sussidio april 2017

   “Towards the tenth anniversary of the Beatification”

The FORMATOR

From the WORD of GOD
Anybody who tries to live in devotion to Christ is certain to be persecuted. You must keep to what you have been taught and know to be true; remember who your teachers were, and how, ever since you were a child, you have known the holy scriptures -from these you can learn the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and useful for refuting error, for guiding people’s lives and teaching them to be upright. This is how someone who is dedicated to God becomes fully equipped and ready for any good work. Before God and before Christ Jesus who is to be judge of the living and the dead, I charge you, in the name of his appearing and of his kingdom: proclaim the message and, welcome or unwelcome, insist on it. Refute falsehood, correct error, give encouragement, but do all with patience and with care to instruct. The time is sure to come when people will not accept sound teaching, but their ears will be itching for anything new and they will collect themselves a whole series of teachers according to their own tastes; and then they will shut their ears to the truth and will turn to myths. But you must keep steady all the time; put up with suffering; do the work of preaching the gospel; fulfil the service asked of you.
(2 Tm 3:12-16; 4:1-5)

From the DOCUMENTS of the CHURCH
We are very confused about the fundamental choices in our life and question what the world is, where it comes from, where we are going, what we must do in order to do good, how we should live and what the truly pertinent values are. Regarding all this, there are numerous contrasting philosophies that come into being and disappear, creating confusion about the fundamental decisions on how to live; because collectively we no longer know from what and for what we have been made and where we are going. In this context the words of the Lord who took pity on the throng because the people were like sheep without a shepherd came true (cf. Mk 6: 34). The Lord, moved by compassion, interpreted God’s word, he himself is the Word of God, and thus provided an orientation. This is the function of the priest: making present, in the confusion and bewilderment of our times, the light of God’s Word, the light that is Christ himself in this our world. Therefore the priest does not teach his own ideas, a philosophy that he himself has invented, that he has discovered or likes; the priest teaches in the name of Christ present, he proposes the truth that is Christ himself, his word and his way of living and of moving ahead. What Christ said of himself applies to the priest: “My teaching is not mine” (Jn 7: 16); Christ, that is, does not propose himself but, as the Son he is the voice, the Word of the Father. The priest too must always speak and act in this way: “My teaching is not mine, I do not spread my own ideas or what I like, but I am the mouthpiece and heart of Christ and I make present this one, shared teaching that has created the universal Church and creates eternal life”. Consequently the priest’s voice may often seem to be “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” (Mk 1: 3), but his prophetic power consists precisely in this: in never being conformist, in never conforming to any dominant culture or mind-set but, rather, in showing the one newness that can bring about an authentic and profound renewal of the human being, that is, that Christ is the Living One, he is the close God, the God who works in the life and for the life of the world and gives us the truth, the way to live.
(Benedict XVI, General Audience, St. Peter’s Square,14 April 2010)

From the WRITINGS of Blessed A. ROSMINI
My dear Emilio, beloved in the Lord whose service is our greatest joy,
Your short letter was most welcome, not only because it always gives me pleasure to hear from you, but also because I see from it that the Lord is helping you greatly to stand firm against the enemy who is envious of the happiness we find in God’s service. But no one can prevail against us if we put all our trust in our heavenly Father alone! So we must distrust ourselves and trust in God. The Father will see in us his divine Son, whom we have put on through our baptism and through the dedication we have made of ourselves to his glory. And where he sees his Son he can do no less than give his love. Doubtless, if he did not see in us the image of his Son he would not see anything that was lovable. So let us put no trust in ourselves, but keep before our eyes the vileness and malice which we inherit from Original Sin.

We must willingly endure the trifling sufferings we meet with – a little mortification here, but an eternity of glory! Oh, if only we kept our eyes fixed on him; if we never took away from his face that gaze of our mind which is so apt to wander and be taken up with earthly things! If we did so he would, by the beauty of his countenance, make himself our Master, and from him we should learn more than anything that mere men can teach us. And what should we learn? Humility, meekness, obedience, poverty of heart! Men will never teach us these things; this knowledge is hidden. There is nothing haughty or proud about it, but it is the science of holiness, the science of salvation. And what a favour God does us when he makes us his pupils in this school. Let us always see it as the grace it is; and may the school of the world never lure us away from the hidden and solitary teaching of Calvary. I embrace you in the Lord and bless you from my heart. Pray for your affectionate brother and Father, A.R. p.
(To Don Emilio Belisy, at Domodossola, Trent, 14 April 1832; A.L., Vol.II, let.17, p.26, translated and edited by John Morris IC.)
LET US PRAY
O God, Word Incarnate, may your Spirit be the spring
of all my activity and all my acts.
Let everything in me come from you,
nothing from myself.
Strengthen me, o God. Strengthen them, o God.
(A.Rosmini)

PASTORAL YEAR 2016 – 2017
ON-GOING FORMATION
INSTITUTE OF CHARITY
ROSMINIAN SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE

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