Columns
from issue no.10 - 2006


LETTERS FROM THE CONVENTS


The cloister of the Carmel of the Théotokos and of Saint Joseph

The cloister of the Carmel of the Théotokos and of Saint Joseph

THE NUNS OF THE CARMEL OF THE THÉOTOKOS AND OF SAINT JOSEPH
Kfarmasshoun-Jbeil, Lebanon

The Lord listens to the prayer of the smallest who feel themselves very poor

Kfarmasshoun, Sunday 22 October 2006

May Jesus be always in our souls.
Mister Director,
We have just received your most interesting magazine 30Jours [30Giorni in the French edition] for the fourth time. It is important for us to express all our appreciation to you for having sent it to us despite the problems with the “mail” begun after the aggression against the Lebanese territory.
We have been struck by the fact that the magazine has given prominence to the suffering of this victim-people.
We are of recent foundation: built last year, ours is the “first-born” of the Carmel of the Théotokos and the Unity-Harissa.
May God reward you, Mr. Director, for having thought of this very small growing community that promises you, in turn – as our Mothers of Harissa have said, – to “watch over” the interests of our Mother Church.
The Lord listens to the prayer of the smallest who feel themselves very poor and helpless before your generosity. Without having sought or hoped in it, we have received your magazine as the gift of a mother to her child, and the child can’t but jump for joy in contemplating the beauty of its mother, the Holy Church. As our Holy Mother Saint Teresa of Jesus has transmitted so well to us, we desire to live and die “daughters of the Church”.
It is through this magazine that we read in the open heart of the Church, compassionate mother that suffers in all its members.
May the sweet Virgin Mary – Mother of the Church – protect you and continue to guide your word in this obedience to the truth always, as the Holy Father Benedict XVI has affirmed: « ... so that our words may not be but the instrument through which God can speak... ».


THE POOR CLARES OF THE JESUS, MARY, JOSEPH MONASTERY
Windhoek, Namibia

Thank you for this gift and for your little book Who prays is saved

Windhoek, Monday 25 September 2006

Dear Mister Andreotti,
Peace and all good!
We were agreeably surprised and very happy to receive for the first time, your beautiful magazine 30Days [30Giorni in the English edition] … We find it very interesting, largely educating and opened to the problems of our time. This information helps us to intensify our life of prayer and sacrifice for the needs of the Church and of the whole world. The pictures are very artistic. Thank you so much for this gift and for your little book Who prays is saved [Chi prega si salva in the English edition]!
We are a Cloistrered Community of Poor Clares (Clarisses) founded in 1996 by the monastery of the Poor Clares in Lilongwe, Malawi (East Africa).
We thank you for your appreciation of the Contemplative life, and are asking for your prayers that we may keep high the ideal of St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi.
We can assure you of our faithful prayers for yourself and for your work, so useful in the Church.
May God bless you.

Sister Maria Clara Phulira O.S.C. (Superior)
and Community


CLARISSES OF THE SAINT CLARE MONASTERY
Kiryu-shi, Gumma-Ken, Japan

May Saint Francis de Sales, patron of journalists, bless you

Kiryu, Wednesday 26 July 2006

Dear Senator Andreotti,
What a welcome surprise your gift of 30Days is [30Giorni in the English edition]!
May God reward you! Not only for the magazine, but for the faith you have in the Church’s teaching about the meaning and value of cloistered contemplative Orders.
Although we are fifteen Japanese and one American, we, too, love Italy. There we see the «sweet Christ on earth» in Rome. There is Assisi, where Saint Francis and Saint Clare founded our Order of Poor Clares. It was from Italy that Blessed Pius IX sent, in 1875, Venerable Mother Maddalena Bentivoglio and her sister, Constanza, to the USA to plant the Poor Clares. In 1965 the Boston Poor Clares founded our monastery here in Kiryu, in Japan.
You asked us to make better know the “origins” of our way of life, so I enclose a sermon of the then Cardinal Ratzinger.
Your other request was for suggestions. I am not familiar with what you have done up to now, so perhaps you have already done this. But I believe that Italy’s greatest cultural treasure are her saints – the culture of holiness. Perhaps your readers could be introduced – or reintroduced – to them in beautiful inserts such as you made for Saint Teresa and the “drawing power” of Jesus.
After that may I comment on the issue we received. Thank you for the articles on the Saint Father, his biography and the beautifully written trip to Poland.
And thank you for making known the situation of the Palestinian refugees. Isn’t this the root of the problem there?
May Saint Francis de Sales, patron of journalists, bless you and bring to fruition the seeds of truth that you sow.
Gratefully,

