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General Chapter 2016 – Wednesday, June 29

Wednesday, June 29th

El Greco Saints Peter and Paul

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

This could have been a day like any other day… – that could have been a title of another day of our General Chapter. But thanks to a richness of events and the people we have met it became unique.

Commemorizing St. Peter and St. Paul, we started with the Holy Mass celebrated by Father Jarosław Rochowiak, SDB. In the homily he mentioned the theme of our General Chapter: “Be a witness of joy to the world”. He also told us about St. John Bosco and stressed that joy does not only mean entertainment. Most of all it is a style and a way of life, which allows us to be close to the God during our daily activities.

 

Today we also had another guest: Sr. Enrica Rosanna, FMA, professor of Social Sciences in the field of Sociology. Sister invited us to reflect upon a theme “How to keep balance in the community, when we live in an unbalanced world”. Sister started with an excerpt from the Gospel of Matthew 10: 7 (and further), underlining that God’s graces are all gratuitous.

Sister insightfully described the modern society as liquid and lacking points of reference. Today’s world is a world of disposable things, everything – people and things – can be bought and sold. Meanwhile, the most important things such as greetings, a smile, a handshake, are all free. We are a part of this world. St. Pallotti is telling us, as Sister Enrica emphasized, that this is the world that we have to love and evangelize. This is this world which through our General Chapter asks us to renew our life and to find a grain of God in this world. To be true Apostles of Christ, to look forward – same as Pallotti did, and to make Christ known in the world.

In a personal reflection each one of us was thinking how to “keep the old way (our roots) and renew the life”. Sister pointed out the necessity of going back to the beginnings, to our Founder. This can help the community keep its youth.

Reflecting upon the prayer “Our Father…”, Sister guided us also through our reflection upon the community. Our interculturality, diversity and difference is united by the Gospel which is the same for everybody. Getting to know each other, respect and courage – this is our daily bread. We should make sure that every day we make it afresh. My Sister is a sacred land, which is God’s land and requires delicacy and affirmation.

We are a community of consecrated women – as Sr. Enrica said – and by nature we are able to make space for other people and to suffer in order to create a new life.

And all of it was given to us by the Lord… for free. I will pay for all of it – says Jesus.

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