POOR CLARES OF THE CONVENT OF SAINT CLARE
Jericó, Antioquia, Colombia

The celebration of the Eucharist fills our life with content

Jericó, 10 January 2007

Dear Senator,
Please receive our cordial greeting of “peace and well-being”, in the spirit of our seraphic fathers Francis and Clare of Assisi.
Unexpectedly we are receiving with great pleasure the precious gift of the review 30Días en la Iglesia y en el mundo, which is read in community. All its articles are of great value since they help us to expand our horizons of prayer.
Our Franciscan Order was founded in the XII century by Francis and Clare of Assisi and through our monasteries and our hidden prayer we contribute to the extension of the Reign of God all over the world. Our life acquires a unique and profound experience of God from our being contemplatives. Because of this, the permanent encounter with Jesus opens to His Word in order to listen to it and to meditate it, to live in community the joy of the Kingdom and to understand that the practice of the constitutions teaches us to live in communion and to accept the instructions of the Church. Prayer, the lectio divina, the celebration of the sacraments, the Eucharist in particular, the solidarity with the poor make themselves life and fill the life of the cloister with content, in which every religious is a sacred person and, with the passing of the time, from the moment that she has donated herself totally to God, has been perceived as a unique being that perpetuates the trajectory of many souls that were witnesses to the contemplative life in the history of the convent.
Our convents live off the unskilled labor of fellow sisters and the generosity of the benefactor friends of the communities, who, everywhere, are not lacking.
Please accept our sincere thanks for the sending of the magazine. We offer our prayers for the good outcome of your apostolate, which does us so much good. Cordially,

sister Maria Regina OSC, Superior, and community


POOR CLARES OF THE CONVENT OF OUR LADY OF VICTORY
Santiago, Chile

From our cloister we make ourselves participants in your missionary work

Santiago, 6 February 2007

Dear Mr. Giulio Andreotti, esteemed in the Lord,
Greeting you cordially in our fathers Francis and Clare, from these far off lands of the American continent, from Santiago in Chile, as a community of Poor Sisters of Saint Clare, of contemplative life, we thank you with all our hearts for the subscription and the free sending of the magazine 30Días en la Iglesia y en el mundo that keeps us up to date with the actual situation of the Church and the world, for which every day we increase our prayers to the God of mercy, imploring the gift of peace, so greatly wished for by the heart of all men: from our silence and our cloister we make ourselves participants in your missionary work.
May the love of God and His Most Holy Mother Mary accompany you and make grow in your heart the gifts of His Holy Spirit and may you be continuously illuminated in all your plans for the good of the universal Church. As daughters of our Holy mother Clare we are called to be: «Sustainers of the wavering limbs of the Mystical Body of Christ» and as it is said in the Acts of the Apostles: «I do not possess either silver or gold, but what I have I give you...»: these are the prayers that we raise daily for your health and your intentions.
May our sweetest mother Saint Clare, declared by formal decree of the Holy See “Patron Saint of television”, intercede for the good outcome of your commitment in favor of the Church.
We say goodbye with great affection and gratitude. Count on our spiritual closeness and our prayers. We hope to be able to receive the booklet Quien reza se salva.
Fraternally in Jesus and Mary,

sister Angela OSC, Superior, and community


DISCALCED CARMELITES OF THE CONVENT OF SAINT FRANCIS DE BORJA
Ayacucho, Peru

To be brought up to date on the events of the world is a further reason to intensify our prayers

Ayacucho, 28 February 2007

Dear Mr. Senator,
May the blessing of God come down on your dear person and on all those who work for your beloved review 30Días. We receive it for some time now but since we cannot subscribe, it surprises us that you continue to send it to us free of charge and punctually, in Spanish, our language. For this we thank you. May God, Who alone grants every good, reward you generously for all the good that your magazine does, since it allows us to be brought up to date on the events of the world: this is a further reason to intensify our prayers.
Moreover, we read it along with our young people of the group “Juventud Carmelitana” because the reflections that it presents does them much good. Thanks for this. I express also my gratitude for the sending of the booklet Quien reza se salva, so very well done, that we will read with our young people and children of the catechism and the cafeteria.
The lack of a magazine of similar quality that brings us up to date on all the activities of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, whom we love as our pastor was felt; if it were possible, we wish that you could send the numbers to us in which his life is recounted in order to introduce him to all those who come to visit us and in particular to our young people and to our catechism children. We would be very grateful.
As contemplatives in the service of the Church, through our silent prayer set apart from the world, we ask our Heavenly Mother that she aid you in this great work of evangelization and that she favors its spread.
With gratitude, in the name of the Sisters of the Community,

