Pope’s spiritual exercises: caring for the heart to recognize God’s
presence
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| Pope Francis at the Lenten spiritual exercises on March 10, 2019 (ANSA) |
The first meditation of Benedictine Abbot Bernardo Francesco
Maria Gianni to Pope Francis and his 65 collaborators who are having their
annual spiritual exercises, was on the need to look at the world with the eyes
of Christ.
By Robin Gomes
Pope Francis and 65 of his collaborators from the Roman
Curia began their annual spiritual exercises Sunday evening at the Casa Divin
Maestro in the town of Arricia, just outside Rome.
Benedictine Abbot Bernardo Francesco Maria Gianni, head of
the Olivetan Abbey of San Miniato al Monte, is preaching the March 10-15 Lenten
spiritual retreat on the theme “The City of Ardent Desires: For Paschal Looks
and Gestures in the Life of the World”.
Pope Francis sat on the 4th row Sunday
evening, to listen to the first meditation of Fr. Gianni on a 1997 poem by
Italian poet Mario Luzi entitled: "We are here for this". The abbot's
reflection started from the perspective of his abbey overlooking the Italian
city of Florence, which Giorgio La Pira, the saintly mayor of Florence after
World War II, now a “Venerable” on the way to sainthood, described as "a
place of the geography of grace".
The Pope and his collaborators were invited to look at
Florence and find clues about “how God lives the city”.
Gaze from above
The abbot spoke about the need to gaze from above in order
not to fall into the temptation of the evil one who would almost have us own,
dominate and condition the things of this world. On the contrary,
he said, one needs to have a gaze aroused by the Holy Spirit and the Word of
the Lord - a gaze of contemplation, of gratitude, of vigilance if necessary and
of prophecy. It is a gaze that easily recognizes that our cities
are a desert.
Desert into a garden
The Benedictine monk explained that the gaze from above is
also an incentive to rekindle a fire in order to restore true life in
Christ and the Gospel.
He earnestly urged his listeners to have what he called the
“gaze of mystery towards Florence”, so that their pastoral actions and care of
the people and humanity entrusted to them by the Lord, may truly be a "new
living flame of ardent desire" that transforms the desert into a garden
of beauty, peace, justice and harmony.
Citing the words of the Medieval Scottish mystic, Richard of
Saint Victor - “where there is love, there is a look" - Abbot Gianni spoke
of the need to recognize the traces and clues that the Lord
leaves behind as He passes through our history and life. It is in
this love that one must read the gaze of La Pira on Florence, of Jesus on
Jerusalem and on all those the Lord met. The abbot said, it is a
perspective that introduces "a dynamic Easter", making us aware of a
weakened brotherhood. The strength of brotherhood, the
preacher stressed, is the new frontier of Christianity.
The gaze of Christ
Recalling that humanism starts from Christ, the abbot
invited the retreat participants to have a glimpse of the merciful face of
the dead and risen Jesus who recreates our humanity that is fragmented by the
struggles of life or marked by sin.
“Let us allow Jesus to gaze at us,” the retreat preacher
urged, so that “we learn to see as He saw,” just as He did with the
rich young man and Zacchaeus.
Abbot Gianni described Christ’s gaze as one that sweeps away
the fear of not recognizing the Lord, but one which already has changed the
heart.
The abbot recalled the words of St. Augustine - "If you
are not attentive to your heart, you will never know if Jesus is visiting you
or not" – and stressed on the conversion of the heart so
that it recognizes the presence of God in our history and opens itself to
a burning hope that is new and unheard of.
Consecrated life
The Benedictine monk thus urged the consecrated persons to a
simple and prophetic life, where the Lord is before their eyes and
in the hands, and nothing else is required.
"Consecrated life,” he said, “is this prophetic vision
in the Church.” “It is the gaze that sees God present in the world, even
if many do not realize it". “He is life, He is the hope and
the future,” the abbot said.
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