©Comunità dei figli di Dio, Community of God's Sons and Daughters, C.F.D., Settignano, Florence, Italy

COMUNITÀ DEI FIGLI DI DIO/ COMMUNITY OF

GOD'S SONS AND DAUGHTERS

NOTIZIARIO/ NEWSLETTER

JANUARY, 1999

Christ gives us His peace and announces that He has come to bring a sword. What is His peace? It is right that the Church should teach peace and believe that it is her mission to promote it, at the same time not forgetting the message of war that Christ did not want, but which is what Christ provokes.

The peace which Christ gives is the peace of the heart, the peace with God. 'Do not be troubled in your heart'. But can the Evil One, prince of this world, bear the presence and the action of Christ without reacting in utter rage? It is right that the peace that Christ gives to His own be the cause of war; this peace has need of war, not because it eliminates it, but because it overcomes war.

Don Divo Barsotti, Pensieri extravaganti, pp. 12-13.

FROM THE FATHER:

THE VALUE OF FRIENDSHIP

Dearest Ones,

It is often said that Consecration does not only bind us to God, requiring of us a life of deeper prayer, but that it also unites us with the Comunità. It is always the same truth: one cannot separate God from Humanity, from ourselves; to love God is to love one's neighbours. God lives in a solitude from which it is impossible for Him to leave. When God is made Man, it is in Christ that we find God again and it is in Christ that we now love our brothers, our sisters. To separate the duty of deep prayer from our requirement of love towards those whom God has wished to have participate in the same Comunità of love is to not know anymore that God whom you think you love.

This brotherly love is not a vague sentiment; if you truly live your consecration the others are no longer others from you. One says 'brothers', 'sisters', but there is something even more intimate and profound. We are in Christ members of one Body, as you know.

But how to live in practice this rapport of love? I will say a few things and perhaps even elementary, but which are very important.

Love requires first of all, respect and esteem. Sexual passion which does not respect and does not esteem the other is not humane love. But even respect and esteem are not in themselves love: love is a living rappart through which the person of the lover approaches the beloved. The true term which can describe what love is is the word Friendship. Friendship certainly is not some impersonal thing. The friend is another self of yourself; there is not greater gift than that which, according to St Thomas, can make us friends of God, and that is grace. But no gift is ever greater than that which unites us in the same spirit, which makes of us one spirit with the one we love.

Do we love this way in the Comunità? It is clear that we cannot speak of friendship with those we scarcely know, if we do not feel the need to meet them, to live together the same ideal of life. A humble little thing: the Comunità each year prepares the list of addresses. Do we ever consult it, do we ever use it to write to those whom we have known at the retreats, at the encounters? Can we say that someone is our friend if we do not care for them, in their troubles, in their joys. Does it make a difference between you and the other if they are your friend? I must confess humbly to having been remiss, especially in these last months: I cannot even read my own writing, I have had to abandon correspondence, and now I feel guilty and wish to take up again this obligation of being in contact, even it were only to be with letters, with so many Consecrated persons that I cannot easily remember your names. Please forgive me.

If the Comunità is to become truly a community of true friends, I am sure that it would be already a communion of saints. Nothing in fact is so necessary as friendship, in achieving the union amongst us more fully, nothing can give the world a more living witness of the presence of God which one Spirit pours into all of us, in one will and in one task of love.

Il padre/The Father.

LIGHT ON MY PATH

AVOIDING INTERNAL JUDGING

Observe, even through just one day, your thinking. You will be surprised at the frequency and intensity of your internal judging with imaginary interlocutors, if not from those who are near you. What usually is their source?

This: discontent because of superiors who do not wish well of us, who do not esteem us, who do not understand us; they are severe, unjust or too mean with us or with others who are 'oppressed'. We are discontent with our brothers and sisters who 'do not understand us', who are stubborn, hasty, confusing us, hurting us.

So in our mind we create a tribunal, a law court, in which we are the judge, though rarely the lawyer, except for our defense. Here we right the wrongs, weigh the reasons, defend ourselves, justify ourselves, condemn the absent. Perhaps there are plots of revenge or of being vindicated. We waste time and effort thinking even the love of God has no value. But really we are plunging into self-love, hasty or rash judgements, passionate agitation which conclude with the loss of interior peace, with a lessened respect for our superiors and our brothers and sisters, with a deplorable growth of what we have of ourselves. A huge mistake, beyond all other prejudice.

Be assured that no one can truly hurt you if they treat you badly. True, it's hard. But desire to be unknown and despised: Christ when he was outrageously derided, was silent. Accept with sweetness and silently the bad treatment. We are only an instrument. In reality it is the loving strong hand of God that guides it, and through its means seeks to do away your pride, to render more pliant your hardness. Don't judge within, not even for a moment, deliberately, about the harm your have received. From this hidden tribunal can come nothing of goodness.

