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Sao Paulo, 17 August 2011
This morning we celebrated the Memorial of St. Albert Hurtado, a Chilean Jesuit who died in 1952 and was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on 23 Oct. 2005. Sr. M. Hortenzia Lizama, from our Chilean Delegation, opened our Eucharistic Liturgy with a brief sketch of the life of this mystic and apostle, an extraordinary witness of Christ, who wanted the Pauline Family present in Chile. In fact, his high esteem for the Pauline mission prompted him to turn over his book center in Valparaiso to the Daughters of St. Paul and another in Santiago to the Society of St. Paul, and to support our apostolate with his encouragement and prayers. During his homily, Fr. Mario, a Chilean member of the SSP, quoted the following passage from the writings of St. Albert: “Blessed be my activities, all of which are consecrated to God for the sake of my brothers and sisters. Everything prompts me to turn to the Lord and leads me to him. He is the only way. He is my sole concern, my sole refuge….”
We are convinced that the Lord is continuing to arrange all things, including this morning’s Eucharistic Celebration with its particular “color,” to show us that he is confirming what we have been saying over and over again in these days, namely: that we must anchor ourselves in Christ so as to enable him to pour out his immense love on others through the witness of our lives and apostolate. For us, this means putting into practice a profound intuition of Fr. Alberione, who said: “The apostolate is the ‘flower’ of genuine charity toward God and souls. It is the fruit of an intense interior life. It presupposes an ardent heart–one that cannot contain or suppress the fire of its love.”
With this “fire” in our hearts, we dedicated our morning to several particular encounters: one for the circumscription superiors, one for the bursars, and one for the sisters in charge of production and diffusion. Meanwhile, another group of sisters channeled their energies into drafting our Global/Continental Apostolic Project, the product of our enthusiastic but fatiguing labors in these days.
In the afternoon, we examined the rough draft of the document and fine-tuned it. Afterward, the members of each circumscription met together to share ideas as to how to transmit the content of our meeting to their sisters and involve them in concretizing the Project.
This evening we will take a much-needed break from our work by going out for supper. We have been told that the meal will be simple but typically “Brazilian” with regard to food and atmosphere.
Sr. Anna Caiazza
