Columns
from issue no.02 - 2007


LETTERS FROM THE CONVENTS


POOR CLARES OF THE AVE MARIA CONVENT
Mexico City, Mexico

Our special purpose is to support the Pope with prayers

Mexico City, 10 January 2007

Dear Mr. Senator,
May the joy that the Child of Bethlehem and His Sweetest Mother brought us beat in your heart and in the heart of all of your family. Happy Year 2007!
I wish in the name of all my Sisters and my own to express our gratitude to you: a thousand thanks! For the gift of this very handsome magazine 30Días en la Iglesia y en el mundo, as interesting as it is educational, that we all read and will begin to collect.
Our convent is called “El Ave María”, of the Poor Clare nuns. We have the adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament, because we are daughters of the seraphic Mother Clare and of Saint Francis of Assisi; we have a special purpose: to support the Holy Father as Vicar of Christ with our prayer.
Our work is oil painting, and we are able to support ourselves very well with it.
The Lord has blessed us with vocations and various foundations have arisen. One of these wanted to transform itself into an institute of missionaries that is now found in the five parts of the world. They are the Poor Clare Missionaries of the Most Holy Sacrament and they have three houses in Rome.
I thank you again for this gift which is so beautiful. Count on our prayer for all your intentions.
Affectionate Sister in Jesus Host,

sister María Inés de la Isla


POOR CLARE sisters ASSOCIATION
Windhoek, Namibia

Prayerful greetings from the Poor Clare Sisters of Africa!

Windhoek, 29 January 2007

Dear Mr. Andreotti,
Prayerful greetings from the Poor Clare Sisters of Africa! Some of our Monasteries receive the 30Days magazine, and we are very pleased and thank you.
Is it possible that all of us can receive it so as to benefit from it? Many thanks in advance.

God bless and reward you!
Very sincerely yours in Christ,

sister M. Clara, Poor Clares,
Coordinator of Bikira Maria Association
of English-Speaking Poor Clares of Africa


CONTEMPLATIVE DOMINICAN NUNS OF THE CONVENT OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY
Quillabamba, Peru

We live off our work and the providence of God

Quillabamba, 6 February 2007

Dear Mr. Senator Giulio Andreotti,
That the Lord, source of goodness and wisdom, may fill you full of His gifts so that you may continue to fulfill the difficult and beautiful mission of giving information, not only religious, but also cultural and popular about all that happens in our world of today.
For us, Contemplative Dominican Nuns, founded in 1994 in a mission area (Ceja de Selva), it was a gratifying surprise to receive the magazine 30Días en la Iglesia y en el mundo that you direct marvelously.
We have read the three numbers received so far in the community and we find a further reason on every page why our prayer for so many people who suffer and cry because of an inhuman war should rise with more fervor.
We are certain that the magazine 30Días is a big help for all those who receive it for what it contains and for the message, that each article carries, of love to God, of unity among believers, of peace, justice and truth.
We would like to subscribe to receive it monthly, but our economic conditions don’t allow us because we live day by day through our work and the providence of God. From now on count, as payment, on the prayer and the sacrifice of our Community, so that the Lord helps and accompanies you in order that your magazine 30Días continues to be successful.
May the Lord bless you and all those who work in this great enterprise of bringing the faith and information to all the places on our planet, always under the protection of Mary our Mother.
Fraternally,

sister María Jacinta of the Sacred Family OP, Prioress


PASSIONIST NUNS OF THE MOTHER OF HOLY HOPE CONVENT
São Luis de Montes Belos, Goiás, Brazil

Seventy years of presence of the Passionist Nuns in Brazil

São Luis de Montes Belos,
7 February 2007

Dear Mr. Andreotti,
First of all we say sorry for not having written immediately, thanking you for the great kindness of having included us in the group of the contemplative religious who receive the magazine 30Dias na Igreja e no mundo. God reward you.
We are sincerely grateful for the dispatch of this magazine rich in news, stimulating, that occupies itself with keeping us informed.
We liked very much the issue that reported on the works of painting of the dear nuns (n. 10, October 2006). Congratulations. We too would like to show our works of statues, wax and embroideries, if possible.
We introduce ourselves for the first time, speaking about the jubilee commemoration of seventy years of presence of the Passionist Nuns in Brazil. On 26 November 2006 we were in San Paolo to celebrate this anniversary. We were thirty-five Passionists from the four Passionist Convents in Brazil. The commemoration of the jubilee was very beautiful. We finished with a five-day course, for the revitalization and the remodeling of the Passionist convents in Brazil.
Count always on our prayers; the Lord bless and reward you for all the good in favor of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
Greetings in Jesus Crucified.