In the Praetorium in Jerusalem, Jesus was silent. When the furor of your indignation breaks out, repeat with sweet trainquillity, 'Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit'. Plunge into the love, into the glory and into the joy of the Divine Person, not thinking of yourself. In the energy of the radiant and incomparable happiness of the most Holy Trinity, what people think has no value, no importance: you are whom God sees. Is it not unexpressible joy that He is the one to cherish in you what is most beautiful and pure?

My brother, my sister, that you could understand and taste the sweetness of knowing only God! Be happy to radiate Christ, but do not trouble yourself because this radiance is still a small thing. Don't you get tired of talking with men, through evoking them within in order to blame them with your reasons! Only be with God alone! He knows all. He can do all. He loves you. If you knew what good there is in having the mind free of all creation to admit only the images of Jesus Christ and Mary, the purest created reflections of the invisible! You can do it without saying words, because these are of little use, watch, concentrate, contemplate. In them you see the world; all there are loved. The members are the honour of the head. Do not turn your eyes from the divine face of the mystic Body. This should be your contemplation.

Often our internal judging is none other than the consequence of the sterility of the day. Believe me: don't argue with anyone, because it is futile. Each person is convinced of their right and do not seek so much the light, as to win in a war with words. They will remain discontent, stuck in their own ways, and the debate continue within. Silence and peace shall not come. If you would seek to unburden yourself of it, do not seek to win. But if you would be tranquil, turn the page hastily to find something else.Accept being blamed from the first shout, and pray sweetly to God that His truth triumph in you and in the others; then if it is otherwise, your mind will not be a public forum, but a sanctuary.You ought not so much to be right, but to perfume with the balsam your love. The truth of your life is a witness to the truth of your doctrine. Watch Jesus during the trial: and be silent, accepting the wrong done: now is the light for each of us which comes into the world.

Extract from: Un monaco, 'Le porte del silenzio'; A Monk, 'Doors of Silence', Ancora.

BIBLICAL INSERT

LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS, 1, 2

Paul came to Corinth in A.D. 50. This date, determined in the chronology of the New Testament, is indirectly confirmed in the testimony of Acts 18.5-18. In fact Paul was dragged to judgement before the proconsul Gallio, Seneca's brother, following a violent attack by the Jews living in Corinth.

Paul coming from Italy found lodging with Aquila, following which can be dated Paul's stay in Corinth between 50-52 A.D., the years in which he left Corinth to go to Asia, probably to Ephesus. The city of Corinth in this period enjoyed a flourishing economy, deriving from the commercial activity of the two ports of Cencre and Lecheo, on the two sides of the isthmus. From the religious point of view, ancient local cults lived side by side with the Roman and oriental gods. Jews were numerous. The Christian community was guided by some people in Stephana's household (1 Corinthians 16.15), and lived in the social context of Hellenism, not without some difficulty maintaining their faith in a culture totally different from theirs, originally being Semitic and Hebrew, with Christian belief.

It was Paul's particular work to inculturate the message of the Gospel in the pagan world.. He in fact took some points from the 'wisdom of the world' and tied them to the light of the coming of Christ or, sometimes, conterpoised, even in a violent way, the foolish wisdom of the Cross to the wisdom of the Greek world.

At the base of the letters are the events which happened in Corinth from A.D. 52-57. After Paul left, other apostles, (Apollo, Peter, etc.,) visited the city, and doubts and divisions arouse amongst the Christians, on the one hand from this and from living with the pagan cults and their licentious behaviour, widespread in the city, all this provoking disturbances and lapses in the Christian community. The Hellenistic world cultivated a profound faith in wisdom seen as intelligence and reason and left the outlet for piety open to the practices of mystery cults. There came about in this way an initial agnosticism which threatened even the beginnings of the weak community. There has always been on the part of Christians the necessity for precise instruction in doctrine and on behaviour.

The letters to the Corinthians that have come down to us are two. The first is sent from Ephesus, the other, close to the second vist of Paul to Corinth, from some city in Macedonia. Paul wrote two other letters to the Corinthians, which have not survived but which can be discerned in the letters that we do possess. An initial letter preceded 1 Corinthians, the other instead, the so called 'letter of tears', preceded 2 Corinthians and this can be discerned in the first chapters of this last letter.

First Letter to the Corinthians

The beginning (1.1-10) is solemn and priestly and Paul turns towards those sanctified in Christ Jesus. From this expression is understood the entire sense of the letter. The characteristic note of Christian existence is the incorporation in Christ and the participation in the holiness itself of Christ. This concept is totalized in the confrontation with existence. It does not admit further division between body and spirit, inasmuch as the entire reality of humankind is saved and sanctified in Christ. For this Paul admits no compromise with whatever reality might drag humankind into pre-Christian or non-Christian states. From this can be understood the great desire for purity and the firm decision not to share in any worldly reality except only what can be inserted salvifically into the mystery of Christ. First responding to the questions posed by the community in Corinth through the ambassador Stephana, Paul, in the first seven chapters, sets out a series of arguments which are at the heart of what concerns behaviour and teaching.

