July 8, 1991 - Luigi Giussani laiškai

July 8, 1991

After a meeting of Famiglie per l'Accoglienza (Welcoming Families)

Dearest Friends,

A few days ago I took part in a meeting of our Welcoming Families. Before the heroic dedication of many amongst us I felt so poor that it is now easier for me to greet you with a deep humility of heart.

My greeting is a wish: that what we have said at the Exercises of the Fraternity may become life for each one of us, and that the example of the most generous may touch everybody's heart. We are poor, it's true. But Christ called us to follow Him, and His Grace is stronger than our weakness, His mercy more resistant than our fragility.

At the meeting of the Welcoming Families one of you said, "At a certain point generosity gets tired". I am still grateful for this truth. For only the fidelity to God made flesh can conquer our tiredness and enable us to go all the way without bitterness, and even gladly. This is why it is with great emotion that we repeat Jeremiah's words on Fridays at Night Prayer. "You are in our midst O Lord, and we are called by Your name: do not desert us, Lord our God." Just as children in your arms, you mothers.

The companionship in which Christ has called us is the locus of that fidelity. We must therefore follow our companionship without preferring what we think or feel. Thus we must give more credit to sequela (to obedience, to use the great word) than to our generosity. And let's pray for those (priests or lay persons) who lead us, so that their responsibility may coincide with an experience of life rather than an organisational or cultural preoccupation.

A great cross lies on the threshold of this social year: the death of Fr Francesco Ricci. To him the Movement Communion and Liberation owes especially the passion for ecumenical effort. In the last period of his life he identified and continually repeated the word that consecrates the whole humility of sequela and obedience: "I offer".

May our Lady transform this "fiat" ("I offer") into our daily sigh in all our actions, till the day when we shall all meet again in the sweet home of the Father. On such an intense awareness is added the lively sorrow for the pain that peoples and persons are suffering in these evil times (Eph 5:16) even though our heart leans wholly on Christ's word "Don't be afraid" (Mt 8:26).

With humble and brotherly friendship
Fr. Luigi Giussani

P.S. I apologise for my delays in reading the huge number of letters I receive, but as soon as I have the time and the energy I'll try to reply. I thank the many of you who have offered more than what they had promised. Let their example help all those who do not fulfil their commitment, I hope out of mere distraction. I ask all to remember what St Paul says to the Christians in Corinth, "Remember that those who sow little will reap little and those who sow abundantly will reap abundantly. Let each one give as he has decided in his heart, not sadly or forcibly, for God loves those who give joyfully" (2 Cor 9:6-7).

Milan, July 8, 1991