PAQUES POUR VIVRE DANS LE SOUFFLE DE L'ESPRIT SAINTE

Se préparer en Église 

à l’effusion de l’Esprit Saint

 + Vincent Dollmann

Si le Carême est caractérisé par la pénitence et la conversion pour renouveler notre attachement au Christ, le temps de Pâques veut nous ouvrir à la joie de vivre de sa vie de ressuscité. Pâques est alors un temps d’approfondissement de l’action de l’Esprit-Saint en nous. Cet Esprit est celui que Jésus lui-même a reçu au moment de son baptême pour accomplir sa mission jusqu’au bout. Cet Esprit, fruit de la mort et de la résurrection de Jésus et porteur de la vie de Dieu, a été remis aux apôtres pour qu’ils le transmettent à l’humanité entière.

 L’Esprit-Saint est comme le souffle de la charité

 Le récit des Actes parle de l’Esprit comme d’un vent violent. Ce vent n’est pas simplement un souffle qui secoue la maison, mais qui transforme les disciples de l’intérieur. Il remplit toute la maison précise le récit des Actes, et établit ainsi les disciples dans une unité nouvelle, marquée par les liens de charité. Ainsi, davantage qu’un simple soutien extérieur, l’Esprit demeure dans l’Église et dans le cœur de tout baptisé comme dans un temple. Les théologiens des premiers siècles parlaient de l’Esprit comme de l’âme de l’Église. C’est lui qui permet à l’Église d’être le signe et le moyen du lien entre Dieu et les hommes, un lien vivant de communion.

 L’Esprit Saint est comme un feu brûlant de charité

 À la Pentecôte, le livre des Actes mentionne encore un deuxième signe, celui des langues de feu. Le souffle de Dieu qui transforme le cœur des disciples est brûlant comme l’amour de Jésus lui-même, amour qui a sauvé le monde. Jésus avait annoncé sa mort et sa résurrection, comme un feu jeté sur la terre (Cf. Lc 12,49). Les disciples allaient être brûlés de cet amour pour proclamer avec ardeur la résurrection de Jésus. Par l’accueil de l’Esprit-Saint à leur suite, nous ne nous sentirons plus orphelins, mais serons remplis de force. L’Esprit nous guidera et nous assistera en tout lieu et en tout temps. Ou plutôt, c’est Jésus lui-même qui continuera d’œuvrer par l’Esprit-Saint, comme il l’avait promis : « Et moi, je suis avec vous tous les jours jusqu'à la fin du monde » (Mt 28,20).

 Le Veni Creator, prière pour le temps de Pâques

 Cette prière d’invocation à l’Esprit-Saint, attestée dès le IXe siècle, est prévue aux vêpres de la Pentecôte, ainsi qu’aux célébrations de la confirmation et de l’ordination. Elle nous dispose à accueillir l’Esprit-Saint comme Personne divine et à vivre selon ses dons.

 

Viens, Esprit Créateur,

visite l’âme de tes fidèles,

emplis de la grâce d’En-Haut,

les cœurs que tu as créés.

Toi qu’on nomme le Conseiller,

toi, le don du Dieu très-haut,

source vive, feu, charité,

invisible consécration.

Tu es l’Esprit aux sept dons,

le doigt de la droite du Père,

l’Esprit de vérité promis,

toi qui inspires nos paroles.

Enflamme-nous de ta lumière,

emplis nos cœurs de ton amour,

affermis toujours de ta force

la faiblesse de notre corps.

Repousse l’ennemi au loin, donne-nous ta paix sans retard,

sous ta conduite et ton conseil,

nous éviterons toute erreur.

