Columns
from issue no.01/02 - 2009


LETTERS FROM THE CONVENTS


POOR CLARES OF THE CASTROGERIZ CONVENT
Castrogeriz, Spain

We look forward to the magazine with great pleasure

Castrogeriz, 9 December 2008

Dear Sir,
For some time now we have been receiving the magazine 30Días and we have never thanked you, even if the Lord, He yes, knows that we have prayed for you and for all your collaborators, because you make it possible that this magazine is distributed worldwide.
Now we sincerely wish to express all our gratitude, given that Christmas time is approaching and it is good to share with our benefactors the joy for the birth of our God
We look forward to the magazine with great pleasure: we appreciate the quality of the articles that bring to our contemplative life such appropriate and useful information. 30Días makes us mindful of so many brothers who are suffering and, at the same time, of so much that others do on behalf of life, of peace, of communion with other religions...
For all this we give thanks to God asking that He safeguard you for many years, so that you can continue to do good in the Church and throughout the world.
We also wish to ask you for some copies of the booklet Quien reza se salva in Spanish.
In fact, some people ask us for small catechisms or prayer booklets with the basic concepts of our faith and we believe that this publication could be very useful to offer or give to the families and friends who want it.
To you and all the team of 30Días we wish that Christmas and new year 2009 be a time of grace in every sense.
May the Child Jesus bring peace and love to this world full of conflicts, but without doubt loved by God
Our prayer before the crib.

The Mother Abbess and Poor Clare nuns


CONVENT OF SAINT CLARE
Úbeda, Spain

I am fascinated by the magazine 30Days

Úbeda, 16 December 2008

Dear Giulio Andreotti,
Peace and wellbeing in your soul. I am an Indian Poor Clare, here in Spain for eleven years already. In my convent we are five sisters, three Spanish and two Indian.
I am fascinated by the magazine 30Days in the Church and in the world. It is wonderful, thank you for your generosity. We thank you whole-heartedly. May the Lord reward you for all the good you do.
I would be grateful if you could please send me two copies of Who prays is saved, in English and Spanish. Thank you!
May the Lord always bless you. Count on my prayers.
With affection and spiritual closeness.
If I may, a hug,

sister Angeles, OSC


NOTRE DAME DES SOURCES CONVENT
Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo

We thank you sincerely for 30Jours

Brazzaville, 26 December 2008

Mr Senator,
The Poor Clare Sisters of Djiri wish you a Happy Christmas and a Holy Year filled with divine blessings. May the Lord bless and keep you, and fill you with His blessings throughout all of 2009.
We thank you sincerely for the magazine 30Jours that we receive regularly, and that interests us greatly. I would like to ask you, if possible, to send us twenty copies of the booklet Quie prie sauve son âme. It would help us a great deal and we could also help some girls who want to share our life.
Please be assured of our grateful prayers,

sister Claire, Poor Clare of Djiri


INMACULADA DE ATACAMA CONVENT
Copiapó, Chile

You cannot imagine the joy I felt when I saw 30Días on the reading table

Copiapó, 31 January 2009

Dear Mr Giulio Andreotti,
Every time I bring the magazine with me to my cell to read and “pray” it I tell myself that I must write a few lines of thanks on behalf of myself and the community.
I am writing from the convent of Inmaculada de Atacama in Copiapó (in the Atacama desert in Chile), and you cannot imagine the joy I felt when I saw 30Días on the reading table... because I come from another convent, that of Sant Cugat del Vallés in Barcelona, and I believed that in this desolate land, I would not have the fortune to read it anymore, but now I know that the Lord rewards us for our efforts. I offered everything and it is clear that the Lord welcomed my “sacrifice” because I’m receiving infinitely more than what I believed I could offer; it is always so, when you come to what we call the land of the mission, and I assure you that this is a land poor in every sense, in great need of evangelization, of priests, of water... of natural water and the water of life, of grace. So I dare even ask your readers to entrust these brothers and sisters in prayer to the Lord so that He may send workers to deal with His harvest, because there is need.
Mr Giulio, you educate us and open the windows of our hearts and the cloister to realities that need to be flooded by the constant prayer of the Church, that need to be purified or loved... and, for this, we must thank you. Thus, I do so on my own behalf and the Dominican sisters of Inmaculada de Atacama.
May the Lord bless your work of apostolate and grant you joy, peace and sanctity of life.
Fraternally,