In the first part on the dividing into factions (1.10-4.21) Paul affirms that the true root of this division was in consideration of the exclusively human character which makes Christians forget the Baptismal reality that incorporates themselves entirely in the same Christ. In this same section Paul gives the contrast between the world's wisdom and the folly of the cross.

The philosophical foundation of human wisdom is fallacious, the faith in the cross, which appears to the world as folly, is even the faith in an unknowable wisdom that is the wisdom of God. This wisdom is revealed to Christians through the Spirit, which is not the spirit of the world, but the spirit of God which speaks to the sanctified person of spiritual things. The sanctified and the spiritual, in virtue of the spirit, guide the historical and philosophical level, transcending it.

Quickly then, at Chapter 5, Paul brings up the problem of the public scandal of incest. He condemns this revival of pagan customs and cannot admit scandalous behaviour within a purified community. To give value to this need, Paul recalls the Passover of Christ: Christians are the unleavened bread of this Passover.

At Chapter 6 we find the exhortation not to run pagan tribunals and an admonition against fornication. We begin the answers to questions. The first of these is on marriage and virginity (Chapter 7). Christian life is not bound to a particular state of life in the sense that the life of marriage and the live of virginity are gifts of God and have their own spiritual state. Certainly the Pauline counsel proposes that the virginal life is more consonant with the eschatological character of Christian life. In effect even those who live in marriage are called to live the same eschatological tension (7.29-31) because this world will pass. Paul examines also in this chapter a certain casuistry of the married state of the time and from this consideration comes the comprehension that all, in the married life, are directed toward the meeting with Christ, the unique reality of Christian life.

At Chapter 8, talking of eating flesh offered to idols, Paul recalls the need not to give scandal to the brothers and sisters and counsels that they abstain from eating idolotrous things, even when there is no intrinsic prohibition. From this point, according to Paul's typical form of writing, he goes one to speak of the importance of the spiritual edification of the brothers and sisters. All that is said in Chapters 8,9,10 and also in 11, about the Eucharistic Communion, is done to edify the primitive community, through watchfulness, being sober, a sane asceticism and a pressing admonition to abstain from sexual abuses.

Chapters 12 and 13 are perhaps the best known chapters of the Letter. They are dedicated to the gifts of the Spirit (the charisms) and to the greatest charism, which is love. The gifts of the Spirit flow from the three Divine Persons (which is possible to see through the diverse numbers Paul uses), but are all together even with all that is centred in Christ. The famous defense of the body and of the members is the great theological novelty proposed by Paul, because of the singular rapport between the Body and Christ. To be Christian means to be 'in Christ', in full communion with Christ, and the essence of this union is expressed in Baptism and in the Eucharist. The union is not finished in an intimate interior conversation, but pours forth towards the communion and the building of the brothers and sisters. All are in Christ through Baptism and the being in Christ is the fount of reciprocal communion and building.

The greatest charism, that of charity, is always sought because it lasts longest, more than that of faith and hope. It is the gift that more than any other builds the Body of Christ inasmuch as it expresses the profound relation of the love of God with all humankind in Christ. Chapter 15 is an institution of the Resurrection of Christ from which one can deduce the Resurrection of the believers. The letter concludes with a pressing request for the collection for Jerusalem.

Second Letter to the Corinthians

Paul, followed a visit by Tito coming from Corinth, recieves good news of the community. In the first part of the letter (Chapters 1-7) Paul makes an apology for his own person to illustrate the character of the Apostolic mystery. This is not something simply human: it draws from a mystery of the Spirit far superior to that which the Jews in the Old Testament were accustomed. The Apostolic mystery turns towards the salvation of all humankind and to the reconciliation of humankind with God. 1 Corinthians would have us vigil, those who were from the first destined to this ministry. Paul in fact is content with how things are going in the Christian community and puts aside the laments expressed in that 'letter of tears', discussed earlier.

Chapters 8 and 9 contain a final request for the collection for Jerusalem. The last three chapters (10-13) which, from the improvisational tone the letter changes into, give it a more rigorous character, taking up defensive arguments from the first part and containing attacks on the adversaries, called by Paul 'Super Apostles', 'Arch Apostles', and 'False Apostles'.

Edited, Domenico Ientile

Bibliography

Le lettere di Paolo: Nuovissima versiona della Bibbia/ The Letters of St Paul: The Newest Version of the Bible (Paulist Press).

