedroom became a confessional; and people sat in the kitchen and listened because they couldn't fit in the living room!

The lasting impression he left on me was of his preaching. On each occasion that he spoke during his visit he did not draw attention to himself or the Comunita so much but preached strongly and beautifully about God, our Mother Mary and the need for constant prayer in our lives. He reminded us we are all called to be saints!

The message for me was clear and this, and other signs, convinced me that God wanted us to learn more about the Comunita'. What's more, God had dropped it right in our lap!

Carmel felt drawn also and in the last few days of don Serafino's stay, we decided to become aspirants.

Now we are trying to start a group in our own parish. We spoke at Mass last Sunday and this is part of what was said:

We believe that a good community will have a strong foundation of prayer and will be faithful to the teaching of the church.

We believe that couples have a responsibility to serve God and work for his kingdom which is over and above their families.

We believe that authentic faith is concerned about others and is evangelical.

I believe the Comunita is all these things, and I thank God for bringing it to us. For us, it has been an answer to prayer.

(Carmel writes:)

About our family: Anna,15, and Pauline,13, are at high school. They are very studious and enjoy their work. They are quite independent and have high expectations of themselves and of life. Jeffery,11, and Thomas,7, are still at the parish school and enjoy playing with their friends. Jeffery likes playing music and was very impressed with Don Serafino's musical ability.

Brian and I have become aspirants and were asked to lead one of the new groups because we have not enough consecrated members in Australia, yet. We meet in our home and enjoy sharing with others. Our group is under the patronage of St Peter Chanel who was martyred for his faith on the Pacific island of Futuna in 1841. We still contribute to the parish life; we have been leading the music at the family Mass, 11am Sunday, for three years, and we continue to look for ways to involve the school children in the parish life.

While meeting with Adrian we found there was a need for someone to help distribute the Notiziario for the Australian members. As we had a computer and e-mail at the Public Library, we could keep in contact with Julia who was translating the newsletter for us. We now have the internet at home and I really enjoy being able to pass on the latest information from Italy.

We now meet regularly with the aspirants in Melbourne and our group becomes larger and closer each day. It was a special gathering for Mass on 21st August when we said farewell to Peter who was going to Italy to test his vocation within the Comunita'.

Thank you all for the gift you have given us.

Julian of Norwich's Revelations, a painting by the Australian artist, Alan Oldfield. Republished with permission of the Community of All Hallows, Ditchingham, Suffolk, and the Friends of Julian, Norwich. The painting hangs in St Gabriel's Chapel, All Hallows Convent, Ditchingham.

ABOUT BENIN, AFRICA

At the May Counsel, as you read in the last Notiziario, we discussed the question of Benin, of our presence and eventual stay on African soil. The question was raised with a certain uneasiness about how it came to be: because only the Sisters of the Fourth Branch were involved, while the rest of the Community lived through the project at the level only of information of what was happening but practically had no active participation in it. It didn't work out, it was said, because for an event so important as a missionary opening, all the Community must be involved.

Effectively the Community, in its four branches, lives only one life: this is its most beautiful innovation. In Africa there must not be only the Fourth Branch, but the entire Community. That at the moment there is only one path open for the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life, does not mean that this should be done independently.

The Counsel wished above all to repair an error in its initial thrust, because we have plenty of time. Before all else the keys to interpreting the fact of Benin were given by the Father, in his numerous questions about the proposal, whether written or oral. Such weekly sermons at Casa San Sergio, in these recent times, on the faith! Indeed it is the faith that the Lord desires this that should make it succeed with serenity. The task seems greater than ourselves, but even this - said the Father with confidence - is the sign that the Lord will carry the thing forward. He does not want ways and means, but faith, to show that this project is His work. The second comforting sign is how the Bishop of Parakou, Monsignor Nestor Assogba, lives in expectant waiting for our presence. He has been with us at St Sergius twice, and both times surprised us by his simplicity and, even here, by the force of his faith. He has given us a great sense of the One Church - that is not fenced away, one in Italy, another in Africa - but which breathes one air, because 'one only is the Spirit'.

The Counsel has said that in the venture to Africa we ought to reject the facile enthusiams, becoming knowledgeable of the difficulties, and thus confront these various problems one by one as they arise, without fear and with the abandonment of trusting in the Lord, always with that expression of faith of which He himself spoke. This is important because this thing will be heard and seen by all, with attention, participation, as something related to the entire family. When a son in a house marries, all are involved, even the cat. So it should be with us. Otherwise we will have aspirants in Benin who heroically find themselves there for a year, faithful to their promise to take up this task. Who would be near to hear them? Who would hear them from being involved in their life?

