Dearest Sisters, welcome to this House so dear to the Pauline Family, so dear because Primo Maestro desired it to be a place of “regeneration of spirit,” where, for several years, even Pope Francis came for his Spiritual Exercises. And it was here, on the feast of the Holy Trinity in 1961, in one of the rooms in the Giaccardo wing, that Maestra Thecla offered her life so that all the Daughters of St. Paul would become saints.
We therefore feel ourselves to be “guided by Alberione and guarded by Thecla,” as it says in the prayer that has accompanied the preparation of the General Chapter, and sustained by the prayerful presence of the members of the Pauline Family and of the sisters of the congregation, especially by those our sisters who are sick and our elderly sisters.
With joy, and in the name of the General Government as well, I welcome each one of you: those who have already had an experience of a General Chapter and those who are participating for the first time. We are all excited, in any case, and perhaps also a little bit intimidated. We are here in the name of the whole congregation and we feel the weight – but also the grace – of the responsibility entrusted to us, we feel inadequate, unprepared…. If these are the feelings that dwell in our hearts, we are in the right place. The Lord “calls us to a deserted place,” repeats these words to us: “Do not be afraid. Trust in me. Entrust yourselves to me,” and astonishes us: precisely at the moment when we feel our most incapable and insufficient, He trusts in us and entrusts to us a mission that is grand, noble, necessary.
In all the stories of calls brought to us in the Scriptures, from the Old to the New Testament (for it is also a call to be asked to participate in the chapter assembly) it is evident that the Lord never calls based on the merits or capacities of the person, but out of pure grace and mercy.
We are not here because “we have what it takes,” but because the Spirit sought us out, chose us, guided us. And this is exactly what gives us strength: we do not count on ourselves, but on the power of God, on his Spirit who inhabits us like a burning fire, who empowers us like a patient teacher, who urges us on like a gentle wind.
If we allow ourselves to be guided by the Spirit, we will not stop to complain or to be nostalgic for the past. We will see, instead, opportunity in what has taken place in the years, a possibility in every struggle we have lived; fertile ground in every setback, and in every failure a passage toward the unknown. Because, even in the most painful twists and turns of the story, there is a threshold to cross, a light that awaits the one who knows how to remain and listen. And what we wait for could be what we would never have dared to imagine: a new fruitfulness for the mission, a new life for our communities, a fuller realization of our vocation….
This is what the Acts of the Apostles recounts to us in a story whose conclusion is summarized in the icon of Paul with Lydia and the women of Philippi that is here before us, in this hall where for 30 days we will pray, think, dream, and exercise the art of listening and of communication, in hope, in sharing, in communion.
I think that what Paul lived is paradigmatic for us and can show us how to live the chapter experience. I will highlight just a few points, beginning with a reading from the passage of Acts 16:9-15.
During [the] night Paul had a vision. A Macedonian stood before him and implored him with these words, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When he had seen the vision, we sought passage to Macedonia at once, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.
We set sail from Troas, making a straight run for Samothrace, and on the next day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, a leading city in that district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We spent some time in that city. On the sabbath we went outside the city gate along the river where we thought there would be a place of prayer. We sat and spoke with the women who had gathered there. One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened, and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying. After she and her household had been baptized, she offered us an invitation, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my home,” and she prevailed on us.
The first thing that is evident from the text is that evangelization is not a human project. Barnabas and Paul were a tried and tested team; they had a clear plan, that had been confirmed in Jerusalem: to return to the communities they had founded to support them and help them grow. The project fails right from the start because the two apostles quarrel over Mark. At that point, Paul decides to go with Silas to Asia Minor, a fairly homogenous territory, more or less of the same Semitic culture as the Jews, in a strong religious search to be directed toward Christ.
This is the new plan. But the Spirit blocks all their paths.
Is it, then, useless to make plans? No, it is necessary to make them, but we must learn to believe that the real plan, the real project, is to have eyes that are open to reality. Because God does not act according to our ideas, which so often are the memory of what we have done and what we still want to carry out. God is always new and speaks even through the reality that takes place. Emmanuel Mounier, a French philosopher, would say that the things that take place are our “interior teacher.”
God’s plans are not things that are conceived at a desk, that are objects of study, of tested experience, of highly competent people…. They also involve failures, which, however, must be “read.” And if one road closes, it means that there is another one.
It is when every pathway seems closed that the dream comes…. After much wandering, many obstacles from the Spirit, finally there is a vision in the night, a Macedonian who begs: “Come over to Macedonia and help us!”.
The restlessness of the dream unsettles Paul and opens up totally new scenarios: from being a protagonist of evangelization, Paul becomes a collaborator of the Spirit.
And in this way the Church arrives in Europe. Not with noisy events but on tiptoe, through listening and encounter. There was no synagogue in Philippi, but along the river, outside the gates, a group of women gathers in prayer.
And there, in that apparently marginal space, the Word encounters a heart that is ready: that of Lydia. The text says: “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying.” The Greek verb that is used – diènoixen – is the same word that describes the dilation of the uterus at the moment of birth. It is, therefore, a birth, a coming to light, a faith that sprouts from within, as if the Word brought forth what was already living in her but had not yet been spoken.