María Juana Teresa de la Cruz, Prioress


CONVENT OF THE VISITATION
Panama, Republic of Panama

A marvelous summing up of our duties as Christians

Panama, 18 March 2007

Long live Jesus!
Dear Doctor Giulio,
Please receive in the Divine Heart of Jesus our religious and cordial greeting and our thanks for the magazine 30Días en la Iglesia y en el mundo that very kindly reached us the day before the eve of the Feastday of Saint Joseph.
We have read with great interest the information and the teachings that your magnificent magazine offers us.
May the Divine Heart of Jesus, the Most Holy Virgin and the glorious Patriarch Saint Joseph fill you with their abundant grace and favor these works of yours so meritorious for the good of the Church and the world.
With gratefulness and happy surprise we have also received the booklet Quien reza se salva. A wonderful summing up of our duties as Christians that condenses the Catechism of Christian doctrine. We wish you every success in this great initiative that makes us pray and live our faith.
Forgive us if we allow ourselves to make the somewhat audacious request to send us as many more copies as possible since this small compendium would help us greatly in the apostolate, in order to make sure that our lay siblings live their faith in an easy and instructive way.
Finding ourselves by now half way through Holy Lent, we wish you a Happy Easter of Resurrection, during which we will implore from the Divine Resurrected One many graces and blessings on all your beneficial enterprises. We will pray Him so that He will make you feel our thanks for so much goodness and generosity.
Most affectionately in the Lord Jesus and Holy Mary of the Visitation,

sister María Gonzaga Cifuentes, and the Community
of the Visitación de Saint María de Panamá


AUGUSTINIAN NUNS OF THE CONVENT OF THE INCARNATION
León, Spain

Thanks for the good that you do us with your magazine

León, 25 March 2007

Most Esteemed in the Lord,
We are some recollected contemplative Augustinian nuns and have received, as an attachment to the magazine, a copy of Quien reza se salva. We would appreciate receiving another thirty copies to put at the disposition of the faithful who attend our church. Please indicate to us how we should pay. We would prefer by cash on delivery, because it seems the easiest way to us.
We wish to thank you for all the good that you have been doing us through your beautiful magazine. May the Lord help and bless you always.
Most affectionately in the Lord,

sister María Paz Mouronte


THE POOR CLARES COLETTINES OF THE SACRED HEART CONVENT
Bukoba, Tanzania

We embrace the entire world with prayer and sacrifice

Bukoba, 19 March 2007

Dear Mr. Andreotti,

Pax et bonum!
Greetings of Peace and prayer from all our loving Sisters, Poor Clares Colettines, of Itahwa Monastery of the Sacred heart, in Bukoba Diocese, Tanzania E.A.
We too are now enjoying 30Days, which you are kindly sending us now and then. Thanks be to God Who has given you a heart for the contemplative nuns who are living over the entire world. We too are daughters of Saints Francis and Clare embracing the whole world by means of prayers and sacrifices. We get the news of the Church in the whole world from your magazine 30Days and are better equipped to pray. I hope you would like to know a bit about us. Our Monastery was founded in 1983 officially. Next year we are going to celebrate the Silver Jubilee, and 7 of us will also celebrate our Silver Jubilee because on the very day our Monastery was inaugurated we made our vows. In number at the time being we are 46, 27 nuns in solemn or perpetual vows, the rest in formation.
Here in the Bukoba Diocese it is always ever green, because it rains twice a year and also because we live nearby Lake Victoria, the second greatest lake in the world. By God’s grace in our Monastery it is evergreen spiritually and that’s why we get many vocations. We are called P.C.C., which means Poor Clares Colettines, because our founders came from Besançon France, the Monastery founded by our reformer Our Mother Saint Colette of Corbie. I enclose the photo of some members of our community, with our Annual newsletter.
I humbly ask if you could kindly send us the booklet Who Prays Is Saved. It will surely be useful for us in our community who are contemplatives.
May Saint Clare our glorious Mother Patron of all communication of every kind keep your magazine ever lively in the Church of God. All for God’s glory. Amen.
Yours sincerely in Christ Jesus.

