Praying with the Explosive Gospel Advent Season Year C Please contact one of our centers for more information on the Pro Sanctity Movement. Pro Sanctity Movement National Center 11002 North 204th Street Elkhorn, NE 68022 402.289.1938 prosanctity@prosanctity.org www.prosanctity.net Pro Sanctity Movement East 4530 195th Street Flushing, NY 11358 718.649.0324 nyprosanctity@gmail.com www.nyprosanctity.org Pro Sanctity Movement West 205 South Pine Drive Fullerton, CA 92833 714.449.0511 caprosanctity@prosanctity.org www.caprosanctity.org 12
2 Our Founder, Bishop Giaquinta ishop William Giaquinta was born in Noto, Italy on June 25, 1914. Ordained a priest on March 18, 1938, he served the Diocese of Rome where he was Secretary of the Vicariate of Rome from 1948 to 1968. On November 1, 1968, he was consecrated a bishop and charged with the pastoral care of the Diocese of Tivoli, just outside Rome. Due to poor health, he retired in 1987. In the early years of his priesthood, Bishop Giaquinta began to teach the universal call to holiness, that all people are called to become saints. His passionate desire to draw all people to the love of God prompted many to follow him in the apostolate of interior life and holiness. To give structure and stability to this charism he received, he founded the Pro Sanctity Movement in 1947, which now has centers in Italy, Belgium, Malta, India, Latvia, Holland, and the United States. He also founded the Institute of Apostolic Oblates (a pontifical secular institute for lay women), the Institute of Apostolic Sodales (a secular institute for diocesan priests), and the Social Animators (an ecclesial association for lay men). Bishop Giaquinta s message of the universal call to holiness was confirmed by the Magisterium of the Church when the Second Vatican Council documented this teaching in the fifth chapter of Lumen Gentium. The author of numerous books and articles on spirituality, as well as many poems, songs and prayers, Bishop Giaquinta was an untiring preacher and teacher, conducting retreats and spiritual exercises for both the clergy and the laity. In his tremendous devotion to Our Lady of Trust, Bishop Giaquinta believed that through her intercession the world would learn of and respond to God s call to holiness. Bishop Giaquinta died June 15, 1994 and was proclaimed Servant of God by the Church on March 17, 2004. A Gaze of Love A Gaze of Judgment and Truth 11
Luke 1:39-45 Fourth Sunday of Advent Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled." The Explosive Gospel The Gospels reveal to us the exciting news of Jesus infinite love and salvation! Bishop Giaquinta explained that we can never really read the Gospel without being converted: Surely if this true Gospel came close to our mediocrity, it would make it explode into the bits of rubble it really is! Our Founder designed a specific method of Lectio Divina for the Pro Sanctity Movement, the Explosive Gospel. The Gospel must EXPLODE in our personal, family, and community life. It is a Word capable of revolutionizing our way of feeling and thinking, of living the faith, and of immersing ourselves in the reality where God has placed us. There are three main moments while praying with this: A gaze of love Meditation and Contemplation It is the moment to contemplate and meditate on the text. We do this in order to gather the maximum love that Christ, through His Word, wants to give us. Look with love at the Word, and the Word will look back at you with love! It reveals to us the infinite love of Jesus for us. 10 Only she who has had this experience could speak of it to us; in the Magnificat the Madonna exalts the greatness and the power of God along with her own poverty and nothingness, and therefore, she witnesses to the All of God and to the nothingness of herself. All this is profound awe in Mary. A gaze of judgment and truth We are confronted by the Word in love, and so it enlightens us as to where we must grow or where there may be contradictions in our lives personally or in the community, inviting us to conversion. An apostolic response It is a prophesy in the sense of insight for future action. We are invited in the third moment to apostolic action. It is where the members of the Movement are invited to make a commitment to become prophets of the Gospel that revolutionizes their lives. 3
Luke 21:25-28, 34-36 First Sunday of Advent Jesus said to his disciples: There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand. Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man. A Gaze of Love A Gaze of Judgment and Truth 4 We are silently yearning for the Eucharist, more than the watchman waits for the dawn. 9
Luke 3:10-18 Third Sunday of Advent The crowds asked John the Baptist, What should we do? He said to them in reply, Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise. Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him, Teacher, what should we do? He answered them, Stop collecting more than what is prescribed. Soldiers also asked him, And what is it that we should do? He told them, Do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages. Now the people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. John answered them all, saying, I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. Exhorting them in many other ways, he preached good news to the people. A Gaze of Love A Gaze of Judgment and Truth 8 Bearer-of-Fire, kindle in us a longing for the fire that overpowers our misery and becomes a blaze consuming the whole earth. 5
Luke 3:1-6 Second Sunday of Advent A Gaze of Love In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert. John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: A voice of one crying out in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. A Gaze of Judgment and Truth 6 Jesus, in the villages of Judea and Galilee, you preached, you taught, you prayed and worked miracles, so that they could understand that you alone are the true source of living water, and that only in you is there hope for peaceful rest. 7