SISTERS OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CONVENT
Cajamarca, Peru

30Días motivates us to deepen our mission

Cajamarca, 18 September 2010

Dear Senator Andreotti, in the hearts of Jesus and Mary Immaculate.
We write with immense gratitude to express our sincere thanks to you for the magazine 30Días which you send us on a monthly basis. It is of great cultural and spiritual benefit to us because it informs us about everything, making us feel more in communion with the Church and the modern world and motivates us to further deepen our sublime mission of souls consecrated to God in the contemplative life. In fact, as Conceptionist nuns, we are called to follow Jesus Christ radically to generously accommodate the Word and will of the Father, through the silent contemplation of the Mystery of the Redeemer Son, following the example of His Blessed Mother, the Immaculate Virgin, and in the footsteps of our mother foundress, St Beatrice da Silva, to be converted into instruments of salvation for the whole world.
Certainly this is the magazine most informed about the life of the Church and the most complete; so we continue to pray each day for you and the whole team of journalists and editorial staff, that God bless your work and reward you abundantly for all the good you do through the dissemination of this magazine.
Renewing our gratitude, we ask you also to pray for us, so we do not cease to be light for those around us and a constant sign of God’s merciful love for all humanity, especially in this jubilee year – five hundred years since the approval of our Rule – that we inaugurated on 17 September with a solemn Eucharistic celebration and other religious ceremonies, so that we know how to be, for the greater glory of God and for the well-being of our brothers around the world, an always new ferment of unity, fidelity and love.
In union of prayer each day before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,

The Sisters of the Immaculate Conception Convent


THE DISCALCED CARMELITE NUNS OF THE SANTA MARIA CONVENT OF MOUNT CARMEL
San Cristóbal, Táchira, Venezuela

We would be grateful if you could send us some copies of the booklet Quien reza se salva

San Cristóbal, 19 October 2010

Dear Senator Giulio Andreotti,
May the grace and love of God our Father be in your soul in all its fullness.
In this fraternal greeting, wishing you peace and well-being, we want to express our gratitude and appreciation for the great work you accomplish in the Church and throughout the world. We raise this action of thanksgiving to the Lord and may the Holy Spirit continue to enlighten and to accompany you so that this wonderful work may reach to the ends of the earth.
At the same time, we want to tell you that for us it is a real joy to receive your magazine 30Días because it performs a great spiritual good in the hearts of people who have the opportunity to read it, and is also a very effective and practical means of communication and of being in contact with the Church and other religious communities.
With great affection, we send a short biography of our mother Lucía del Niño Jesús y de la Santa Faz, restorer of the Carmel in Venezuela, servant of God, and a compact disc of traditional music as a tribute to this mother so holy, so loved and authentically Venezuelan.
We would be grateful if you could send us some copies of the booklet Quien reza se salva.
May God reward you for everything. Always count on the prayers of this community which never forgets you before the Lord.
For now we wish you a very holy and joyous Christmas and Easter, with a new year of prosperity and happiness.
With a big hug and my blessing, united in Jesus and Mary,

María de Cristo, Prioress


POOR CLARE FRANCISCAN NUNS OF TUI
Tui, Spain

We would like to request twenty-five copies of your booklet Quien reza se salva

Tui, 5 November 2010

Valued and appreciated Director Giulio Andreotti,
For a long time we have benefited from your beautiful magazine 30Días, what is more for free.
We are seven Poor Clare Franciscan nuns and we like the magazine and it helps us, under the spiritual and material aspect, because everything is necessary...
Thus far, we believed that we were offered it by a subscriber but we looked into the matter and came to know that it comes directly from your editorial offices. Thank you sincerely and we hope that we may be able to subscribe, but in the future, because now we have the restoration work of our convent underway (it involves a lot of expense that we hope to be able to sustain).
However, today we wish to request twenty-five copies of your booklet Quien reza se salva for the price of one euro, plus postage. We do not know the conditions of payment. We hope you will have the goodness to inform us.
On behalf of the abbess and the community, I renew the thanks and congratulations for your magazine so distinguished and special, and our best wishes along with those of many people of all ranks and professions. We also offer our daily prayers along with our friends and benefactors in the Lord, so that He may bless you and realize all your desires.
Most affectionately in Jesus,

Sister María del Rosario Álvarez Dominguez, Superior General


BENEDICTINE NUNS OF THE NOTRE-DAME CONVENT
Bouzy-la-Forêt, France

Qui prie sauve son âme to help us pray

Bouzy-la-Forêt, 12 November 2010

Mr Andreotti,
Thank you wholeheartedly for your fine magazine, which you have had the goodness to send us for many years. I have before me number 6/7 2010 and I particularly liked the articles on China, on ecumenism and the history of the Sack of Rome. Just as I jumped for joy in discovering the lovely homily of His Grace Rowan Williams at Lourdes in the September issue of 2008 (I had searched for it everywhere without success).
Since I’m part of an ecumenical group of male and female religious, I would be very grateful if you could send me two or three free copies of Qui prie sauve son âme in French, English, German, Spanish and Italian.
We have the practice of praying together and this would help us a lot.
Thank you and I assure you of our union in prayer.

