COMMUNICANDA
3
Prot.
N° 0000 0265/99
8 December 2000
Dear Confreres:
1. I greet each of you fraternally in Christ
Jesus. The members of the General Council
join me in extending best wishes for abundant
blessings in the New Year. May the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
In the second Communicanda of this
General Council, "I am ruined if I do
not preach the Gospel" (January 14, 1999),
I expressed my intention to dedicate a future
letter to the question of the spiritual demands
particular to the "third age" (n. 41). This
reflection is an attempt to fulfill that pledge.
2. Let me explain how I understand the term
third age. If it is true that the first age
of a person's life is that of education and
the second is marked by production and one's
life work, the third age is often used to
refer to that time in life when a person's
primary work has ended. Although I am thinking
of you who have already begun to live the
third age, I write this message to every confrere
in the Congregation. Regardless of age, as
Constitution 55 reminds us, we are all brothers
in the same family and share the same vocation:
each of us is a missionary and we remain missionaries
for our entire lifetime. At each stage of
our lives and in whatever circumstances we
find ourselves, we ought to seek to live our
religious consecration more intensely. Furthermore,
to live in community and carry our pastoral
work through the community is an essential
law for us (Constitution 21). This same Constitution
tells us that community does not exist simply
where members merely cohabit but requires
as well genuine sharing on the human and spiritual
level. We are meant to bring together in community
our strengths and weaknesses, our gifts and
limitations for the sake of the Mission or
Charism that gives meaning to our lives. Each
community, then, should face the question
of aging and its consequences for Redemptorist
missionaries.
Why should
we think about this question?
3. Along with entire societies, the Congregation
is facing a new reality: the number of elderly
confreres is increasing significantly. As
I write to you, among the 5,569 professed
members in the Congregation, 520 are eighty
years old or older, while 948 are in their
seventies. This means that 26% of the Congregation
is aged seventy or older. Even though we are
still blessed with many young members -- there
are more professed Redemptorists in their
20's than in those aged 80 or more years,
and more in the 30's than in their 70's -
the Congregation has never had such a large
group of elderly among its members. This is
a fact that none of us can ignore, for it
presents us with challenges that must be faced
in order to mature together faithfully as
a community sent to preach and witness to
the Good News of the Kingdom.
4. Redemptorists are not only living longer
but many confreres reach the seventh or eighth
decades of life in much better health and
vigor than in the past. At the same time,
there is also an increasing need to provide
medical care for Redemptorists who are seriously
ill. Yet the deeper challenge for older Redemptorists
is not how to cope with health problems but
rather, how to live their religious consecration,
particularly when they are forced to limit
or, at times, suspend their ordinary pastoral
activities. At this stage of life, redefining
or reshaping one's concrete identity as a
missionary can threaten one's self esteem.
5. Cultures have different attitudes towards
the aging and elderly. Some revere their eldest
members; the very fact of reaching a certain
age endows a person with a dignity that demands
respect in the community. What concerns me
is an emerging world culture that idolizes
youth, energy and flexibility while neglecting
or attempting to "hide" the elderly. This
cultural perspective causes so much anxiety
that many people will do all in their power
to "remain" young. The aging and the elderly
are encouraged to leave the marketplace and
the political forum and ought to be pacified
or humored, but certainly not taken seriously
or challenged to continue to contribute to
their society. For men, especially, one's
work and one's worth are so closely related
that when one is incapable of working, life
seems to lose all meaning. And, finally, the
fact of death has become a taboo, never to
be discussed in polite company and certainly
not a passage for which one should consciously
prepare.
The circumstances
of the Congregation
6. We should recognize that the Congregation
is certainly influenced by this ambivalence
towards aging. In some areas of the world
the secular notion of "retirement" strongly
affects the lives of Redemptorists. It is
taken for granted that the duties of a confrere
should be eased as he reaches a certain age.
In some cases, the elderly Redemptorist is
not expected to carry out serious responsibilities
in the community, no matter what the actual
state of his physical and mental health. Some
Redemptorists come to view retirement as an
acquired right and therefore, upon reaching
a certain age, they expect to be freed of
duties in the community in order to pursue
their own interests. There are provinces in
the developed world where the receipt of pensions
becomes a thorny problem when the confrere
considers this income as his personal property.
At times the care for aged confreres focuses
almost entirely on health problems, neglecting
the spiritual needs specific to this stage
of life.
