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For the charity of Christ urges us on

(2 Cor 5,14)

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We are driven by the passion for our time, for a new world that is groaning to be born, for a land that, despite enormous potential and progress, cannot close the gap between wealth and poverty, between justice and injustice, between beauty and betrayal.

 

Some phrases from one of the texts written by our Founder urge us to allow ourselves to question in the same way as Jesus, meek and humble of heart, who, in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:1-12), gives us the description of the believer who walks in history by trusting in God the Father. As Elena da Persico says in one of her texts:

 

“Faced with these imbalances, the growing gap between rich and poor countries, the emergence of new forms of poverty, it is clear to us the need to live a life of stronger evangelical spirituality, committed to justice, peace and the safeguarding of creation, by personally taking part in the processes of societal transformation, gathering the thirst and hunger for God that many people experience, so as to respond to this with enlightened wisdom” (Rom 8: 22-23).

 

Living the Beatitudes implies a radical conversion, a reversal of worldly criteria to assume those of God by tirelessly listening to the Word, in contemplative silence, in prayer, to achieve a synthesis between the primacy of God and service to our brothers and sisters. The radicality of this discipleship should not be understood in contrast to the world, to history, which may instead be the “place” where Jesus shows himself and meets with us, the place of conversion and salvation. 

Integration into the world, active participation in its destiny, this is the aspect that specifically characterises the vocation of the FRA. It is a particular way of being in the world, sharing the struggles and aspirations of mankind, “in the same way, the Son of Man did not come to be served but rather to serve” (Mt. 20:28).

A FRA member is called to live her everyday life in the present times “like the leaven of the evangelical spirit”, like yeast (Mt. 13:33) hidden in the tension of experiencing the dialogue with the Lord and always and everywhere being an instrument of unity, in a renewed discipleship of the Lord, who is poor, peaceful, persecuted, meek and thirsty for justice. Gratuitousness is the habitual style of her life (Mt. 10:8).

The vitality of this vocation urges us to be a source of novelty and prophecy in history, it makes us able to rediscover the signs of God’s promise and His presence, making us docile instruments of His anxiety for salvation.

 

The following is a list of some of the urgent needs that we perceive in the present day and which we endeavour to address in a constructive and merciful way, without being complicit in evil:

 

  • material poverty and unjust inequality;

  • the state of neglect of many in our towns and cities;

  • cultural and intellectual poverty;

  • poverty related to the absence of God;

  • the inability to find meaning in the face of death and suffering;

  • the abandonment and neglect of the common good with the widespread omission of responsibility in the political sphere;

  • the various ways in which arrogance and violence present themselves with the consequent abuse of power, preying on the weakest, including situations of war.

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