Sister Mary of St. Francis
Mother Abbess and Community
of Poor Clares Colettines, Bukoba


CARMELITES OF OUR LADY OF CARMEL CONVENT
Campo Mourão, Paraná, Brazil

Thanks for the esteem that you demonstrate towards the contemplative life

Campo Mourão, 29 March 2007

Dear Mr. Giulio Andreotti,
Peace and blessing in Jesus Christ our Lord and Redeemer!
I thank you for the esteem and confidence that you demonstrate towards the consecrated life, and in particular the contemplative one. And for the offer of the precious booklet Quem reza se salva. God be praised because people like you exist.
If it were possible, I would like to ask you for some copies of this jewel, if possible about ten, in Portuguese. May Jesus and Most Holy Mary continue to assure that this most beautiful initiative of yours bear abundant fruits for the glory of Our Lord and the triumph of His Church.
God reward you without measure.

Sister Paula from Trinidad

The excerpt from the book Jesus of Nazareth by Benedict XVI is, in our opinion, the simplest and most profound comment on the text of the Creed of the People of God by Paul VI. It is taken from Chapter 7, “The message of the parables”, and speaks about the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10, 25-37).
«If the assault victim is the image of Everyman, the Samaritan can only be the image of Jesus Christ. God himself, who for us is foreign and distant, has set out to take care of his wounded creature. God, though so remote from us, has made himself our neighbor in Jesus Christ. He pours oil and wine into our wounds, a gesture seen as an image of the healing gift of the sacraments, and he brings us to the inn, the Church, in which he arranges our care, and also pays a deposit for the cost of that care. […]
For the mighty imperative expressed in the parable [«Jesus said to him: “Go you and do likewise”»] is not thereby weakened, but only now emerges in its full grandeur. The great theme of love, which is the real thrust of the text, is only now given its full breadth. For now we realize that we are all “alienated”, in need of redemption. Now we realize that we are all in need of the gift of God’s redeeeming love ourselves, so that we too can become “lovers” in our turn. Now we realize that we always need God, who makes himself our neighbor so that we can become neighbors».


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

The love of God makes itself visible in the love of one’s neighbor

We confess that the Kingdom of God begun here below in the Church of Christ is not of this world (cf. Jn 18, 36), whose form is passing (cf. 1Cor 7, 31); and that its proper growth cannot be confounded with the progress of civilization, of science or of human technology, but that it consists in an ever more profound knowledge of the unfathomable riches of Christ, an ever stronger hope in eternal blessings, an ever more ardent response to the love of God, and an ever more generous bestowal of grace and holiness among men. But it is this same love which induces the Church to concern herself constantly about the true temporal welfare of men. Without ceasing to recall to her children that they have not here a lasting dwelling (cf. Heb 13, 14), she also urges them to contribute, each according to his vocation and his means, to the welfare of their earthly city, to promote justice, peace and brotherhood among men, to give their aid freely to their brothers, especially to the poorest and most unfortunate. The deep solicitude of the Church, the Spouse of Christ, for the needs of men, for their joys and hopes, their griefs and efforts, is therefore nothing other than her great desire to be present to them, in order to illuminate them with the light of Christ and to gather them all in Him, their only Savior. This solicitude can never mean that the Church conform herself to the things of this world, or that she lessen the ardor of her expectation of her Lord and of the eternal Kingdom.