SPIRITUAL THEMES

THE DESERT WITHIN

In Spirituality's language one often comes across the term 'desert', in relation to the phases of the internal journey; as a state of solitude in confronting the tests that God sends the soul. The word 'desert' is even a Biblical term. In the Old Testament it is a physical place where the People of Israel are guided by God to take up their pilgrimage toward the Promised Land. After the bondage of Egypt the people chose the ONE GOD, who already in the desert gave them a taste of the freedom, of the rapport of I and Thou with one's Lord, who confronted them not with discouragement provoked by their human incapacity to unite with Him but to accept his silence as the one sign of his presence. All their downfalls into the shadows and uncertainties assail their souls. Here is the first movement to rebellion, to weep again for what they have left and to desire to turn back: 'whoever is called to solitude and silence must then abandon himself'. Israel in the face of the precariousness of the new conditions feels the temptation to turn back and serve their former slave owners. The desert in its solitude and its silence makes them afraid.

The same Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the 'desert' to be tempted by the devil, and again it is the Golden Calf. Jesus does not fall for the flattery. In places set apart and alone he met himself in prayer and in the Garden of Olives he could make it a more intense desert, that within: the sense of powerlessness in meeting that which God asked of him and the sense of abandonment on the part of the same God. All was to end on the cross where the cry of Christ would carry with itself the desperate cry of every creature. And again the cry of Israel. The emptiness and the death. The anguish that humanity hides in its own heart; the apparent absence of God from the human scene. But even Christ would seem to vanish into nothing, taken from the cross and concealed in the tomb and the tomb be empty. The apostles were seized with terror. When Jesus appeared to his disciples he found them sleeping as at the return at Gethsemane. It would be the promised Holy Spirit that would reinvigorate the hearts at Pentecost, but even the Spirit of God would continue the mission in the desert. The successive beginnings of the new-born Church would finish in the blood bath of the martyrs and in the lukewarmness of their followers. It seems that God had failed again. It is the same mystery of death which is redeemed if it is actualized, it is the blood of the lamb on the doorposts: then the flogging of the Lord, then more. 'Numerous corpses, thrown wherever. Silence!' (Amos 8.3). The Fathers of the Desert brought themselves into naked space to begin an intense novitiate in the school of the Master.

They withdrew themselves from civilization to reshape a style of Christian ascesis that the Church, since the earliest times, after the persecutions, had lost in intensity and value. Poverty, silence, solitude, unceasing prayer, fasting, temptation, would be the chalice from which the monk should drink, in continuing obedience to Christ, the Son of God. The desert is the place of purification, where man strips himself of his old habit to become reclothed in the garb of Jesus, so that he can fight the battle with faith. It is a seamless garment, without divisions, and is the sign of the unity against the diverse legions within himself of evil.

The testimony of the monk ought to be all woven with silence. Time should be spent in the invocation of the holy name of Jesus. Nothing and no one should disturb the dialogue between the spouse and the bride, a dialogue of light made of words of truth. For this it is most needful to have an intense rapport with Jesus in the places where he leaves himself to be found and tasted: THE SACRAMENTS. The sacramental life should be the source of life of the monk. The Word of God as a fountain of youth and freshness for his dialogue with the Father. A Word only because in that is achieved Christ's salvation. The silence of the heart should be the desert become ever more intimate that the monk should possess and the contact with the divine should be the kiss of God to his bride. A silence for seeking even in the daily chaos, a testimony against fighting even to bloodshed, knowing well that that would be the blood of Jesus Christ, to cleanse the world when Christ would be most intimate to us, to know ourselves one thing with Him.

Amos

Doroteo, Silverio, Amos

THE NEW GROUP OF SRI-LANKA ASPIRANTS

As announced in Padre's Letter in the November Notiziario, after Africa and Australia, even the Asian Continent has knocked at the door of the Comunità dei figli di Dio, the Community of God's Sons and Daughters, and now we have a group of about thirty aspirants in the State of Sri-Lanka, the great island beneath India.

How did this come about?

It began several years ago, when young sister Martina from Sri-Lanka, already in Italy for several years, chose to be included in a test for our Fourth Branch for nuns, at a time when her own congregation was meeting with grave difficulties in its general organization. Welcomed into the Casa delle Beatutidine, the House of the Beatitudes, Martina had a happy time with the sisters, leaving after about a year. In that same period, a parish in the Po Valley came to San Sergio asking if a group of sisters from our Community would want to go to their parish, where there was a house and all else needful. In this region (Argenta, in the Province of Ferrara) there already was a Comunità presence, with a group of Consecrated persons. It seemed that the request came at just the right moment, and we asked the two Sri-Lankan sisters to go to Argenta to take up the place put at their disposition by the parish. The two sisters began their monastic life most carefully, with the liturgy of the hours of prayer and of work, according to a plan approved by the superiors of the Comunità and by the bishop's vicar for the religious in the Diocese of Ravenna (where Argenta is). The experience of the first year was very positive, so much so that the two were joined by another young woman, also from Sri-Lanka.

