by Wladimiro Bogoni
There are many Eucharistic souls in the Parish of San Giuseppe al Trionfale! it is one of the most beautiful and comforting discoveries as parish priest of the parish of San Giuseppe al Trionfale for just over a year.
The opportunity for this pleasant observation came when on November 1st the presbyteral council met with the pastoral council, starting to materialize the pastoral project of the parish for the three-year period 2011-2014, approved on the day/retreat of October 01st at the Sanctuary of Mentorella started, under the coordination of Stefano Marchionni, the initiative of «Continuous daily Eucharistic adoration». The pastoral operation, which will give more and more life to our parish, and which the entire Church needs more and more today, was prepared, on the Solemnity of All Saints, by the announcement made by Don Alberto Pacini, Rector of the basilica of S. Anastasia al Palatino and coordinator of the aep (Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration) for Central Italy. On that Eucharistic day, the Solemnity of All Saints, in all the Holy Masses, in addition to listening to the strong and persuasive announcement of Don Alberto, the parish community asked the Lord, through the intercession of San Luigi Guanella and all the Saints , the gift of daily Eucharistic Adoration continues until the next month of March and of a good preparation for Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration from the Feast of St. Joseph 2012. Following this first announcement and warm invitations from the parish priest to the faithful to give their availability for an hour of weekly adoration, was followed by a surprising, immediate, positive participation on the part of many people who enthusiastically joined the initiative and thus made it possible to cover in a short time almost all the hours of the days of the week. In the following week the organizers prepared the experience in detail, which had its official start on November 12, 2011, Solemnity of St. Mary, Mother of Divine Providence.
What is the reason for this enthusiastic and unanimous support for the initiative? I believe that the "sensus fidei" of the Christian people understood that the very moment the parish opened up to perpetual Eucharistic adoration, it would become a place of extraordinary vitality and spiritual rebirth.
Any pastoral action without the Eucharist becomes meaningless and ineffective. It is therefore not inappropriate to talk about Eucharistic pastoral care, with a serious awareness, on which the fruit of evangelization depends. The faithful, we are sure, will participate in the liturgical, catechetical, charitable and missionary life with a completely different enthusiasm and zeal. The parish will be regenerated from within, not by the charisms of the pastor, but by the same author of all charisms: Jesus the Living. The invitation to adoration comes to us from the Pope himself, who «invites everyone to rediscover the fruitfulness of Eucharistic adoration; before the Blessed Sacrament we experience in a very particular way that "remaining" of Jesus, which He himself in the Gospel of John places as a necessary condition for bearing much fruit (Jn. 15,5) and preventing our apostolic action from being reduced to a sterile activism, but is instead a testimony of the love of God." (Benedict XVI, Speech at the Diocesan Conference, 16 June 2010). Even John Paul II in his time had written: "Yes, dear Brothers and Sisters, our Christian communities must become authentic "schools" of prayer, where the encounter with Christ is not expressed only in imploring help, but also in thanksgiving, praise, adoration, contemplation, listening, ardor of affection, up to a true "falling in love" of the heart. An intense prayer, therefore, which however does not distract from the commitment to history: by opening the heart to the love of God, it also opens it to the love of brothers, and enables us to build history according to God's plan". n