Po piligriminės kelionės Lorete
Po Šventojo Tėvo laiško, gauto dvidešimtųjų Brolijos popiežiškojo pripažinimo proga
After the audience with the Pope on May 30 in St. Peter’s Square
On the occasion of the beginning of the School of Community after the summer interruption
After his personal meeting with John Paul II
With suggestions to the Fraternity groups
After the letter from John Paul II
After a meeting of Famiglie per l'Accoglienza (Welcoming Families)
On the occasion of the Easter wishes
On the occasion of the recognition of the Memores Domini
Dearest Friends,
As an Easter grace Our merciful Lord who has called us to his Covenant gave me the gift of a personal letter from the Holy Father. In reply to my greetings "expressed also in the name of Communion and Liberation", he says at a certain point, "I express my lively gratitude to you... especially for the love you have for the Church. Thank you, dear Monsignor."
You can well imagine my emotion, in particular for the reasons the Pope indicated, precisely "love for the Church". For it is our belonging to the Church that we recognise as the source of the consistence of our person, and therefore of the ultimate criteria for our way of conceiving man, for our vision of the world and of our judgment of today's world; finally, we recognise this belonging as the source of the positive and operative affection for the life of our fellow-men, that opens up the horizon of our interests and our works.
In the Pope's judgment I seem to hear the echo of the paternal expression of Pope Paul VI on the steps of St Peter's Basilica on Palm Sunday 1975. As I knelt, filled with emotion, he told me literally, "Courage, this is the right way, go ahead like this".
In this moment, so grave for our humanity, and so great for our faith I demand only one thing of you, be united to the one leading the movement; this is how to be sure of the journey. Don't deceive yourselves in thinking that you are free to think what you like, and to decide things apart from this relationship to which God has tied the light and the comfort of the first "encounter". This is what makes us sure in our dialogue with anyone; this is what permits us that openness, or capacity for reasonable risk, for which even some of the best "laicists" esteem us.
During the summer months I ask you to meditate the notes of the Annual Retreat at Rimini, praying above all the Spirit and Our Lady that we may become a mutual help in understanding and living it.
These things are more easily understood by all those who live among us with simplicity of heart, even in the moments of greatest sacrifice, as we have always been able to document whenever we met. A crowd of people whom I thank here on behalf of all who find it hardest.
With wishes of "unending gladness"
Affectionately yours,
Luigi Giussani
