December 28, 2007
Remember: December 29, 2007: Annual Day of Prayer for Pro Sanctity Family Members will be on Saturday, Dec. 29, beginning with Morning Prayer and Mass at 9:30 a.m. with Fr. Carl Zoucha followed by reflection, adoration and conclude with a birthday potluck lunch at 2:00 p.m.Pro Sanctity Center, Elkhorn. INFORMATION: psm@prosanctity.org or 402-289-2670 ALL ARE INVITED!! COME FOR THE WHOLE DAY OR PART!!
Remember: Pray for the Apostolic Oblates in India. They are in the midst of the Week of the Institute (Annual Retreat and AO Meetings).
Remember: Please keep in prayer all the Moderators: Starting January 2, 2008, the Italian Moderators will be meeting and on January 11, the USA Moderators will meet in California.
Remember: December 28, 2007
Today is the birthday of Giuliana Spigone. She was the General Moderator of the Apostolic Oblates for 20 years. She passed away this May l, 2007 – We miss her, but she is with us in spirit.
Caterina Fava wrote this on Giuliana:
More than ever, on this day, we experience the need to be united around our charism, and find connection in a communal experience, namely: the absence of Giuliana as the sister, friend, and mother to each one of us. But while on the one hand we experience the lack of Giuliana’s physical presence, we also believe and are certain that she is close to us in spirit. Neither Giuliana nor our Founder has abandoned us. Though they are not in this world any longer, they continue to pray for us who are in the world that we may not become of the world. “Yes, Father, we are in the world, so help us to not fall into the grip of the world, but protect our fidelity and nourish it with a creative passion for all that is good in our world. Make our glances good and attractive, so that nothing may be impoverished by the way we look at things, and no person feel judged or excluded” (G. Spigone, Jan 5, 2007).
For all of us, Giuliana was a beacon of light that helped us find the right path in the middle of darkness or difficulties, always ready to indicate to us, with truth and love, that which was good or better for our personal and communal sanctification.
Each of us not only was known by her, but also supported and accompanied by her heroic example, her radical self-offering, her generous dedication, and her vigilant and concrete attention.
The last days of her life were the ultimate example of her entire existence totally spent for the Lord and for the Institute. She loved the Lord and gave herself totally to Him, adhering to the demands of redeeming love with faith and perseverance. She repeated her “Eccomi”, “Behold” to the will of the Lord until the end, and gave of her self to each of us to be eaten like flavorful and good, scented bread – a bread she offered with loving hands, like a mother who never grows weary in giving to her children.
To each of us, Giuliana left a piece of truth, a piece of her experience and of self-disclosure, which now we are to share and to witness to each other through mutual support, by rising above our self-centeredness, by recognizing the good in situations, by trusting those around us, including those who are different or incompatible.
More than ever, now, we have the responsibility to give reason to our hoping against hope, as Giuliana taught us. We have the responsibility to remain faithful, and to walk without hesitation – as she witnessed to us – and to be, at any cost, heroic in every virtue, according to her teachings.
More than ever, now, we are called to build together this new historical phase of the Institute, in which each one of us must lay a brick in order to make the edifice grow – this Institute entrusted to us first by the Founder, then by Giuliana. At the same time, however, the history of our Institute is an ever old history in that it is rooted in a charism thought by the Lord from eternity and entrusted into the hands of our ‘Father’ so that it may be proclaimed to all people.
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