Sister Mary Pius OSC


CARMELITE MONASTERY OF GOSUNG
Mangrimri, South Korea

It is most powerful to keep silence, kneel down and offer all our hearts to God

Mangrimri, Thursday 27 July 2006

Dear Mr. Andreotti,
May the peace of the Lord be with you!
Thanks a lot for your magazine 30Days [30Giorni in the English edition]. It is a great privilege to receive your work.
It is a real help for us to know what happens in the Church and in the world. In fact we hardly get any recent news of the world in the perspective of the Catholic Church. As you know, Korea is not a Catholic country. Our country is in great danger of losing the meaning of virtue. Please, pray for our country. I especially ask for prayer to all the cloistered nuns. I pray that Our Lady of the Immaculate rules our country, as our country has been consecrated to her, and builds the country of Jesus, the Son of God.
I am very impressed by your letter that you have enclosed. I never thought that there would be the person who does this kind of work, what you do to realize the importance of the existence of the cloistered nuns. I truly believe that God is happy with you and your work. Through your work, the world would be better than now.
We keep you, all your staff and your work in our prayer. We offer all our life – prayer, sacrifice, happiness and love, all – for your intentions. May God’s will be done. I pray that you lead people to follow the will of God through your work.
After all, it is most powerful to keep silence, kneel down and offer all our hearts to God. This is our work to do. We will do our part. I am asking you to do your best in your work for God, for the Church and for the world.
Thanks again for all. May God bless you with enormous blessings.

Sr. Johanna of the Cross O.C.D.


NUNS OF THE CARMEL Of LODZ
Lodz, Poland

The subject of your articles is close and precious for us

Lodz, Monday 7 August 2006

Pax Christi!
Dear Mr. Andreotti,
With joy and gratitude we have received the gift of your magazine 30Days [30Giorni in the English edition] and your kind letter. We are very grateful to receive it and we would like to express our profound appreciation.
We thank you for the lovely inspirational articles from all over the world, about the Church, together with the beautiful photographs. We find the magazine most interesting and informative. Here in Carmel, we spend our life with the Church and for the Church, so the subject of your articles is close and precious for us. As contemplative nuns we bear the worries of all mankind in our hearts. We pray everyday for the needs of the contemporary Church, so, with pleasure, we read the letters from other monasteries of contemplative sisters, who find your magazine as an instrument to unite ourselves in prayer for the Church and for all the world.
We have 18 sisters in our community. Half of that number are young, four sisters are in the novitiate. Our monastery is dedicated to Saint Therese of the Child Jesus. It was a great joy to us to find in your magazine an excerpt from her writings “The attraction of Jesus” and the article edited by Don Maurizio Benzi.
Dear Mister Andreotti, may God bless you all in the work to produce your wonderful and valuable magazine. We assure you of our constant prayer for your intention. Do receive the sincere and wholehearted gratitude and best wishes.
With compliments and cordial greetings from Poland,

Sister Anna-Maria of the Holy Spirit OCD,
Prioress with all Sisters


FRANCISCAN NUNS OF THE MONASTERY OF SAINT CLARE
Yenshui, Tainan Hsien, Taiwan

We are truly very pleased and grateful to your kindness and generosity

Yenshui, Saturday 26 August 2006

Dear Senator Giulio Andreotti,
Peace and every blessing to you and your staff in the 30Days magazine [30Giorni in the English edition]!
We are truly very pleased and grateful to your kindness and generosity in including us in your mailing list for free subscriptions. For us who seldom received English news about the Catholic Church worldwide, this magazine allows us to update and be better informed on what is happening beyond our little island, Taiwan. It is indeed a rare privilege for us to receive this kind of gift of yours. The articles of the May and June issues we first received were very informative and encouraged us more to actively share in the work for the Kingdom through faithfulness in our life of prayer.
Senator Andreotti, thank you so much and God be praised in the good work you have done and continue to do! May He be your reward!! Surely we will keep you always in our humble supplications to the Lord and that your magazine will be instrumental in bringing peace and unity in the Catholic Church and the whole world at large.
United with you in prayer,

Sister Veronica Thérèse OSC, Abbess






LETTERS FROM THE MISSIONS


Father Paul Piron in his mission

Father Paul Piron in his mission

SCALABRINIAN MISSIONARIES
Rosario, Argentina

A thanks for what the magazine calls a “little gift”

