Father Tomaž Mavrič, CM Superior General greetings to the Holy Father on the Occasion of the Papal Audience with the Delegates of the XLIII General Assembly of the Congregation of the Mission.

Dear Holy Father:

In the name of all the participants at the 43^rd General Assembly of the Congregation of the Mission of Saint Vincent de Paul and all the confreres throughout the world who are accompanying us at this extraordinary time which is seen as a gift of Jesus’ Spirit to our Little Company, I express my great joy and gratitude for the opportunity which your have offered us in meeting with you and listening to your words, your counsel and your encouragement. We open our hearts, and we will do everything possible to put your words into practice.

The theme of the 43^rd General Assembly is Revitalize our Identity at the Beginning of the 5^th Century of the Congregation of the Mission of Saint Vincent de Paul. We are very aware of the fact that the degree to which we live in fidelity to our spirituality and our charism, will determine the manner in which we will be able, in some small way, to contribute to the building up of the Kingdom of God.

Saint Vincent de Paul invites us, directly and indirectly, to continually seek to enter into a profound union with Jesus Christ, being Carthusians at home and Apostles in the rural areas … being contemplative in action and apostles in prayer.

Saint Vincent de Paul is called A Mystic of Charity. He was able to discover, through the mercy of Jesus, his true calling, his place and mission in the world. He discovered the mystical experience of God’s love for humanity through the mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Eucharist, and the Blessed Mother. He found a mystical experience in Jesus, living it in the person of the poor and the poor in Jesus, an experience which he placed in the perspective of the “here and now” through the mysticism of Divine Providence.

For Saint Vincent de Paul both the vertical and the horizontal dimension of spirituality were indispensable. He understood that the love of Jesus could not be separated from the love of the poor. As a mystic in prayer and a mystic in the world, he built a bridge between the mysteries of our faith and the world and the poor.

Dear Holy Father, we are aware that before we enumerate or speak about the various services that we offer as part of our charism, we need to understand who we are, and we also need to understand the spirituality that molds us and gives meaning to who we are.

Holy Father, the preparation and development of the General Assembly has been accompanied by the prayer of the Little Company, of the members of the Vincentian Family and of other individuals. In this way, we have called upon Jesus to make real the objective of the General Assembly to revitalize our identity so that it penetrates every dimension of the live of each missionary. We will make every effort to be mystics of charity and to experience a new Pentecost in our Little Company.

I would like to conclude this welcome with the following words: in the same way that you regularly ask the People of God to remember to pray for you, I ask you, in the name of the whole Congregation, to continue to support us with your prayers.

Now we come to the moment that we have awaited: to listen to what you want to tell us. Holy Father, many thanks for this grace filled moment!

Tomaž Mavrič, C.M.