GREETING
E. M.REV. MSGR. SALVATORE NUNNARI

METROPOLITAN ARCHBISHOP OF COSENZA-BISIGNANO)

(Catanzaro, Politeama Theatre, 26 September 2008, 17.00)

Your Excellency,

The Apostolic Movement welcomes with joy Your Person and gives you a warm greeting. Your presence is for all of us bearer of light, truth, and peace.

The themes of these days are drawn from the encyclical “Spe Salvi,” of the Holy Father Benedict XVI. To him, the Shepherd of the whole Church, the visible Foundation of our unity; to Him who is in our hearts, we express our devoted and filial obedience, our homage and respect, and all our love.
The argument that you will deal with: “The church the door of hope”: “The Body of Christ creates, spreads and defends in the world the true hope,” reveals us our reality, discloses us what the way is so that every one of us is in the world a “creator” of hope: being a live branch of the vine which is Christ Jesus, which is his one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

Excellency, the Apostolic Movement is always committed to carry out and run through this path, living and acting in the truth, obedience, holiness, charity, grace, and communion with the Church.
For every member to be all this, the Apostolic Movement is daily committed on two fronts: of the training and sanctification, of the truth and grace.

The training is done with an assiduous, systematic, and permanent catechesis.
It is also done in the centers of Spirituality that are taken care of wherever there is a seat of the Apostolic Movement, both at a diocesan and a parish level.

It is further done by the daily personal reading of the Gospel and by the updatings on the Documents of the Magisterium of the Pope and Bishops.
To transform the Word into life and the listening into everyday history, in perfect obedience to the will of the Lord that daily the Church manifests us; a strong journey in the grace that is drawn from the Eucharist, offered and received for our and the world sanctification; in the Sacrament of Penance, in the personal and communal prayer; in the devout and pious reciting of the Holy Rosary, a sign of our love and devotion that binds us to the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption; are necessary.
This was the way of Jesus: He grew in wisdom and grace, in listening and obedience, in submission to the Father and in love. The imitation of Christ in words, behaviors, gestures, relationships, prayer, wisdom, humility, suffering, and in the cross is the way to create, spread, and defend the true hope in this world.
I thank you, Your Excellency Monsignor Nunnari, who tonight will talk to us about the mystery of the Church, making us fall in love even more with the Body of Christ.

I thank with a particular joy those who wanted to taken part in this our 3rd National Convention: the Most Excellent Bishops, Priests, Religious Men and Women, the Consecrated Lay Women, the Political, Civil and Military Authorities at all levels, and the Adherents to the Apostolic Movement.
I greet the President of the Apostolic Movement, Mrs. Concetta Marraffa. Her love for the Church is pure.
I greet the Inspirer – Founder of the Apostolic Movement, Mrs. Maria Marino, always marked by suffering in her body and her spirit.

I greet and thank H. E. Most Reverend Monsignor Anthony Ciliberti, Shepherd of this Church cradle in which the Apostolic Movement was founded. Its presence is comfort, joy, and great testimony.
To all of you present in this room, goes my thanks together with the daily prayer so that you can all answer to the expectations of Jesus and his Mother.

Monsignor Costantino Di Bruno
Central Ecclesiastical Assistant of the Apostolic Movement