Passionist International Bulletin

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seminar on the memoria passionisSt. Paul of the Cross understoodthat the only remedy for the evil ofthe world was the Passion of Jesus inits completeness and he associatesthe Passion of the Son with that ofthe Mother in a single Passion. Infact he compares the suffering ofMary with the sea, saying that “inthe Passion of Jesus there were twoseas of love, one of the son and theother of the mother.”22It is a suffering that is so distinctone from the other that it cannot beidentified, nor can the two becomeone, even so intimately bound thatthere is no discernable distancebetween them. Death of the heartwithout the shedding of blood, thatof the Mother and the death by theshedding of blood, that is entered bythe “narrow gate” just opened by thenails, by the scourging and by the head surrounded bya crown of thorns, that of the Son. Pensive and strong,she stood beneath the cross, her face, barely pallid,while Jerusalem pierced her heart. And now, they areeven wounded by the same pain that they share witheach other and with every living thing in absolutenakedness and poverty.For them, we are the “pearl of great price” and the“treasure hidden in the field” of the gospel parable(Mt. 13: 44-45) for which one must sell everything—reputation, suffering and even life—in order toacquire it. And now the judgment of Matthew 25: 31-41, that was just proclaimed, can be understood andidentified: “every time that you did this for one ofthese least of my brothers you did it to me.”(Mt.25:40) Fr. Breton says that “it is a way of being,that is, of bearing one’s own body, which for lack ofsomething better can be called staurological. This supplementarybody that Christ assumes in his faithful isprecisely a crucified body for which the cross remainsthe exemplar.” It is right to underline the exemplarynature of Christ who takes the initiative to tell usabout what should be the law of love to the point thatone can and one must love.Giving up his spirit, Jesus breaths upon us thewind whose origin and whose finality is unknown (Jn.3:8). We must hear that wind in absolute silence inorder to be able to feel the breeze as did Elijah at themouth of the cave on Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:9 ff).God reveals himself in Christ who died crucified. Andhis is a revelation of love and fatherhood. He knowsthat by imitation of the Son, the cross has pardoned usThe Southern Crossof every thing and every system and it is as if we livein a continual exodus of life, without end. But we trustin his mercy, which is like a fountain at the foot of thecross. It takes into account our negativity that doesn’tdisappear, as the wounds of the Crucified One didn’tdisappear after the resurrection.I conclude with a memory of Breton taken from hisconference, “La croce del non essere” (the cross ofnon-being) given at the Spienza della Croce Congress:“This is how I read from the height of the cross,without apologetic illusions of immanence, the dispersedfragments of our pulverized world. I read themas a diaspora that the cross must reunite.It has been three years now since, in the immensityof Australia, in the almost total desert, alone, I celebratedmy first Mass for the world. In the magnificentsouthern sky, the constellation called the “southerncross” brilliantly shined as in no other place of theconstellation: the cosmic cross of my holy Mass.After the consecration I asked myself: What doesthis sign in the sky, sign and source of contradiction,say to me and to the world?I then remembered the ancient legend according towhich the first born of every generation is a questionmark.I then asked myself: Is the cross of my love and ofmy faith, perhaps this question mark, inserted for everin the fiber of the universe?”
John Paul II’s PontificateTRIBUTE TO JOHN PAUL IION THE OCCASION OF THE 25 THANNIVERSARY OF HIS PONTIFICATEFr. Fabiano Giorgini, C.P.On the occasion of the 25 th Anniversary of thePontificate of Pope John Paul II we recall some ofthe more significant aspects of his benevolent relationshipwith the Passionist Congregation so that wemay gratefully commit ourselves to put into practicethe teaching which he gave us and to faithfully collaboratein his apostolic ministry.His encounters with the Passionists took placeduring several papal audiences of groups of religiousin particular circumstances such as GeneralChapters, the Itinerant Missionary Congresses of1981 and “The Wisdom of the Cross Today”, in1984; visits to the Shrine of St. Maria Goretti inNettuno, in September of 1979 and to the Shrine ofSt. Gabriel at Gran Sasso in 1985 and theMonastery-Shrine of St. Gemma in Lucca on 23September 1989 and the Shrine of the Madonnadella Cività, Itri, in 1990. In addition to theseplanned visits he also added a brief, surprise visit tothe mother house of the Institute: the retreat of thePresentation on Monte Argentario on the evening of12 December 2000 as a “jubilee pilgrim in the footstepsof St. Paul of the Cross”, as he amiably said tothe religious. 1Special gifts to the Congregation were the canonizationof St. Inocenio Canoura Arnau, on 21November 1999, and also the eight beatifications 2 ,and the fourteen declarations of heroic virtue of 10Passionists 3 , of the co-foundress of the Passionistnuns, Maria Crocifissa Costantini, 17/12/1982; ofthe foundress of the Mexican Passionist Sisters,Dolores Medina Zepeda, 03/07/1998; of thePassionist Sister, Antonietta Farani, 13/06/1993; ofthe laywoman and virgin, Lucia Burlini, associatedwith Passionist spirituality, 23/10/1987; and of anUrsuline Sister, Lucia Mangano, 01/07/1994, whosespiritual director was a Passionist.The beatifications and the declarations of heroicvirtue of these servants of God have filled the membersof the Passionist family with joy and haveexalted before the entire Church the spirituality andfidelity to the charism of these religious whom thePope proposes as models to assist men and womenPassionists of today to walk along the same path ofsanctity.The Pope has demonstrated great benevolenceand faith in the Congregation by calling 13 religiousto cooperate in the episcopal hierarchy 4 . On 13November 1996 he named Bishop Nesti, alreadyarchbishop of Camerino since 1993, Secretary ofthe Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Lifeand Societies of Apostolic Life. In 1996 he assignedFr. Ciro Benedettini to the Press Office of the HolySee in the capacity of Vice-director, which positionhe held for one year as “assistant to the Director” 5 ,while Fr. Diego Di Odoardo continues his service atthe Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Lifeand Societies of Apostolic Life, presently in thecapacity of Department Head (Capo Ufficio). Fr.Antonio Calabrese continues his service at theSecretariat of State. In 1979 the Holy Father designatedthe then Superior General, Paul M. Boyle,Consultor for the Congregation of Propaganda Fideby a letter which reads: “this pontifical appointmentis obviously a sign of honor toward your belovedCongregation whose members, by their consecratedlife of prayer and apostolate, do so much for themissions...” 6In 1982 the Pope wished to honor theCongregation naming five Passionists as consultorsof the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. 7In homilies or messages on the occasions ofbeatifications or of the reading of decrees of heroicvirtue, the Pope drew attention to various aspects ofPassionist spirituality. Following the beatification ofBl. Isidore he highlighted the urgency for thePassionists to embrace “the universal Christian witnessof the Blessed: to make the Cross be the “saltof the earth”: that which truly “gives flavor” to thislife and which orientates all events toward the definitivegoal of heaven.” 8But it is in the speeches or in the letters sent tothe Chapters that he shows greater attention to thecharism of the memory of the Passion of Jesus andvigorously calls the religious to the responsibilitythat they have to preserve, develop and make to bearfruit in today’s world this spirituality by their communityand apostolic life: “The Holy Father praysthat by means of the Paschal mystery, the belovedPassionist Congregation be sustained in its joyful23
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