This involvement by all means being ready even to go to Afria for a brief period, such as a visit, or for a longer time, even for some months or a year. No one would marvel: what a Community to send families out of Italy! This already is practiced. the witness given by laity is most important, and we could fill entire books of such witnessing by persons, entire families of father, mother and children, couples, single, groups, who for a year have given up all and gone to live in Africa. Human experience and the faith derived from it is incomparable. As for us, it is not being said that only the Sisters of the Fourth Branch ought to go to Africa, instead, we truly wish that gradually even the Brothers and Sisters of the other branches consider the idea of a presence, a visit, in Africa in Benin. Already, for example, our Assistant General Pino is preparing for a visit and it would indeed be fine if this could take place.

We wish therefore that those who feel they would be available for a visit to Africa, should communicate their own names to Casa San Sergio. Strong people, young people, do not shut yourselves out! And even the least young among you, all who feel open and ready to live this opportunity like a gift from God, following the example of Padre who went to Japan, China, and Hong Kong at seventy-one years of age! Those who cannot go should sense strongly the need for prayer, for information, whatever other type of help or collaboration might be asked (For example, in writing to them. Is it possible that not one of us knows French?). We repeat that all, even your cats, should feel this as a living and real thing.

For the moment the members of the Fourth Branch shall continue to go. In October there will be a brief visit to Africa by Sister Angela, Sister Irene and Father Bernardo. Naturally we shall always keep you informed of developments.

Here are the addresses of the Aspirants in Benin. It would be fine indeed if you could begin a correspondence with them, making them feel the warmth of a family, having them understand that we exist and wish to realize with them a project of love and of communion. Who wishes, above all, can do it, without needing to ask permission of anyone. It would be truly fine to form a long chain of contacts. All speak and write French perfectly, the husband and wife, Agloboe and Gnacandja even Italian.

Louis and Gisele Gnacandja, 03 BP 4036, Cotonou, BENIN

Boniface and Bertille Agloboe, 07 BP 173 Sainte Rite, Cotonou, BENIN

Blaise and Bibiane Seho, 03 BP 171, Cotonou, BENIN

Serve and Victoire, c/o Centre d'Accueil mgr Parisot, BP 970, Cotonou, BENIN

Abbe Clet Feliho et groupe, Centre Riobe, BP 226, Parakou, BENIN

FOR YOUTH

ON PURITY

This is God's will, your sanctification: That you abstain from all impurity, that you each should know how to maintain your own body in holiness and reverence, and not as an object of passion . . . . That none offend brothers or sisters in these things. . . God has not called us to impurity, but to sanctification. (1 Thessalonians 4.3-8).

When we speak of purity and impurity, choosing simply vices and virtures, without deepening the material in the light of the New Testament, the language is not different from that of pagan moralists, for example, the Stoics. For they, too, praised self-control, but only as a function of interior calm.

Christian motivations for the virtue of purity instead come from Christ's Easter. Responding to the Corinthians, who had said, `Everything is allowed', Paul explained a totally new motivation for purity: 'It is not licit', he said, 'to give yourself to impurity, it is not licit to sell yourself, or to dispose of yourself for pleasure, for the simple fact that we do not belong to ourselves any more, we are no longer ourselves, but of another: of Christ. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ . . . and do not belong to you yourselves?' (1 Corinthians 6.15,19). Christian purity, in other words, does not consist only in establishing control by reason over instinct, as much as to establish control by Christ above the whole person, reason and instincts. 'The body is not for unchastity, but for the Lord!' (1 Corinthians 6.13). The important thing is not that I have control over myself, but that Christ has control over myself. There is an as if infinite leap in quality between the two perspectives.

This christological motivation for purity becomes even more compelling with what St Paul gives in the same text: 'We are not generically of Christ, as if his property and his thing, but we are the body himself of Christ, his members'! This makes it all immensely more delicate and complicated, because it is as if to say that in committing impurity, I prostitute the body of Christ, doing a sort of sacrilege, using violence against the body of the Son of God.

St Paul speaks continually of purity, when he describes again and again the new life of the Spirit. Purity is a style of life, more than a single virtue. It is a purity of the body, but it is also a purity of the heart (Matthew 5.27-28), it is a purity of language, which consists in abstaining from insults and vulgarity (Ephesians 5.4), and positively in the sincerity and soberness of speech. It is a purity or innocene of the eyes when looking. The eyes - said Jesus - are the lamp of the body; if the eyes are pure and clear, the whole body is in the light (Matthew 6.22).