In the May Council the presence of the experience in the Third Branch of Common Life was communicated and discussed. Father made a most beautiful speech, taken up again in his remarks. The communal Third Branch is not new in the Comunità. In Florence there were sisters who lived together with Vows for several years (in the House, 'Mater Dei', 'Mother of God' in via di Mezzo), with positive results. The May Council expressed approval for the experiment, keeping back discussion from the point of view of the statutes until the following year (1999's Council), and instead letting the venture take its couse, while encouraging and sustaining it.

In August the three Sri-Lankan sisters (Martina, who now has taken back her name of Annusha, Sr Dammika and Sr Nishanti) went back for a fortnight to Sri-Lanka to visit their families, and there they spoke at great length of the Comunità, presenting not only the monastic form of life, in its originality and its richness, and the various states of life (the Four Branches), lived in one spirituality. They have converted several, and with such an enthusaism as to arouse a deep interest in those who listened to them.

Towards the end of their stay in their country a fax arrived at Casa San Sergio saying that about thirty people were ready to enter as aspirants, and could they have directions. Father, informed of this thing, had not the least doubt: Do it! In Sri-Lanka a friendly priest was found who could preside at the Mass for the Aspirants, and thus, with great marvel and joy, it came to pass.

Who are these new Aspirant brothers and sisters? The names will come (they will be somewhat fun to learn, because they won't be easy for us Italians!) but among them are men and women, married and single, married couples, young and old. The photograph documents the moment of their entrance, and brings us a knowledge of the faces of some of them.

But this is not all: among these Aspirants are even some young men and women who wish to deepen the discourse with the Comunità in relation to the monastic life, and who ask if they can come amongst us to come to know about the Comunità in Italy. Some of the young women have already reached Argenta, while some of the young men are on the point of arriving at the Madonna del Sasso. [Two now are at Sasso, and with Australian Matthew Bishop, are our English speakers.]

A first circular letter has already been written by the group of Sri-Lankan Aspirants, has been translated into their difficult language (even the alphabet is completely different) and sent: it contains the first rudiments about the work the group can do and names the Responsible persons for the group. The work will be followed with care, and it will be a great help to us having the Sisters in Argenta, since they are of the same nationality knowing languages (English is also spoken in Sri Lanka) and the cultural contexts in which the discourse with the Comunità can take place.

For now this is the situation. May the Lord help us to guide them in a way that is not only brotherly, sisterly, but also best for all, so that this great new aspect of the Comunità be guided through all to the increase of grace and in a full and humble adhesion to the will of God. I believe that, before beginning any discourse on work and organization, the first act with which we should respond is that, as suggested by padre, we receive this brothers and sisters as a gift.

SPIRITUAL THEMES:

MILESTONES FOR A METHOD OF

LECTIO DIVINA

ONE

The cell is the place where one can immerse oneself in this 'praying-reading' and absorb the presence of God. It is in fact the place of struggle in your heart, the desert where even Jesus prayed and was tempted. You will certainly sense the presence of the adversary who will tempt you to flight, who will make your solitude unbearable, who will distract you with your habits and your troubles, who will seek to seduce you with a myriad of worldly thoughts. Do not fight yourself, do not despair resisting in this struggle, because the Lord is not far from you: not only does he stay to see how you fight, but he fights your fight in you.

Help yourself if you can with an icon, a lighted candle, a cross, a prayerstool on which you can kneel and pray: do not fear to use these things rather than giving in to fashion and aestheticism. They could help you to remember that you are not just studying the Bible and reading its words, but that you are before God, ready to listen, in conversation with Him.

If the temptation to flee comes to you, resist it by remaining in silence: you need to become accustomed to times of solitude, to silence, to a distancing from home and from the brothers, if you wish to meet God in personal prayer.

Turn towards the time in silence and the practice of the Lectio Divina will pace your life. You should be in peace and have enough time at your disposition, not just snatching a moment: for the Lectio should last at least an hour, say the Fathers . . .

TWO

The heart is the principle organ in the Lectio Divina: it can be burdened with dissipation, hangovers, weariness; it could be hardened, so sick that it does not recognize or understand the words and the actions of the Lord, it could be unstable, inconstant, carried away to forgetting and betraying the Word.

You who take up the listening to God, take this your heart in your hands, raise it up to God because He will render it a heart of flesh, will unify it, will render it solid, and will purify it.

Ask now of the Lord for largeness of heart, for a listening heart (1 Kings 3.5)

THREE

Take up the Bible, place it before yourself with reverence, make the epiclesis, the invocation to the Spirit.