Rosario, Saturday 15 July 2006

Dear Senator, Mr. Giulio Andreotti,
I could not but lift my pen and send you, almost immediately, our most sincere, deep and happy thanks for the package of magazines of the monthly 30Giorni, that arrived one week ago at the exact addresses of Ituzaingo 5263 and Buenos Aires 1563. How did you find us?
Your personally written letter that you sent to all us Italian priests, monks and nuns scattered throughout the world moved and comforted us. Not only do the politicians think of us (after so much time) to strengthen their parties but also good people who, by means of the press, keep us united to the motherland. Various Italian magazines such as Il Messaggero di Sant’Antonio, Il Rosario di Pompei, and different weeklies from our dioceses arrive to us: La Vita del Popolo (Treviso), La Difesa del popolo (Padova), Vicentini nel mondo and some others; but your magazine is “de luxe”. I have lent it to some teachers in our school, dilettantes in Italian, and they found it “super” …. The glossy paper, the photos in very handsome colors; in short very enthusiastic about the Italian press! My friend was impressed by the outward presentation, I instead was enthused by the inner part, that is by the magazine’s articles. For me, born and raised in Italy (I came to Argentina as soon as I was a priest in 1954), various articles read made me relive very many events of the war and post-war: The struggles between the parties – Don Camillo and Peppone –, the first elections, the partisans, the various characters of the different governments De Gasperi, La Pira, you, who at a certain moment were assigned to Sport…, etc., etc. Not all certainly can have the possibility (such as the youngest) of understanding in depth some articles, if they have not experienced them in their time. But the magazine, opening itself to the problems of the Church and of the world, interests everyone. Reading the feature “Letters from the convents and from the missions”, one sees that your periodical arrives throughout the world. A further thanks for what the magazine calls a “little gift” that however, multiplied by hundreds of people and sent to all the continents, becomes a “costly enormously big gift” certainly. If then you are satisfied, in exchange, by our prayers we will make it ex iustitia.
Renewing the esteem for this typically evangelical gesture, and invoking for you and your collaborators the reward of the Lord and the protection of our blessed founder Giovanni Battista Scalabrini – father of migrants –, we greet you with thankful recognition.
Farewell!

Father Paolo Piron
and the Scalabrinian community of Rosario


DIOCESE OF SAN JOSE DE ANTIQUE, PHILIPPINES
San Jose de Buenavista, Philippines

May I take the liberty of reprinting and translating Chi prega si salva into our local language?

San Jose de Buenavista,
Thursday 31 August 2006

Dear Senator,
Greetings of peace!
I wish to thank you and the deputy editor of 30Days [30Giorni in the English edition] not only for your most useful publication, but also for the supplement Who prays is saved [Chi prega si salva in the English edition]. My diocese has 43 priests and 76 religious sisters, including 4 Poor Clare contemplative nuns.
May I take the liberty of reprinting and translating the supplement into our local language (Kinaray-a)?
Thank you very much. More power for your publication. God bless you.
Sincerely yours,

Romulo T. de la Cruz
Bishop of San Jose de Antique


SALESIAN MISSIONARIES
Hooghly, India

30Giorni is very beautiful, informative and above all clearly truthful

Hooghly, Saturday 26 August 2006

Dear and reputed Senator Andreotti,
Your magazine arrived to me in hospital, where I have been bed-ridden for almost two weeks and on the point of returning to the Basilica of Bandel. Therefore not having computer or typewriter, I answer, to thank you, in the old manner.
I won’t repeat my long history in India since 1936 (I was fifteen and a half years old): you will find it all in the enclosed printouts. I have just completed sixty years of priesthood. I have had a very lovely life: each day has been beautiful. I have always followed the distant fatherland, mind and heart. I am infinitely grateful for the magazine that allows me to live more intensely in the Church, in the world and in the fatherland. It is very beautiful, informative and above all clearly truthful narrating the events of which you have been protagonist.
I apologize for the way of presenting my message. I assure you, Senator Andreotti, you have always been in my esteem as believer and patriot for the faith.
Most affectionately,

Don Luigi Gobetti


SALESIAN MISSIONARIES
Shillong, India

The reflection of Cardinal Martini on the devotion to the Sacred Heart brought me great joy

Shillong, Wednesday 31 August 2006

Dear Senator, Mr. Giulio Andreotti,
Here I am with a heartfelt thank you to you from this mission in India, parish of Saints Peter and Paul created after the arrival of the Holy Father John Paul II, 4 February 1986. The Holy Father proclaimed the message of salvation right in this mission of mine. After that visit, the parish was dedicated to Pope Wojtyla.
The magazine 30Giorni is for me a spring that helps me with the 14.600 neophytes scattered throughout 24 villages. The reflection of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini has brought me great joy in spreading the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with the consecration of the family to Him. Thanks to you, honorable senator, for this precious document. I pray for you and for your work. A greeting from India.

