The feast of our Founding Father this year is impregnated with
special joy by the grace of the beatification of our 109 brothers, martyrs of
the Spanish Civil War. The faithful surrender of this large group of
missionaries, as well as that of many others - beatified or not - throughout
our Congregational history are not isolated heroic deeds, but are an important
part of the Claretian prophetic spirit. Our Founder lived this martyrial aspect
of his spirituality with intensity, as I have expressed it recently in my
letter to you on the beatification of our martyrs. The disposition to give a
radical testimony of faith with the surrender of life, in the case of our
Founder and our martyred brothers, was not an improvisation; on the contrary,
it was the mature fruit of a process of transformation in Christ lived through
his formation and his missionary journey. Fed by the Word of God, the Eucharist
and the maternal love of the Heart of Mary, they experienced the strength to
base their lives on God, to share fraternity in community and to spend their
lives in missionary service. The fidelity of each day allowed them to live
their vocation with joy and prepare themselves naturally for total and
definitive dedication.
The XXV General Chapter,
which we celebrated two years ago, invited us and continues to invite us to
live in a constant process of personal and community transformation. It is a
question of returning again and again to the root of our identity, which is our
relationship with God (Worshipers of God in the Spirit),
lived in community (Being a community of Witnesses and Messengers)
committed to the mission (Congregation “going-forth”)
(See MS, 64-75). Our Father Founder was a contemplative
in action. His untiring apostolic activity began with a deep contemplation of
God, hence all the time dedicated to personal prayer and the rich process of
configuration with Christ-Eucharist. On the other hand, from the foundation of
our Congregation, he never lived the mission alone; indeed, in Vic as well as
in Cuba, in Madrid and in France, his house was always a missionary community.
The so-called apostolic prayer of Father Claret perfectly embodies all these
elements; may our life be more and more a constant process of transformation in
which we seek - as persons and as missionary communities - to know, to love, to
serve and to praise God, at the same time, that we make him known, loved,
served and praised for the whole world (cf. Aut, 233).
May the feast of our Founding Father be a renewed stimulus to
continue growing in our charismatic identification with him, following the
example of our brother martyrs.