Each day one must oppose the sins against purity and those against one's neighbour, saying the true sin is that against one's neighbour. Often there is mockery about an excessive cultivation of purity, which tends to minimize the sins against this virtue, to the advantage (often only verbal) of a concern about one's neighbour. The fundamental error is in pitting purity and charity against each other, which are instead most united to each other. Purity and love for the other share between them the control of oneself and one's giving oneself for the other. How can I give myself, if I do not possess myself but am a slave to passions? How can I give myself to others if I have not yet understood that I do not belong to myself, that my body is not my own, but the Lord's? It is an illusion to believe that one can put oneself to an authentic service to one's brothers and sisters, who always ask for sacrifice, altruism, generosity and forgetfulness of oneself, together with a disordered personal life, tending to pleasing onself.

One of the excuses which one hears said concerning impurity is that it does no harm to anybody, it does not violate the rights and the freedom of another. Apart from the fact that it violates the fundamental right of God to give a law to his creatures, this excuse is false in relation to one's neighbour. It is not true that the sin of impurity finishes with the one committing it. Each sin, wherever and with whomever it comes to be committed, is contagious and contaminates the moral surroundings of people. This contagion is called by Jesus a scandal, and it is condemned by him in the most terrible words of all the Gospel (Matthew 18.6). The primitive Christian community was not exempt from even grave sins in this area, so much so that Paul had to intervene directly in a case of incest (1 Corinthians 5.1-2). But such sins came to be recognised as such, denounced and hopefully corrected. It is not required that one be totally without sin, but that one fight against the sin. For example, the sin of adultery was considered, along with apostacy and murder, one of the three greatest sins, so much so that it was discussed whether it could or could not be remitted by the sacrament of penance. The difference today is that today the same things are done, and perhaps even worse things, but they are excused away, all perversions are justified because - it is said - it does not harm one's neighbour and does not injure another's liberty. As if God counted for nothing! Incredible . . .

SEEDS OF RUSSIAN SPIRITUALITY

We conclude the series of the teaching of Silvanus of Mount Athos and begin in this issue a series of teachings from another great Russian saint, St Ivan of Cronstad (1829-1908), He was neither monk nor hermit, but a parish priest. Yet the impression this man made in the Russia of his day was enormous. The most authentic testimony concerning him comes from Silvanus of Mont Athos himself, who knew him personally. It was Ivan of Cronstad who directed the young Silvanus and had him become a monk on Mount Athos. Silvanus left this writing: 'Father Ivan's prayer was like a column that raised itself up even to the sky, I have seen him in prayer with my own eyes. When he would leave the church at the conclusion of the liturgy the people would mill around him, begging for his blessing. Even in the midst of such a numerous crowd his soul remained fixed on God and on not losing his peace . . . I have seen crowds following him, as if possessed by fire, and after receiving his benediction, were blessed, because the Spirit is soft and gives to the soul peace and humility;.

Like the saintly Cure d'Ars, he would listen to confessions for hours, healing with his unshakeable prayer, converting thousands in their hearts. Father Ivan implored every grace with an incessant prayer accompanied by sighs and tears. He possessed such a sense of the misery of man without God and without the mercy of the Saviour! He received thousands of letters from all over Russia, to which he replied without even opening them. His prayer was like that of a prophet, intense, overflowing with emotion, a prayer that fulfilled miracles. When he celebrated the divine Liturgy, he became entirely prayer. Eyewitnesses described Father Ivan of Cronstad as totally transfigured: 'I saw Father Ivan of Cronstad - always Silvanus of Mount Athos wrote - celebrate the Liturgy and was struck by the intensity of his prayer: to today - and this is more than forty years of this - I have never seen anyone celebrate like him. His face was similar to that of an angel, so much that He seized us with the desire of not losing sight of him even for an instant.

Deeply loved by the people, to whom he was a true father, St Ivan of Cronstad was canonized by the Russian Church in exile in 1964.

The following reflections are taken from the book, Ivan of Cronstad, La mia vita in Cristo/ My Live in Christ, published by Gribaudi.

Unfinished Icon

Those who force themselves to lead a life according to the Spirit, shall be confronted in their thoughts with a perilous and difficult battle all their lives. I speak of spiritual combat. It is necessary that in each instant the soul must keep a clear gaze, capable of watching over and discerning the thoughts which penetrate the heart and of pushing away those which come from the Evil One.