Father Peter Schiavon, parish priest


 




THE DIRECTOR’S MAILBOX


Archbishop Christodoulos

Archbishop Christodoulos

SACRED ARCHBISHOPRIC OF ATHENS
ATHENS

Chi prega si salva, a useful compendium of faith for pious Roman Catholics


Athens, Wednesday 13 September

Dear Sirs,
Archbishop Christodoulos has received the leaflet Who prays is saved [Chi prega si salva in the English edition], a useful compendium of faith for the pious Roman Catholic people, and has asked us to thank you on His behalf.
May the Lord enable you to proceed to similar future publications which aid the work of evangelization.
Yours sincerely,
On behalf of His Beatitude’s Secretariat,
Soterios J. Balatsoukas, PhD


INSTITUTE OF THE NUNS OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION GENOA

The book Mio fratello Albino [My brother Albino] was very fine

Rome, Saturday 5 August 2006

Hail Mary!
Dear Mr. Senator Giulio Andreotti, thank you for the commitment lavished on our dear country, a land of saints, of men and women committed to the good, to freedom and to life.
Among these I also count you and I thank you for the publication of 30Days, the periodical that comes to us and circulates not only in our community but also among those close to us. I pray that the zeal and historic effort with which the magazine is edited, in its dealing with issues often snobbed by the Italian press, do not fail.
I also take advantage of the occasion to show my gratitude for the reprint of the Catechisms that have accompanied and visually involved the preparation for my First Communion and Confession: the clarity of those texts is still exemplary.
I must also thank you for having sent the community the beautiful book Chi prega si salva that has been and is also about to be sent to the missions in the various languages. We shall also use it as a text for the lay movement that centers on our charism, taking advantage of the fact that many doctrinal summaries, prayers and hymns are contained in it. The book Mio fratello Albino was also very fine, enabling the discovery of a new, little known Pope of the smile. The Lord created each of us as missionary and I believe that you, Senator, have found your path; may God bless you and back you in this good work. I attach some information about our Congregation which, with the courage of the humble, works in tranquillity where God calls it to operate, in the certainty that the “fiat” of Mary lives again also through us, today.
We pray for you and for those who collaborate in this work of 30Giorni.
Thank you for what you do for us, for the Church, for our country and for the world.
With esteem and deference, together with the community,

Sister Maria Rosangela Sala,
Mother General Superior


AN UNPUBLISHED LETTER BY VON BALTHASAR on the love of God and Hegel’s dialectic

Instead of Love, Absolute Knowledge operates in Hegel

Dear Director,
I have read with pleasure in the last 30Giorni the article For a spiritual reading. Reading the phrase which, citing Hegel, speaks of those «who claim that grace springs from sin almost as if produced by a dialectic», an episode came to mind of around twenty years ago, in 1987. For my degree thesis in philosophy I was focusing on the theme of the relation between dialectic and theology of the cross in Luther (later, however, I changed topic). So, somewhat brazen-faced, I wrote a letter to Hans Urs von Balthasar, whom obviously I didn’t know, to submit the outline of my research. I started from the idea of a French scholar, H. Schmitz, a pupil of Maritain, whereby there is a line of continuity – in the sense proper to the dialectic – from Luther, the German Protestant mystic Böhme and Hegel. Furthermore I also referred to von Balthasar’s book Il cristiano e l’angoscia [The Christian and anguish], then just published in Italian, in which these issues are also spoken of. I asked finally if he could suggest some text, his or by other authors, on the matter.
Von Balthasar answered me after a week with a little note that I still have. I send you a copy of it, because it seems to me much on the line of the phrase quoted above. Thank you for your work, cordially,

