Assisi 2023: a "Franciscan" General Assembly. 

Dear friends:

As I stand before the Lord praying for the upcoming General Assembly, the lives of St. Francis and St. Clare take on greater relevance within me, as models of what we will live at our meeting in Assisi 2023.

Francis and Clare are saints who changed the relationship between man and nature in the Middle Ages. If we contemplate the countryside of Assisi, we will better understand how the famous Canticle of the Creatures was born there. We can make great strides in our commitment to transform the planet into our Common Home. Francis is considered the precursor of integral ecology. He listened to God through the "book of nature", he established a dialogue with the birds and the fish. If we go deeper into his spirituality, we will be able to find the key to the Laudato si' interpretation and application.

When Clare was 18 years old, subjugated by the evangelical ardour of her compatriot, she left her home and, in the chapel of the Portiuncula - around which we will have our Eucharists in May - she took the monastic robe from Francis hands. Subsequently, he arranged for Clare and her followers to live in the church of San Damiano, adapted to the ideal of poverty and simplicity.  Her life was characterised by great austerity, intense prayer and works of charity. Let us pray St. Clare to give us the gift of/to grant us her attitudes in order to develop a way of life with Franciscan virtues.

This Assembly, having almost doubled the number of participants of the last 13 years assemblies, will force us to live it with generous dedication and a great spirit of sacrifice. The comfort of an assembly of 500 persons is not comparable to the difficulties of having to adapt to 900 participants at meals, in the 10 hotels in which we will be spread out, in the transfers from one place to another, in the numerous sessions in different rooms; in short, in all the inconveniences and delays that the thirst for the participation of the women of WUCWO has generated.

At the same time, having the pleasure of sharing with so many women from different countries and cultures, all deeply in love with Jesus and Mary, all seeking to collaborate with one another to deepen our service to the Church, will be a source of joy for us. The austerity that will characterise our Assembly will not deprive us of the possibility of receiving the gift of "Franciscan laetitia" (joy), proper to both saints of Assisi. In Amoris laetitia, the Pope invites us to contemplate the mystery of Christmas and the secret of Nazareth, breathing the family atmosphere that so fascinated Francis, who, full of joy, invented and started the first crib in history.

We are faced with the great challenge of living, for one week (14-20 May), some of the features of the synodal style that the Holy Spirit indicates for the Church of the third millennium. It is a wonderful opportunity to create bonds of social friendship that will help us to contribute, each one from her own place, to the human fraternity that Fratelli tutti teaches us. What is proper to the General Assembly is to pray in unity - even if in our different languages -, to listen to each other and to discern in order to walk together, overlooking any discomfort or shortcomings and offering each other the best of ourselves.

And this ecclesial experience will be preceded by a special grace: Pope Francis will receive us in audience on Saturday 13th of May, with our families and the women we work with who will be able to join us in Rome. Through this exceptional "threshold" we will enter the Assembly in Rome and the next day we will leave for Assisi.

Please, dear friends, let us redouble our prayers to take advantage of this woman world meeting of WUCWO with a Franciscan perfume. Let us prepare ourselves inwards by praying to Pilar Bellosillo, president of WUCWO and auditor of the Second Vatican Council, who worked so hard for the promotion of women, with extraordinary love for the Church. Let us pray for her cause of beatification and she will undoubtedly intercede for the Assembly.

This Holy Week I invite you to follow Jesus’s footsteps, like Mary, to soothe His wounds. He received in His body what the most vulnerable members of his Mystical Body suffer today, those who are currently persecuted, abused, abandoned, exploited. I wish you from the bottom of my heart a happy and holy Easter!

Maria Lia Zervino, Servidora

WUCWO President General