The heart must always burn with humility and faith, otherwise the craftiness of the demon will find a way of entering, provoking thus a weakness of faith or of leading one to perdition. Therefore do not allow your heart to become cold; watch against indifference, above all during prayer. Understand that often the lips pray, in such a way that a man seems close to God with his lips, while his heart is full of mischief, of unbelief, in such a way that the man seems close to God with the lips, but in reality is far away with the heart. During prayer the Evil One uses all means possible to chill our hearts and fill them with duplicity, without our even perceiving it. Pray that you remain firm and steadfast in your heart.

If you wish to ask God that a particular grace be prepared for you, first pray that you be firm and not be toppled in your faith, and be prepared, for the right moment, against doubt.

Do not wait to obtain from the Lord whatever you have asked hesitantly, because by doubting you offend him. 'If you have faith and do not doubt' - said the Lord - 'you can move mountains' (Matthew 21.21). But, if you doubt and do not believe, you will not have power.

The heart which doubts that God can grant what it requests, is blameworthy and stricken with doubting. Let not even a shadow of a doubt darken your prayer! Doubting is blasphemy, a lie presented to the heart or of the false spirit opposed to the truth. Fear it, as you would a poisonous snake, despise it, pay absolutely no attention to it. Remember that, when you pray, God waits for you to respond affirmitively to the questions placed within you. 'Do you believe that I can do this thing?' (Matthew 9.28). To this question the answer ought to come, from the depths of the heart: 'Yes, Lord!'.

The woe is that our faith is hindered by the myopia of our reason, that spider's web that traps truth in the web of rationality, of arguments, of paragons. Faith embraces and perceives things instantly, reason instead arrives at the truth by tortuous paths.

Wherever I find myself, I no sooner lift the eyes of my heart towards God in my affliction than He, our friend, answers my faith and prayer and suddenly my depression lifts. In each moment he is at my side: I do not seen him but I know of his presence in my heart.

Depression is the death of the heart, it is apostasy. The peace of the heart, born of a living faith, is a most clear demonstration that God is constantly present by my side. Who amongst the saints and angels can free me from sin and sorrow? No one except God only. I know this from experience.

LETTERS

IN COMMUNION

I've read in the August Notiziario about the voyage to Australia. I am near you in prayer and many times comes a sigh of emotion. I am a poor useless creature, but I offer my cross for you. I have written on a piece of paper all the names of the Australian Aspirants, in order to take them with me to church and to Mass: I have placed them all in Jesus' chalice.

In Christ,

Renza Baroncelli

(Comunita di Pistoia)

I HAVE KNOWN A FOOL FOR CHRIST

Thank you, Comunita', for having told me of Charles de Foucauld.

I have read a recent and fine biography. I find myself in his restlessness, in his obstinate search for his true vocation, a mysterious and indistinct vocation that does not fit into to the roles of monk, missionary, founder. A vocation of a martyr, which surely and secretly conquered him for God! And then there is the hidden life of Nazareth, in poverty, in silence, in solitude, deepened by the adoration of his Beloved, his unique Presence, Joy, and only Good. His witness is so great: no preaching, no conversion, no evangelizing, only Jesus, continually adored and praised in the midst of the desert, materially and spiritually, where he was neither known nor loved.

All his life thus was under obedience: 'Take simple obedience as light', wrote Abbe' Huvelin to him, which has much struck me. It is truly our will that we remain in the shadows, without knowing where he leads us, without understanding ever what is good for us and for others, while obedience is light, submission and humility, wisdom, because we mortify our wilfulness and abandon ourselves completely to God's will, and then to recognise that to be children, little ones needing a hand to guide us, as wrote Charles, 'Some days, towards evening, you raise your hand to bless your child'.

So many things fascinate me about this fool for Christ, tenacious and insatiable in his reducing himself to nothing, always at the furthest outpost, in an abnegation that could be thought irrational, but which was born of a love that exceeds all reason, because he identified with the Beloved! And this same love was so fertile that it overflowed all needs of love, in each one he met, Christian or Muslim, believer or traitor . . . .

This is love . . . .

A young woman aspirant.

VOICES FROM RUSSIA

The journalist, Andrea Colombo, from Milan, the author of the book, Guarire l'anima/To Heal the Soul, writes to Casa San Sergio. He stayed in Settignano last year for several days and from this length of time in our Mother House was stirred up to write this beautiful witnessing in the above book, published by Mondadori (it seems now to be sold out and we await its reprinting). We thank Colombo for his lively testimony that he gives of his recent journey and we invite him to return quickly to present his account verbally to us also.