sister Mary Carmen López Delgado, OP






Spiritual reading/25


From Il cuore e la grazia in sant’Agostino. Distinzione e corrispondenza (The heart and grace in St Augustine. Distinction and correspondence) by Giacomo Tantardini, we publish the following extract in which a passage from Augustine is read, Enarrationes in Psalmos 144, 10 (pp. 328-330).

“Da intellectorem, et totum dixit: “Gratia salvi facti estis” / Give me a person who understands: and [the Apostle] has already said everything by saying: “You have been saved by grace.” / Ubi audis “gratia”, gratis intellige / When you hear “by grace”, you must understand “gratis” [gratuitously]. / Si ergo gratis, nihil tu attulisti, nihil meruisti: / So if you have been saved gratis [gratuitously], you have contributed nothing, you’ve merited nothing: / nam si meritis aliquid redditum est, merces est, non gratia. / in fact if something is given as reward of merit, it is a reward, it is not by grace. / “Gratia”, inquit, “salvi facti estis per fidem”. / “By grace,” he says [the Apostle], “you have been saved through faith”.
“Sed quomodo? / But then how? [how does grace act?] / Ipso in nobis operante; / Through Him who works in us, / quia per fidem locum damus in corde nostro ei / because through faith [recognizing Him] we make room for Him in our heart / qui in nobis et per nos bona operatur / who in us and through us [through our freedom] does good things”. It is Jesus who, through our freedom, produces good works, as Little Theresa of Lisieux wrote: “When I am charitable it is Jesus alone who acts in me”1. This little girl who died at 24 in the convent, when she mentions her being charitable, she immediately adds that this was the most everyday charity, charity to her fellow sisters. “When I am charitable it is Jesus alone who acts in me,” acts in me, that is acts through the freedom of Little Theresa. But it is Jesus who acts embracing with His sweetness her freedom, “liberali suavitate amoris / with a sweetness of love that makes us free”2.
“Audi enim unde opereris bona: / Listen then whence you can work good: / “Ipsius enim sumus figmentum / “We are in fact his creature / creati in Christo Iesu in operibus bonis / created in Christ Jesus in good works / ut in illis ambulemus>”. / so that we may walk in them”. / Ista est suavitas abundans memoriae ipsius circa nos. / This [the fact that He acts in and through our freedom thus completing our freedom] is the overflowing sweetness of His memory toward us”. This attraction of grace is not something extrinsic to freedom, it is the accomplishment itself, the satisfaction itself of freedom, according to the wonderful observation that “liber facit qui libens facit / who acts through attraction acts with freedom3. This is the abundant sweetness of His memory / memoriae ipsius. It alludes to His memory in our regard. His memory is the recognition of His acting in the present. This present action of His accomplishes freedom in sweetness: “liberaliter quia suaviter”4. What satisfies freedom is His memory, His acting recognized.

1 Theresa of Lisieux, Story of a Soul, manuscript C, I, 290.
2 Augustine, Contra Iulianum opus imperfectum III, 112.
3 Augustine, De gratia Christi et de peccato originali I, 13, 14.
4 Augustine, Contra Faustum 22, 27.


Council of Orange of 529

The precariousness of grace: grace is always a gift

Canon 16. Nemo ex eo, quod videtur habere, glorietur, tamquam non acceperit, aut ideo se putet accepisse, quia littera extrinsecus vel, ut legeretur, apparuit, vel, ut audiretur, sonuit. Nam sicut Apostolus dicit: «Si per legem iustitia, ergo Christus gratis mortuus est» [Gal 2, 21]; «ascendens in altum captivavit captivitatem, dedit dona hominibus» [cfr. Eph 4, 8; cf. Ps 68, 19]. Inde habet, quicumque habet; quisquis autem se inde habere negat, aut vere non habet, aut id, «quod habet, auferetur ab eo» [Mt 25, 29] (Denzinger 386).