7. As we visit the provinces, the other members
of the General Council and I are often edified
by older confreres, who intensify their missionary
identity as the years pass, and who have the
ability of sharing with others, especially
the young, the wisdom that they have acquired.
Every year I receive letters from our jubilarians:
brother and priests who are celebrating fifty
or more years of life in the Congregation.
These letters glow with gratitude, humility
and zeal. I am often moved to share their
testimony with the members of the General
Government.
8. Unfortunately old age alone is not a guarantee
of these sentiments. During the visitations
we also meet Redemptorists who are disappointed,
disillusioned, even bitter. More poignant
still are the confreres who are anguished
because of the rapid changes they have experienced
in the Church and in our Institute. Some of
these judge that the Congregation has been
unfaithful to its Charism and Mission in the
Church and conclude that God has withdrawn
his favor from the Congregation.
9. These are some of the situations and concerns
that lead me to write this letter. I would
like to offer some reflections from the perspective
of the last General Chapter, which urged us
to consider spirituality as the lens through
which we view all aspects of our lives (Final
Message, n. 5). My purpose is to invite each
of you to reflect as well on how we nourish
and express our relationship in faith with
Jesus (Final Message, n. 3) as a community
in our later years and on the challenge of
conversion in order to follow Jesus more closely
at any stage of our missionary life.
10. There are also personal reasons that motivate
this letter. I had the privilege and grace
to have spent my first years in the Congregation
with a number of wonderful confreres in their
third age. Their words and example continue
to influence me today. These Redemptorists
shared with me their secrets in preaching
the Word, connected me with the history of
my Province and taught me to love the Congregation
and to hope in its future. Most of these have
died and, I pray, are now savoring fully the
sweetness of God. With much gratitude, I dedicate
this letter to all of those faithful witnesses,
hoping that these reflections will help me
prepare to be a good Redemptorist in my later
years, when I too might help a young confrere
at the beginning of his own pilgrimage.
Life as pilgrimage
11. Pilgrimage is a sacred experience that
is found in most great religions and in many
cultures. Interestingly, the notion of pilgrimage
persists in some societies where the rest
of traditional religious expressions have
been swept away by secularizing influences.
Perhaps this is so because the pilgrimage
is a sort of paradigm for how human beings
experience life itself. We sense or, at least,
we hope that our lives are not to be understood
simply as products of a random collision of
atoms, blind destiny or biological urges.
We sense that our lives began in a place and
are going somewhere. Just as pilgrims keep
moving in the direction of an unseen sanctuary,
so we choose to find meaning in our life's
journey by "walking" towards a place or a
Person that we often glimpse only "as reflections
in a mirror, mere riddles" (1 Cor. 13, 11).
12. The holiness of the pilgrimage is to be
experienced not simply in arriving at the
desired goal. The vocation of a pilgrim is
also lived each day, each hour and each minute
of the journey: in every step taken in faith.
As we walk the journey of life we are aware
of a paradox: that we change radically along
the journey while we remain the same. That
is, we can trace important stages or identifiable
segments through which we pass while the core
of our identity mysteriously remains unvarying.
A common metaphor for this paradox is that
of a day, which has a morning, noon and an
evening, all of which are perceived distinctly
yet fused in a single unit. Although united,
each phase of life has an autonomous value
that should be appreciated as such and not
simply as the preparation for the next stage.
13. It sometimes happens that circumstances
compel a person to proceed to the next segment
of life prematurely. Consider the heartbreak
of children who are obliged by poverty to
assume adult responsibilities, such as the
burden of feeding their family or caring for
a sick parent. We consider it a tragedy when
a human life ends prematurely, before a person
has had the chance to develop and truly "live".
And it is possible to resist passage from
one stage to another in the journey, like
the adult who wishes to remain forever the
adolescent. But such struggle is futile and
frustrating, since we are constantly confronted
by evidence that, whether we like it or not,
we are in fact passing through different stages
of life's journey. In other words, we are
reminded that we are aging.
14. An awareness of aging has influenced spiritual
writers as diverse as Paul the apostle and
Pope John Paul II. Paul used the metaphor
of human growth or aging to describe progress
in discipleship (e.g. 1 Cor. 3, 1-2; 13, 11;).
