VATICAN CITY, FEB. 15, 2001 (Zenit.org).- The spirituality of communion which characterizes the Focolare Movement in particular will bring unexpected fruits of renewal in believers, John Paul II said.
He relayed his thought in a message to 87 cardinals and bishops — friends of the ecclesial movement — who are meeting through Friday in Castel Gandolfo, near Rome. The seven-day meeting is reflecting on the topic “Christ Crucified and Abandoned, Root of the Church as Communion in the Light of Novo Millennio Ineunte,” the apostolic letter with which the Pope closed the Jubilee Year.
“In the historic transition in which we are living,” the Pope said in his message to the cardinals and bishops, “we are faced with a mission of commitment: to make of the Church the place where one lives and the school where one is taught the mystery of divine love.”
However, in order to “rediscover an authentic spirituality of communion,” the Pope recommends that the cardinals and bishops “perceive the Trinitarian mystery, which is in us, with the eyes of the heart, and know how to see it in the face of others.”
“Only by giving time to a brother, in order to understand what is positive in him, is it possible to understand to what extent he is a gift to me,” the Holy Father said.
Lived in this way, the spirituality of unity and communion, which characterizes the Focolare Movement founded by Chiara Lubich during the Second World War, “will bring rich fruits of renewal for all believers.”