Await Him, for though he seems to delay He will surely come. (Habbakuk 2.3)

Pray as you can, as the Lord grants you, or even thus: 'Our God, Father of light, you have sent into the world your Word, knowledge which flows from your mouth, which has taken dominion of all the people of the earth (Sir 24.6-8). You have wanted that they come to dwell in Israel and which through Moses, the prophets and the psalmists, magnify your will and speak to your people of the Messiah Jesus. Finally you have granted that your own Son, the Eternal Word taken from you, should become flesh and take his tent amongst us (John 1.14) where he was born of Mary and conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Send now upon me your Holy Spirit so that I be given a heart capable of listening (1 Kings 3.5), permitting me to meet it in these Sacred Scriptures and conceive the Word in me. Your Holy Spirit takes the veil from my eyes (2 Corinthians 3.12-16), leads me to all truth (John 16.13), gives me intelligence and perseverance. I ask this of you through Christ, Our Lord, Blessed for ever and ever. Amen!'

FOUR

Open the Bible and read the text. Read it not just once, but many times and even aloud. If the passage is known by you by heart and you are tempted to read it in a hurry, do not fear to turn back to its beginning from its midst in order to stop this rapid superficial reading: write and copy the text.

Read also the parallel passages or look up the references in the margins. Deepen the message, fulfill it, seek it in other passages from those of the day, because the Word is interpreted by itself. And this is the great Rabbinical and Patristic judgement of Lectio.

FIVE

Meditate, so that it is deepened for you, this message you have read which God would communicate to you. For this is what the proverb means, 'Not learning, but anointing; not knowledge, but conscience; not paper, but charity'.

This does not mean listening in an undisciplined or haphazard way. Go to useful tools for understanding: commentaries by the Fathers of the Church, Biblical concordances, exegetical and spiritual commentaries. These are useful but what is most important is the personal energy, not private, which desires to seek for the central message of the text, what is most related to the Death and Resurrection of the Lord. Do not think to find what you know already, nor what is pleasing to you. The text is not always totally and immediately understood. Have the humility to recognize that you have understood little or received no direction: you will come to understand it.

Do not let yourself become paralyzed by a too scrupulous analysis of your limitations and of your deficiencies in front of the divine needs which the Word has shown you. Certainly the Word is already judge, searching your heart, convincing you of sin, but remember that God is greater than your conscience. Marvel rather that he speaks to you heart, marvel that the Word comes already placed in your heart and that you need not go to Heaven to seize it, nor to the depths of the seas to know it. Let yourself be drawn to the Word which transforms you into the image of the Son of God without your knowing how.

SIX

Speak now with God, respond to Him, to His invitation, to His call, to the inspirations, to the memories, to the messages which you have discovered wrapped in the Word through the Holy Spirit. Do not stop any longer in reflection, but enter into dialogue and speak as a friend speaks with a friend (Deuteronomy 34.10). Do not seek to conform your thoughts to His, but seek Him. Do not create spiritual pettinesses; speak to Him frankly, faithfully, apart from all reservation of yourself, be seized by His face immersed in the text. Let your creative capacity for feeling, for emotion, for evocation go free, and place that at the service of the Lord.

SEVEN

Thank God for the Word that is given you: intercede for all the brothers and sisters that the text could have saved were it evoked in their righteousness and in their fallenness. Unite the food of the Word with the food of the Eucharist.

The Carthusain Guigo II concluded Lectio Divina with a prayer: 'You break for me the bread of Holy Scripture and in the breaking of the bread you make yourself known to me. So it comes about that as I come to know you more, I have so much more desire to know you, not only in the crust, in the letter, but in the sensible perception of experience. I do not ask this because of my own worth, Lord, but because of your mercifulness. I am an unworthy sinful soul; but even the puppies can feed on the crumbs that fall under the table of their owners. Give me therefore a pledge of the future kingdom, give me at least, Lord, a drop of heavenly dew that brings refreshment to my thirst, because I am fevered with love.'

Extract from E. Bianchi, Pregare la Parola/ Pray the Word, ed. Gribaudi.

PADRE'S POESIE

This Notiziario repeated the poems of a previous one. Instead let me give what was published, 4 November 1998, in the Catholic Bishops' newspaper, Avvenire, titled 'The Borrowed Body', the essay written by Gianfranco Ravasi:

Ah, but those of us who frequent the Casa San Sergio know it as a place of joy and youthfulness, and of our padre as wreathed in smiles, beaming upon all of us. Each day he preaches - like an angel - , each day he celebrates Mass, each day there is need of a handkerchief, for he always cries, so intense is his inclusion with the Divine Mystery. He is one of the greatest spirits of our day, but amongst us his humbleness and his gentleness and his love draws us ever closer to him. Yes, he preaches about the borrowed body, and that we are all the Body of Christ. and that it is as that that shall be our Resurrection, is our Resurrection, as Sons and Daughters of the Father, Christ our Brother.

