Jubilee Year Program – Theatines Italy
To the Fathers, confreres and friends all of the Theatine Secular Family
Dearly beloved,
On September 14, 1524, four men of God, faced with the needs of a Church in need of a return to the life of the Gospel, decided to join forces and restore the model of life of the first apostolic community. They were Clerics, led together by the Holy Spirit by very different personal paths and from different parts of an Italy, then divided into states, but who since May 2, 1524 (the day of the Invention of the Cross) finding themselves in that forge of saints that was the Oratory of Divine Love, had begun to draw up a program of life, which approved on June 24 (Birth of the Forerunner) by Pope Clement VII, saw its real beginning on September 14 (day of the exaltation of the Cross) with the profession of vows by Gian Pietro Carafa, Gaetano Thiene, Paolo Consiglieri and Bonifacio da Colle.
It was a path already traced by Providence, rediscovering the cross, the mystery of life given in gratuitousness being forerunners in the Church of a new way of life for Clerics to reveal life transfigured in Christ, all accomplished in a real communion and bound in a way, almost sacramental, by personal commitment to live the Gospel summarized in religious vows.
Four hundred and ninety-nine years have passed since that day, and the life of the disciples of those four “revolutionaries,” evangelical children, continues its presence in the Church making itself felt especially in times when the need for reform and return to the sources is most necessary.
We do not hide behind a finger, ours is a small company, and such it has always been throughout these 500 years, but like leaven, salt, of evangelical memory, it is necessary, as long as it is leaven and salt.
Today, half a millennium later, we feel that times have not changed, that there is a need for a people to rediscover their Gospel roots, and unlike the time of our Fathers, we have discovered that a foundational part of the meaning of the Church is the people of God, which is why the charism of those who seek first and foremost the kingdom of God and its justice can and must be extended to the Church as clergy and laity, to the whole people of God.
To celebrate this centenary experience, it seemed good to us to organize for us and for you, dear brothers and sisters, a path to the rediscovery of an ancient, and ever relevant, charism, which will have moments of deepening to nourish the mind and heart, but also stages in which living together and walking, even physically in the steps of those first fathers, will make us experience what we will have known in a more theoretical way.
The hope that at the end of our journey we will be a little more grown up in our knowledge and love of this great charism that the church needs since it is a human reality and always in need of regeneration.
As you can see from the outline below the meetings are all on Friday evenings and designed especially for the participation of those who work and need to carve out a space in the day. The desire is that a group be formed that will have continuity and that will mature in the commitment to bring with us clerics, in the distinction of roles, an evangelical project that seems to us as necessary as ever for the life of the Church today.
I therefore ask the fathers to make known as soon as possible those close to us who may be interested. Later on, also according to the number of accessions, we will specify the technical notes, especially for the residential stages.
In the meantime, I thank you for your attention and a see you soon.
May Our Lady, Mother and of Purity accompany us and protect us in this desire to know the beloved Son.
P. Carmine Mazza, C.R.
Provincial Superior
All meetings will be live streamed and will take place on Fridays.
The first retreat will be in Santa Maria Seconda, by which time we should have the number of participants for the second retreat, the one on April 25.
The retreats are not outings, but the logical conclusion of the formation courses, so those who follow the meetings can participate.
Naples, August 31, 2023
P. Carmine Mazza C.R.
Provincial Superior