Lydia, a believing, hospitable, determined woman, becomes the first Christian of Europe. She welcomes the Word, she is baptized with her whole house, and then “she prevailed on us to accept” her hospitality, says Paul.
It is the eruption of grace: a new community is born from an encounter, from a shared prayer, from a heart that is open.
Dearest, also for us this is the time of vision, of listening, of discernment. A time to follow the compass of the Spirit, even willing to change course, allowing ourselves to be surprised and unsettled by dreams, inspired by the Word, guided by reality. Let us keep our hearts open, like Lydia, so that the Lord can continue to generate new life through us. And, like Paul, let us become “accomplices” of the Spirit, faithful even to that which goes beyond us, but transforms us.
The General Chapter, epiclesis in action
In light of what has just been said, the General Chapter is like a continual invocation of the Spirit, “an epiclesis in action,” so that the Breath of the Risen One may be the presence that inspires, opens hearts and minds, renders them docile, placing in them his fruit that “is love, joy, peace” (Gal 5:22).
Borrowing the words pronounced by Pope Francis in his opening address of the Synod on synodality, October 4, 2023, we can also affirm that “we are not the protagonist of the [Chapter]: it is the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit is in our midst to guide us, it will be a good [Chapter].”
Because of this, the priority of the Chapter is listening. In this “pause” of the congregation, but also of the Church – because the Chapter is also an ecclesial event that concerns the whole Church – we listen: to God, to the reality of the Church in the world, among us as assembly, and to ourselves individually.
The “food” for our journey is the Word that, thanks to the silent and subtle action of the Spirit, becomes living word in the experience of these days. In listening to the Scriptures we will draw forth the words that we will exchange in dialogue and discussion; we will be helped to focus on urgent issues, questions, and areas of inquiry to be able to trace out reliable and authoritative directions for our future journey.
These elements, briefly mentioned here, are well summarized in the prayer Adsumus Sancte Spiritus (We stand before you, Holy Spirit), a prayer that in the Catholic tradition opens every Council, every Synod, every Chapter of religious life. A prayer that we will now pray together.
as we gather together in Your name.
With You alone to guide us,
make Yourself at home in our hearts;
Teach us the way we must go
and how we are to pursue it.
We are weak and sinful;
do not let us promote disorder.
Do not let ignorance lead us down the wrong path
nor partiality influence our actions.
Let us find in You our unity
so that we may journey together to eternal life
and not stray from the way of truth
and what is right.
All this we ask of You,
who are at work in every place and time,
in the communion of the Father and the Son,
forever and ever. Amen.
I will now give a preview of some guidelines that will be explained in more detail at the opening of the Chapter, after the Spiritual Exercises.
First of all, I want to express, on behalf of all of you as well, our thanks to the sisters of the Commission that was entrusted with preparing the General Chapter: Sr. Nadia Bonaldo, Sr. Gissela Galarza Mendoza, Sr. Beatrice Iguem, Sr. Melba Grace Lobaton, and the general councilors Sr. Bruna Fregni and Sr. Clarice Wisniewski.
The Chapter itself will begin on Friday afternoon, September 12, with the official opening and approval of the Iter.
Now we will live the introductory days guided by the Provisional Central Commission, formed by the Superior General as President, the Secretary General as Secretary of the Chapter, and the two youngest sisters – Sr. Emily Beata Marsh and Sr. Noelia Raquel Toro – in the role of tellers.
Some sisters who are not members of the Chapter are present at the General Chapter at the invitation of the General Government to carry out various services.
The following sisters will serve as translators: Sr. Anne Joan Flanagan and Sr. Margaret Edward Moran, for English; Sr. Helena Cho, for Korean.
The following sisters will collaborate to update the website paoline.org: Sr. Teresa Braccio, Sr. Daniela Son, Sr. Wendy Ooi.
For photos in the chapter hall: Sr. Josephine Idowu and Sr. Julia Park.
For the technical secretariat and the infirmary: Sr. Saveria Kim.
The animation of the liturgy during the Spiritual Exercises is entrusted to the sisters of the General Government
At the opening of the Chapter, we will give information on the other services entrusted to the Chapter delegates.
“Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says….” (cf. Rev 2:7)
The General Chapter is often defined as “a new Pentecost.” But in order for it to truly become one – not only in words, but in the living truth of our experience – it is necessary, I repeat, that each one of us opens herself to listening. An interior, profound, docile listening, to welcome what the Spirit has to say, precisely to us, precisely today.
Only in this way will a new language be born, a language that is “other,” a universal language that everyone can understand: the language of love that knows how to see the other with tenderness; the language of gift that gives without calculating cost; the language of the disarmed heart that does not defend itself but surrenders itself, and precisely for this reason disarms those it encounters.
Sisters, in these days of Spiritual Exercises, let us open our hearts to the warmth of the Holy Spirit. Let us allow him to descend on each one of us as in that upper room in Jerusalem, and to transform us from within, personally and as a capitular community. The rest…will be a surprise, a surprise of the Spirit, who never ceases to blow where he wills, as he wills, when he wills.
May we be sustained and accompanied on this journey by the powerful intercession of Primo Maestro and Maestra Thecla, whose existence was so “inhabited” by the Spirit that they became prophets of life, sowers of hope, untiring pilgrims toward the future of God.
Ariccia, September 7, 2025