In his apostolic exhortation Vita Consecrata
(1996), John Paul II encourages religious
to recognize the different stages of life
and to never cease struggling to grow humanly
and as consecrated persons, since "at no stage
of life can people feel so secure and committed
that they do not need to give careful attention
to ensuring perseverance in faithfulness;
just as there is no age at which a person
has completely achieved maturity" (n. 69).
15. What does it mean to be a Redemptorist
when one no longer exercises the kind of apostolate
or the responsibilities held in younger days?
Thanks be to God, the response of the Congregation
to this new situation does not begin with
the present letter. Many (vice)provinces already
have special policies designed to meet the
physical and emotional requirements of aging
confreres. It is possible to offer an extensive
bibliography of contemporary spiritual writers,
including Redemptorists, who ponder the special
challenges of discipleship in the third age.
I hope that individual confreres and (vice)provincial
governments are aware of such resources and
make use of them. Perhaps this letter will
serve to stimulate us to think about the growing
number of aged confreres in the Congregation,
recognizing that their needs go beyond health
care and hobbies, since one does not retire
from our religious profession, the "definitive
act of the whole missionary life of Redemptorists"
(Constitution 54).
16. I would like to limit the range of these
reflections and not pretend to address thoroughly
what it means to grow old. First, I will pay
some attention to one feature of aging, that
of loss, then see whether this experience
might also be an occasion for spiritual growth.
What follows can be expanded and enriched
by you, especially the older confreres who
are able to contemplate the experiences of
life with the sort of wisdom that is only
available in the third age. May the Congregation
continue to learn how we can help Redemptorists
in the third age to deepen their commitment
to the Redeemer while appreciating the special
way in which these confreres live our Charism.
Being led
where one does not want to go
17. Among the encounters between the disciples
and their Risen Lord, one of the most moving
is that contained in the epilogue of the Gospel
of John. The narrative speaks about the appearance
of Jesus on the shore of Tiberias and contains
captivating details: the mistaken identity,
a miraculous catch, an impetuous swim and
a home-cooked meal. The account continues
with the triple profession of love by Peter
and his commission by the Lord for a life
of apostolic charity.
Then Jesus speaks of how that life will end
up giving glory to God:
In
all truth I tell you,
When you were young
You put on your own belt
And walked where you liked;
But when you grow old
You will stretch out your hands,
And somebody else will put a belt round you
And take you where you would rather not go.
(Jn. 21,18)
When I meditate on this
scene, I try to imagine how Jesus conveyed
these last words to Peter. I imagine the Lord
looking his friend in the eyes while speaking
to him with tenderness and calm assurance.
The Father has a plan for Peter: it will not
be easy but his life will have meaning and
value. Peter is commissioned for a life of
pastoral charity, but what will "glorify God",
in fact, will be his death. And the final
words of Jesus to Peter (Jn 21, 19, repeated
in verse 22) are the same as the first words
spoken to him in the Gospels (i.e.: Mk 1,
17): Follow me.
18. There are many qualities unique to the
stage of life we are considering in this reflection.
I wonder whether the prophetic description
of the old age of Peter, but when you grow
old you will stretch out your hands, and somebody
else will put a belt round you and take you
where you would rather not go, might not speak
eloquently to us of an essential characteristic
of this stage of life's journey? The metaphor
of being bound and led where one would not
choose to go seems a most apt description
of the unavoidable experience of loss that
accompanies people into the third age.
Loss in the
Third Age
19. It is easy to recognize the reality of
loss in the particular suffering that is endured
by some confreres, for whom aging has meant
the onset of debilitating illness, confinement
to bed and utter dependence on others. But
isn't it true that for every man, whatever
the stage of his health, aging brings a procession
of losses? Even in the case of the most vigorous
elderly, there is a deepening awareness of
the transitory nature of things. Time appears
to speed up and days, weeks and years seem
to fly by, practically without one being aware
of their swift passage. There is the haunting
sensation that something is ending and we
speak of the "evening" or "autumn" of life.
The journey is taking us to where we would
rather not go. For, before we face the final
dissolution that is death itself, there are
many lesser deaths that mark our pilgrim way.
20. Life in the third age means confronting
loss, which comes in many shades and forms.
There is the physical diminishment caused
by aging, which brings discomfort, even dreadful
suffering. There can be a deterioration of
our mental capabilities and dementia. The
death of our closest friends in the Congregation
and relatives may leave us feeling more and
more alone. The loss experienced in aging
is not limited to body, mind or human relationships.
