Every year on February 17th, we gratefully remember the beginnings of our religious community and celebrate the "Foundation Day." This year, too, anniversary celebrations and meetings took place in many places and communities. In Krakow, a scientific symposium was organized together with the Pontifical University of John Paul II. In Chicago, students from DePaul College Prep participated in lectures dedicated to the figures of our Founders. In Bermuda, Father Bishop Wiesław Śpiewak CR and Father Julio Błażejewski celebrated with the community of lay friends of the Congregation (pictured), and in Tanzania, Fathers Andrzej Duda and Daniel Hinc met with the novitiate community. On the occasion of the annual celebration, the Father General addressed the Resurrectionists with the following letter:
My Brothers!
Each year, we direct our grateful memory to God for His incredible initiative to bring to life a new religious community on February 17, 1836. Recalling the life and work of Bogdan Jański, Piotr Semenenko, and Hieronim Kajsiewicz, we see how they, fascinated by the person of Jesus, allowed themselves to be led by the Holy Spirit and sought to touch the love of the Father. However, God is not satisfied with us merely accepting His free love. He does not limit Himself to loving us but wants to draw us to Himself, transform us so deeply and radically that we can repeat with St. Paul: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal 2:20). Looking at the lives of the Founders, we see a beautiful story of their friendship with the Lord, which filled their entire lives, enabled their inner rebirth, showed hope, and allowed God to work in and through them.
On the anniversary of our founding, we also realize that we are the continuators of their work, that as Resurrectionists—a small community proclaiming the Good News in twelve languages on six continents—we are part of the great wealth of the Church in its diversity of charisms and variety of vocations and ministries. This day is therefore a time of reflection and questions about whether, like our founders, we are open to the action of the Holy Spirit and whether we are not afraid to get our hands dirty with everyday life, the problems of people, bravely traversing geographical and existential peripheries? Do we nurture in our hearts the amazement at the encounter with the calling Christ? Do we, like them, have in our hearts a healthy restlessness for the Lord and a living desire to bring Him to others? (cf. Francis, Homily, February 2, 2016). These are questions that remind us that as consecrated persons, we are called for God to live in us and lead us to love together with Him, in Him, and like Him.
This thanksgiving for the calling to life of the Congregation will extend throughout the year 2016, as it is a time of chapters in all three Provinces. Each chapter is primarily a salvific, ecclesial, and in a certain sense, family event; it is a "paschal celebration" that brings into the life of the community what the cross and hope, death and resurrection contain. Celebrated in an atmosphere of prayer and brotherly love, it evokes a feeling of freshness, provides a substantial dose of "paschal optimism," and becomes an impulse for renewal both individually and communally. It is therefore a special moment of "constant" renewal of the life of the religious community, where the basic means are: continuous conversion (personal and communal); renewal of spiritual life (personal and communal); courageous commitment to serving others; improvement of fraternal relations in the community; dynamization of apostolic activity; concern for the quality of formation; bond with the universal Church. I wish the Resurrectionists from the Ontario-Kentucky, USA, and Polish Provinces a penetrating gaze of faith that sees the light coming from the Risen Christ and, despite real difficulties and problems, a confident look into the future, for we are emissaries of the greatest hope, which is the Risen Lord.
May Jesus Christ, through the intercession of Our Lady of Mentorell, guard in us all the joy of gratitude for the calling, increase the desire for closeness with Him and selfless service to our brothers, so they may encounter the Father of mercy.
In Christo Redivivo
Bernard Hylla CR
Superior General
