The Pope will follow the Spiritual Exercises from the Vatican

The Spiritual Exercises begin this evening in Ariccia, not far from Rome, in the “Casa Divin Maestro”, preached this year by the Jesuit father Pietro Bovati, secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. Pope Francis, as he announced today after the Angelus, will not go due to the cold in the city of Lazio. But he will spiritually join the Curia. “The bush burned with fire – The meeting between God and man, in the light of the Book of Exodus, the Gospel of Matthew and the prayer of the Psalms” is the theme chosen for the meditations.

The choice of Ariccia

Unlike the popes who preceded him, Pope Francis in 2014 chose a place far from the Vatican for the Spiritual Exercises. His preference falls on the “Casa Divin Maestro” of Ariccia, immersed in the Castelli Romani Park; a structure on the lake of Castelgandolfo, managed by the Pauline Family. Speaking of this decision, Father Ciro Benedettini, deputy director of the Vatican Press Office, underlines how it is the practice of the Jesuits to perform the Exercises outside the place where they live. “So – he explains – Pope Francis will do, faithful to his spiritual vocation”. At the time, public opinion was the image of the Pope on board a bus. Indeed, Francesco has always chosen to travel, together with the members of the Roman Curia, on the direct means of transport to the Castles.

A future vicar priest

The first preacher is a priest from the Diocese of Rome, Don Angelo De Donatis, spiritual director at the Roman Seminary, parish priest of San Marco evangelista al Campidoglio. The theme chosen by De Donatis, which Pope Francis would have created cardinal in the Consistory of 28 June 2018, concerns “The purification of the heart”. Greeting him at the end of the Exercises, the Pontiff thanks the priest calling him “the sower” because he is capable of sowing the seed of the Word of God. “Because she – says the Pope – was the sower, and knows how to do it … Because she throws from here, it throws beyond without realizing it – or pretending not to notice it – but it goes to the center, it goes to sign. Thank you for this. And I ask you to continue praying for this union of believers … We are all sinners, but we all want to follow Jesus more closely, without losing hope in the promise, and also without losing the sense of humor “.

Elijah’s cloak

In 2015, Pope Francis confirms the choice of Ariccia, like all the following years. The Carmelite father Bruno Secondin, who passed away in June last year, preaches the Exercises. Ordinary professor emeritus of the Pontifical Gregorian University, for 40 years professor of spiritual theology and history of spirituality in the university run by the Jesuits, Father Bruno was the author of thirty books on contemporary spirituality and religious life. The chosen theme: “Servants and prophets of the living God”, a pastoral reading of the prophet Elijah. “It is not easy to give Exercises to priests! – the Pope says greeting him on the last day of meditations – We are all a bit complicated, but you managed to sow. May the Lord grow these seeds that you have given us. And I also hope, and I wish everyone, that we can get out of here with a piece of Elijah’s cloak, in his hand and in his heart. “

The naked questions of the Gospel

The third preacher, chosen by Francis for the 2016 Spiritual Exercises, is Father Ermes Ronchi, of the Servants of Mary, who confesses that he prepared by returning to his personal roots of faith, retiring to his birthplace in Friuli. “The bare questions of the Gospel” the chosen theme, “those capable – Father Ronchi tells in an interview – of putting in depth a seed that can sprout; questions that help the Church to get out of its roles and place itself before the Word of God as believers, as people “. Among his references Father David Maria Turoldo, but also the French mystic Simone Weil. “We must rediscover the courage to dream”: this is the delivery that Francis entrusts to the whole Roman Curia, greeting the preacher.

Meditate also with the spouses and with a Poor Clare

The novelty introduced in 2017 by Father Giulio Michelini, friar minor and ordinary professor of Biblical Exegesis at the Theological Institute of Assisi, is to add to his reflections the meditations of a married couple, Mariateresa Zattoni and Gilberto Gillini, and that of a Clarissa nun of the monastery of Gubbio. “Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus according to Matthew” the theme chosen by the friar who spends ten days in the Holy Land to prepare “to breathe and touch the places trampled and inhabited by Jesus”. Francesco shows him to appreciate his naturalness, “without a little face”, without artifice but also his preparation. “Thanks – says the Pope – for all this you have given us. It is true: there is a mountain of things to meditate on, but Saint Ignatius says that when one finds something in the Exercises that gives consolation or desolation, one must stop there and not go on. Surely each of us has found one or two, among all this. And the rest is not waste, it remains, it will serve for another time “.

From priest to cardinal

As had happened in De Donatis, the Portuguese priest José Tolentino de Mendonça, preacher of the 2018 Exercises, will also become cardinal. Theologian and poet, one of the most influential voices in Portugal, he chooses to meditate on the theme of praising thirst. “One of the last words of Jesus on the Cross – he tells Vatican News – was precisely this: ‘I am thirsty’. And this continues to be a cry that Jesus entrusts to his Church. Jesus asks the Church to participate “in this thirst for God and man. A thirst that must first be discovered to find out who can satisfy this thirst. “Thank you – the Pope tells him at the end of the Exercises – for reminding us that the Church is not a cage for the Holy Spirit, that the Spirit also flies out and works outside. And with the quotes and things you told us, you showed us how you work in non-believers, in the ‘pagans’, in people of other religious denominations: it is universal, it is the Spirit of God, which is for everyone. Thank you for this call to open ourselves without fear, without rigidity, to be soft in the Spirit and not mummified in our structures that close us “.

The gaze on Florence and the universe

Last year, Pope Francis chose to have the Exercises preached to Dom Bernardo Francesco Maria Gianni, abbot of the abbey of San Miniato al Monte in Florence. Exercise theme: “The city of ardent desires. For Easter looks and gestures in the life of the world “. The abbot’s reflection is guided by the poem of the poet Luzi “We are here for this”, but also by God who lives in the city and the contribution to the history of Giorgio La Pira. “I was impressed – the Pope confesses – your work to make us enter, as the Word did, into the human; and understand that God always makes himself present in the human. He did it the first time in the incarnation of the Word, total, but He is also present in the traces that he leaves in the human. Equal to the incarnation of the Word – undivided and unconfused – it is there. Thank you for telling us about memory: this “deuteronomic” dimension that we forget; to have talked to us about hope, work, patience, as showing us the way to have that ‘memory of the future’ that always leads us forward “.