It also touches our self-understanding as
Redemptorist missionaries, inviting us forcefully
to rethink what our religious profession means
in the latter stages of life. Our Founder
surely struggled with this reality.
The experience
of Alphonsus
21. If you have ever visited the town of Scala,
the birthplace of our Congregation, you have
probably paused to pray in the chapel that
now shelters the grotto of Alphonsus. Here
was an oasis for our Father during the tumultuous
weeks and months that followed the momentous
event of November 9. 1732. Alphonsus would
come to this little cave and spend hours in
prayer: pondering the first, tenuous steps
of his Congregation, mourning the departure
of practically all his companions, seeking
strength from God and His Blessed Mother.
Today the visitor sees a simple wooden plaque
nestling in a corner of the grotto itself.
On it are inscribed words credited to Alphonsus
by Tannoia, his first biographer: "O my grotto,
O my grotto: O that I might (again) delight
in this my grotto" (II, 97). These words are
attributed to an elderly Alphonsus, who dreams
of returning to that "mystical cell, from
which he emerged inebriated by the love of
God and by an unreserved passion for the salvation
of Souls" (TANNOIA, ibid.).
22. I suggest that Alphonsus is not simply
longing for a particular place to pray. He
is mourning the passing of the thirty-eight
year old man who prayed in that cave. Perhaps,
to the mind's eye of the elderly Alphonsus,
everything seemed much clearer in his little
grotto. Back then, he had a better idea of
who he was and what he was meant to do. Forty
years later, after stepping down from his
diocese and returning to Pagani, Alphonsus
must rediscover what it means to be a Redemptorist.
He could not anchor his identity in preaching
missions - he hadn't preached one in more
than twenty years. Nor could he expect to
regain the final word among his brethren.
Andrea Villani, the vicar general, had been
governing the Congregation during the long
absence of its Founder and did not relinquish
this task when Alphonsus returned from Sant'Agata
dei Goti. It is true that Alphonsus would
continue to write and, certainly, would have
his way in some matters, such as his categorical
rejection of the ornate bedchamber that had
been prepared for him, taking instead one
of the unadorned rooms at Pagani. But, having
a room like everyone else would not be enough:
Alphonsus would have to rediscover what it
means for him to be a Redemptorist in his
own third age, especially, what it means to
be a brother among his brothers in community.
23. Most of us have found - or will discover
- our own "grotto". More than a place, this
"grotto" is the memory of one's own self at
a time of life when one felt most alive, most
missionary, most engaged with the projects
of life. Seeing that stage of our life recede
irretrievably into the past and knowing that
it can never be recreated can cause the sort
of bittersweet emotion that Alphonsus felt
for his own "grotto". This loss is part of
being human and needs to be mourned. What
seems to be an obstacle to growth in the spiritual
life, however, is the inability or the unwillingness
to accept the losses that accompany aging,
especially the diminishment that is felt when
one no longer does the same apostolic work
or carries the same responsibilities within
the province.
24. All masters of spirituality insist that
self-knowledge is an indispensable foundation
on which a life with God is built and grows.
The great enemy of spirituality, then, is
denial, that is, a self-deluding refusal to
accept myself and my circumstances. In the
case of the aging Redemptorist, denial might
tempt him to try to regain his "grotto" or
cling stubbornly to what he believes were
his halcyon days. Such denial is difficult
or impossible to sustain, but there are confreres
who resist all attempts to reduce their apostolic
activity, even when it is clear that they
no longer have the energy or the formation
to continue it. At times a superior must take
the difficult decision of removing a confrere
from a ministry that exceeds his capabilities.
Or, it may happen that, after leaving apostolates
that have occupied them for most of their
lives, confreres become obsessive about their
own physical health, appointments with their
doctors, television or any number of distractions.
Unconsciously they may develop a real envy
of young people, often manifested by a malignant
joy in pointing out the defects and defeats
of younger confreres. The fact that some confreres
of advanced age become tyrants in the community
is less a result of the aging process itself
and more attributable to their failure to
accept this new stage of the pilgrimage and
find a healthy spirituality as elderly Redemptorists.
