CARMELItE NUNS OF THE CARMEL CONVENT
Thanjavur, India

30Days: a bouquet of colorful flowers

Thanjavur, 27 March 2008

Dear brother, Mr Giulio Andreotti,
We are happy to write about 30Days that is for us a very special bouquet with a collection of colorful flowers. It is a very informative magazine, educational and artistic. The article with the heading Encounter (No. 12, December 2007, pp. 64-65) was really touching and inspiring, even though quite brief. 30Days, through the various topics covered, helps us to pray and to know many things and events which we are not aware of. The article about Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face is excellent and opened our minds. All our novices who read it were very affected.
We are writing this especially to thank you with all our hands joined together close to our hearts for sending us this wonderful bouquet: 30Days.
May the peace of Our Lord Jesus Christ Who is resurrected and gave all of us a new life in Him be with us always.
With all affection and prayers we wish you a Spirit filled Easter and we also thank the Lord for having united us in His Spirit.
With all affection,

the Community of Carmelite Nuns of Thanjavur


CARMELITE NUNS OF THE MONASTERY OF ASHRAM
Raipur, India

Thanks for Who prays is saved

Raipur, 15 June 2008

Dear Mr Andreotti,
This is to say a big thanks for the book Who prays is saved. The parcel arrived in good condition and within ten days after you dispatched it. May the Good Lord Jesus bless you abundantly for this kindness. Sorry for the delay in acknowledging it.
Except for the January number of the magazine 30Days, we have not received further copies. If you sent them and they went astray, we would be grateful to receive the missing copies, unless you have stopped sending them to us, for whatever reason.
But we assure you of our prayers now and always that your good work may bring the straying sheep back to the fold of the Good Shepherd. May the good Jesus and His Virgin Mother enfold you all in their arms.
Yours ever grateful in our Lord.

Sister Mary Magdalene, OCD
(for the Mother Prioress)


TERESIAN CARMELITE SISTERS
Chotparua, India

30Days for the Sisters in West Bengal

Chotparua, 14 March 2008

Dear Mr Senator Andreotti,
Recently I came across a copy of 30Days in the Church and in the world and I find it very useful and interesting for us, the Teresian Carmelite Sisters and Novices. I would be very grateful if you could give us a free subscription as we are a poor Congregation. The articles on the Church, Popes, Cardinals and the events in the Vatican are very informative for us.
We are five Sisters and nine Novices in our Convent of the Congregation of the Teresian Carmelites (C.T.C.), which is an indigenous religious Congregation. In June, twelve more Novices will join us. Our Sisters work West Bengal in different mission stations doing pastoral, educational, medical and social work. 30Days is a deeply spiritual magazine, which gives plenty of information. It is a great incentive for our spiritual life and apostolate as well as for formation work in the Novitiate.
I would be very grateful if you could send 30Days in the English edition.
God bless you, your collaborators and your fine apostolate. I wish you all the best and assure you of our prayers.
Thanking you in anticipation and hoping to receive 30Days I remain in union of prayers.
Yours, very gratefully,

sister Josetta, CTC

“Licet autem fidei assensus nequaquam sit motus animi caecus: nemo tamen evangelicae praedicationi consentire potest, sicut oportet ad salutem consequendam, absque illuminatione et inspiratione Spiritus Sancti, qui dat omnibus suavitatem in consentiendo et credendo veritati” (Denzinger 3010).

“Although the assent of faith is by no means a blind movement of the mind: no one, however, can accept the Gospel preaching, in the way that is necessary for achieving salvation, without the inspiration and illumination of the Holy Spirit, who gives to all joy and ease in accepting and believing the truth”. Vatican I Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution Dei Filius, ch. III

“Deo revelanti praestanda est oboeditio fidei [cfr. Rm 16, 26; coll. Rm 1, 5; 2 Cor 10, 5f], qua homo se totum libere Deo committit plenum revelanti Deo intellectus et voluntatis obsequium praestando et voluntarie revelationi ab Eo datae assentiendo. Quae fides ut praebeatur, opus est praeveniente et adiuvante gratia Dei et internis Spiritus Sancti auxiliis, qui cor moveat et in Deum convertat, mentis oculos aperiat, et det omnibus suavitatem in consentiendo et credendo veritati” (Denzinger 4205).