Sister Maria da Paz Prado CP


PASSIONIST NUNS OF THE CONVENT OF GEMMA
Heule-Kortrijk, Belgium

The world has need of saints again, like the Saint Curé d’ Ars

Heule, 11 February 2007

Mr. Senator,
We have been pleasantly surprized to receive your admirable magazine, a real pearl, for the fifth time, and in the French language, so rich in interesting articles about topical events and the Christian faith. Thank you for the booklet Qui prie sauve son âme [Who prays is saved], complimentary for Christmas.
In return for your so generous gift, we will pray for you and for your apostolate, as also for those who help you with their gifts, and we ask the Lord to bless your activity and support your commitment so that it always remains evangelical and fully ecclesial.
Thank you with all our hearts for the esteem you manifest for the Contemplative Passionist Nuns, an institute founded by Saint Paul of the Cross (an Italian) in 1771, of which our convent is the second in Belgium, since 1953.
Our small church is a real place of prayer in union with Fatima: we have in fact a very big and beautiful statue of the Madonna of Fatima (the biggest in Belgium).
Each week, a prayer group “Le Cénacle” comes to pray the evening for peace among people.
The decadence in Europe makes us very sad, but we have faith in the Lord.
We cannot be really useful if not through silence, prayer and the fidelity to the spirit of our vocation of Passionists dedicated to Christ Suffering and to the Mother of Sorrows.
The world has need of saints again, such as the Saint Curé d’Ars. With our sincere affection in Jesus and Mary,

the Superior and the Passionist Nuns


Poor CLARES OF THE SAINT CLARE CONVENT
Sariaya, Philippines

Very handsome magazine

Sariaya, 11 February 2007

Dear Mr. Giulio Andreotti and staff,
Peace and every blessing!
We, the Poor Clare Sisters of Sariaya (Quezon) acknowledge with deep gratitude your loving concern for sending us your very beautiful magazine 30Days. Your wonderful articles have imparted a wide scope of information which have enriched us spiritually. God alone can reward your sublime gesture of love to our Community.
Rest assured of our prayers for you.
Gratefully and lovingly yours in the Lord,

the Poor Clares of Sariaya,
Sister Mary Mycira OSC


CARMELITES OF THE SACRED HEART Of JESUS CONVENT
Santo Ângelo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Our Carmel is situated in a missionary region, Rio Grande do Sul

Santo Ângelo, 12 February 2007

Dear Mr. Giulio Andreotti,
The light of the Holy Spirit accompany you always!
With the present, we wish to thank you for the kindness and goodness in sending us the magazine 30Dias na Igreja e no mundo.
Hidden in contemplative seclusion, we try to keep alight and alive the flame of prayer for the Church and for humanity. And your intentions are included there, your wishes and plans. We ask of the Lord that He bless you always and preserve you in health and the willingness to carry on such beautiful and precious work.
We are eleven nuns. Our Carmel is situated in a missionary region, Rio Grande do Sul, where the Jesuits Roque Gonzales, Afonso Rodrigues and João Del Castillo were martyred.
To support ourselves we rely on our work and on the contribution of some benefactors.
We have very valid spiritual help. Our bishops are extremely attentive and support the contemplative life very much. We are grateful for this. May God preserve us and them thus.
Our trust is ever reposed in the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
With much gratitude and affection, we wish you the favors of Heaven.
With all esteem, embrace and prayer,

sister Maria da Imaculada,
Prioress


DIscalCeD CarmeliteS oF OUR LADY OF THE MOST HOLY TrinitY AND saInT JOSEPH CONVENT
Plasencia, Spain

