June 2022 – An evening of songs, testimonies and prayer: on Saturday, June 4, a Pentecost vigil was held at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Jerusalem with Jerusalem Patriarch of the Latins, H.B. Pierbattista Pizzaballa.
“The Spirit urges us to create and to be a community. The Spirit calls us to love others, to take care of them, to feel them as part of ourselves”.
This year, for the first time, this appointment was organized and animated by the faithful of various ecclesial movements and new communities. An initiative born out of a dialogue with the patriarch, in the wake of the synodal path.
AGNES DE CHILLAZ Emmanuel Community – vigil organizing committee
“It was a beautiful way to work all together, a synodal way. We learned to work together, with different sensibilities, charismatic communities like ours and different ones. But we learned and received a lot and this night is the fruit of all our journey”.
The microphone passed from hand to hand: different voices recounted the unique and varied action of the Spirit in the lives of God’s people.
José Pablo told of his abandonment by his father and his rebellion against the faith, until his encounter with the Neocatechumenal Way and the priesthood.
The encounter with Don Giussani’s charism changed Sobhy’s life, the one with the Emmanuel Community saved Jean and Agnes’ marriage. The one with the Focolare Movement allowed Marcel and Boulos to live with hope the loss of their son Jack, at only 15 years old.
“On Jack’s last night, the Holy Spirit gave us great strength to be able to give Jack the assurance that we were at peace. We told him: “Jack, Jesus, whom you love, is waiting for you. Leave us and go with Jesus. It is better with Him’. At that moment we felt a supernatural peace within us. And even today, although we miss Jack terribly, this peace remains”.
Ghada brought her testimony from Gaza, where even in the harshest moments of the war she experienced God’s love – she said. It was her encounter with the Focolare Movement that changed her life forever.
GHADA SWAILIEM Focolare Movement – Gaza
“I was a negative person, sometimes even aggressive. Chiara always repeated to us the words of Jesus: ‘Love your enemies,’ love all the good and the bad. And these words touched me very much. Loving is not easy, but being together helps us, ‘unity is important, it helps us grow.”
This Pentecost vigil opens a new chapter and new ways for the Church in Jerusalem:
SINÉAD MARTIN Koinonia John the Baptist
“All this has enriched my faith, meeting other movements and communities, sharing times of prayer, being together, talking, organizing all the things, preparing songs. Truly we experienced the unity of being together in one body, not independent communities, but together, it’s something new, fresh.”
H B PIERBATTISTA PIZZABALLA Patriarch of Jerusalem of the Latins
“Usually movements met very little here in the Holy Land, and with this synodal process on the occasion of Pentecost it was good to see that what seemed impossible becomes possible. And it is also a bit of a wish for our whole Church that we can work together without losing anything of the individual’s identity.”
Original post published in cmc-terrasanta.org