Fais-nous connaître Dieu le Père,

révèle-nous le Fils,

et toi, leur commun Esprit,

fais-nous toujours croire en toi. Amen

 

+Vincent Dollmann, Archevêque de Cambrai, Assistent Ecclésiastique UMEC-WUCT

 

 

EASTER. CHRISTUS VIIVIT

 

LAITYFAMILYLIFE A trimestral bulletin from the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life Share Post Forward Share

N. 1/2024 - Easter On the fifth anniversary of Christus Vivit, and at the beginning of the Holy Week 2024, Pope Francis addresses young people with a newly published message: “Christ is alive and he wants you to be alive!".   The Pontiff's words are an invitation to all people to live with Christ in the days leading up to the Easter Resurrection: “Christ is alive and he loves you with an infinite love. His love for you is unaffected by your failings or your mistakes. He gave his life for you, so in his love for you he does not wait for you to be perfect. Look at his arms outstretched on the cross, and ‘let yourself be saved over and over again’.” (Message of His Holiness Pope Francis to Young People for the Fifth Anniversary of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation “Christus Vivit”, 25 March, 2024)    With these words, the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life wishes you all a Blessed Easter of Resurrection!

From the 25th of February to the 25th of April, a 12-week social campaign to rediscover the relevance of the Pope's letter to young people and keep alive the experience of World Youth Days On the 5th anniversary of Christus Vivit, the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life is accompanying the group of young communicators participating in the Dicastery for Communication's project "Faith Communication in the Digital World", in their design and production of a social campaign for the official Facebook and Instagram accounts of World Youth Day (WYD). All videos are also on playlist on the Dicastery's Youtube Channel The campaign started on Sunday the 25th of February, and will end on the 25th of April, with an aim to bring young people from all over the world together in a twelve-week experience to share the meaning and spirit of Christus Vivit for today’s life, as well as the fruits of the last WYD Lisbon 2023. Starting from the keyword "alive", and through inspirational videos, the campaign calls to action and engagement, because, the wish of the participants in the project "Faith Communication in the Digital World" is that this initiative - with the active contribution of young people who have participated in WYD, their animators and youth pastoral ministers - may keep alive the experience of World Youth Day also in the digital space, and make alive the Holy Father's invitation: " You are the now of God, and he wants you to bear fruit " (ChV 178).   This project, available in many languages, can also be adopted by various realities of the local Churches that wish to transmit a spiritual reflection that reaches young people through social networks. NEWS International InterUniversity Congress “Women in the Church. Builders of Humanity" On March 7 and 8, at the Pontifical University of Santa Croce in Rome, the 2nd edition of the International InterUniversity Congress “Women in the Church. Builders of Humanity". During the Press Conference of presentation, Prof. Gambino, Under-Secretary, offered a  reflection on 10 women saints who, in their different states of life, have sown the Word of God in the world. READ ALL A new page on our website: tools for the pastoral care of Family and Life The website of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life has been enriched with a new page collecting all the tools for the pastoral care of Family and Life, which the Dicastery has created in recent years for dioceses, parishes and ecclesial movements.  It is digital brochure also available in a printable format

GAZA, INTOLERABLE SITUATION

 

Patriarch Pizzaballa:

 Situation in Gaza 

is intolerable

Speaking to an Italian television station, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, says that “everyone must do everything possible to put an end to this situation."

By Vatican News

"It is objectively intolerable."

That’s how Cardinal Gianbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, described the situation in Gaza in a recent interview with the Italian television station TV2000.

“We have always had many problems of all kinds,” he continued, “and even the economic-financial situation has always been very fragile, but there has never been hunger before."

"Everyone—religious, political, and social communities," said Patriarch Pizzaballa, "must do everything possible to put an end this situation."

"The weakness of the United States," emphasised the Patriarch, "creates a great dilemma, because, until now, there has always been someone to put things in order. Now there is no longer anyone to play this role, and we have to do it ourselves. I don't know if, how, or when this will be possible."

Easter in times of war

Speaking days before the beginning of Holy Week, Patriarch Pizzaballa offered his reassurances that permits will be granted to Christians living in Palestinian territories to allow them to visit Jerusalem for liturgies.

"We’ll get the permits," he said. "We insisted, saying that as they had given permits to Muslims for Ramadan, they should also give them to Christians for Easter. Even if the numbers are smaller, we will have several thousand permits both for Palm Sunday and for Easter."

"It will be a difficult Easter," Cardinal Pizzaballa concluded. "I think of the loneliness of Jesus in Gethsemane, which is now shared by all of us."