Canon 16. Let no one glory in what he seems to possess, almost as if he had not received it; or think that he has received it for this reason, because the sign appeared from without, either that it might be read or sounded that it might be heard. For thus says the Apostle: “If justice is through the law, then Christ died for nothing” [Gal 2, 21]”; ascending on high He led captivity captive, He gave gifts to men [cf. Eph 4, 8; cf. Ps 68, 19]. Whoever has, has from Him, but whoever denies that he has from Him, either does not truly possess, or what “he has will be taken away from him” [Mt 25, 29].

The fruitfulness of grace: good works

Canon 18. Nullis meritis gratiam praeveniri. Debetur merces bonis operibus, si fiant; sed gratia, quae non debetur, praecedit, ut fiant (Denzinger 388).

Canon 18. No merits precede grace. A reward is due to good works if they are performed, but grace, which is not due, precedes, that they may be done.






LETTERS FROM THE MISSIONS


MISSIONARIES OF THE CONSOLED
Wamba, Kenya

Thanks for the booklets Who prays is saved

Wamba, 29 October 2008

Although we are in the bush, I received almost immediately, the six parcels containing the precious booklets Who prays is saved.
Very sincere thanks to you, to 30Giorni and also to the Post who this time really showed efficiency.
As I already wrote, these booklets will be placed in the hands of many of our patients here in the Wamba Catholic hospital. They will certainly be of great comfort, hope and support during their convalescence with us and also afterwards... In fact they want to take them home.
The Good Lord knows what the right moments and paths for coming together are. Often he makes use of us, of these booklets also!
Therefore, also on behalf of our patients, I express once again all our gratitude and esteem. Well done! We remember you to the Good God and the Most Holy Consoled,

father Lino Gallina, missionary of the Consoled

P.S. Together with Father Lino’s I join my own sincere thanks on behalf of our sick, wishing you and all your staff a happy Christmas!

Father Joseph Gorzegno, Hospital chaplain


PARISH OF MARÍA AUXILIADORA
Lima, Peru

30Giorni: interesting and topical

Lima, 16 January 2009

Dear Senator Giulio Andreotti,
Best wishes for a happy year.
I am a Salesian priest, born in the province of Padua, but I have been in Peru for fifty-two years. For many years I have known the interesting and ever topical magazine that you direct; I receive it each month and on 15 January I received number 11 of 2008. Thank you sincerely for your generous gesture. May the Lord bless your apostolic mission.
I ask a favor: could you send 30Giorni in Spanish? Thus the dear fellow-brothers and many people of our María Auxiliadora parish could read it.
Thank you. With esteem,

Don Virgilio Zanella


COMBONIAN MISSIONARIES
Bangui, Central African Republic

“It’s truly a beautiful magazine”

Bangui, 21 January 2009

Dear Senator Giulio Andreotti,
Some time ago, a kind lady, one of your subscriptions office staff, offered the subscription to 30Giorni to this our religious house and also to other communities of Combonian missionaries. Immediately our fellow-brothers, on being asked, welcomed this offer with joy. “It’s manna”, someone exclaimed, referring to the free gift. “It’s truly a beautiful magazine”, others said who had already received some copies in the past. A fellow-brother of a community wants it in Italian, “that way there’s less danger that the Postal staff will appropriate it”.
So I send a list of Combonian communities who ask for 30Giorni most enthusiastically, and of other religious communities who have requested it. We would like the French-language edition for all, except, precisely, the community that prefers the Italian edition.
Thanks in advance to you, Mr Senator, and to your staff. We wish everyone a Happy New Year and assure you of our grateful remembrance in prayer,

