MOTHER CLELIA ITALIAN PROVINCE

In the year that the Institute has dedicated to evangelization (2023), our province has offered its members opportunities for formation, considering the need for discovering the newness of the Gospel within ourselves, our communities and with others. The formation program of the Province of Italy focused on meditative listening to the Word of God, in the form of Lectio Divina. The formation took place from February 4 to April 25, 2023 (three meetings). On February 4th, a meeting for the superiors on the ZOOM platform and two for the sisters, in Milan, from February 10 to 12, and in Silvi Marina from April 23 to 25, 2023. Both were also broadcast on ZOOM. (This allowed for a large attendance of Sisters).

The Feb. 4th meeting for the Superiors was a follow-up to the first one, Dec. 9-11, 2022, held in Silvi Marina with the same topic of the Word of God. The Sisters shared on the virtues in: “The Six Wings of the Seraphim”-a classic of St. Bonaventure that are needed to wisely, spiritually and charitably govern the sisters. Zeal for justice, compassion, patience, exemplary life, prudence, and piety were considered the most necessary that would be obtained through the invocation to the Holy Spirit who “...will teach all things....“ (Jn 14:26).

The meetings on Lectio Divina were given by expert biblical scholars and spiritual guides: Father Giovanni Battista Magoni (Pavonianofor the Milan meeting; Father Antonio Iosue, O.F.M. Conv. for the Silvi Marina meeting and the Zoom for the Superiors). Their explanations invited us to pray to the Lord, starting from His own Word, which is the Incarnate Word. We enjoyed the prayer, that truly came from the heart, and which was prepared with humility of heart, fraternal union and an invocation to the Holy Spirit. Prayer is both a gift of grace and a determined response on our part. It presupposes a struggle against everything that distracts us from union with God....to act according to the Spirit of Christ. (Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2725).