Sister Paula, Benedictine

Bouzy-la-Forêt, 7 December 2010

Thank you so very much for sending me so generously Qui prie sauve son âme in all the languages. I hadn’t also asked for the Chinese language version, but just yesterday a Chinese girl came to visit me. I gave her some copies and she was very happy. All the other copies will be given to participants at the ecumenical conference.
May you all be blessed,

Sister Paula

EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE OF ANGOLA AND SÃO TOMÉ
Luanda, Angola

Who prays is saved for our Chinese brothers

Luanda, 9 November 2010

Dear Mr Giulio Andreotti,
Director of the magazine 30Giorni nella Chiesa e nel mondo,
in the last days of October, we held our second Plenary Assembly as a Bishops’ Conference. While it took place, a pastoral concern arose for us, that of every pastor of the Church, about some of our members who are attending with a certain diligence our Sunday celebrations. They are our Chinese brothers.
As you know, Mr Andreotti, after the bilateral agreements celebrated between Angola and China in the field of cooperation, we are welcoming many Chinese brothers and, among the many, there are also Catholics. How to give them assistance? This is our concern.
I proposed to my brother bishops in the episcopate, while waiting to be able to contact some Congregation which has Chinese missionaries, to ask the Director of the magazine 30Giorni nella Chiesa e nel mondo, if he could send us (for the 19 dioceses) some of the booklets Quem reza se salva in Chinese. Even a few copies would be of help to us: these faithful could learn the prayers and deepen the Catholic doctrine.
All were in agreement and this is the reason for my request, on behalf of the Bishops’ Conference. We have Chinese Catholics in almost all of our dioceses. As pastors we can not leave them without adequate assistance.
In the certainty of always finding your understanding, I renew my best wishes of esteem and gratitude, assuring you, Sir, of my prayers.

Emílio Sumbelelo, Bishop of the diocese of Uíje and secretary general of the Episcopal Conference of Angola and São Tomé

Luanda, 25 November 2010

Dearest Editorial Staff of 30Giorni,
I am very grateful to you for having sent the copies. On the 4th of December we will have the meeting of all the bishops of the Conference and I will announce the good news. May God always bless your work. Always count on my prayers.
United always in the Lord Jesus.

Emílio Sumbelelo

Luanda, 30 November 2010

Greetings,
I arrived in Luanda today, coming from the diocese. As soon as I entered, I was given the order coming from 30Giorni, the hundred copies of Quem reza se salva in Chinese, as you had promised us. We are very grateful. We will distribute them in the 19 dioceses, so each local bishop may send them to their designated recipients.
I ask you, please, to convey my thanks to dear Director Giulio Andreotti: for him and his team we have promised our prayers.
With much appreciation and gratitude in the Lord Jesus,

Emílio Sumbelelo


VILLA CRISTO REY NURSING HOME
Manila, Philippines

A remembrance in our daily Eucharist

Manila, 18 September 2010

Dear Director Giulio Andreotti,
Greetings from the Philippines!
I’ve seen some of the copies from 2009 of the beautiful and very informative magazine 30Giorni (in English) here in Villa Cristo Rey, the Retirement and Nursing home of the retired bishops, priests and brothers of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) here in the Philippines.
I wonder if we can appeal to you for free copies for our library and our reading room. Even the old issues will be very much appreciated by our retirees and ailing Divine Word Missionaries.
Rest assured, we shalll keep you and your special apostolate in our prayers, especially in our daily Eucharist.
Thank you and God bless you.
Sincerely yours in Jesus and Mary,

Father Michael O. Padua, SVD


PIME MISSIONARIES
Parintins, Amazonas, Brazil

Ten copies of Quem reza se salva

Parintins, 26 September 2010

Dear Senator Giulio Andreotti,
First of all thank you for sending me the magazine 30Giorni, very interesting because it presents several arguments related both to the past and to present times – and in particular the situations that our churches are confronted with in different cultural environments – with interviews and reportages always presented with an optimistic spirit.
Then I would like to ask if you can send me ten copies of the booklet Quem reza se salva in Portuguese. I am willing to contribute to the costs. Let me know also if I can request further copies, obviously paying the amount due.
I thank you for your attention and “cheer you on” so that the magazine be disseminated ever more.
The Lord be with you and your work of evangelization.

