LETTERS


MEMORES DOMINI
Tenth Anniversary

The name itself of this association-Memores Domini-synthesizes its purpose and meaning. It unites all the members of CL who have made the choice to dedicate themselves to God on a path marked by the virtue that the Church calls "virginity." In 1988 it was given legal recognition as an ecclesiastical association by the Pontifical Council for the Laity. We publish here the text of the letter that Cardinal James Francis Stafford wrote to Father Giussani on the tenth anniversary of this pontifical recognition

Dear Monsignore, I have received the telegram that Memores Domini sent me on the tenth anniversary of their recognition, and I warmly thank the Association and its President. May the Lord Jesus Christ, who comes in hiding, illuminate your path toward the Great Jubilee, in the fertile testimony that you offer the Church and the world. Assuring you of my union in prayer for your ministry and for the Association, I beg you to accept the expression of my highest esteem, along with my most heartfelt good wishes for a holy Christmas.

James Francis
Cardinal Stafford
President Pontifical
Council for the Laity

Vatican, December 11, 1998



MILAN
Christmas Eve

Dearest friends, It is night, the night of the forces of man who strives in vain, the night of the injustice which looms over the affections and ties, the night of dreams which mask the devastating nothingess. God is born during this night, in this night. Christmas is not the day after the night, the calm after the storm, peace after war, Christmas is God who comes in the night, challenges it, embraces it. In this night your house is a crêche where the Lord is born in every instant and lives not only for you, but for all men. A crêche where the whole world is present because he is there, a crêche which is not an empty representation but a vivid memory. Just as two thousand years ago the shepherds were able to brave the cold and darkness to go to where the Son of God rejoiced in the arms of Mary, so today the wayfarer, lost among the complications of the world, can move toward a small point, and yet a great one, where he is present and rejoices in those who love him. Thus Christmas is the mercy that makes its way through the night and makes us take up again with vigor the path toward the destiny of life that, praise God, is in our midst.

Giovanni



NIGERIA
The "Catholic" Religious Sense

Dear friends, I went to meet the rector of one of the largest seminaries in Nigeria, which Flavia knows well. I presented The Religious Sense, and he gave us permission to organize monthly meetings with the seminarians who are studying theology (about 220). He also bought 250 copies of the book, which will be given not only to the seminarians but also to the teachers and placed in the library. I was struck by the rector's esteem for us. Among other things he told me he was very happy about this chance because his big problem with the seminarians is that they read the publications of the Protestant sects and take constantly as their models the Protestant ministers whom they see on television and who for them are the symbol of success.

Annamaria



MILAN
In His Arms

Dear Father Giussani, I have three children. A few months ago I discovered that I was pregnant with my fourth. But at a check-up the gynecologist told me that my baby's heart was not beating, and wrote on my chart: internal abortion. I walked out of the doctor's office in shock, but with the awareness of placing myself also in this situation in the hands of the Lord. The day before I was to undergo the dilation and curettage, I met my friend Chiara and said to her, "I can't manage to accept that tomorrow they are going to take my baby physically away from me. All the physical signals that my body is sending me are signals of death, and this is something I cannot accept." And Chiara answered, "Tomorrow they are not taking this baby away from you. You are the one who is going to put him in Jesus' hands, because He is the baby's and your good. It is your human freedom that is at stake when you entrust, also physically, this child to the arms of God. This is not death, it is only the appearance of death. In reality it is true life." With these thoughts in my heart the next day I offered everything, instant by instant, continuing to repeat, "Jesus, take this baby, I put him in your arms, he is yours." Never would I have thought I could live such a terrible procedure with meaning and not as a victim.

A mother



ROME
From Charitable Work to a Profession

Ours is by now a twenty-year friendship, which began when we were university students. We were doing charitable work at Santa Maria della Pietà psychiatric hospital in Rome, sent by Father Giacomo to help two of our friends who were schizophrenic. These kids led inhuman lives. Coming to live with us, in a structure for out-of-town students, they exploded with an indescribable joy of life. In a few days they learned how to work in the coffee bar that we ran. They were reborn. We had gone to do charitable work with only the awareness that Father Giacomo had suggested to us: Christ, in whatever context we find him, transfigures reality. It was then that a friendship was born between so many of us, the same age and also other ages, in the Movement, who took up studies in psychiatry and psychology. The passionate interest in behavioral difficulties and attention to the problems of family relationships that started by chance when we were young, became clearer and sharper, emerging in the desire to transfer that passion into a profession. Thus my wife and I decided to work with couples and families, offering ourselves as a "reference couple." This formula kept the couples we treated from ending up in divorce court or at least helped them take another look at their marriage. On November 14th, together with other friends, we inaugurated the Center for the Family in the parish hall of San Martino I Papa, in the presence of Monsignor Luigi Moretti, auxiliary bishop. Our heart's desire is to reach those who don't come to the public facilities or who, if they have come there, have been discouraged by them. Thus, Christian professionals who are animated by a missionary feeling of openness toward those who live in need work at the Center. During the inauguration Monsignor Moretti said, "When this initiative was proposed to me I grasped it as a blessing from the Lord.
I believe that it is important, in this city, to send some signal of attention to the needs and demands of families, and we can do this in a more convincig way in the degree to which this attention becomes solidarity, becomes help, becomes willingness to share the path of the family and the difficulties it encounters."

Carmine and Pia