Pope at the order of Saint Augustine: living in order to show God living in the world

Griselda Mutual – Vatican City

The Pope's speech to the members of the Order of St. Augustine, received on the morning of September 13th on the occasion of his General Chapter, began with a challenge: to live together the experience of God so that they can show God to this world. in a way that is "clear, courageous, uncompromising, and hesitant".

Community life is made up of many daily details

Thinking of the communities of consecrated persons, in which "we want to live the experience of God of interiority and communion", the Holy Father reminded them that "unity in charity" is a focal point of Augustine's experience and spirituality, and also the foundation of all Augustinian life. Thus, he explained that it was in this perspective that he wished to recall in the apostolic exhortation Gaudete and exsult "this sublime spiritual encounter that Saint Augustine and his mother Santa Monica lived together": "a moment in which their souls were melting in the intuition of Divine Wisdom ". The Pope stressed, however, that these experiences "are neither the most frequent nor the most important", but that "community life is made up of many small daily details":

The community that keeps the little details of love, where the members take care of each other and constitute an open and evangelizing space, is the place of the presence of the Risen One who sanctifies it according to the Father's plan.

The first community goal of each day is the search for God

Thus, he emphasized that to keep alive this "flame of fraternal charity", a daily orientation towards God is necessary:

Always! Each member of the community must be guided, as the first "sacred goal" of each day, towards the search for God. This "address" must be declared, declared, testified among you without false pudora. The search for God can not be obscured by other goals, as generous and apostolic as they may be. Because it is the first apostolate. We are here – you should be able to say every day among you – because we are walking towards God. And since God is love, we walk towards him with love.

Charity is the end, but also the means and the center of religious life

Francisco also recalled the words of Saint Augustine on religious life, quoted by Father Agostino Trapé: "charity is not only the end and the half of religious life, it is also the center: charity must continue and charity must be directed, with a perpetual movement of circular causality, every thought, every affection, every attitude, every action "(San Agustín, Regla, Milan 1971-Ancora, 137).

It is good to come back often to the meditation that Augustine gave to his faithful about the First Letter of John, where he called "mater charitas," a crying mother for the division of children and Call them to the Charity Unit: "If you want to know if you have received the Spirit, ask your heart not to run the risk of carrying the sacrament, but not its effects." Ask your heart and if there is charity towards your brother, stay calm.

Each with his own cross, because it is the measure of love

For this fraternal charity, "prophetic sign" of the Augustinians, the warning is "wise", according to Francis:

We will not be able to do all this if we do not take our daily cross for Christ with humility and gentleness. The cross is the measure of love, always. It is true that you can love without cross, when there is no cross, but when there is a cross, the way, as I take the cross, is the measure of love. It's like that.

And the "perfection of love" is also "loving our enemies and loving them to become brothers," he added.

"Dear brothers, it is also for you today the challenge and the responsibility: to live in your communities so you can live the experience of God together and show it to the world! May Mary, mother of Jesus and luminous figure of the Church, accompany and protect you always. I bless you from the bottom of my heart and ask you, please, to pray for me.