SECRETARIAT OF STATE
FIRST SECTION •
GENERAL AFFAIRS
Vatican, 26 January 2008
N. 84.764
Reverend Father,
The Supreme Pontiff has received your letter expressing, together with the
Mother General of the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence and the Postulator,
your desire that the canonization of Blessed Luigi Guanella may take place
during the course of the year 2008-2009, and requesting His Visit to two
charitable institutions of the said Religious Family in Rome.
The Holy Father asked me to express, on his behalf, his gratitude for such
display of affectionate sentiments and filial affection toward him, and to convey
you a special Apostolic Benediction, that he willingly extends to all Confreres
and Sisters.
Regarding your request for the canonization of your Founder, I would like
to assure you that it was forwarded to the competent Congregation of the Cause
of the Saints. About the invitation to visit either the “St. Pius X House” over the
Jianiculum Hill or the “Rehabilitation Center” in Via Aurelia Antica, though
appreciating the motivations you have suggested, I regret to inform you that, at
present it is difficult to actualize it.
Wishing you every good in the Lord during this period so rich of significant
events for you and for
the members of the Institute, I take the occasion to present
you my distinct esteem.
Devotedly
in the Lord
✠ F
ERNANDO
F
ILONI
Substitute
Reverend Father
Alfonso CRIPPA
Superior General of the Servants of Charity
Vicolo Clementi, 41
00148 ROME
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4. To be a religious priest today
Some exhortations and advice given to the seminarians of the International
Theological Seminary and the new priests by Fr. Jose’ Rovira, cmf
(Claretian)
I would like to offer you some advice and recommendations on priestly life.
My presentation will be brief and simple, without pretending to be in-depth. I
will mention some attitudes that should be cultivated already now as
seminarians, without waiting for the day of the sacramental anointing, because
they are not obtained in a day!
1. Prepare yourselves not to see your priesthood as a routine. If you are
already a priest, do not practice your priesthood as a routine! Every day you
should experience surprise for having being called, and for possessing this gift.
In particular, do not become too accustomed or too nonchalant in your preaching
the Word and celebrating the Eucharist.
Try to celebrate Mass as if it is either the first, the last, or the only Mass.
Prepare yourselves not to get too accustomed to the ministry (how easy it is!), or
to the weakness of the people: “ They are the same all the time! They never
learn!” Rather you should remember that you also are weak, and repeating over
and over the same mistakes. In short, try not to make your priesthood a “job”: it
is a total vocation of the person! Let what you do and say come from the heart,
and not from routine.
Pause for a moment before speaking to see if what you are about to say is
“something you have learned”, or rather something that you personally have
thought, prayed, assimilated, and become part of yourself. Do not “play being a
priest”, but “be priests”, presbyters, “elders”, wise men.
2. Do not forget that you are priests around the clock, 24 hours a day, and
seven days a week, even when you are not “exercising”, or even when you do
not feel doing anything.
You need to be ready to act as priests in every moment with naturalness:
“Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason
for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience
clear (
1 Pet 3, 15)”; in every occasion, convince, reprimand, and encourage
through all patience and teaching (
2 Tim 4, 2), living the truth in love (
Eph 4,
15), without being ashamed of the Gospel (
Rom 1, 16).
It is your life. It is your way of being a human person, your way of living
the mystery of Christ. Therefore, be what you are! This means: to be
amidst oth-
ers,
with others,
for others, but not necessarily
like others; because you are “in
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the” world (
Jn 17, 11), but not “of the” world (
Jn 17, 14-16).
Offering something
new to others requires to be close to them, and, at the same time, to be and have
something different.
Instead, if you are mere “one among many”, you will not have anything
particular to offer, and, after a while, no one will ask you anything anymore. Be
easily approachable, and with something new to give them!
3. In the midst of your people, do not consider yourselves and do not be-
have like members of a higher class, of a superior or inferior caste or tribe, and
not like heads of villages or barangays, If you behave like that, remember that
you should be men among men, Christians among Christians, brothers among
brothers, servants of the servants of God, called to a service to be accomplished
in their favor.
Priesthood does not destroy your personality, but it permeates it in a new
context and purpose. Do not be “one more” priest belonging to the priestly or
clerical “class”. Be yourselves, with your own characteristics. Be not a priest
whose name is by chance “Peter”, but “Peter”, who is a priest!
4. Learn to welcome others always, at every moment, even when you are
in a bad mood or tired. You are still priests, and those people are not at fault if
you had a difficult day! To welcome people means to respect them, to try to
understand their situations, to LOVE them, to explain things to them, not
necessarily to justify them, and not to project your problems and mindset on
them.
Welcoming means to empty oneself to make place for others in you. It
means a truly listening that does not take the other person as the object where
your ideas, your need for self-affirmation, your intrusiveness, your need for
affection are transferred. Rather see in him/her the person to whom you have to
offer Christ and his Gospel another more time.
Listening means to leave the other to explain himself, not to interrupt him
unnecessarily, not to wait impatiently that he may finish or stop for a moment so
that you can provide him your ready excellent answer. It means to assume an
attitude of surprise, and not to pretend to have understood everything
immediately, because “you are intelligent and expert”, when instead the person
in front of you wanted to convey something else. Do not be scandalized by
anything. Show that you do not know everything.
Hate being busy in dealing with people, especial when they are oppressed
by serious problems! Refuse the constant temptation of labeling them right
away! To welcome them means to give your time to them, your life – the best of
what you have – when they are in need, without considering the time you give
them as a “wasting time”.
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