30Days is a window on the world

Plasencia, 14 February 2007

Dear Senator,
The grace of the Holy Spirit live always in your soul.
With great gratitude we received some time ago the offer of the free subscription to your interesting and very complete magazine 30Días that we continue to receive regularly. It is a window on the world that keeps us in touch with what happens in it and motivates us in presenting to the Lord our requests in the face of the numerous necessities that there are in humanity and that require our prayer of intercession. As our mother Saint Teresa said referring to her time: «The world burns, they want to return to condemn Christ...». In reality the world burns because of so much violence, enmities and complications... There is never enough praying done to obtain grace, peace, fraternity, mercy from the Lord...
We raise our prayer also for you and your collaborators that you may remain faithful and strong in your struggle in favor of the good. From your brave magazine your battles for God and His Church resound and He won’t cease to bless you.
From prayer, from the cover and the silence of our Carmelite cloister we accompany in a completely special manner the serene and luminous pontificate of our beloved Pope Benedict XVI that we keep present daily.
Receive, Mr. Senator, the expression of our religious sentiments and our sincere affection in the Lord,

María Consuelo de Santa Faz OCD,
Prioress






Spiritual reading/6


As commentary on the passage from the Creed of the People of God, we publish first of all the incipit of Canon 849 of the Code of Canon Law, promulgated by John Paul II, on the necessity for salvation of Baptism by water or at least by desire. Additionally we publish two brief responses from the Catechism of Saint Pius X on Baptism by desire. Finally, two small passages of the Vatican II Ecumenical Council.
How beautiful and open to hope is the expression “Baptism by desire”. Above all if it is borne in mind as Pope Benedict XVI also recalled in the homily of Ash Wednesday, that it is grace that anticipates our desire. And as, in the prayer for all men (cf. 1Tm. 2, 1), the possibility of every human being of desiring, even if only implicitly, the encounter with Jesus Christ is entrusted to the mystery of God.

Code of Canon Law, Canon 849: «Baptism, gateway to the sacraments, is necessary in fact or at least by desire for salvation».

Catechism of the Christian doctrine published by order of the Supreme Pontiff Saint Pius X, no. 280: «If Baptism is necessary for all, can anyone be saved without Baptism? Without Baptism nobody can be saved; when however Baptism by water cannot be received the Baptism by blood is enough, that is the martyrdom suffered for Jesus Christ, or Baptism by desire that is the love of charity, desirous of the means of salvation founded by God».
The Larger Catechism of Saint Pius X, n. 567: «Can the lack of Baptism be made up for in any way? Martyrdom can make up for the lack of the sacrament of Baptism, which is called Baptism by blood, or an act of perfect love of God or of contrition joined with the at least implicit desire of Baptism, and this is called Baptism by desire».

The Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, n. 22: «Christ died for all men (cf. Rm. 8, 32) and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with this Paschal mystery».

Decree Ad gentes, n. 7: «Though God then, through ways that He alone knows, can bring men who through no fault of theirs are ignorant of the Gospel to that faith “without which it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11, 6), it is however the unavoidable duty of the Church (cf. 1Cor. 9, 16), and at the same time her sacrosanct right, to spread the Gospel; in consequence missionary activity retains in full – today as always – its validity and necessity».


from the Creed of the People of God by Pope Paul VI

The divine design of salvation embraces all men

We believe that the Church is necessary for salvation, because Christ, who is the sole mediator and way of salvation, renders Himself present for us in His body which is the Church. (cf. Lumen Gentium, 14). But the divine design of salvation embraces all men; and those who without fault on their part do not know the Gospel of Christ and His Church, but seek God sincerely, and under the influence of grace endeavor to do His will as recognized through the promptings of their conscience, they, in a number known only to God, can obtain salvation (cf. Lumen Gentium, 16).