father Gianantonio Berti, MCCJ


COMBONIAN MISSIONARIES
Rome

The good missionary spirit of 30Giorni

Rome, 23 February 2009

Dear friends,
Sincere greetings in Christ the Good Shepherd.
Writing to Mr Director, I also address those who work for the magazine 30Giorni. It is for some time that I have wanted to thank you for your doing and being on mission with all the missionaries of the world. In these years of my stay in Rome, your magazine has accompanied us with its good missionary spirit. Your articles on the missions were an invitation to every reader and every Christian to live their faith with missionary passion and attention toward those who are the least. Certainly love for the mission and for com-passion towards the suffering gives a deeply evangelical and evangelizing tone to the magazine. I wish that all of you can continue on this road that leads to suffer with the suffering, to listen to those who no one listens to, and to let those poor and forgotten speak who have much to teach us.
With every wish,

father Teresino Serra, Superior General






LETTERS FROM THE SEMINARIES


Redemptoris Mater Missionary Seminary
Washington D.C., United States

The news about the Church is an invaluable resource for our seminarians

Hyattsville, 20 December 2008

Mr Senator Giulio Andreotti,
I am Anthony Palombo from the Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary of Washington D.C. Along with my brother seminarians, I am very grateful for having received your magazine for several months now. The news it provides about the Church throughout the world is an invaluable resource for our thirty seminarians from fifteen different countries.
We would like to express our deep gratitude for your tireless efforts to spread news about the activity of the Church. You can be assured of our prayers for you and for all your collaborators.
Sincerely yours in Christ,

Anthony Palombo


PONTIFICAL URBANIAN COLLEGE
Rome

I thank you wholeheartedly for your “free gift”

Rome, 30 January 2009

Dear Good People of 30Giorni,
Please, allow me to take some few lines to express my thanks and gratitude to the service you have offered me so far. It was in last November that I contacted 30Giorni for the first time to request some of your prayer booklets. Just two weeks later I got them already. I was even ready to pay for them, but there was no invoice or anything else inside the envelope indicating a payment. Normally it would have been be fair to pay for what I got or asked for. So for that “free gift”of yours I thank you wholeheartedly. The Good Lord will surely continue to bless your Apostolate for such generosity.
Some of those prayer booklets I received from you in November I sent them to my family and friends in Papua New Guinea. They liked it very much. My family is of mixed German and Papua New Guinean origin and therefore they have asked me whether it is also possible to have some of the prayer booklets in the German language.
So this is again a small request. Please, would you be kind to send me 10 copies of “Wer betet, wird gerettet” to the address indicated below. I am willing to pay for them or at least to make a small donation. For a good cause one can always contribute something.
God bless you. Yours in Christ,

Christian Sieland


SEMINARY OF THE DIOCESE OF CARTAGE
Cartage, Colombia

Quien reza se salva for the children and the farmers

Obando, 5 February 2009

My name is Ronal Fernando Muriel, I am a seminarian from the Diocese of Cartage. At present, along with another seminarian, I work in the rural area of one of our parishes, in Obando, on the border between the Colombian districts of Valle del Cauca and Quindio.
I ask you fraternally to donate to our missionary activity some copies of the most useful book Quien reza se salva to distribute to some children who are preparing to receive the sacraments and also to the adult farmers with whom we are initiating the Sistema Integral de Nueva Evangelización (SINE).
From now onwards we pray God for your work and ask the Lord for continued blessings for you all.
In Jesus and Mary,

Ronal Muriel


“PAUL VI” MAJOR PROVINCIAL SEMINARY – PROPAEDEUTIC
Mbanga, Cameroon

Qui prie sauve son âme is very useful

Mbanga, 24 November 2008

Mr Senator,
With this I would like to request the sending of the prayer book entitled Qui prie sauve son âme.
On the basis of the presentation that 30Giorni has made, I believe that its content will be of great benefit to the training of seminarians who spend a year of initiation in our institution devoted mainly to prayer, called the year of spirituality.
I would be grateful if you could send us, if possible free of charge, one hundred copies of this precious book of prayers.
Please receive, Mr Senator, the expression of my highest consideration,

monsignor Benoît Ewan, Rector




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