In four days the Interchapter will be over. Today we worked very intensively to determine our priority and three specific ways to implement it on our journey toward the 11th General Chapter, striving to adapt this priority to the real needs of our communities, without however, lowering our aim. A booklet entitled Piccolo Placido (Little Placid), about a young monk spiritually educated by St. Benedict, recounts a delightful story concerning the young man’s efforts to hit a target with an arrow. Standing behind him, Benedict said: “In order to hit your mark, remember that you always have to aim above it.” The story is self-explanatory: we have to fix our gaze higher than our target in order to reach it.
Sisters, we want to pass on to you three infinitives that have recurred like a leitmotiv throughout this Interchapter, namely: to evaluate, to deepen and to make progress.
To evaluate: serenely, rejoicing in the light we received and remaining undisturbed by the shadows, squarely facing our situation and helping one another to determine lines of action in harmony with it.
To deepen: we felt the need to listen profoundly, to stop and reflect, to be attentive to the voice of God, and to come to an agreement among ourselves concerning concrete, life-oriented proposals.
To make progress: the Pauline saying, I strain ahead, offered us a powerful incentive day after day to continue our journey on the four wheels of the Pauline cart. “To make a little progress every day,” in keeping with the motto that brought Maggiorino Vigolungo to the heights of holiness.
Dear sisters, these three verbs express the spirit of our work, in which you are always affectionately present.
Until tomorrow!
