His Most Reverend Eminence the Cardinal

In this fourteenth videoconference

From the Holy See, December 13^th 2002

Every man needs "the interior help of the Holy Spirit must precede and assist, moving the heart and turning it to God, opening the eyes of the mind and giving "joy and ease to everyone in assenting to the truth and believing it." This affirmation contained in the dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum( no. 5), indicates that Christian faith is not only consent to a number of divine enunciations, but the entire human person’s vital adhesion to the God, who reveals Himself through His living Word. Such faith requires the solicitous and constant help of the Spirit of God.

"Divina eloquia cum legente crescunt", divine words grow together with those who read them, said Saint Gregory Magnus (Homilia in Ezechielem, 1,7,8: PL 76,843D). The Word of God becomes alive in mankind, the witness of the enculturation of faith in a geographical and historical context.

The is the novelty of Christian spirituality: it is both mystery and science; mystery because it is participation in the life of Christ, science because it is knowledge of the transcendence of the paradigm of Christian perfection – Christ Himself –, transcendence that implies and establishes a plurality of itineraries, all converging towards one single goal: to remain in God’s intimacy (see John Paul II, Apostolic Letter. Tertio millennio adveniente, n. 8), so that God may be all in all (1 Cor 15,28).

Hence this fourteenth videoconference on "Christian Spirituality" allows us to turn our theological thoughts to the two dimensions contained in the noun spirituality. The first dimension expresses, in a direct and immediate manner, the work of the Spirit of Christ that affects the entire life of the Christian, assuming all its dimensions, and therefore emphasising the sanctifying value of the different human conditions and ecclesial ministries. On this subject one must bear in mind, among the Magistery’s other documents, the three Council Decrees that indicate the pathway to spirituality for priests (Presbyterorum Ordinis), for those who are consecrated (Perfectae Caritatis) and for lay people (Apostolicam Actuositatem).

The second dimension concerns existential realities – saint’s lives, ecclesial institutions and movements – and emphasises that in these, as the result of the Holy Spirit’s work, Christ has made Himself present offering all believers a pathway for following Him. In this sense we can state that the Council’s Constitutions Lumen gentium and Gaudium et Spes have re-established a spirituality that is authentically Trinitarian, ecclesial, communitarian and Marian, through a theological contemplation of the Incarnation of the divine Word.

This is the subject that will be examined in various aspects by the Theologians invited to this international videoconference, and my heartfelt thanks go to all of them. These interventions one must remember take place through a live link-up from ten countries in the five continents.

The three twenty minute speeches, divided into two parts, will be held respectively in: Rome, from the Seat of the Congregation for the Clergy, by Professor Bruno Forte, from Bogotá by Professor Silvio Cajiao, and from Moscow by Professor Igor Kowaleswski.

These statements will be alternated with the three minute speeches, held respectively by Professor Stuart Bate OMI in Johannesburg; by Professor Louis Aldrich in Taipei- Taiwan; by Professor José Vidamor Yu in Manila; by Alfonso Carrasco in Madrid, by Professor Julian Porteous from Sydney; by Professor Michael Hull from New York, and once again from Rome by Professor Jean Galot, Professor Rino Fisichella, Professor Georges Cottier, His Eminence Cardinal Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Causes of Saints, and by Professor Paolo Scarafoni L.C. I wish you all good listening.