OFFICIAL OPENING OF GENERAL CHAPTER XVII

Bologna, 27 April 2023
Today in Bologna, hymns of praise and gratitude were sung in different languages to the Lord our God, because He has brought us together from different parts of the world, as a family in celebration and one family, to begin our 17th General Chapter, which brings together the 43 Capitulars representing the 13 nations in which we, as Clarist Franciscan Missionaries of the Most Blessed Sacrament, live and work.

uring the solemn Eucharistic celebration presided over by our Brother and Pastor, Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, we, together, entrusted to God our Father, the One and Supreme Good, this important event of synodality and the abundant grace that is poured out for our good and the good of all. Like Mary and the apostles gathered in the Upper Room, we too will be gathered together till 26 May, in this ‘Upper Room’ of ours that embraces the whole world and makes us feel close to each of our sisters and to each of the ecclesial communities that bear witness to the Gospel in the world.

Listening to the Spirit, during these days, we wish to discern His Voice among the many voices around us. We wish to be open to listen to each other, to seek together what God and humankind are asking of us in the present moment of history.
Listening to the Spirit, we wish to reorganise our life so that it may be more profoundly Eucharistic, more daring and courageous in its missionary spirit, more attentive to the cry of our poor and needy brothers and sisters, just as the words of the Cardinal invite us to do: rediscovering the preciousness of our Eucharistic-Missionary charism, which is expressed in our BEING and GOING FORTH, to witness with joy what we experience daily in the contemplation of Jesus in the Eucharist.

So with focused  hearts and feet on the go! Missionary Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament!

These days, then, will be an opportunity to build bridges of communion to walk and make us pilgrims together, because only by being “together”, in a synodal way, can we dream and plan out the future of our family of Clarist Franciscan Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament missionaries in the world.

Let us make our own the invitation of Pope Francis, expressed in his letter filled  with warmth and familiarity, addressed on this occasion to our Mother General, and through her, to all of us: “As spiritual daughters of St. Clare, I urge you to rediscover the beauty of “being with Him” as women of prayer, who through contemplation, meditation and ardent adoration of the Eucharistic Mystery, know how to embody a humble and hidden attitude and who are courageous to leave everything behind joyfully on order to follow the Master on the paths of the world, to be sentinels of God’s merciful love… Like St. Francis of Assisi, you have to nurture the audacity of prayer, willing to live and proclaim the Gospel in the itinerant way, with a passion for evangelization and dedicated to gratuitous service to the most needy, especially those at the peripheries of society, to the many who are excessively poor and the abandoned of our times…However, may the perfect joy be deeply rooted in you, as you become the Father’s smile for all those whom you meet on the way, so that they may see in you the loving face of the “Most High, all-powerful, good Lord”.

We place these sentiments, desires and aspirations of our heart, we place them today in the hands of our loving and provident Father, that He may bless them, transform them and make them fruitful in the pages of history that we will re-write, with Him and in Him, for the future.

We share below the complete  text of the Letter of Pope Francis.