A family party for the Ambrosian priests in the seminary – Diocese of MIlan

05/10/2016

A “family celebration” in which you find yourself, remember, you look to the future, questioning the role that each one has and should have in society and in the present. It is the Flower Festival in 2016 in the beautiful setting of the archdiocesan seminary of Venegono that in joy at the official presentation of the 26 candidates for the priesthood who will become priests on June 11, this year is even more important in connection with certain anniversaries of whom It does specific memory. First, the XXV episcopate of Cardinal Angelo Scola, and the fiftieth anniversary of priestly ordination of Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, Ambrosian priest and president of the Pontifical Council for Culture. There are three cardinals present: with the Archbishop and Cardinal Ravasi there is also Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi. Next to them, fourteen bishops, auxiliary and native of the Diocese, including some celebrated, all episcopal vicars and about 400 priests.

The blessing of a beautiful crucifix and a bronze Pietà made by the Swiss sculptor Poncé, from the Archbishop’s Chapel in Venice and donated by the Cardinal to the seminary, opened the morning, everything is transmitted by the seminarians (very technical) on the YouTube channel connected to the Facebook page of the Seminar.

in the Hall dedicated to Paul VI – where are placed the works -, took the floor for the initial reflection Monsignor Paolo Martinelli, auxiliary bishop and vicar for male consecrated life (this year for the first time are also invited religious priests). He speaks of the “Mission of the Priest Today”: “An exciting theme especially for the priest’s profile Ambrosian. In fact, the history of our Church tells us to an intense spiritual life and rigorous study that is documented in the listing of seminarians in mission lands and suffering. ” As well as the same Martinelli was able to see in person at the Institute Holy Family, where he was engaged as a young Capuchin priest: “The good reputation of the Ambrosian clergy played in the intertwining between mission and today. This is not to think, in ahistorical way, the idea of ​​the priest in an abstract concept to be applied mechanically, but even to see it as “liquid.” You can not think, in fact, to the priest as a device, one smartphone to which to apply the app , but as a person who qualifies in the mission as a mandate, a sent for precise edification of the Kingdom task. The novelty of the ordained ministry Christian originates from the newness of Christ, the mission of the Father. The mission at the heart of the people is not an appendix or a moment among others, “but something you can not eradicate from my being a priest if you do not want to destroy myself”, writes Pope Francis in fact Gaudium Evangelii . The priest can only be understood in the inseparable link between the One who sends and those to whom it is sent. ” In this sense, the mission of the priest can not assume that all the circumstances, and this involves the comparison, the daily enhancement of what builds the good of all, “God communicates through human reality, for this he needs men (the reference is to the volume of Cardinal of the same name and dedicated to the vocation, editor’s note) and, therefore, the priest now has the task of witnessing how the encounter with Christ realizes the human, to form the faithful to ‘Gospel. Thus, the priest must take to heart the tender gaze of Christ on the human, who knows how to find the good in every person. Life as a vocation is not a prerequisite to be left behind perhaps, but it is the very structure of life. It is the willingness to create the mission, but the personal call, but not individual, who always asks affective and effective belonging to the presbyterate, a mutual inclusion, capable of enhancing the various charisms of the Church. ” How primarily it occurs in attention to specific human crossroads family, in which you play the crucial role of the laity. “When the priest lives his mission as a dedication to the people of God can experience the profound joy of life given and, therefore, full and complete: a bright sign for our entire Church and an encouraging invitation for novice priests.”

Then the celebration in the Basilica, presided over by the Archbishop. “The Flower Festival this year is covered with special joy for twenty five years of episcopal ordination of Cardinal Scola, which took place September 21, 1991 – says in the initial greeting in the rector Monsignor Michele Di Tolve -. We are increasingly aware that we are experiencing a change of era, so we want to be united in the spirit of the Lord. In this plural society there is room for the priests? Our people shows us that men need God. “

” I am excited in this basilica, where I did not return for many years and in which were up to our prayers and invocations of young seminarians and priests – he says in turn Cardinal Ravasi, in the homily startup -. I like to think, with a simple look of the image of a luminous cloud friendship made of drops of water fall on the light of so many witnesses. ” The reference is to the Word of God presented through a diptych with two antithetical boards, “a dark, night, taken from the Song of Songs, beloved in the research by the beloved” and, the other, of light, “as explains the Gospel of John just sang. “

” the first shows us what it means to the silence of God: an experience that defines human spirituality – all the dark iridescence are, in fact, in the Passion of Jesus who he became man -; an experience that we all did. That’s why at this time we must remember, as the country Curé of Bernanos, that “Everything is grace.” Do not you believe once and for all, but you must continuously build and rebuild the faith: we remember the darkness of the Letter of Paul to the Philippians – the enemies of the cross – thinking of the blood-streaked martyrdom in many countries of the world and the climate of ‘indifference, amorality, of immediate gratification, of superficiality. On this night of evil, listen to the words of St. John Paul II – “Be not afraid” – it is critical no accident occur 365 times in the Bible as the days of the year, as a good morning. ”

And finally, the second panel of the diptych, that bright suggested by John, chapter 15, punctuated by the light “as your witness of priests, especially if placed in pastoral. This love, especially today, in this stream of people coming from so far away and with whom we have to create an intercultural society, not just multicultural as it often reminds us of Cardinal Scola, must be our sign, because “the joy one does not have there it is immersed. ” This is my wish, “concluded Ravasi.

” My thanks – points out, however, Cardinal Scola, at the conclusion of the Eucharist – is for all of you, for pointing out my XXV of episcopal ordination but the students of the seminary, the so-called “flower”, I got to know the person well, I want to remember the words of the conciliar Decree Optam totius “. Cites, the Archbishop, point 9, precisely centered on education for ecclesial spirit. Spirit of humility, obedience and service. From here, two ideas: “The style that should permeate the life of a Christian, that flows from the attitude of confession, the habitual disposition to manifest itself for what it is and not taking anything for themselves. And also we hope that the peace of Christ rule in your hearts and be filled with gratitude, a very appropriate word in this beautiful traditional festival. In the labor juncture we are living becomes increasingly clear that peace is not in proportion to the absence of pain and contradiction, but is proportional to the so daily re-expressed to the vocation and mission. Grow in the knowledge that you can exercise a ministry as sensitive as the one ordered, only if, before hiring, you’ve already decided in our hearts that life is given to the Lord in our fellow man. We have to have already offered our lives before you have followed this path: here is peace, despite all the evidence, easy or difficult circumstances. ” This is the wish of the Cardinal for “flowers” in 2016, which in the portico in celebration of music and merriment, you have coming out symbolically by a large dove – are released doves into the sky also true – as a sign of their motto: “With the joy of the Holy Spirit “.