Each day, the sister in charge of guiding the liturgy of the day focuses special attention on a particular moment in the Eucharistic Celebration. Yesterday, copies of the Bible in different languages were carried to the altar before the Liturgy of the Word and today we were invited to ask God’s forgiveness as a group for our blindness, trusting that Jesus would take us by the hand and heal us as he did the blind man at Bethsaida. Like Fr. Alberione, we feel that we are half-blind persons whom the Lord is enlightening at the right moment, gradually showing us where he wants to lead the Congregation. It is up to us to remain in an attitude of listening to his Word, to the contemporary world, to the magisterium of the Church, to the life of our communities and to the light that each participant in our meeting brings to her work group and to our general assemblies.
Fr. José Antonio Perez, ssp, who celebrated Mass for us this morning, is the Postulator General of the Pauline Family. He reminded us of what a great gift it would be for us, for the Church and for the world to have Fr. Alberione canonized and Maestra Thecla beatified. All that is required to complete their causes are the necessary miracles. Fr. Perez invited us to create a more Gospel-centered climate in our communities so that they will be vibrant signs of the presence of our Founders. He also urged us to make our Founders better known to the people by speaking about them and by encouraging individuals to trustingly ask both Primo Maestro and Prima Maestra to intercede for them.
This morning we returned to our work groups (divided by continent) so as to better concretize several of the initiatives in our continental projects and ensure that they can be evaluated. In the afternoon, each work group told the assembly what clarifications and changes had been made.
In the evenings, we continue to listen to the presentation of special initiatives being carried out in our circumscriptions: the first five e-books of our Italian Province and the non-profit organization it has set up for Communications and Culture; the communitarian and apostolic journey of our French Delegation; the many cultural meetings held in our Montreal book center (with a total of about 5000 participants up to now); the inauguration of a conference hall for animation activities in South Africa; formation courses for parish animators, teachers and catechists in Chile; the inauguration of a Pauline chapel next door to our book center in Puebla, Mexico; and the publishing of the Bible in Malagasy-a project entrusted to our sisters by the Madagascar Episcopal Conference.
Listening to the apostolic passion and creativity with which all these initiatives were carried out, we feel the spontaneous urge to burst forth with the Magnificat in thanksgiving to God for all the amazing things he continues to do through us to make his love known to everyone.