“The same ideal and the same mission encourage us and unite us”
Lima, 12/11/14, (Sodalit Family News – Peru). On December 8th the Sodalitium of Christian Life held a Mass to commemorate its 43rd anniversary. The Eucharist was presided over in Lima by Archbishop Jose Antonio Eguren Anselmi, Metropolitan Archbishop of Piura.
The celebration took place in the parish of Our Lady of Reconciliation and was attended by Alessandro Moroni, the Superior General of the Sodalitium of Christian Life, who was accompanied by members of the Superior Council and numerous members of the Sodalit community in Peru.
Also present were members and the superiors of the Marian Community of Reconciliation, the Servants of the Plan of God, the Association of Mary Immaculate and the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Reconciliation. Hundreds of members of the Christian Life Movement also accompanied the mass, along with many friends of the spiritual family. It was a special occasion of celebration for the Sodalit Family.
Archbishop José Antonio Eguren began his homily by thanking the special opportunity to preside over the celebration and congratulated the Sodalitium on this anniversary. Then he noted that it is comforting to “rediscover ourselves children of Holy Mary, as we were born under your sign, guidance and protection.” In this way the archbishop invited “to not be afraid of the struggles that the Lord has chosen for us under the guidance of the Immaculate, nor to be afraid to face problems.”
Highlighting some moments in the life of Holy Mary, Archbishop Eguren addressed the attendees, asking them “how is your ability to dream? Do you still maintain that epic vision of life that has always marked our style and apostolate? Is the longing that the Lord do great things through us still alive, in the same way as He did with Mary as She actively cooperated with the Divine Grace? Do you continue to maintain the freshness of our charism and spirituality and the sense of wonder before it? Are you aware of all that our calling implies and requires and which you have been called to cooperate with God’s Plans like the Mother? Are you willing to give everything, to suffer all things, to give over everything?”
Then the archbishop highlighted the Pontifical Approval that the Sodalitium received in 1997, stating that the “event is one which profoundly commits those who are part of this society of apostolic life, consecrated to the announcing of the Gospel, as well as it also commits the rest of the Sodalit Family.”
Also, Archbishop Eguren noted that the Sodalit Family “was under the maternal command of Mary born as a large spiritual family. It is the Lord Himself, the Mother Herself and the Church Herself whom we seek to love and make others love under a common spirituality. It’s the same ideal, the same mission that inspires us and unites us.”
Finally the celebrant reminded the audience: “Faced with the future, have courage. Our vocation is beautiful, amazing and it maintains all of its richness and potential, its actuality and novelty,” and he invited all to remember “that we have been called to defend the truth and to bring to the world the love of God, One and Triune, as we fight for Christ and for the Church under the guidance of Mary, and He has already overcome the world.”
After the Mass, the Superior General of the Sodalitium of Christian Life, Alessandro Moroni, addressed Archbishop José Antonio Eguren with a few words in which he thanked his presence at the ceremony and assured him in the name of the community that “we received in a heartfelt way your words and that you are for us a source of pride because the Holy Mother Church has fixed upon one of us, Sodalits, in order to be a successor of the Apostles, and this makes us proud and full of joy.”
The celebrations for the XLIII anniversary of the Sodalitium and the Sodalit Family in Lima, its place of origin, also included a family lunch at the Villa Caritas school, which was an opportunity to share and celebrate this memorable celebration. The celebrations also took place in all countries where the spiritual family is present.