 Vatican News

VIRTUE GROWS AND CAN BE CULTIVATED

                                                     

- [ AR  - DE  - EN  - ES  - FR  - HR  - IT  - PL  - PT ] -

POPE FRANCIS  

The Roman philosophers called it virtus, the Greeks aretè. The Latin term highlights above all that the virtuous person is strong, courageous, capable of discipline and ascesis: therefore, the exercise of the virtues is the fruit of long germination, requiring effort and even suffering. The Greek word, aretè, instead indicates something that excels, something that emerges, that elicits admiration. The virtuous person therefore does not become warped by distortion, but remains faithful to his own vocation, fully realizing himself.

We would be off-course if we thought that the saints were the exceptions of humanity: a sort of restricted circle of champions who live beyond the limits of our species. The saints, from this perspective we have just introduced regarding the virtues, are instead those who become themselves fully, who fulfil the vocation proper to every man or woman. What a happy world it would be if justice, respect, mutual benevolence, broadmindedness, and hope were the shared normality, and not instead a rare anomaly! This is why the chapter on virtuous action, in these dramatic times of ours in which we often have to come to terms with the worst of humanity, should be rediscovered and practised by all. In a distorted world, we must remember the form in which we were shaped, the image of God that is forever imprinted upon us.

But how can we define the concept of virtue? The Catechism of the Catholic Church offers us a precise and concise definition: “A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good” (no. 1803). Therefore, it is not an improvised or somewhat random good that falls from heaven sporadically. History shows us that even criminals, in moments of lucidity, have performed good deeds; certainly, these deeds are inscribed in the “book of God”, but virtue is something else. It is a goodness that stems from a slow maturation of the person, to the point of becoming an inner characteristic. Virtue is a habitus of freedom. If we are free in every act, and every time we are required to choose between good and evil, virtue is what enables us to have a tendency towards the right choice.

If virtue is such a beautiful gift, a question immediately arises: how is it possible to obtain it? The answer to this question is not simple, it is complex.

For the Christian, the first aid is God’s grace. Indeed, the Holy Spirit acts in us who have been baptized, working in our soul to lead it to a virtuous life. How many Christians have reached holiness through tears, finding they could not overcome some of their weaknesses! But they experienced that God completed that work of good that for them was only a sketch. Grace always precedes our moral commitment.

Moreover, we must never forget the very rich lesson from the wisdom of the ancients, which tells us that virtue grows and can be cultivated. And for this to happen, the first gift to ask of the Spirit is precisely wisdom. The human being is not a free territory for the conquest of pleasures, emotions, instincts, passions, without being able to do anything against these forces, at times chaotic, that dwell within. A priceless gift we possess is open-mindedness, it is the wisdom that can learn from mistakes in order to direct life well. Then, it takes good will: the capacity to choose the good, to form ourselves with ascetic exercise, shunning excesses.

Dear brothers and sisters, this is how we begin our journey through the virtues, in this serene universe that is challenging, but decisive for our happiness.

ESCUELA y BELLEZA

"¿Qué tiene que ver la belleza con eso?

con la escuela?

 El propósito de la vida no es la supervivencia sino la belleza.

Está claro que las cosas luchan por sobrevivir, lo sorprendente es que la lucha apunta a la belleza.

-

- por Alessandro D'Avenia

 

Hace unos días, en una pequeña plaza de Milán, me quedó claro de nuevo: las primeras flores ya brillaban en las ramas de unas magnolias, bajo una luz tranquila de invierno. No fue una anomalía. Muchos se detuvieron a admirar, embargados por ese deseo que despierta la belleza porque, siendo la belleza una vida completa, nos recuerda que estamos hechos para esto: para realizarnos en el tiempo y en el mundo que nos es dado. La belleza pregunta: ¿dónde estás con los regalos de la vida? Y si la belleza es el objetivo de la vida, también debería serlo el objetivo de la educación, que es ayudar a que la vida crezca.

¿Ocurre en el lugar designado, después de la familia, para ello: la escuela? Allí debes descubrir tu propia singularidad y luego hacerla realidad buscando en el mundo y en el tiempo lo que sirve al propósito. Sin embargo, el «Perfil XXI de los graduados» presentado el 29 de febrero por AlmaDiploma , ya analizado en estas páginas, señala que uno de cada dos jóvenes dice tener la dirección de escuela y universidad equivocada. Resultado inevitable de una orientación que está casi ausente en las escuelas secundarias inferiores y superiores. Sales de la escuela media y secundaria poseyendo habilidades, pero no tú mismo. Y sin esto no puedes ser feliz. ¿Por qué?