BRIEF NOTICES

EXPECTING AND NEW-BORN. From Palermo we learn that Nunzio and Annarita Mallia are awaiting their firstborn child. The same from Brindisi from Piero and Maria Pia Calcagno, and from Caltanisseta for Salvatore and Carmen Barone. In Milan Rachele Oggionni, daughter to Maria Rosa and Paolo, has been born. The family continues to grow, Thanks be to the Lord!

Four generations of the CFD! A truly remarkable document and full of significance is the picture of grandmother, mother and daughter all of the CFD. Santina Scerbo, a pillar of the Neapolitan CFD holds in her arms the little just-born Nicola. Beside is her daughter Maria rosa, who is also the wife of the Family Assistant Placido Pucino, and mother of Annamaria, also in the Comunità. Annamaria, in bed, is finally the mother of new-born Nichola. For the Guiness Bok of Records!

BACHELOR IN THEOLOGY. Our don Paolo Radice has been studying for the Bachelor of Theology at the Theological Faculty for Central Italy in Florence. The examination for the bachelor's is on three arguments chosen from twenty, and, in this case, they were arguments on Dogma (the first four Councils), on Holy Scripture and on sacramental theology. The results are splendid, padre Paolo in fact received the maximum possible votes: SUMMA CUM LAUDE. To the new Bachelor Theologian, best wishes on the part of all the Comunità!

PADRE BENEDETTO

Bolzano, November 1998. Visit of padre Benedetto to the Trentino-Alto Adige Family. In the picture our Benedetto is with Edda Crescini who had her photo in the last Notiziario, of her Consecration at Lisieux with the Bishop of Fiesole, monsignore Giovanetti. This time in the act of being given the Nikopeja, which had not been given her then.

CASA SAN SERGIO

The month of November began with something new. For the first time, we of the common life made our retreat of some days at the retreat centre, the hermitage, of Lecceto. This came about because of the need above all for the brother priests in the Fourth Branch to participate for in summer they are busy preaching and thus have to omit the Spiritual Exercises, because of their obligations in preaching, in confession, in counselling. It is right that once a year even they can become the other side and be only silent and in prayer. Already we have been having, one day a month, a retreat at Fornace, only for those of us of the Fourth Branch, but we were needing the course of Spiritual Exercises also. We asked don Giovanni Speciale, who graciously agreed to speak to us on monastic spirituality in the light of our Rule of the Fourth Branch.

Father received 1 November Sister Gregoria, a Benedictine from Marinaco (La Spezia), an old friend of the Comunità. She has been given the task by the Diocese to edit a book on a contemporary mystic whom padre knew personally, Itala Mela, for whom the process of beatification is being opened. They have asked padre for a study. And so padre's indefatigable pen is set again in motion. Now his room is full of notes on Itala Mela, and very soon this work will emerge.

Bertille from Benin at Settignano. In November our Aspirante Bertille from Cotonou, Benin, stayed three days at the Casa delle Beatitudine. On the last day the brothers, together with padre, came to lunch at Beatitudine. Here we see Bertille with padre and, at the back, Elia and his beard.

The morning of 12 November we had Bertille Agloboe, Aspirant from Cotonou (Benin, Africa) with her sweetest smile in our Chapel at San Sergio. . . She was in Italy for medical care, and ended her stay with three days at the Casa delle Beatitudine. On this theme of arrivals from great distances, 21 November (a day of much importance for religious Orders) young Matthew Bishop arrived from Australia ('Matteo' in Italian) Bishop ('vescovo' in Italian . . . who is called to be bishop!). He is here amongst us to test his vocation in the common life of the CFD, and in fact has already gone to the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Sasso. Meanwhile the enjoyable Peter seems more to have the call to live in the world rather than to stay with us in the common life. His niceness has quite conquered all of us and at the moment the possibility of his staying amongst us here in Italy is being looked into. We shall see what unfolds.

Also in November Benedetto from Casa San Gregorio was here for the Little Council of the brothers. This is a new type of gathering which we of the Fourth Branch have started for speaking of our affairs and dealing with various problems, which from time to time come about in our lives. In November as well there was a two day meeting of the Little Councils of the brothers and of the sisters. Great work, therefore. We ask the Lord that our task be hallowed by the Holy Spirit.

The cold has come, and the thermostat is turned up high. Padre's not in pieces so much, and is out and about with his stick walking in the lane. One morning Roberta came from Modena, a few days later Edda from Bolzano with her sister Isabella. It is coming close to Christmas, and may also this year be altogether grace-filled for all of us.

Blessings from all the Comunità that 1999 be a year filled with holy days on the part of us brother monks in the House of San Sergio.

