At 11:30 this morning, in the Sala Clementina at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience the members of the Seguimi (Follow me) community who are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the foundation of that association of lay persons.
Dear brothers and sisters,
I welcome you on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the foundation of your community, the Seguimi lay association. I affectionately greet and thank Cardinal Vallini, who has expressed your sentiments.
As you recalled, this association was born during the Second Vatican Council, and from the teachings of the Council, you drew the inspiration to live the Gospel at all costs, as the title of one of your publications affirms. The symbolic and highly spiritual gesture on the part of your first members to set out from the Catacombs of Saint Calistus bore witness to this willingness, which they expressed in the opening words of your program of life: Jesus Christ alive is central to Seguimi. This is very beautiful. I encourage you to live every day with renewed commitment to this way of life, that is to being people who are not focused on yourselves but focused on the living person of Jesus. Many times, even in the Church, we believe that we are good Christians because we are involved in social and charitable work that is well organized. Ok, they are all good things. But we should not forget that the heart of our life, the source that gives us life and transforms our hearts is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. Let yourselves be guided by Him, the Lord, focus the core of your heart and your efforts on him, and remaining firmly united to him, like branches to a vine (cf John 15:1-9), you will be able to go out to the peripheries of the world.
Your founders traced the fundamental connections between the first members and Seguimi according to a new route based on the classical forms of consecrated life to which the Pontifical Council for the Laity granted pontifical approval. The commitment of the evangelical counsels in a general context of laity is absorbed in the one fundamental obligation of faithfulness to the love of the Father, to Christ and to his gospel, faithfulness to the action of the Holy Spirit which is love and freedom and faithfulness to the vocational pact between the members of the group, to which you are obliged to live. In Seguimi, faithfulness is thought to be the highest value of natural morality, to which you bind yourselves in conscience to answer the call of God, with no other legal constraints, convinced that if faithfulness is truly lived, other commitments are not necessary. Therefore, yours is an evangelical lifestyle practiced in the context of laity and freedom. A Christian lifestyle for the laity, with clear and challenging objectives, an original way of living the Gospel, an effective way of walking in the world. The various forms of belonging represent many modes of commitment and participation in the ideals of communal unity. Celibates and spouses, each according to their proper state of life, meeting and sharing an enriching and complementary experience.
Maintain and develop this fraternal communion and the exchange of gifts, all aimed at the human and Christian growth of all peoples, together with creativity, optimism, joy and courage to go - when it is wise to do so - against the tide. Be vigilant about your spiritual journey and help each other to always practice reciprocal charity, that is to say protect and defend one another from individualistic tendencies in order to be true witnesses to the gospel.
As lay people, you are immersed in the world and you are engaged in earthly activities in order to serve the common good of man. You are called to permeate the environments where you work with Christian values through your witness and your words, encountering people in their concrete situations in order that they might maintain the full measure of their dignity and achieve salvation in Christ. He is the fullness of all human existence: in fact, revealing the mystery of the Father and of his love, fully reveals man to himself and makes him aware of his supreme calling (cf Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, 22).
I encourage you to be laity on the front lines, to take an active part in the mission of the Church, to live your secularity while dedicating yourselves to the truths which are proper to the earthy city: your families, your professions and social life in all its various expressions. In this way, you can contribute the leaven of the spirit of the gospel to the pages of history through the witness of faith, hope and charity.
Dear friends, may Seguimi become more and more a way of Christian life and apostolic commitment that promotes and elevates its members, making them protagonists together with others for the sake of a better world.
With all my heart, I give you my blessing, and please, don't forget to pray for me.
Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the meeting with members of the Seguimi community
Dear brothers and sisters,
I welcome you on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the foundation of your community, the Seguimi lay association. I affectionately greet and thank Cardinal Vallini, who has expressed your sentiments.
As you recalled, this association was born during the Second Vatican Council, and from the teachings of the Council, you drew the inspiration to live the Gospel at all costs, as the title of one of your publications affirms. The symbolic and highly spiritual gesture on the part of your first members to set out from the Catacombs of Saint Calistus bore witness to this willingness, which they expressed in the opening words of your program of life: Jesus Christ alive is central to Seguimi. This is very beautiful. I encourage you to live every day with renewed commitment to this way of life, that is to being people who are not focused on yourselves but focused on the living person of Jesus. Many times, even in the Church, we believe that we are good Christians because we are involved in social and charitable work that is well organized. Ok, they are all good things. But we should not forget that the heart of our life, the source that gives us life and transforms our hearts is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. Let yourselves be guided by Him, the Lord, focus the core of your heart and your efforts on him, and remaining firmly united to him, like branches to a vine (cf John 15:1-9), you will be able to go out to the peripheries of the world.
Your founders traced the fundamental connections between the first members and Seguimi according to a new route based on the classical forms of consecrated life to which the Pontifical Council for the Laity granted pontifical approval. The commitment of the evangelical counsels in a general context of laity is absorbed in the one fundamental obligation of faithfulness to the love of the Father, to Christ and to his gospel, faithfulness to the action of the Holy Spirit which is love and freedom and faithfulness to the vocational pact between the members of the group, to which you are obliged to live. In Seguimi, faithfulness is thought to be the highest value of natural morality, to which you bind yourselves in conscience to answer the call of God, with no other legal constraints, convinced that if faithfulness is truly lived, other commitments are not necessary. Therefore, yours is an evangelical lifestyle practiced in the context of laity and freedom. A Christian lifestyle for the laity, with clear and challenging objectives, an original way of living the Gospel, an effective way of walking in the world. The various forms of belonging represent many modes of commitment and participation in the ideals of communal unity. Celibates and spouses, each according to their proper state of life, meeting and sharing an enriching and complementary experience.
Maintain and develop this fraternal communion and the exchange of gifts, all aimed at the human and Christian growth of all peoples, together with creativity, optimism, joy and courage to go - when it is wise to do so - against the tide. Be vigilant about your spiritual journey and help each other to always practice reciprocal charity, that is to say protect and defend one another from individualistic tendencies in order to be true witnesses to the gospel.
As lay people, you are immersed in the world and you are engaged in earthly activities in order to serve the common good of man. You are called to permeate the environments where you work with Christian values through your witness and your words, encountering people in their concrete situations in order that they might maintain the full measure of their dignity and achieve salvation in Christ. He is the fullness of all human existence: in fact, revealing the mystery of the Father and of his love, fully reveals man to himself and makes him aware of his supreme calling (cf Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, 22).
I encourage you to be laity on the front lines, to take an active part in the mission of the Church, to live your secularity while dedicating yourselves to the truths which are proper to the earthy city: your families, your professions and social life in all its various expressions. In this way, you can contribute the leaven of the spirit of the gospel to the pages of history through the witness of faith, hope and charity.
Dear friends, may Seguimi become more and more a way of Christian life and apostolic commitment that promotes and elevates its members, making them protagonists together with others for the sake of a better world.
With all my heart, I give you my blessing, and please, don't forget to pray for me.
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