Around the Word

On the occasion of the Sunday of the Word established by Pope Francis in 2019, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Msgr. Pizzaballa launched a beautiful invitation to the whole diocese: "This year our Church of Jerusalem, grateful for the gift of being able to live in this Holy Land, from where, as the prophet Micah says: the law will come out and [... ] the word of the Lord (Mi 4,2), and where the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1,14), welcomes the pope's invitation and proposes the complete reading of the New Testament in the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (23 January) throughout the territory of the Patriarchate (Palestine, Israel, Jordan and Cyprus). Everyone is invited to participate: parishes, religious or lay communities, youth groups, families, single believers, participation can be done personally or as a community, for the part that each one can give and over time that each one can have ".

We too have begun to ask ourselves how to participate, in a time when it is still not prudent to find so many in the presence, but the desire to offer the people who walk with us an opportunity to warm the hearts a little tried by the Word was very strong. So we came up with an idea: to exploit the potential of the remote modality and to gather everyone, especially the most distant, around the Word to read it together and let it make us more and more community.
We tried to ask if anyone from the Fraternity in Turin and Brazil was able to participate, with the idea that their presence could be an encouragement for our friends here, especially those who find it a little harder to pray. They immediately said yes and at that point we began to invite our friends who joyfully welcomed this somewhat special appointment of prayer.

We have chosen to read together the Letter of James which seemed to us very suitable for this time in which we see so many injustices and we are faced with so many difficulties and often we do not know how to deal with them. Indeed, the apostle James makes resound in his words the cry of the suffering of so many that rises to the Lord, but he also strongly invites us not to let judgment prevail, to moderate the tones of language, to make room in our hearts for mercy and all love of God, to get involved in charity and unite in incessant prayer especially for those who are sick or in trial, because "the fervent prayer of the just is very powerful" (Jas 5,16b). These are words that can also be a precious guide for us today.
With great amazement and much emotion at the appointment for prayer, we found ourselves in many; there were friends from all the Arsenals, from the Basilica of Superga, some of our volunteers from Canada and the United States, many friends of the Fraternity connected from their homes.

Ernesto Olivero began the prayer with a thought that reminded us of the importance of putting the Word at the center and then we began the continuous reading: the first verses in Italian, then some in Portuguese and then we continued in Arabic, while each followed reading on the Bible in the language he knew. At the end of the reading we all entrusted ourselves to Mary Mother of Youth and we realized that having found ourselves together to pray warmed our hearts first of all and made us feel once again how important it is to be one heart. and a single soul, beyond any distance, language difference and above all, beyond any difficulty.

Arsenal of the Encounter
NP February 2022