FROM AUSTRALIA

Terry and Didi

The 7 November we had our first Council Meeting for the Group Leaders: Domenic, Brian, Terry, Didi, Anna (the founder of the new fourth group in Watsonia), Caroline (who is going to the Watsonia group), and myself. As you can see the Watsonia group is now a reality. They have taken the Blessed Faustine Kowalska as Patron, while the Hawthorn group is taking Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, the one Native American saint, as Patron. The group will be guided by the young Terry until she goes to Italy to visit her family; then her place will be taken by Vince. It is a group of young people who came together at the house of our Aspirant Jane Dale. What is most exciting is the meeting with the bishop for the O'Connell region, who wants our presence there. Also there is an opening in New Zealand. These are all motives for much prayer, and we seek to take each day as the Lord wills. We are going slowly, waiting so that first the Comunità can grow strong roots. Personally I believe that each success is proportional to the ability of knowing how to wait, and of waiting to see how people can come to love the Lord and what the Lord will bring. I have seen several people change drastically only because of the fact that they waited patiently and in prayer.

As regards Aspirants, at our last Comunità Mass we had five enter Aspirancy: Veronica, Chiara, Maurice, Giovanna, Peter. Peter does not live here but in Tasmania.

Adrian Pervan

SEEDS OF RUSSIAN SPIRITUALITY

PAY NO HEED TO OBSTACLES

What do I see in the Creation of God? I see above all an extraordinary abundance, the true and right lunacy of life in the animal kingdom, amongst the quadrupeds, the reptiles, the insects, the birds, the fish. We could ask ourselves why their existence is never so tiring or so complicated as that of humankind. The Lord has scattered life everythwere in handfuls, with abundance and joy, and all the animals, except humankind, give glory to God for their abundance and their life. What therefore is this discordance between myself and the living world? Am I not a creature of the same Creator?

The reply is simple. Our life is poisoned, whether by sin or whether by the invisible adversary, who takes up above all with those who dedicate themselves to a life of faith. The life of man is in the future world: there will be opened to us all joy and all blessing; here we are in exile. Why are they not troubled to see the joy and the abundance that reigns everywhere in the world, while only I am unhappy and observe with sadness the felicity and the freedom of the creatures of God.

Contemplating the universe I see thus the extraordinary magnanimity of God in His natural doings: the face of the earth is like a table richly laden, prepared with great attention and generosity by the owners of the house. Even the depths of the sea furnish food for humankind. The mercy of the Lord is infinite: see all that the earth produces in summer and in autumn. Each Christian, above all a priest, ought to imitate God's generosity. His table should be open to all, like the Lord's table. The miser is God's enemy.

In order not to be continually a slave of the passions and of the demon, focus your sight, holding always before your eyes and forcing it to come together, above all in the name of the Lord all obstacles. What is this vision? The Kingdom of Heaven, the dwelling of glory, prepared from the foundation of the world for those who believe.

But it is as if this vision can not be obtained except through certain means, it is necessary even to have at one's disposition these means. What are they? Faith, hope, love; above all, this last. Above all love, without paying heed to obstacles; love God above all things and your neighbour as yourself. If you do not have the strength to keep in your heart these inestimable treasures, prostrate yourself frequently at the feet of God with love. 'Ask and it will be given to you, knock and it will be opened' (Matthew 7.7). What He has promised is in fact true.

When you walk, when you sit or when you lie down, that you speak with the others or when you work, in each moment, ask with all your heart that faith and love be given to you. You have not yet asked, as you ought, with fervour, with insistence, with the firm determination of obtaining it. Now promise 'I will'.

How to hallow the feast days? In these we ought to celebrate an event or a person, for example our Lord, the Mother of God, the angels and the saints. We ought to meditate on the story of the event or the person of the feast we celebrate, coming to it with all our heart and making it be felt, as it were, ours.

Feast days ought to characterize our life, enliven it, reanimate our faith in the future good, and preserve in us an attention that is devout and fitting. Even if we run often into sin and into dissolution, with a cold heart, in company with non-believers, absolutely unprepared to welcome the great deeds of mercy that God grants us through the event or the person we celebrate.

From this may derive the fact that we ourselves always remember men's ofenses and seethe in rancour towards those who have offended us, while immediately forgetting the continuous and damnable offense of the demon, even when it hurts us a hundred times a day? The demon grows large out of proportion to the offense of others and deforms them, hiding them behind our self love. It is a cleverness of the demon, that he can approach us with ability. When he attacks, he is always hidden in our self esteem,

Prayer made just out of general obligation is only hypocrisy and provokes only disgust for everything, even for the execution of one's proper tasks. This ought to convince us to change our mode of prayer. We need to pray with joy, with strength, with all our heart. Do not pray only when you are forced, or only when you are in need, for 'God loves a cheerful giver' (2 Corinthians 9.7).

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The Julian Library Portfolio, 1996.
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This site last updated 26 December 1998.