I write two lines while listening to the song of the Orthodox liturgy by Rachmaninov on the hottest summer day in a half-deserted city. I have just got back from Russia where I visited the monastery of Valamo on Lake Lagoda, which reopened its doors ten years ago and which now has 100 Russian monks (almost all young men with the typical long hair and beard) actively rebuilding it. There is the greatest vitality in the Russian Orthodox Church! A little while before I visited the 'New Valamo' of Carelia in Finland (the Finnish Orthodox Church depends on the Patriarchate of Constantinople), only six monks with a portable telephone, who each take a sauna before going to bed. The orderliness, the cleanliness, the atmosphere of 'alternative tourism' which one breathes in the air of the 'New Valamo' in Finland contrasts strongly with the chaotic vitality of the old, half-destroyed Russian Valamo, its church lacking icons, the iconostasis so empty that it is surreal, the perilous pediments, the scratched frescoes, the result of fifty years of socialism and neglect when the monastery was put to use for the recuperation of the veterans of the 'Great Patriotic War'. In Finland, refrigerators, in Russia, life! Now I can understand don Divo's love for Holy Mother Russia with all her contradictions, her mystical poverty and riches.

Approaching the archipelago of Valamo the first image was of an old half-blind man in filthy military garb and a medal hung any old how: he was a beggar. I learned that for the Orthodox, that the desperate, the disgraced, is the one with the most grace, the saint, the closest to God. And so is the one who is ignorant: in Orthodoxy's learned ignorance books are cast away. There is nothing to understand, to deepen, to reform, but only to obey and to love. If I do not err this is the teaching of the Russian pilgrim mystics, healers and shamans like St Sergius and St Seraphinus.

I would be pleased to be able to meet you to recount the incredible story of Valamo: the collapse and the rebirth of this monastic centre, with its islands for the hermits, which begin with the cliffs of granite and the pine forests of this immense northern lake, in winter completely covered with ice.

Thanks for the publicity which has been made of the book . . . . I will always remember your Community with joy (even that is surely a sign that you are spiritually united to Russian Orthodoxy?), with great affection, in the hope that we can meet again soon.

Andrea Colombo

LONGING TO COME TO YOU

I am very impatient to come over and see you. I already feel very close to you all. I can't wait to meet Don Divo, Bernardo, and Sister Benedetta. I feel like I'm not home until I come to you all. Until then, the time in between is simply a trial. Soon my pagan, immoral workplace will be only a memory, a period of spiritual growth. In the meantime I offer it up.

I have a special purpose for such mortifications and sufferings plus prayer at the moment. Adrian has asked me to adopt Terri in prayer to help her in her situation. This gives purpose to many things I do, as I offer them up for her, so that Christ's will may be accomplished in her. I would also like to see as many of my friends as possible in the Comunita.

I want to encourage my father to become an aspirant. He lives in Tasmania and he could be a good basis (his name is Peter) for the Comunita' down there.

The Comunita' fills a void that currently exists over here. We have many priests and people who stray far from the Church's teaching. And then we have many who stand strongly for the truth of the Church, but they lack a great sense of spirituality and Christian love. When I speak to many of them, particularly Seminarians, I feel like they're testing me to find out how much I know and who I know. It's all very intellectual and judgemental. I'm not interested in power-playing as a priest. Priests should not 'back stab' one another. Where is the love of Christ? We must stop looking for the enemy, and simply educate the ignorant, and love them. Everybody is thirsty for that cool water we must drink. The splendour of the Truth must be revealed to all, in its inseperable strong spiritual loveing sense.

Our Mother is the answer to all our problems. Doesn't she just make you fall in love! She makes my heart burn. I can't describe the feeling she gives me. I could not love another woman, I want to be totally her child. I see her spirit in other women. Terri is one such person and this is why I am praying very much for her. The reason I'm a Christian is through Mary, she caused my conversion. Why did they teach me nothing about her at my Catholic school? Everything of good that I do is hers. It will be she who brings me through the final Judgement, What a gift God has given us!

I'm going to bed now. Good night, dear friend.

Matthew Bishop.

(Aspirant, 21 years old, in Melbourne, Australia.)

'And now I give myself to God absolutely, when nothing more is chosen'. Marthe Robin.

'It is said in Gregory of Nyssa, "Changing one's place does not cause one to get nearer to God". Alas, this is indeed too true. It is only possible to attain God by changing oneself'. Soren Kierkegaard.

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The Julian Library Portfolio, 1996; Comunita' dei figli di Dio Homepage, 1998.
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This site last updated 12 September 1998.