25. As the pilgrimage of life progresses,
we are increasingly aware of being led where
we would not choose to go. Diminished physical
and mental health, the death of friends and
family and the end of involvement in apostolates
that have occupied a Redemptorist for many
years are spiritual challenges particular
to the latter stage of life. How might confreres
at this stage of the pilgrimage find serenity
and joy in the face of these losses?
"Counting
everything else as loss"…not simply losing
26. There is a life-giving paradox in the
third age. It is this: at the very time when
a Redemptorist is bound and led where he would
rather not go, instead of plunging down a
steep and ever more slippery slope that ends
in death, he is invited to pursue a greater
freedom. It seems to be the experience of
people who are serious about their pilgrimage
towards God that one eventually has to face
up to the possessive power of attachment to
things that are in fact passing away. Alphonsus
proposed that greater spiritual freedom could
be achieved by reducing the extravagant control
the circumstances of life might exercise over
a person in order to become progressively
more free to love God. This dual movement
- away from a clinging attachment and towards
the loving God - Alphonsus calls distacco.
It is a central value in the spiritual path
Alphonsus proposes in the Practice of the
Love of Jesus Christ. Chapter 17 of that work
offers a crisp summary of this Alphonsian
doctrine:
"Attachment to our own inordinate inclinations
is the greatest obstacle to true union with
God. Therefore, when God intends to draw a
soul to his perfect love, he tries to detach
her from all affection for created things.
Thus he may deprive her of temporal goods,
of worldly pleasures, of property, honor,
friends, relations or bodily health. By means
of these losses, troubles, neglect, bereavements
and infirmities he wipes out, by degrees,
all earthly attachments so that all the affections
may be centered on him alone".
27. Perhaps the mention of distacco makes
you wince, reminding you of too many conferences
on the subject when you were a novice? It
may be that not all of the concrete obstacles
to greater union with God faced by Alphonsus
and his Neapolitan contemporaries - the tentacles
of a domineering family, the lure of worldly
honor and the siren song of riches - are,
in fact, our problems. The point Alphonsus
is trying to make is that we need to examine
our lives honestly and see who or what has
the ultimate claim on our heart. For it is
within our hearts that God so greatly wishes
to dwell. In Chapter 11 of the Practice, Alphonsus
asks, "Do you have a heart that is empty enough
for the Holy Spirit to fill?"
28. There is no escaping the fact that trying
to achieve greater union with God is not easy.
Many of us are afraid of pursuing this path
because we sense that it entails some suffering.
But what is the alternative? We could try
to anaesthetize ourselves: using work, prestige,
relationships, alcohol, fear or resentment
to distract ourselves from the passage of
time and its consequences. But, in our sober
moments, we would have to watch with terror
as life slips through our fingers and time,
no longer a kairos in which God reveals himself,
becomes our enemy.
29. Try as we may, we cannot change most things
that happen to us. This truth, valid at any
moment in life, seems to gain more clarity
the older we become. What is in our power
to determine is how people, places and things
will affect us. Alphonsus helps us how see
the losses that accompany the third age can
be invitations to abandon ourselves to the
care of God, discovering and rediscovering
the depth of His faithful love for us.
A Path of
Distacco
30. Paul proposes the path of distacco in
his Letter to the Philippians. The third chapter
might be an excellent source of meditation
for the third age. How does Paul describe
his pilgrimage towards God? He begins with
a practice common to older people: he takes
stock of his life (Phil 3, 4-6). He makes
no excuses for his past but he has a new way
of looking at it: "What were once my assets
I now through Christ Jesus count as losses"
(v. 7). Far from taking the safe path, Paul
intends to risk everything:
"Yes, I will go further: because of the supreme
advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
I count everything else as loss. For him I
have accepted the loss of all other things,
and look on them all as filth if only I can
gain Christ and be given a place in him, with
the uprightness I have gained not from the
Law, but through faith in Christ, an uprightness
from God, based on faith, that I may come
to know him and the power of his resurrection,
and partake of his sufferings by being molded
to the pattern of his death, striving towards
the goal of resurrection from the dead" (Phil.
3, 8-12).
31. Paul is aware that he has not achieved
his goal but that he is being led in the right
direction. He chooses to accept what happens
to him, including the loss of all that he
thought was precious in his life, as a price
in order to gain Christ Jesus. He does not
despise in principle what he loses; he simply
cannot compare anything to the inestimable
value of his relationship with Christ Jesus.
