Don Orione

This morning, during the fourth day of the VIII General Assembly of the MLO underway in Madrid, Mrs. Armanda Sano (Tortona – IT), was reconfirmed as General Coordinator of the Orionine Lay Movement. To support Armanda Sano at the head of the Movement as Deputy Coordinator will be Mrs. Vivian Zandonà, former Territorial Manager for South Brazil.

Today the newly elected together with the General Superiors, Fr. Tarcisio Vieira FDP and Mother Mabel Spagnuolo PSMC, and the spiritual assistants of the MLO, the General Councilors Don Fausto Franceschi and Sister M. Jozefa Kalinowska, will choose the members of the Operational Secretariat.

Don Orione’s exhortation “Courage and forward in the Good”was the theme of the VIII General Assembly, which began on Monday 10 October and celebrated in the name of the 25th anniversary of the official birth of the Orionine Lay Movement (October 1997).

The importance of this event was also underlined by the two Superiors General during their intervention in the Assembly. In fact, in recalling the episode that characterized the silver jubilee of Don Orione’s priestly ordination, Fr Tarcisio and Mother Mabel affirmed that the 25 years of the Movement, despite being a goal, an important goal, also inspire to “a new beginning, to a restart in the light of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the priestly jubilee of Don Orione to be a “story of good”. In fact, the OLM is already in the adult age of gift and witness in the bosom of the Church and in the heart of the earthly realities of the world, because, the world with its sufferings, wounds and agonies, is today and always the “cleric Viano “Waiting to be treated. It is in this way, as happened with the Founder, that the XXV of the Lay Movement can be “sanctified”. In fact, the Charter of Communion says that the Orionine layman responds to the call to holiness in their state of life through personal prayer, the Word of God lived, the sacraments and the service of Christ in the poor: “We must be saints, but make ourselves such saints that our holiness does not belong only to the worship of the faithful, nor is it only in the Church, but transcends and throws into society so much splendor of light, so much life of love of God and of men, to be, more than the saints of the Church, the saints of the people and of social health“. Therefore, our suggestion cannot be other than, after the Assembly, and motivated by it, every lay group and every Orionine layman take the decision to carry out an act of charity in memory of this jubilee occurrence with the clear intention of joining the Don Orione’s charitable gesture. This action, perhaps, depending on the needs, could become a work of mercy of “lay charity” to be carried out, not only in a precise moment, but to become a form of life ».

Father Vieira and Mother Spagnuolo then focused on the theme chosen for the VIII General Assembly of the MLO, “Courage and forward in the Good “, inviting us to reflect first of all on the term “courage”, analyzing its meaning in its various expressions, and then moving on to reread the experience of the Movement through the lens of the past, the present and, above all, the future. «25 years after the birth of the MLO, a new stage opens with great challenges: that of the courage of good, of a concrete, feasible, effective good; the challenge of the ever greater involvement of young people in this adventure of charity; the challenge of a concrete commitment to a new human paradigm, in which we are “all brothers“, in which “Christ wins in his infinite mercy“And, starting from the small, personal and community witness and commitment, we can, all together as a charismatic family”Establishing omnia in Christ“”.

Finally, the invitation is to look to the future with courage, the courage to dare again: «The future can have many names. They say that for the weak it can mean the unattainable; for the fearful it can mean the unknown; for Don Orione it has always meant an opportunity to be grasped with courage and trust in Providence. The future opens up for the Orionine Lay Movement. The celebration of the 25th is, of course, the conquest of a milestone. Now it is necessary to start afresh with new impetus, to start again with new forms, with a more creative charity inserted in society, especially with the young. The existence of the Lay Movement and its Jubilee history has been one of the most beautiful and significant realities of recent times in the Orionine Charismatic Family. Seeing you passionate about Don Orione, participants of our charism and our spirituality is a gratifying and very rich experience. We hope to be able to continue walking together to deepen an ever more true and profound sharing of the charismatic spirituality ”.