The Joy of Consecrated Life revealed on the 14 February, the feast day of Saints Cyril and Methodius, patrons of Europe.

 A short diary page.

 14 February 2023 Pray for peace The Feast of Sts Cyril and Methodius Patrons of Europe.

Sts Cyril and Methodius (9^th century) is the feastday today. I met in the aftenoon a young Czech Salesian novice who lived very close to the place in the Czech republic where Cyril and Methodius lived. In Eastern Europe they are venerated and known as we in England might know Thomas More and John Fisher (16^th Century) or much before that time St Cuthbert (7^th Century). Near to our Abbey at Ampleforth in the 12^th century lived St Aelred of Rievaulx. We know the places where these people lived, the landscape, and can intuit something about them from within. She could do the same as Cyril and Methodius lived down the road from where she was brought up. 

We had a day of praying for peace yesterday, done in a modern and yet traditional way, linking to the roots of the Christian life shared as consecrated religious linked with the other consecrated people. This does not include only men or women in religious life, as once baptised every Christian is consecrated. That is a modern and blessed approach blessed by the Church, about how to learn mutually what is our role in Religious life in the confused world of today. It implies mutual support, mutual Christian Love, and mutual Christian learning with others amid the difficulties of Europe.

One thing that may unite all these Saints of old and us today is their joy in the Lord. Not all those in vocations in the Church are joyful. The joy was tangible on this day. There are different ways of getting back to the heart of what it meant and what it means to be disciples of Jesus throughout these centuries and up to our times. It is all connected with the teaching of the gospel. “Unless you can become like little children you will not enter the Kingdom” and “Why worry? You are worth much more to God than the birds and the flowers and they do not worry”. Of course there are also the other more adult words like “Unless you take up your cross every day you cannot be my disciple”.

I was astonished when this bus load of mainly quite young and enthusiastic young girl novices or professed Salesians and Augustinians arrived yesterday.

They had some impressive older nuns with them and one indeed is the founder of a new Augustinian religious order, a Spanish nun. She was influenced by Fr Manolo Morales, an Augustinian from Spain who is still alive. He had the capacity to remain Spanish through and through and at the same time to enter the Italian culture of the centre of the Religious involved with the spirituality of communion in the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s. He has been in Spain since and is a remarkable man still living despite having many illnesses. The other Spaniard who gave this new order retreats was a Claretian priest who died this year, absolutely involved in this same communitarian way, and a very fine Claretian, called Leandro Fanlo. I went on holiday with Leandro about 6 to 8 times in Spain and got to know his family. He was another fine and joyful man.

These novices and young religious had an innate joy and positive spirit within them. I was astonished to meet a rather diminutive and shy Russian girl, now also a Salesian novice, and with that same joy. They were all led by a Salesian priest called Maurizio. He is their chaplain nearby Rome, and he organised this trip, three hours or so each way for one day. The other Salesian novices were from Poland, Croatia, Czech Republic and Italy, about 30 of them for the whole of Europe. There were Spaniards, a German, and from South America.

We had various sessions. An introduction was first with the young aspiring to be consecraated focolarini and focolarine from India, Burundi, Venezuela and Vietnam. They set the tone and the young ones joined in asking questions and getting replies. Then an explanation on Art and its importance being a good Christian in the beautiful Church of Loppiano, the “Theotokos, the Mother of God”. This was followed by mass and a short homily how the spirituality of Unity can help all in the Church and the world, including Religious Life. 

This is the picnic in the house where i live; I was in the house of the sisters for the picnic.

St Benedict and the gospel talk of the narrow door we must pass through to enter the kingdom but how well worthwhile that is. 

After lunch some of the young nuns and Fr Maurizio SDB in the kitchen of Claritas.

We divided into two for a picnic lunch that they had brought to the place where I live and the place where the women religious live. More was added like drinks, and crisps and fruit. It was a beautiful sunny day so lunch was outside in the warmth of the sun. 

The crowning continuation and finale of the day from 3pm to 4.30 pm was a visit to the Gen Verde, the girls who run the music group. In my tiredness I went with them all rather reluctantly if truth be told and what emerged was a real dialogue person to person and yet in this group. Here the joy came out to the full. It had been a gift from God.

Walking up to the house of the Loppiano Singing group, Gen Verde. The bus could not get up there. Fr Maurizio leads the group striding out.

It took time to build up that relationship between this international singing group and the young Religious sisters. Only five of the 19 members of the singers and 2 of the technicians were with us. But they soon clicked. One young Italian girl among the singers, Anna Lisa, is very modern in her style of clothes and hair. She shared her story. It was straight forward, simple and honest and certainly touched me. I think it was the same for all. 

I chatted personally to her with one of the young Salesians as we were saying goodbye with a final photo of everyone. I think she could easily have been a complicated young lady. She has been saved by the Holy Spirit leading her to Christ. I know of a musician in Scotland who has been at the Birmingham Conservatoire who spent some time with the young ladies of this Loppiano music group. She and Anna Lisa had a good friendship. There are not many like Anna Lisa who make this strong experience of God’s Love in Europe and change their lives so completely. 

If it can happen to one it could happen to all. To my mind she is like a personal model of what is needed in our very sad continent of Europe. Instead of being a lost and probably spoiled person as she is an only child, she is now normal and friendly. In fact her greatest struggle was to tell her bereaved parents who had left home in the far north of Italy, that she had found herself with the consecrated focolarine. She knew how upset they were. God had brought her through events to be part of this internationally known music group. One day she had the courage to talk to her father and mother and say that she loved them both and all her friends but she was happy and contented there. Please could they understand! And both parents with great detachment said as every good parents would say: “If you are truly happy what more could we want for our daughter!

In the end the young novices and these young girls of Gen Verde all sang a song for us that at present is one of their songs that is much appreciated. Then later the young religious and the five Gen Verde singing girls all got on the stage and all sang it. I took a video of them all. 

Sadly I did not take a video of what happened next. They all joined together in doing the musicians dance routine. It is something that I cannot do as I am uncoordinated when it comes to the fast moving movements. The young religious took to it like fishes in water. They did not know the moves that the five members of the singing group knew by heart, but you could not tell. The young sisters picked them up immediately and loved it with smiles on their faces and great joy. This was true for the shy Russian novice from somewhere near Moscow as well.

The final photo of all of us before the 3-hour drive back to the east of Rome in the Alban hills from the Tuscan Hills. Anna Lisa is the girl next to me on my right. The diminutive Russian girl is right in the middle between a white Augustinian with a head dress, and a lady in blue who is nun. The Russian girl has got a military colour top and white writing on it. The Czech girl who lived close by her home in the Czech republic to the home of Cyril and Methodius is 4 along from me. 

I will send you the song they sung on WhatsApp. I tried to put it in the text but it would not play.