En un mundo donde el criterio de la felicidad es la eficiencia, lo que importa es adquirir habilidades laborales "prescindibles" lo antes posible.

Ser "gastable" significa ser "comprable", es decir, convertirnos nosotros mismos en un "recurso" para ser "agotados": esto significa recurso, y lamentablemente hemos decidido que las personas son recursos humanos.

Más bien, la felicidad depende de la profundidad de las relaciones que tenemos con el mundo y con los demás: nuestros recuerdos felices, de hecho, se refieren a lo que hemos creado con nuestras actitudes y las relaciones significativas que hemos formado. Si no sé quién soy y con quién estoy, las habilidades son sólo ropa en un maniquí.

La orientación debe servir para descubrir los propios talentos y luego hacerlos florecer en beneficio de los demás a lo largo del tiempo, gracias a los terrenos y a los jardineros elegidos porque son adecuados a esas características, como las magnolias que atraen a los transeúntes a detenerse y a los niños a jugar. Al no conocerse a sí mismos (es decir, al no ser reconocidos por quienes los educan), los niños se basan en impresiones fugaces, elecciones mayoritarias, expectativas familiares. No se puede no elegir, pero si no se tiene la energía y el coraje de una vocación, se elige lo que parece más cierto, más cómodo, más seguro, renunciando así a la propia belleza específica. Es por eso que muchos niños se encuentran en vidas que no son las suyas, con el sentimiento de culpa y ansiedad típicos de una cultura de perfección y desempeño. A diferencia de esas magnolias que hacen lo que están llamadas a hacer en el tiempo que necesitan, en medio del tráfico, corremos el riesgo de ser tragados por ese tráfico: un mundo que nos dice cómo ser y qué hacer antes de permitirnos descubrir. quiénes somos y para quién. ¿Puede una magnolia ser feliz cuando se le pide que produzca peras o que florezca en todas las estaciones? Entrará en contradicción consigo mismo , será explotado (privado de sus frutos) y se marchitará.

Con el objetivo de dar orientación en el centro escolar, este año se introdujo la figura del profesor tutor. Es un primer paso, pero una formación online de 20 horas no puede ser suficiente para el paciente trabajo educativo necesario para descubrir la singularidad de un niño. No te conviertes en jardinero en 20 horas y el hombre es más complejo que una magnolia. Hace unos días leí la entrevista al futbolista Rafa Leão , por el que tengo una simpatía futbolística muy parcial, que hablaba de su infancia en Lisboa: «el balón siempre está en mis pies en un barrio muy popular, la mayor parte sus habitantes son inmigrantes, muchos de ellos procedentes de África. No es un lugar fácil. Lo bueno era que allí había fútbol, jugaba con él desde la mañana hasta la noche. Tardes enteras en el aparcamiento del supermercado. A menudo se trataba de papeles arrugados o una lata o botella utilizada como pelota, mientras que el objetivo era un coche. Mi forma de jugar sigue siendo la misma, el fútbol callejero, hecho de fintas, tiros y astucia". Ese niño, como todo niño, tenía una vocación que le habría hecho feliz: «Dios me hizo un regalo y le estoy agradecido. Mi trabajo es jugar al fútbol, cumplí mi sueño de infancia. ¿Cómo no iba a sonreír?". Y ese niño sigue buscando la belleza y la alegría: «Me encantan las metas bonitas. El fútbol hoy es sólo estadísticas, cifras. Y no me gusta. El fútbol es magia, alegría. Me enoja que la gente sólo piense en números. No soy así. Porque la gente tiene que divertirse. Entonces yo también tengo que divertirme. Estoy a favor de la belleza." Pero sin lo que su familia y sus primeros maestros hicieron por él, ese talento se habría desperdiciado.

