The Spirit will lead you
las palabras del Obispo
Rich, profound and exciting was the reflection of the Bishop, Monsignor Gianrico Ruzza, who presided over the opening Eucharistic celebration of our General Chapter...
It was a great invocation to the Holy Spirit and a call to all the Chapter Sisters to let themselves be taught by the Spirit to listen to his inspirations and to insert themselves fruitfully into the current context of the Church and the world.
First of all, the Bishop reminded the Sisters that the Chapter is a privileged time to bear witness to Jesus, demonstrating that union with Him and in Him is capable of transforming life and therefore of transforming us from isolated individuals to people capable of relationships good, capable of overcoming divisions and creating authentic evangelical communities.
The Bishop then underlined that the experience of the Synod, the synodal style, which is talked about so much today, has in reality always been present in the Church, precisely thanks to religious life. In fact, starting precisely from the experience of the "Chapter" of Saint Benedict we have the living experience of a spiritual sharing, of a spiritual conversation, which arises from prayer to arrive at concrete choices, community decisions, which have the Gospel as their centre. and who seek the right way to talk about Jesus today, in the time we live in.
Saint Paul, who was heard in the Liturgy of the Word, spoke and people converted, because he attracted people to Jesus. Even today - although culture, as always, struggles to accept the announcement of the kerygma (despite man be always, however, thirsty for truth, for authenticity) - it is necessary to announce the Gospel, it is urgent to bear witness to the truth of the love, of the mercy of the Father which is manifested in the Lord Jesus.
Continuing his very charismatic homily, Monsignor Gianrico Ruzza once again invited the Chapter Sisters to forcefully invoke the Holy Spirit on our religious life, so that He can give so much courage and great faith in the Church and also in religious life, and so that he allows us to see the new paths, the new paths that must be taken to evangelize, to bring Jesus to the world. However, he clarified that the "new" is not change for change's sake, or necessarily doing what has never been done in the past, but rather it is having a new spirit, a new enthusiasm, having the courage to open new paths despite to bear witness and announce the Gospel, with the same zeal as Saint Paul, who said: "Woe to me if I do not announce the Gospel!".
Going back to our concrete experience, the Bishop said that if our community life is not evangelizing, if our being with the elderly or among children or with people in need, and if our pastoral activities do not speak of the beauty of Gospel, of charity, but they reproduce the same dynamics as the world, then it means that something is wrong. This means that we must invoke the Spirit of the Lord even more intensely
At this point the Bishop invited the Chapter Sisters to open themselves to the Spirit in order to determine the paths, the roads, the pastoral strategies so that our religious fraternity can place itself at the service of the Church and humanity today, where we are called to go . Finally, he manifested the "sign" of religious life in the possibility of all being one "body", united by a specific charism, given by the Spirit, centered in the Gospel of the Lord, and pilgrimage through time and history so that even today it is proclaimed and witnessed the strength, the power of God's mercy, of his Love.
This, concluded the Bishop encouraging the Sisters, is the task of your Chapter: the Spirit will guide you!
The celebration was animated by the participants of the Chapter, who were joined by the Sisters of the two communities closest to the General House.
It was a beautiful and heartfelt moment of prayer, with the presence of the Capitulars in the chapel, which made us enjoy and reflect on the richness of our Congregation, on the great diversity of many Sisters united under a single ideal: personal sanctification through union with Jesus, on the Cross, through service to the poorest.
We pray to our Founders, Mother Ernestina and Mother Enriqueta Larráinzar and Father Fray Manuel María Ortiz Sáez, so that they can intercede for our Sisters who in these days will work for the good of our religious Family, especially in this very important moment in which we are living, as an Institute, a path of "Restructuring"