“The obedience of faith” (Rm 16,26; see 1, 5; 2 Cor 10, 5-6) “is to be given to God who reveals, an obedience by which man commits his whole self freely to God, offering the full submission of intellect and will to God who reveals, and freely assenting to the truth revealed by Him. To make this act of faith, the grace of God and the interior help of the Holy Spirit must precede and assist, moving the heart and turning it to God, opening the eyes of the mind and giving joy and ease to everyone in assenting to the truth and believing it”. Vatican II Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, n.5

“When it comes to faith, the great director is God, because Jesus said: ‘Nobody comes to me unless my Father draws him’” (Jn 6, 44.65). Pope John Paul I, General Audience, Wednesday 13 September 1978

“Our faith is born not of a myth, nor of an idea, but of the encounter with the Risen One, in the life of the Church”. Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, Wednesday 24 September 2008

“Suavitas disci non potest nisi delectet / Joy and ease cannot be learned unless they give pleasure”. Saint Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos 118, 17, 3


Council of Orange of 529

The joy and ease of faith

Canon 7. Si quis per naturae vigorem bonum aliquid, quod ad salutem pertinet vitae aeternae, cogitare, ut expedit, aut eligere, sive salutari, id est evangelicae praedicationi consentire posse confirmat absque illuminatione et inspiratione Spiritus Sancti, qui dat omnibus suavitatem in consentiendo et credendo veritati, haeretico fallitur spiritu, non intellegens vocem Dei in Evangelio dicentis: «Sine me nihil potestis facere» [Gv 15, 5]; et illud Apostoli: «Non quod idonei simus cogitare aliquid a nobis quasi ex nobis, sed sufficientia nostra ex Deo est» [2 Cor 3, 5] (Denzinger 377).

Canon 7. If anyone affirms that, through our natural powers, we can form any right opinion or make any right choice which relates to the salvation of eternal life, or that we can assent to the salvific preaching, that is of the Gospel, without the illumination and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who makes all men joyfully and easefully assent to and believe in the truth, he is led astray by a heretical spirit, and does not understand the voice of God who says in the Gospel, “Because without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15, 5), and the word of the Apostle, “Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God” (2 Cor 3, 5).

XAVERIAN MISSIONARIES
Mohammadpur, Bangladesh

The humble notes of Montini on Augustine

Mohammadpur, 28 August 2008

Dear Senator Giulio Andreotti,
I do not want to let the feast of St. Augustine go by without thanking you for the welcome gift of the book Montini e Agostino. This collection of Augustinian thoughts encourages me to continue in the same method of taking notes drawing on the “great” who always inspire us. In this book we have another testimony to the spiritual preparation of Paul VI, which he systematically brought forward, even through these humble notes. It is good to see his crisp writing mirror his deep and illuminating thinking.
I recently wrote a book, in Bengali, for students, which illustrated the spirituality of the master-disciple relationship in Augustine. I have also accepted the commitment to reprint the Confessions. I am sure that this book can also be helpful in Bangladesh to many souls who seek the God who seeks us.
For me, these notes of Paul VI are already helping me to prepare an anthology of thoughts and prayers of Augustine.
Again, thank you for your good work. Continue with the blessing of God.

Father Silvano Garelli


PARISH OF RUSHERE
Rushere, Uganda

I would like to translate Chi prega si salva into the local language

Rushere, 4 September 2008

Dear Director,
Who can describe the good that 30Giorni does all over the world? I am a Mexican missionary, in Africa for forty-five years. Now I am in a mission in the South-West of Uganda. The magazine 30Giorni comes to the neighboring mission, because of your mercy and kindness, from which we learn what needs to be known of good in the Church and the world.
Now I want to ask a favor on behalf of our Combonian community in the South-West of Uganda. We are greatly lacking in teaching materials for our Christians. So I ask the charity to send me a free booklet (but what a booklet!) Chi prega si salva, in the English and Spanish editions. I also further ask permission to translate the English edition into our local language.
I trust in your more than well-known kindness and accessibility and thank you on behalf of my fellow Combonian brothers and the whole Christian community.
And be assured that in the topic of prayer you and your work will not be missing.
With great respect and gratitude,

father Hector Villalba


DIOCESE OF LUZ
Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Chi prega si salva for the families of the mission

Belo Horizonte, 7 August 2008

Dear friends,
I am a deacon of the diocese of Luz (Mato Grosso) and exercise my ministry in the parish of Santo Antônio Arcos. I came to know the magazine 30Dias in our training house, where I will still reside until the end of this year. In number 4 of 2008 I saw the advertisement for the book Quem reza se salva and I’m interested. The reason for this interest is that I have always dedicated myself to the “pastoral of visits”: I visit the families of our parish and many times meet, as was the case even today, some brothers who find it difficult to pray, and many of them ask for some book or booklet with prayers. I would like if possible to know this book better and know the price including that of shipping.

Deacon Patriky Samuel Batista