Father Benito Di Pietro, PIME


COMBONI MISSIONARIES
Santo Antônio do Descoberto, Goiás, Brazil

When 30Giorni comes it’s a holiday for me

Santo Antônio do Descoberto, 29 October 2010

Dear Director
I am an assiduous reader of your magazine. When it arrives, it is a holiday for me; thanks sincerely for the company and well-being you bring me, in my missionary apostolate.
I am an Italian Comboni missionary who for more than forty years has worked in Brazil, in the poorest and most needful areas of the country. Along with my fellow-brother, we serve a parish, founded fifteen years ago, on the extreme outskirts of the diocese of Luziânia in central-west Brazil.
Our parish serves fourteen rural communities, within an area of eighty kilometers of bad and dusty roads. Thank you very much for your friendship and solidarity, as well as that of unknown friends and benefactors who make this gesture of missionary love become possible. Please accept my warm greeting and a fraternal embrace.
Most affectionately in the Lord, /span>

Father Ernesto Ascione


XAVERIAN MISSIONARIES
Dhaka, Bangladesh

30Giorni helps us to be optimistic but not naive

Dhaka, 8 November 2010

Dear Mr Giulio Andreotti,
I’m glad to see how many readers feel spiritually helped by your magazine. In Bangladesh there are many missionaries who await it to see what major points of Church teaching and of world events will be addressed. Your method of making one reflect helps us to be optimistic but not naive. Having to write books in Bengali, your magazine offers me access to a method of reading that does not allow itself to be guided by fashion.
Looking at the books offered as gifts in your collection, I am encouraged to ask for the volumes that you have in supply, such as: Piccola vita di Bernadette [Little life of Bernadette] by René Laurentin, Gli amici di Gesù [The friends of Jesus] by Benedict XVI and Il Figlio da se stesso non può far nulla [The Son by himself can not do anything] by Giacomo Tantardini. I know that these books are a gift upon subscription to the magazine. I have to resort to the “absolute gift”! But I remain confident of receiving your positive response because I was already comforted in the past.
Thank you most heartfully.
May the Lord bless you and the whole network of friends you have in the world.

Father Silvano Garello


SAINT AUGUSTINE MAJOR SEMINARY
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

30Days for a seminarian

Bulawayo, 10 November 2010

Dear Sirs,
I hereby kindly ask to receive your magazine 30Days regularly. I am a young seminarian and I came across your magazine in a parish, remaining touched by the message it contains.
I will be glad if you accept my request.
Yours in Christ,

Edmore Takundwa

Ambrose, Hymn In the night of the Lord’s Nativity

In Nocte Natalis Domini

Intende, qui regis Israel,
super Cherubim qui sedes,
appare Ephraem coram, excita
potentiam tuam et veni.
Turn to us, You who sustain Israel,
Who sit above the Cherubim,
appear before Ephraim,
stir up your might and come.

Veni, redemptor gentium,
ostende partum virginis;
miretur omne saeculum:
talis decet partus Deum.
Come, Redeemer of the nations,
show the birth of the Virgin;
all generations admire it:
such a birth befits God.

Non ex virili semine
sed mystico spiramine
Verbum Dei factum est caro,
fructusque ventris floruit.
Not from the seed of man
but through a mystic breath
God's Word became flesh,
and the fruit of the womb blossomed.

Alvus tumescit Virginis,
claustrum pudoris permanet,
vexilla virtutum micant:
versatur in templo Deus.
The womb of the Virgin swells,
but purity’s cloister remains intact;
the banners of the virtues are resplendent:
God is in His temple.

Procedat e thalamo suo,
pudoris aula regia,
geminae gigas substantiae,
alacris ut currat viam.
Let him proceed from his chamber,
royal hall of purity,
as a giant of dual nature,
to run his path with alacrity.

Egressus eius a Patre,
regressus eius ad Patrem,
excursus usque ad inferos,
recursus ad sedem Dei.
His coming from the Father,
his return to the Father;
his passage even to the netherworld,
his return to the place of God.

Aequalis aeterno Patri,
carnis tropaeo cingere,
infirma nostri corporis
virtute firmans perpeti.
You who are equal to the eternal Father,
gird up the trophy of the flesh,
strengthening with unfailing virtue
our body’s weakness.

Praesepe iam fulget tuum,
lumenque nox spirat novum,
quod nulla nox interpolet
fideque iugi luceat.
Already your crib shines bright,
and the night spreads a new light
that no darkness can obscure,
and perennial faith shine forth.