DIOCESE OF IJEBU-ODE
Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria

A small very evocative booklet with the simple prayers for the Christian life

Ijebu-Ode, 20 March 2007

Dear Editor,
May the peace of Christ be with you.
I wish to congratulate you for the numerous editions of the magazine 30Days in the Church and in the World. I also wish to thank you immensely for the copies of the magazine you send to me regularly.
I write to ask for more copies of the booklet Who prays is Saved. Having gone through the booklet myself, I found it very inspiring with simple prayers for Christian life.
I humbly request that you send us 500 copies. These copies would be distributed to the clergy and some lay faithful of the Diocese of Ijebu-Ode.
Thank you for your kind considerations.
With prayerful wishes for you and your collaborators. I remain,
Sincerely yours in Christ,

Albert A. Fasina, Bishop of the diocese of Ijebu-Ode


BISHOPRIC OF LOKOSSA, BÉNIN
Lokossa, Bénin

The children express their gratitude for this booklet of prayers

Lokossa, 20 March 2007

Mr. Director,
The very positive answer that you gave to my letter of 5 January 2007 is for me a reason of great joy and gratitude. In fact, I had written to you in order to ask for a reduction in price on the booklet Qui prie sauve son âme. But you offered it to me free of charge and with promptness. You have more than fulfilled my expectations having donated three thousand copies of this precious prayer booklet for the “Coeurs Vaillants et Âmes Vaillantes” children of the diocese of Lokossa. All the children who have benefited from this prayer booklet express their deep gratitude to you for this ecclesial work. Be assured, you and your èquipe, of their prayer and mine. May the Lord bless your work. May our journey towards Easter be a source of grace for you and all your collaborators.
From 17 to 22 September 2007 I will be in Italy on the occasion of the ad limina visit of the bishops of Bénin: I would be happy to greet and meet you, before or after this period, in order to express personally my appreciation and that of all the diocese of Lokossa to you. If this meeting were possible, I ask you to let me know soon so that I can organize my program accordingly.
In renewing the thanks of all the diocese of Lokossa to you, I wish you in anticipation a joyful and Holy Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord.

Victor Agbanou,
Bishop of Lokossa


DIOCESE OF SAN BERNARDO
San Bernardo, Chile

We would like to print 50 thousand issues of Quien reza se salva here

San Bernardo, 12 April 2007

Dear Director,
I regularly receive 30Días in the Spanish edition and wish to congratulate you on the depth, the quality of objectives, the very beautiful images with which you illustrate for us the main events of the world and the Church. Even from afar your editorials serve and they help me and, also when every now and then, we publish some of your articles – indicating the source – in our diocesan bulletins, as the recent one on the relations between the Holy See and China, that outlines the topic perfectly and helps us to understand it, inasmuch as, from this part of the world, it is difficult at times to have simple but clarifying approaches to delicate topics such as this. How much it would please me that many priests of our diocese could receive the magazine, but for now, given our economic difficulties, this is not possible, not even for our Carmelite monastery of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, that is now more than one hundred years old and one of the lungs of our diocese.
I would like to make a specific request of you. There is no doubt that the booklet Quien reza se salva, with the introduction of Cardinal Ratzinger, now our Pope, and the prayers that it includes, is a true aid for every person, but above all for the simpler people. In our diocese we are 780 thousand, the overwhelming majority Catholic, we have forty parishes in a small territory that comprises part of the area south of Santiago, where the poorest sectors of the city are to be found. There is great religious fervor and much popular religiosity, that in our America is one of the pillars of the life of our Church. We have examined the possibility of printing here Quien reza se salva, through the Ediciones Obispado de San Bernardo, and the results are very encouraging. If we made an edition of 50 thousand issues with the same paper and the same measurements as the large format, the total cost would be 33 cents a copy. We want to know whether it is possible to realize this idea, maintaining the format and the paper and adding some of our own characteristic things such as some prayers to the Madonna and the Acordaos [Memorare] of Saint Bernard. It would be an Edition of 30Dias and of the Ediciones Obispado de San Bernardo.
I entrust this idea to the Madonna and pray for you, dear Mr. Giulio, and for all those who work in the magazine. My best wishes for Easter to all,

Juan Ignacio González Errázuriz,
Bishop of San Bernardo