 Los niveles de vida hablan diferentes dialectos pero el lenguaje es el mismo: el talento del futbolista y el de las magnolias son regalos que se dan a los individuos en beneficio del mundo. Descubrí que las magnolias de esa plaza se llaman soulangeane , una especie cuyas flores blancas, rosadas y moradas florecen mientras las ramas de los demás árboles aún están desnudas. Su nombre proviene de un oficial del ejército napoleónico, Étienne Soulange -Bodin (1774-1846), quien creó el híbrido a partir de dos variedades chinas en la campaña a la que dedicó la segunda parte de su vida, convirtiéndose en un famoso botánico. Un hombre que había perdido el tiempo en campañas militares pudo volver a las campañas reales, a su vocación y a la de todo hombre: crear belleza. Hoy pensamos en una persona en formación como una máquina en la que instalar un software cada vez más actualizado y más rápido; en cambio, nos parecemos más a las plantas que, con su energía intrínseca y específica, crean, sin prisa ni demora, la belleza a la que están llamadas. Y no lo hacen en competición (competencia y competencia tienen la misma raíz y por tanto tendrán los mismos frutos: todos luchan por emerger pero sabemos que los que ya están aventajados lo lograrán), sino en colaboración (trabajando juntos: cada uno emerge por su unicidad que lo hace necesario a los demás, de los cuales él a su vez necesita).

La cooperación es para mí uno de los capítulos más interesantes de la botánica reciente,
desarrollado en los últimos años por los estudios de Suzanne Simard que ha reescrito el paradigma competitivo en la evolución de las plantas (recomiendo el TedTalk «Cómo los árboles hablan entre sí otro » de 2016 y su libro El árbol madre ): cuando el árbol de un grupo se ve amenazado o enferma, los demás ejemplares, incluso de especies diferentes, intercambian no sólo información aérea a través de hormonas difusibles sino sobre todo nutrientes a través de la inmensa red de sus raíces. Los árboles no son ante todo actores individuales que compiten por los recursos, sino un sistema colaborativo, en el que algunos árboles, por su edad, desempeñan un papel central en el nacimiento y la vida de los más jóvenes: este sistema es definido por Simard como « inteligencia del bosque ". Hasta que la escuela tenga esta inteligencia, sólo utilizará el lenguaje de la utilidad y la eficiencia (rendimiento, créditos, deudas, habilidades...) y no el de la vida (crecimiento, maduración, cooperación, vocación...) sus "brotes" serán a menudo se marchitan antes de la "madurez" en lugar de volverse hermosas como las magnolias que, incluso sobre el asfalto transitado y contaminado, nos empujan a detenernos, respirar y preguntarnos por qué y para quién estamos aquí.

 

Él pone los ojos en blanco hacia el cielo.

 

SCHOOL and BEAUTY

 

"What does beauty have to do with it

with the school?

 The purpose of life is not survival but beauty.

It is clear that things struggle to survive, what is surprising is that the struggle aims at beauty.

-

- by Alessandro D'Avenia

 

A few days ago it became clear to me once again in a small square in Milan: the first blooms were already shining on the branches of some magnolias, in a still winter light. It wasn't an anomaly. Many stopped to admire, seized by that desire that beauty awakens because, beauty being a complete life, it reminds us that we are made for this: to fulfill ourselves in the time and in the world given to us. Beauty asks: where are you with the gifts of life? And if beauty is the aim of life, it should also be the aim of education which is to help life grow.

Does it happen in the place designated, after the family, for this: the school? There you should discover your own uniqueness and then bring it to fruition by searching in the world and in time for what serves the purpose. Yet, the «XXI Profile of graduates» presented on 29 February by AlmaDiploma , already analyzed on these pages, reports that one in two young people say they have the wrong school and university address. Inevitable outcome of an orientation that is almost absent in lower and upper secondary schools. You leave middle school and high school possessing skills, but not yourself. And without this you cannot be happy. Why?

In a world where the criterion of happiness is efficiency, what matters is to acquire "spendable" skills at work as soon as possible.

Being "spendable" means being "purchasable", that is, becoming a "resource" ourselves to be "exhausted": this means resource, and unfortunately we have decided that people are human resources.

Instead, happiness depends on the depth of relationships we have with the world and with others: our happy memories in fact concern what we have created with our attitudes and the significant relationships we have formed. If I don't know who I am and who I'm with, skills are just clothes on a mannequin.

