At 11:15am this morning (5:15am EST), in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience those who are participating in the 69th General Chapter of the Order of Hospitaliers of Saint John of God (Fatebenefratelli). The theme of this year's Chapter, which is taking place in Rome from 14 January to 6 February 2019, is Building the Future of Hospitality.
Dear brothers,
With joy, I greet you while you are celebrating the 69th General Chapter of the Order of Hospitaliers of Saint John of God. I wish to thank you for all that you are and all that you are doing in various expressions of your charism. I thank your Superior General for the words with which he has introduced our encounter. And I wish to invite you to focus on three themes: Discernment, closeness/hospitality and shared mission.
Discernment. This is a fundamental attitude in the life of the Church and in the consecrated life. Making grateful memory of the past - as in today's Liturgy the Word of God invites us to do - to live the present with passion and to embrace the future with hope - the three objectives indicated for the Year of Consecrated Life - would be impossible without adequate discernment. Looking at the past, discernment leads to the purification of our history and our charism, to separate the wheat from the straw, to fix our attention on what is important. Looking at the past, we also arrive at the encounter with our first love. Looking at the present, discernment pushes us to live the present moment with the passion that must characterize the consecrated life, away from routine and mediocrity and transforms the passion for Christ into compassion, which is in step with the pains and needs of humanity . Looking to the future, discernment will allow you to continue making the charism of hospitality and care fruitful, facing the new challenges presented to you. Discernment is rooted in a historical dimension.
I hope that this Chapter will remain in the heart and memory of your Congregation as an experience of dialogue and discernment, listening to the Spirit and to your brothers and collaborators, without giving in to the temptation toward self-reference, which would lead you to close yourselves in upon yourselves. Please do not create a closed army, a closed reserve of the Hospitaller Order. Dialogue, discuss and plan together, starting at your roots, the present and the future of your life and mission, always listening to the voice of many sick people and the people who need you, as Saint John of God did: he was a passionate man of God and compassionate towards the sick and the poor.
A second attitude: closeness/hospitality. Passion and compassion are energies of the Spirit that will give meaning to your hospital mission, which will animate your spirituality and give quality to your fraternal life in community. In a consecrated person, and in every baptized person, there can be no genuine compassion for others if there is no passion or love for Jesus. Passion for Christ leads us to the prophecy of compassion. May the cause of the human being and the cause of God resound in you. And so, feeling that you are a family, you can always be at the service of the wounded and the sick in the world.
In the midst of so many signs of death, think of the evangelical figure of the Samaritan (Lk 10: 15-37). He does not seem to have many means, he does not belong to any centre of power that supports him, he has only his saddlebag, but he has a careful look and there, in the depths of his being, his heart has vibrated to the rhythm of the other. The urgency of reaching out to those in need leads him to put his projects aside and pause his journey. Concern for the threatened life of the other brings out the best of his humanity, and makes it possible for him to tenderly pour oil and wine on the wounds of that half-dead man.
In this gesture of pure altruism and great humanity the secret of your identity as a hospitaliers is hidden. In letting you get involved in the other person's life and in the Samaritan's gesture of pouring oil and wine on the wounds of the one who had fallen into the hands of the bandits, you will discover the mark of your own identity. A brand that will lead you to keep alive the time of the merciful presence of Jesus who identifies himself with the poor, the sick and the needy, and dedicates himself to their service. In this way you can fulfill your mission of proclaiming and realizing the Kingdom among the poor and the sick. With your testimony and your apostolic works, you assure assistance to the sick and the needy, with a preference for the poor (cf General Constitutions, article 5), and you promote the pastoral care of health workers.
The Samaritan took care of the wounded man. The expression taking care has a human and spiritual dimension. Jesus wants us to touch human misery; he wants us to touch his flesh in the flesh of those who suffer in body or spirit. Touch, to let us touch. He would do us so much good! And then your life will become an icon of God's mercy ... finally becoming a compassionate and merciful Christ, who passed through the world doing good to all (cf Acts 10:38) and healing all sorts of diseases and infirmities (cf Mt 4:23).
In this context I ask you for a peaceful discernment concerning your properties. Your buildings must be inns - like that of the parable of the Samaritan - at the service of life, spaces where especially the sick and the poor feel welcomed. And it will do you good to ask yourself often how to preserve the memory of these structures that were born as an expression of your charism, because they always remain at the service of the tenderness and attention that we owe to the victims of the gaps in society. I ask you to create Samaritan networks for the weak, with particular attention to the poor, and make sure that your homes are always open and welcoming communities to globalize compassionate solidarity.
The third word: Shared mission. This is a real urgency, and not only because we are going through moments of scarcity of vocations, but because our charisms are gifts for the whole Church and for the world. Beyond numbers and ages, the Spirit always arouses a renewed fruitfulness that passes through adequate discernment and increases the joint formation, so that both religious and laity have missionary hearts that rejoice in joy in experiencing the salvation of Christ and share it as consolation and compassion, running the risk of getting dirty in the mud of the road (cf Evangelii gaudium, 45).
I encourage you to take care of your formation, without neglecting to train the laity in your charism, in the spirituality and in the mission of Christian hospitality, so that they too have a good sense of belonging and so that in their works, the testimony of the spirituality that nourished the life of Saint John of God may never fail.
Dear brothers, bring the compassion and mercy of Jesus to the sick and the most needy. Focus outside of yourself, your limits, your problems and difficulties, to join others in a caravan of solidarity. May your young people prophesy and your elders not cease to dream (cf Joel 3:1). I accompany you with my blessing; and please do not forget to pray for me. Thank you.