Freedom to
love
32. Paul and Alphonsus teach that loss may
bring greater spiritual freedom, that is,
the liberation of oneself to love more and
more unreservedly. A peculiarly Redemptorist
way of loving is called by our Constitutions
"apostolic charity"; this is our share in
the mission of Christ and the unifying principle
of our lives (cf. Const. 52). Apostolic charity
presumes that "the glory of God and the salvation
of the world are one" and that "love of God
and love for people are the same" (Const.
53). Therefore, at each and every stage of
our pilgrimage, Redemptorists are called to
"live their union with God in the form of
apostolic charity and, through missionary
charity, seek his glory". The XXII General
Chapter recognized the life-long call to apostolic
charity when it recommended:
"That every member of the Congregation, regardless
of age, search for ways to be faithful to
the most abandoned, and especially the poor
in favor of whom we have made an option on
the day of our profession" (Orientations,
2.4).
33. Certainly, there are ministries that elderly
Redemptorists can offer to the most abandoned,
especially the poor. For example, I think
older Redemptorists are very effective in
bringing compassion, comfort and hope to other
elderly and sick persons. But the place where
many Redemptorists of the third age are called
to practice apostolic charity is within the
local community, whose life is itself the
primary form of the proclamation of the Gospel
(XXII General Chapter, Orientations, 3). I
believe that there are two unique services
that elderly Redemptorists can provide in
our communities.
The first type of assistance is one that Alphonsus
himself sought to render. In November of 1774,
as he was preparing to return from Sant'Agata,
he wrote, "When I have returned to one of
our houses, I may be useful to the subjects,
particularly the young men". Perhaps Alphonsus
was thinking of himself as a tutor for the
students in homiletics or moral theology.
His biographers suggest that the example of
his life in the third age left its impact
on his young confreres. An elderly Redemptorist
who does not allow himself to be overcome
by the suffering or limitations of age, but
keeps alive joy, love and hope, is an invaluable
mentor for the young confreres.
34. The second type of service has to do with
the mundane details of our common life. It
has been observed that often in the search
to do something dramatic we miss the opportunity
to do something important because the action
itself does not seem worth our attention.
The elderly in our communities can make great
contributions to the quality of our common
life by performing very ordinary tasks. I
recall how the generosity of an elderly priest
helped the work of all the members in a busy
community. Although a stroke had left him
semi-paralyzed, each evening he would answer
the telephone while the rest of confreres
were occupied with the pastoral activity of
a difficult parish. I also recall my first
visit to Rome and seeing an elderly Bernhard
Häring caring for the flowers in the community's
garden. I imagine that most of you have been
touched by the generosity of an elderly confrere.
Discovering
the best wine at the end (Jn. 2, 10)
35. John of the Cross reminds us that in the
evening of our life we shall be judged on
love. Perhaps that is why, in the dusk of
life's pilgrimage, we are presented with losses
so that we might be more free to love. It
behooves us as missionaries not to carry excessive
baggage. At the end of the pilgrimage, all
that we really will need is love: to love
God as He deserves to be loved and to love
each other as brothers. The love of an elderly
Redemptorist, expressed in very ordinary ways,
can leave a lasting impact on his confreres,
especially the young.
36. It is love that "ages" our spirit like
the action of time on fine wine. At the end
of life, love will give us mellowness and
flavor, not the smarting sting of vinegar.
This type of love is never totally within
our grasp but must be the object of lifelong
conversion of heart and continual renewal
of mind (Constitution 41). On November 24,
2000 Father Josef Pfab, Superior General emeritus,
finished his pilgrimage. At his funeral, a
young priest told me of his last meeting with
Father Josef. It was a day or two before he
died and they were about to celebrate the
Eucharist in his hospital room. The younger
priest asked him for what should they pray?
Father Josef replied, "Pray that I am converted
at the hour of my death". Paul had the same
desire:
"I can only say that
forgetting all that lies behind me, and straining
forward to what lies in front, I am racing
towards the finishing point to win the prize
of God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus" (Phil.
3,13-14).
37. May our Mother Mary, whose prayerful presence
accompanied the first apostolic community
and who did not hesitate to give herself in
service of others, help us to be faithful
each day but especially when we "are suffering
and dying for the salvation of the world"
(Const. 55).
Fraternally in Christ the Redeemer,
Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R.
Superior General
(The original
text is English.)