Eugenio Andreatta - Padua


4 May 1987
CH-4051,Basel,
Arnold Böcklinstraße 42

Dear Sir,
As a Catholic which I am, I do without the dialectic (whether that of Böhme, or that of Luther or Hegel); exactly as it was for my teacher, E. Przywara (Analogia Entis I). The cross (and the anguish) has nothing to with the dialectic, because the cross is the evident expiatory love of God. On Luther [you will find] me taking a rigorous position in Teologica II (1985), in which I certainly admit the existence of the Iustus-Peccator question, but with the intent of resolving it in an absolutely different way. Instead of Love, Absolute Knowledge operates in Hegel, which changes everything.
With best wishes. Yours,

HvBalthasar






For a spiritual reading/ 2


The passage that we publish in this number has drawn (like the preceding one, cf. 30Days, no. 9, p. 10) on the Credo of the People of God of Pope Paul VI. It is no other and aims at being no other than the explication of the articles of the Apostles’ Creed on Jesus Christ true God and true man.
True God. Those who had the good fortune of seeing Paul VI recite the Credo of the People of God in Saint Peter’s Square on that 30 June 1968, still have in their mind’s eye and are grateful for the image of the Pope who, after the words in Italian «consubstantial with the Father», added the Greek expression «homoousios to Patri», a sign of humble and ardent fidelity to the deposit of faith.
True man. And us, it is in the encounter with His humanity that we recognize Him true God. The beloved apostle writes that the antichrist is the person who denies Jesus in the flesh (cf. 1John 4.3). That is he denies the humanity of Jesus, and therefore denies the history of Jesus that took place in moments of time and in particular places.
In the mystery of the Word incarnate, Péguy would say, His divinity is obviously more important, but it is His humanity that touches and moves the heart. Denying or idealizing His humanity, as Idealism does, (see the article in this issue on pp. 56-65) is to attempt, because of hatred and diabolic envy, to hinder the happiness of man. It is in fact the encounter with His humanity that endows man already here on the earth with the beginning of happiness.
Augustine already knew through Plato that happiness is in God, but didn’t enjoy this happiness because – he writes – «I didn’t embrace humble my humble God Jesus». And again: «I didn’t enjoy You until I had embraced the mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ Who is God blessed throughout the centuries». As Thomas Aquinas, at the beginning of the part of the Summa Theologica on Jesus Christ, writes «men have been led back to their destiny of happiness through the humanity of Christ». Similarly Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus: «I have always recognized and I still see clearly that we cannot be pleasing to God and receive great graces from Him if not at the hands of the most holy humanity of Christ». And it is splendid that the first document of the Vatican II Ecumenical Council, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, faithfully repeats: «His humanity, in the unity of the person of the Word, is the instrument of our salvation».
The simplicity of Saint Pius X’s Catechism for children helps us safeguard and understand the mystery of «He Who», as Saint Leo the Great writes, «remaining eternal began to exist in time».
«In what way did the Son of God become man? The Son of God became man by taking a body and a soul as we have, in the pure womb of the Virgin Mary, through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Did the Son of God by becoming man cease to be God? The Son of God by becoming man did not cease to be God but remaining true God began also to be true man.
Has Jesus Christ always been? Jesus Christ as God has always been, as man He began to be at the moment of the incarnation».


FROM THE CREDO OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD BY POPE PAUL VI

Raising us by His Resurrection to that sharing in the divine life which is the life of grace

We believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. He is the Eternal Word, born of the Father before time began, and one in substance with the Father, homoousios to Patri, and through Him all things were made. He was incarnate of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, and was made man: equal therefore to the Father according to His divinity, and inferior to the Father according to His humanity;(Denzinger 76), and Himself One, not by some impossible confusion of His natures, but by the unity of His person.(ibid.)
He dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. He proclaimed and established the Kingdom of God and made us know in Himself the Father. He gave us His new commandment to love one another as He loved us. He taught us the way of the Beatitudes of the Gospel: poverty in spirit, meekness, suffering borne with patience, thirst after justice, mercy, purity of heart, will for peace, persecution suffered for justice sake. Under Pontius Pilate He suffered—the Lamb of God bearing on Himself the sins of the world, and He died for us on the Cross, saving us by His redeeming blood. He was buried, and, of His own power, rose on the third day, raising us by His resurrection to that sharing in the divine life which is the life of grace. He ascended to heaven, and He will come again, this time in glory, to judge the living and the dead: each according to his merits—those who have responded to the love and piety of God going to eternal life, those who have refused them to the end going to the fire that is not extinguished.
And His Kingdom will have no end.





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