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Welcome
Benedict XVI
Master
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Australia
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Discernment
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Dominican habit
Novitiate
Studentate
---------------------------
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Apostolate
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The Master General of the Order of Preachers, Fr. Carlos Azpiroz, participated in the Synod of Bishops that is being celebrated in Rome from October 2 -23 with the theme: “The Eucharist: source and high point of the life and mission of the Church”.
Here is the complete text of his intervention:
Saint Thomas Aquinas helps us to understand the mystery of the Eucharist from its reality of “memory, presence and anticipation” (past, present and future”. When he speaks of religious life he uses, etymologically, the same scheme: Religious consecration is “prefigured” in the holocausts of the Old Law; religious consecration takes place in the sacrifice of Christ who becomes “present” in the Eucharist; Religious consecration is the “anticipation” on earth of future good. In the Eucharistic Petition, there is mention of the actions of Jesus: He “took” bread, “blessed it”, “broke it” and “gave it”. In this way, we can speak of the life and mission of religious men and women in the Church and in the world.
“By the mercy of God we have been chosen to participate in the life of Jesus” says Fr Pierre Claverie, whose blood was spilled in Africa (August 6, 1996). He states that even more than the loss of the sense of sin, we have lost the sense of the love and mercy of God who has taken us in his arms. “Jesus gives thanks to the Father for our response to the call and blesses us.” The confirmation of our profession on the part of the Church gives objectivity to the divine blessing that we have received. The blessing of Jesus signifies that in a world of persons with no roots, we are rooted in the very intimate life of the Trinity. All that which in us is not a sign of the transfiguring presence of God “destroys” itself so that we can be “handed over” by Jesus to the world. In this way we live each day the painful process of purification. Christ died to open our eyes and so that death would be conquered by love. “Giving is preceded by being broken open”. In our life and mission we need to pass through the paschal experience. For that, it is normal and necessary that there exist moments of crisis and purification. The joy of conversion comes from recognizing our poverty, our unconscious ambitions and at the same time, the mercy of the Lord without which we can do nothing. The fruitfulness of our mission depends on God and the quality of our service manifests itself in the quality of our community life and charity well understood begins in our home.
Saint Catherine of Siena, on her deathbed, whispered: “Be assured that I have given my life for the holy Church(cf. Blessed Raymond of Capua, Life of Saint Catherine of Siena, Bk 3, Ch 4) Like Catherine, we religious men and women offer our “Eucharistic Petition”:
“God eternal, receive the sacrifice of our life for the benefit of the mystical Body of the holy Church. We have nothing else to give if it is not that which you have given us. Take our heart and place it over the face of your Spouse” (Cf Letter to Urban VI number 371).
Very Reverend Fr. Carlos Alphonso Azpiroz Costa, O.P.
Master of the Order of Preachers
