At 11:30am this morning (6:30am EDT), in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience the Religious Men and Women from the Camillian Charismatic Family.
Dear brothers and sisters,
It is with joy that I welcome all of you, representatives of the different expressions of the Camillian Family! I greet you with affection and I thank Father Pessini for his words. And I ask the Lord to preserve his sense of humor: you will never have a stomach ulcer! You are constantly engaged in loving and generous giving to the sick, carrying out a precious mission, in the Church and in society, alongside the suffering. When disease manages to upset our lives, we feel the strong need to have a compassionate and competent brother or sister next to us, who comforts us, supports us, helps us to recover the precious gift of health, or one who accompanies us until the end of this life and our final meeting with the Lord!
The Church as a whole has received from her Master and Lord the mandate to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick (cf Lk 9:2), in imitation of Him, the Good Shepherd, the Good Samaritan, who spent time on this earth benefiting and healing all those who were prisoners of evil (Common Preface VIII). But in particular to Saint Camillus de Lellis and to all those who follow his example, God has bestowed the gift of reliving and bearing witness to the merciful love of Christ for the sick. The Church has recognized this as an authentic charism of the Spirit. You live it in an exemplary way, translating it into life according to the double track of directly assisting the sick, especially the poor, in their bodily and spiritual needs, and teaching others the best way to serve them, for the benefit of the Church and of humanity.
All the charisms are gifts the Holy Spirit gives us ... Gifts given not because they are hidden, but in order to help others to participate in them. They are not given for the benefit of those who receive them, but for the use of the people of God. If, on the other hand, a charism ... serves to affirm oneself, it is doubtful whether this is an authentic charism or that it is faithfully lived. Charisms are special graces given to some in order that they might do good for many others (Catechesis, 6 November 2013). They always have a transitive character: they are oriented towards others. Over the years, you have endeavoured to faithfully embody your charism, translating it into a multiplicity of apostolic works and pastoral services for the benefit of suffering humanity throughout the world.
In the light of this mission, which some members of your religious families have lived heroically in becoming models of holiness, you are called to continue your service in a prophetic way. It is a question of looking to the future, open to new forms of apostolate which the Spirit inspires within you and which the signs of the times and the needs of the world and of the Church require. The great gift you have received is still current and necessary also for this age of ours, because it is founded on charity that will never cease (cf 1 Cor 13:8). As a living part of the Church, sent to spread the Gospel so that people have life and have it abundantly (Jn 10:10), you have the wonderful opportunity to do it right through the gestures of caring for life and health, which are both integral and so necessary even in our time.
From the charism initially aroused in Saint Camillus, various ecclesial realities have gradually taken shape which today form a single constellation, that is, a charismatic family composed of men and women religious, secular consecrated persons and lay faithful. None of these realities is the sole depositary or sole holder of the charism, but each receives it as a gift and interprets it and updates it according to its specific vocation, in different historical and geographical contexts. The original charism remains as a central focus, as a perennial source of light and inspiration, understood and embodied dynamically in various forms. Each of them is offered to others in a reciprocal exchange of gifts that enriches everyone, for your common use and in view of the implementation of the same mission. What is this charism? To bear witness in every time and place to the merciful love of Christ towards the sick.
Saint Camillus de Lellis, who you all recognize as your Father, lived in an age in which the possibility of active consecrated life for women had not yet matured, but only that of a contemplative and monastic type. He therefore established an Order of men only. However, he understood well that care for the sick had to be practiced also with the attitudes that are typical of the female soul, so much so as to ask his religious to serve the sick with that affection which a loving mother usually has for her only son who is infirm (Rules of the Society of the Servants of the Sick, 1584, XXVII). The two women's congregations born in the nineteenth century and the secular institutes born in the last century gave completeness to the expression of the charism of mercy towards the sick, enriching you with the distinctly feminine qualities of love and care. May the Virgin Mary, Health of the Sick and Mother of Consecrated Persons, accompany and guide you in this effort. From her we learn how to be close to those who suffer with the tenderness and dedication of a mother. I stop for a while on this word tenderness. It is a word that today risks falling out of the dictionary! We must take it back and implement it again! Christianity without tenderness does not work. Tenderness is a properly Christian attitude; it is also the marrow of our meeting with suffering people.
Dear brothers and sisters, I encourage you to always cultivate communion among yourselves, in that synodal style that I have proposed to the whole Church, listening to each other and listening to the Holy Spirit, in order to value the contribution that each single reality offers to the one Family, so as to more fully express the multiple potentialities that the charism encompasses. Be ever more aware that it is in communion, even if it costs effort, that a charism is revealed authentically and mysteriously fruitful (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 130). In fidelity to the initial inspiration of your Founder and your Foundresses, and listening to the many forms of suffering and poverty experienced by today's humanity, you will know in this way that the gift received will shine with ever new light; and many many young people from all over the world will be able to feel attracted by it and join you, in order to continue witnessing to the tenderness of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, I ask the Holy Spirit to sustain this new step in your journey as the Camillian Charismatic Family. I willingly bless all of you, your communities and the persons you serve. All of you. And please, continue to pray also for me. Thank you.