Orientation should serve to discover one's talents and then make them flourish for the benefit of others over time, thanks to land and gardeners chosen because they are suitable for those characteristics, such as the magnolias that attract passers-by to stop and children to play. Not knowing themselves (i.e. not being recognized by those who educate them), children rely on fleeting impressions, majority choices, family expectations. One cannot not choose but if one does not have the energy and courage of a vocation, one chooses what seems most certain, comfortable, safe, thus giving up one's own specific beauty. This is why many kids find themselves in lives that are not theirs, with the sense of guilt and anxiety typical of a culture of perfection and performance. Unlike those magnolias who do what they are called to do in the time they need, right in the middle of traffic, we risk being swallowed up by that traffic: a world that tells us how to be and what to do before allowing us to discover who we are and for whom. Can a magnolia be happy when asked to bear pears or to flower in all seasons? It will come into contradiction with itself , it will be exploited (deprived of its fruits) and it will wither.

With the aim of providing orientation in the school, the figure of the tutor teacher was introduced this year. It is a first step, but a 20-hour online training cannot be enough for the patient educational work necessary to discover the uniqueness of a child. You don't become a gardener in 20 hours and man is more complex than a magnolia. A few days ago I read the interview with the footballer Rafa Leão , for whom I have a very partial footballing sympathy, who spoke about his childhood in Lisbon: «the ball is always at my feet in a very working-class neighbourhood, most of its inhabitants are immigrants, many from Africa. Not an easy place. The good thing was that there was football there, I played with it from morning to night. Entire afternoons in the supermarket car park. Often it was crumpled up papers or a can or bottle used as a ball, while a car was the goal. My way of playing is still the same, street football, made up of feints, shots and cunning." That child, like every child, had a vocation that would have made him happy: «God gave me a gift and I am grateful to him. My job is to play football, I fulfilled my childhood dream. How could I not smile?". And that child continues to look for beauty and joy: «I love beautiful goals. Football today is just statistics, figures. And I don't like it. Football is magic, joy. It makes me angry that people only think about numbers. I'm not like that. Because people have to have fun. So I have to have fun too. I'm for beauty." But without what his family and first teachers did for him, that talent would have gone to waste.

 The levels of life speak different dialects but the language is the same: the talent of the footballer and that of the magnolias are gifts given to individuals for the benefit of the world. I discovered that the magnolias in that square are called soulangeane , a species whose white, pink and purple flowers bloom while the branches of the other trees are still bare. Their name comes from an officer of the Napoleonic army, Étienne Soulange -Bodin (1774–1846), who created the hybrid from two Chinese varieties in the campaign to which he dedicated the second part of his life, becoming a famous botanist. A man who had wasted time in military campaigns was then able to return to the actual campaigns, his vocation, and that of every man: to create beauty. Today we think of a person in training as a machine on which to install increasingly updated and faster software; instead, we are more similar to plants which, with their intrinsic and specific energy, create, without haste or delay, the beauty to which they are called. And they do not do it in competition (competence and competition have the same root and will therefore have the same fruits: everyone fights to emerge but we know that those who are already advantaged will succeed), but in collaboration (working together: each one emerges for his uniqueness which makes him makes it necessary to others, which it in turn needs).

Cooperation is for me one of the most interesting chapters of recent botany, developed in recent years by the studies of Suzanne Simard who has rewritten the competitive paradigm in the evolution of plants (I recommend the TedTalk «How trees talk to each other » of 2016 and his book The mother tree ): when the tree of a group is threatened or becomes ill, the other specimens, even of different species, exchange not only aerial information via diffusible hormones but above all nutrients through l the immense network of their roots. Trees are not first and foremost individual actors competing for resources, but a collaborative system, with some trees which due to their age have a central role in the birth and life of the youngest ones. This system is defined by Simard as « intelligence of the forest ». Until the school has this intelligence, it will only use the language of usefulness and efficiency (performance, credits, debts, skills...) and not of life (growth, maturation, cooperation, vocation...) its « shoots" will often wither before "maturity" instead of becoming beautiful like the magnolias which, even on busy and polluted asphalt, push us to stop and breathe and ask ourselves why and for whom we are here.

 

He rolls his eyes towards the sky