LETTERS FROM THE MISSIONS


Father Lino Zucol among a hundred catechumens

Father Lino Zucol among a hundred catechumens

JESUITS
Pariyaram, India

My work among the “casteless”

Pariyaram, 28 January 2007

Dear Senator Mr. Andreotti,
It is Father Lino Zucol who writes to you, a Jesuit missionary of the Val di Non who has worked since 1948 in the midst of the poorest of India, that is among the so-called “untouchables”.
During these years I have always lived in my hovel, always inhabited by frogs, toads and some serpents. I have been bitten however only twice by two big mice and by a non-poisonous serpent.
I am the only Italian missionary to have an Indian passport because they have revoked my Italian citizenship; so when I come to Italy I must always request the visa at the Italian embassy, that grants it to me only for ninety days.
My work is among the “casteless”, who I help with cottages and wells, medicines and education, continuing thus this human promotion, without distinction of caste or religion. Those who wish to unite themselves to the Church are welcome.
I thank you for the beautiful magazine that you send me regularly, I would be grateful if you could send me the books you have published also.
I wish all the blessings of God on the great missionary apostolate and I pray for your intentions.
Pray also for me. Next week I will be 91 years old. Hardly anybody ever comes to visit me here and so I often feel nostalgia for beautiful Italy !
You come to visit me and I will have a big reception Indian style for you, with flowers and garlands, worthy of a great senator.
With great affection and gratitude I remain yours very affectionately.

Father L. M. Zucol SJ


SAINT ANTHONY OF PADUA CONVENT
Sin-el-Fil, Lebanon

We receive 30Giorni with joy and gratitude

Sin-el-Fil, 12 December 2006

Dear Mr. Andreotti, Director of the magazine 30Giorni,
For some months we receive with joy and gratitude the magazine founded and directed by you. We are a Franciscan Conventual Community and in the name of all the monks of our community I want to express our appreciation to you for this gift of yours that arrives regularly to us each month and that offers us the possibility of having news of the Church and of the world through profound articles of different kinds.
Our community is composed of six monks belonging to five different nationalities, including Italian, and we all read and speak Italian. A Latin parish is entrusted to us where many Italians resident in Lebanon come to pray. Our convent and our church are dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua, a saint much beloved and prayed to in our small country.
At the beginning of the Christmas feastdays, we invoke the divine protection on all of you, you and all the équipe that “creates” 30Giorni, on the whole world and on Lebanon which in these days experiences very difficult moments because of the political instability.
Peace and well-being.

Father César Essayan OFM CONV., Guardian


PIME MISSIONARIES
Zamboanga City, Philippines

I live in a multicultural and multireligious situation

Zamboanga City, 29 January 2007

Dear and reputed Senator,
Mr. Giulio Andreotti,
I wish to send you my deepest and most sincere thanks for the magazine to which you subscribed me, that I receive almost regularly and that I read avidly. It is a legitimate tool for a continuous updating and gives a spiritual charge, especially for missionaries who, like me, live in a delicate multicultural and multireligious situation which is the daily reality here in Zamboanga. I wish you health in body and spirit for a long time so that you always succeed in inspiring the minds and hearts of many people who believe in the Lord Jesus. Thank you and best wishes.

Father Nevio Viganò


FRANCISCAN MISSIONARIES
Juruá, Brazil

I feel happy to give my life to the service of this very needy Church

Juruá, 2 February 2007

Dear Director Giulio Andreotti,
Peace and well-being!
Your magazine 30Giorni has accompanied me for many years, always browsed and read with interest. I was even more surprized when it reached me here in Juruá, in the Amazon, given that I hadn’t hoped to receive it anymore.
In fact, after more than fifteen years of service as diocesan bishop in the diocese, of recent creation, of Luziânia (Goiás), I asked the Holy Father John Paul II for the blessing of working a little – as long as God allowed it – in the immense Amazon.
I have been here since 1 January 2005 as parochial administrator of Juruá, where for more than fourteen years there had never been a priest. The situation is not easy, but I feel happy to give my life to the service of this very needy Church. I feel even happier because in this year 2007 the Church of all of Brazil is turning its attention specifically toward the Amazon! The Lenten “Campanha da Fraternidade” places the Amazon at its center with its geographical, social, cultural complexity of evangelization. We hope that the blessing of God produces many precious fruits!
Appreciative and thankful,

father Agostinho Stefan Januszewicz OFM CONV.,
Bishop Emeritus of Luziânia




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