CONGRESS UPDATE 3

10th OF SEPTEMBER 2018

LOECHES, MADRID

¡CALLED TO BE SAINTS!

We give thanks to God for this second day of retreat. We need these communitarian moments of dialogue
with God in order to prepare our hearts before we initiate the upcoming sessions of the Congress. What a gift
and a priviledge to be able to be at the feet of the Teacher and to listen to Him, what he dreams for our dear
Verbum Dei Missionary Family in the five continents!

We thank Lourdes Grosso very much, a missionary belonging

to the community named Idente Missionaries, who, from
yesterday, was the one guiding us in the meditations of our
retreat with a profound spirituality and a fraternal love, inviting
us to live the charism we have received with creative fidelity in
order to continue being a gift for the Church.

Today, Lourdes invited us to live holiness, putting into practise

what she called “Heroism in virtue,” understanding heroism
from the values of the Gospel and our friendship with God.
Lourdes made a reference to “heroic” from a text of Benedict
XIV whereby he explains how “heroic” is to speak with God as
a friend speaks with a friend. Benedict says that in order to
make heroism a virtue, God capacitates the one who lets
themselves be shaped by Him with promptitude, docility and a
pleasurable feeling.
In the afternoon, God invited all the Fraternity to a conversion. We meditated on the text of the Beatitudes
as manifestations of charity and holiness. True charity heals divisions, envy, sadness, aggresivity and
everything that impedes us to be joyful.

At the end of the day we continued in silence and were invited to purify the intentions that we bring in our
heart that can rob us of our peace and prevent us from seeing each brother and sister with the charity they
require.

Today Mary, our mother, has given us a new gaze with God’s dream. She awakes in our hearts longings for
holiness and the joy of being the living Word for this world. Alongside Mary, we thank God for the mercy he
had when he called us and, for pure mercy, we are here in the 5th Congress in order to be transmitters of the
mercy received.

Dear Verbum Dei Missionary Family, in the name of all the Congress members,
we entrust ourselves to your prayers!