I would like to share with you a brief reflection on the great emotion I experienced on 14 September at the Convent of the Sisters of Divine Zeal in Corato.
As every year, on this day when the Church celebrates the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Association Luisa Piccarreta Little Children of the Divine Will also commemorates the gift of Luisa's invisible stigmata and her third mystical marriage, which took place on 14 September.
Well, first of all, as always when at the centre of our 'doing' is Jesus Christ everything takes on an elevation that we could never have imagined, planned, realised. I felt a great emotion when I saw the Crucifix next to us, at the side of the altar ... Yes, that very Crucifix from which Luisa received the invisible stigmata. Antonella, humbly, reminded us of the anniversary of 14 September, illustrating with the aid of the computer what we find in Luisa’s writings. Humanly speaking, it is inexplicable to believe that rays of light and nails came out of that Crucifix and pierced Luisa's hands and feet, together with the lance that pierced her heart... if we do not see all this with the eyes of Faith. And again...the evening continued with the Celebration of Holy Mass during which the whole assembly was immersed in prayer, thanks to the speeches of Fr Sergio Pellegrini, spiritual assistant of the Association and Fr Vincenzo Bovino, parish priest of the Church of St Mary Greca
In the sorrows we experience, Father Sergio said during the homily, Jesus is with us and welcomes our bitterness; it happens that in moments of trial we feel Jesus is far away. Instead, as he often explains to Luisa, it is precisely then that we are united: 'it is the two of us'.
On the cross Jesus experienced what we experience...He felt abandoned by everyone, even by God the Father, but it is precisely then that He saved souls.
When we feel down, when we find ourselves in a blind alley, we and Jesus are the same thing, because we are with Him. There is a presence, a real union, not spiritual or moral. Truly and truly we are in Jesus. That is what the cross of Jesus does!
The necessary condition - Fr Sergio continued - for the cross not to remain a cross is that in the trial, in the sin, in the state we are in, we must recognise Jesus and say: 'You and I are now united'. Only in this way the experience of the cross is transformed and the cross becomes a golden key that unlocks and opens that door that seemed closed.
Today, with this golden key, which is the cross we are all experiencing in this difficult time, may all humanity find the way we know: the way of the Fiat.
In my opinion, no human words can say or add anything else.... At the end of the evening, our dear Enza Arbore, president of the Association called one by one all the people who had given their Fiat to become 'members'. The ever-present Sister Assunta, with her presence among us and her spiritual reflections, provided a praiseworthy frame for what we were experiencing without almost realising it...
What can I say?.... Nothing but a simple thank you to all of you who spend your commitment, your time, your dedication for the benefit of all. My 'simple' thank you is not simple, but it encapsulates everything. We saw each other, recognised each other, greeted each other, and even those who could not be there were with us spiritually.
Fiat!
A member of the Association