(Original text in Spanish)
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
addressed to those participating in the
General Chapter of the Hospitaliers of Saint John of God
Dear brothers,
With joy, I greet you while you are celebrating the 69th General Chapter of the Order of Hospitaliers of Saint John of God. I wish to thank you for all that you are and all that you are doing in various expressions of your charism. I thank your Superior General for the words with which he has introduced our encounter. And I wish to invite you to focus on three themes: Discernment, closeness/hospitality and shared mission.
Discernment. This is a fundamental attitude in the life of the Church and in the consecrated life. Making grateful memory of the past - as in today's Liturgy the Word of God invites us to do - to live the present with passion and to embrace the future with hope - the three objectives indicated for the Year of Consecrated Life - would be impossible without adequate discernment. Looking at the past, discernment leads to the purification of our history and our charism, to separate the wheat from the straw, to fix our attention on what is important. Looking at the past, we also arrive at the encounter with our first love. Looking at the present, discernment pushes us to live the present moment with the passion that must characterize the consecrated life, away from routine and mediocrity and transforms the passion for Christ into compassion, which is in step with the pains and needs of humanity . Looking to the future, discernment will allow you to continue making the charism of hospitality and care fruitful, facing the new challenges presented to you. Discernment is rooted in a historical dimension.
I hope that this Chapter will remain in the heart and memory of your Congregation as an experience of dialogue and discernment, listening to the Spirit and to your brothers and collaborators, without giving in to the temptation toward self-reference, which would lead you to close yourselves in upon yourselves. Please do not create a closed army, a closed reserve of the Hospitaller Order. Dialogue, discuss and plan together, starting at your roots, the present and the future of your life and mission, always listening to the voice of many sick people and the people who need you, as Saint John of God did: he was a passionate man of God and compassionate towards the sick and the poor.
A second attitude: closeness/hospitality. Passion and compassion are energies of the Spirit that will give meaning to your hospital mission, which will animate your spirituality and give quality to your fraternal life in community. In a consecrated person, and in every baptized person, there can be no genuine compassion for others if there is no passion or love for Jesus. Passion for Christ leads us to the prophecy of compassion. May the cause of the human being and the cause of God resound in you. And so, feeling that you are a family, you can always be at the service of the wounded and the sick in the world.
In the midst of so many signs of death, think of the evangelical figure of the Samaritan (Lk 10: 15-37). He does not seem to have many means, he does not belong to any centre of power that supports him, he has only his saddlebag, but he has a careful look and there, in the depths of his being, his heart has vibrated to the rhythm of the other. The urgency of reaching out to those in need leads him to put his projects aside and pause his journey. Concern for the threatened life of the other brings out the best of his humanity, and makes it possible for him to tenderly pour oil and wine on the wounds of that half-dead man.
In this gesture of pure altruism and great humanity the secret of your identity as a hospitaliers is hidden. In letting you get involved in the other person's life and in the Samaritan's gesture of pouring oil and wine on the wounds of the one who had fallen into the hands of the bandits, you will discover the mark of your own identity. A brand that will lead you to keep alive the time of the merciful presence of Jesus who identifies himself with the poor, the sick and the needy, and dedicates himself to their service. In this way you can fulfill your mission of proclaiming and realizing the Kingdom among the poor and the sick. With your testimony and your apostolic works, you assure assistance to the sick and the needy, with a preference for the poor (cf General Constitutions, article 5), and you promote the pastoral care of health workers.
The Samaritan took care of the wounded man. The expression taking care has a human and spiritual dimension. Jesus wants us to touch human misery; he wants us to touch his flesh in the flesh of those who suffer in body or spirit. Touch, to let us touch. He would do us so much good! And then your life will become an icon of God's mercy ... finally becoming a compassionate and merciful Christ, who passed through the world doing good to all (cf Acts 10:38) and healing all sorts of diseases and infirmities (cf Mt 4:23).
In this context I ask you for a peaceful discernment concerning your properties. Your buildings must be inns - like that of the parable of the Samaritan - at the service of life, spaces where especially the sick and the poor feel welcomed. And it will do you good to ask yourself often how to preserve the memory of these structures that were born as an expression of your charism, because they always remain at the service of the tenderness and attention that we owe to the victims of the gaps in society. I ask you to create Samaritan networks for the weak, with particular attention to the poor, and make sure that your homes are always open and welcoming communities to globalize compassionate solidarity.
The third word: Shared mission. This is a real urgency, and not only because we are going through moments of scarcity of vocations, but because our charisms are gifts for the whole Church and for the world. Beyond numbers and ages, the Spirit always arouses a renewed fruitfulness that passes through adequate discernment and increases the joint formation, so that both religious and laity have missionary hearts that rejoice in joy in experiencing the salvation of Christ and share it as consolation and compassion, running the risk of getting dirty in the mud of the road (cf Evangelii gaudium, 45).
I encourage you to take care of your formation, without neglecting to train the laity in your charism, in the spirituality and in the mission of Christian hospitality, so that they too have a good sense of belonging and so that in their works, the testimony of the spirituality that nourished the life of Saint John of God may never fail.
Dear brothers, bring the compassion and mercy of Jesus to the sick and the most needy. Focus outside of yourself, your limits, your problems and difficulties, to join others in a caravan of solidarity. May your young people prophesy and your elders not cease to dream (cf Joel 3:1). I accompany you with my blessing; and please do not forget to pray for me. Thank you.
(Original text in Spanish)
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