Original text in Italian
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
addressed to the Camillian Family
Dear brothers and sisters,
It is with joy that I welcome all of you, representatives of the different expressions of the Camillian Family! I greet you with affection and I thank Father Pessini for his words. And I ask the Lord to preserve his sense of humor: you will never have a stomach ulcer! You are constantly engaged in loving and generous giving to the sick, carrying out a precious mission, in the Church and in society, alongside the suffering. When disease manages to upset our lives, we feel the strong need to have a compassionate and competent brother or sister next to us, who comforts us, supports us, helps us to recover the precious gift of health, or one who accompanies us until the end of this life and our final meeting with the Lord!
The Church as a whole has received from her Master and Lord the mandate to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick (cf Lk 9:2), in imitation of Him, the Good Shepherd, the Good Samaritan, who spent time on this earth benefiting and healing all those who were prisoners of evil (Common Preface VIII). But in particular to Saint Camillus de Lellis and to all those who follow his example, God has bestowed the gift of reliving and bearing witness to the merciful love of Christ for the sick. The Church has recognized this as an authentic charism of the Spirit. You live it in an exemplary way, translating it into life according to the double track of directly assisting the sick, especially the poor, in their bodily and spiritual needs, and teaching others the best way to serve them, for the benefit of the Church and of humanity.
All the charisms are gifts the Holy Spirit gives us ... Gifts given not because they are hidden, but in order to help others to participate in them. They are not given for the benefit of those who receive them, but for the use of the people of God. If, on the other hand, a charism ... serves to affirm oneself, it is doubtful whether this is an authentic charism or that it is faithfully lived. Charisms are special graces given to some in order that they might do good for many others (Catechesis, 6 November 2013). They always have a transitive character: they are oriented towards others. Over the years, you have endeavoured to faithfully embody your charism, translating it into a multiplicity of apostolic works and pastoral services for the benefit of suffering humanity throughout the world.
In the light of this mission, which some members of your religious families have lived heroically in becoming models of holiness, you are called to continue your service in a prophetic way. It is a question of looking to the future, open to new forms of apostolate which the Spirit inspires within you and which the signs of the times and the needs of the world and of the Church require. The great gift you have received is still current and necessary also for this age of ours, because it is founded on charity that will never cease (cf 1 Cor 13:8). As a living part of the Church, sent to spread the Gospel so that people have life and have it abundantly (Jn 10:10), you have the wonderful opportunity to do it right through the gestures of caring for life and health, which are both integral and so necessary even in our time.
From the charism initially aroused in Saint Camillus, various ecclesial realities have gradually taken shape which today form a single constellation, that is, a charismatic family composed of men and women religious, secular consecrated persons and lay faithful. None of these realities is the sole depositary or sole holder of the charism, but each receives it as a gift and interprets it and updates it according to its specific vocation, in different historical and geographical contexts. The original charism remains as a central focus, as a perennial source of light and inspiration, understood and embodied dynamically in various forms. Each of them is offered to others in a reciprocal exchange of gifts that enriches everyone, for your common use and in view of the implementation of the same mission. What is this charism? To bear witness in every time and place to the merciful love of Christ towards the sick.
Saint Camillus de Lellis, who you all recognize as your Father, lived in an age in which the possibility of active consecrated life for women had not yet matured, but only that of a contemplative and monastic type. He therefore established an Order of men only. However, he understood well that care for the sick had to be practiced also with the attitudes that are typical of the female soul, so much so as to ask his religious to serve the sick with that affection which a loving mother usually has for her only son who is infirm (Rules of the Society of the Servants of the Sick, 1584, XXVII). The two women's congregations born in the nineteenth century and the secular institutes born in the last century gave completeness to the expression of the charism of mercy towards the sick, enriching you with the distinctly feminine qualities of love and care. May the Virgin Mary, Health of the Sick and Mother of Consecrated Persons, accompany and guide you in this effort. From her we learn how to be close to those who suffer with the tenderness and dedication of a mother. I stop for a while on this word tenderness. It is a word that today risks falling out of the dictionary! We must take it back and implement it again! Christianity without tenderness does not work. Tenderness is a properly Christian attitude; it is also the marrow of our meeting with suffering people.
Dear brothers and sisters, I encourage you to always cultivate communion among yourselves, in that synodal style that I have proposed to the whole Church, listening to each other and listening to the Holy Spirit, in order to value the contribution that each single reality offers to the one Family, so as to more fully express the multiple potentialities that the charism encompasses. Be ever more aware that it is in communion, even if it costs effort, that a charism is revealed authentically and mysteriously fruitful (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 130). In fidelity to the initial inspiration of your Founder and your Foundresses, and listening to the many forms of suffering and poverty experienced by today's humanity, you will know in this way that the gift received will shine with ever new light; and many many young people from all over the world will be able to feel attracted by it and join you, in order to continue witnessing to the tenderness of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, I ask the Holy Spirit to sustain this new step in your journey as the Camillian Charismatic Family. I willingly bless all of you, your communities and the persons you serve. All of you. And please, continue to pray also for me. Thank you.
Original text in Italian
No comments:
Post a Comment