Unexpected gifts

Synod of bishops 2008
Synod of bishops 2008

In this fruitful continuity that marks our monastic life in Bose there are also unexpected gifts, which arise apparently gratuitously, but that are also revealed as the outcome of patient daily work, of a fabric of prayer and solicitude for the universal Church.


In this fruitful continuity that marks our monastic life in Bose there are also unexpected gifts, which arise apparently gratuitously, but that are also revealed as the outcome of patient daily work, of a fabric of prayer and solicitude for the universal Church.

Thus, last July br. Guido participated in the work of the Lambeth Conference, the meeting every ten years of Anglican bishops from the whole world, as personal guest of the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. During the twenty days of reflection br. Guido was able to take active part in all the work of the Conference, sharing this precious experience of seeking communion in diversity.

By far the most significant event in this sense, however, was the nomination by pope Benedict XVI of br. Enzo  as expert at the Synod of Bishops on the theme “The word of God in the life and in the mission of the Church”. This was a gesture of great confidence and esteem towards the prior and the community and a recognition of his ministry in the service of the Word in many local Churches in Italy and abroad. In the three weeks that he spent in the Vatican br. Enzo had the opportunity to participate in the work of the assembly, which arrived at some significant results not only for the life of Catholics in the Church, but also for the society in the midst of which Christians live as co-citizens capable of contributing to making it more human. The synod turned out to be an authentic space of fruitful dialogue on the “joys and hopes, sorrows and anxieties of today’s men and women”, which are, as the Council forcefully recalled, “the joys and the hopes, the sorrows and the anxieties of Christ’s disciples, and there is nothing genuinely human that does not find an echo in its heart”. In sign of this continuity between Vatican Council II, the synod, and the Church of today, we end these news, asking you to forgive us if we have been less punctual and less detailed than at other times. The names and the faces of the many persons who have visited us in these months have not been forgotten, but are preserved with gratitude in our heart and in our prayer, as also of those who have accompanied us in these forty years of our history, a Christian and monastic vicissitude that wants to be only a sign of God’s faithful love for his people and for all humanity.