Eighth day of Novena to Saint Joseph Allamano

Описание: 8th Day

HOLINESS AND FAMILY SPIRIT
John 15:12-17
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”
The family spirit is the heart of St. Joseph Allamano's spirituality and the strength of the Institute do not come from individual zeal, but from the communion built day after day. He often recalled that the community is a family and that the first missionary task consists in living authentic fraternal relationships: “The Institute is a family; you should live as true brothers. ... We should have esprit de corps to the point of giving your lives for each other.” (This I want you to be, chap. 7). The family spirit is nourished through simple gestures: welcome, forgiveness, collaboration, shared joy. Allamano insisted that unity is the foundation of all missionary work: “Walk together, always united, and the Lord will bless all your works” (Lettere ai Missionari, vol. II, p. 74). Living the family spirit therefore means building a common garden every day, where diversity becomes richness and mission becomes a visible witness to God's love.
Invocations
Lord Jesus, You who revealed to us the heart of the Father and commanded us to love one another as You loved us,
̶grant that the family spirit taught by St. Joseph Allamano may become our concrete way of living the Gospel: a love that does not seek itself.
You who have chosen and sent us to bear fruit,
̶make us instruments of your communion, so that we may form “one heart and soul” when we believe that You are in our midst.
You who gather us together as beloved children and call us to build your house together,
̶give us a heart capable of welcoming and unity, so that our every word and every gesture may become a seed of fraternity.
Let us pray:
Lord, give us that family spirit
that St. Joseph Allamano taught us:
a spirit made up of welcome, forgiveness, simplicity,
and a mission lived together, never alone.
Grant that our unity may become
a living witness to your Gospel,
that our joy may be full
and that our every gesture
may be a seed of consolation for the world. Amen.