Homily of bishop Domenico Sorrentino

Today here begins again a thread, one of the many threads of this marvelous history. Who weaves this thread? God’s Spirit, he is the great weaver, and we allow ourselves to be woven. We want to be brothers and sisters of one community, to feel ourselves family, everyone with his identity, everyone with his history. It is well that in your history you carry also a particular ecumenical accent. When this church was founded, the Church was not yet divided. Today unfortunately it is, and all of us long for full unity, all of us want to construct it, in the humility of listening to the one Word, recognizing the Lord in our midst, and recognizing him particularly in the Eucharist. In a little while this Word that was heard will become a living Presence, a living bread that nourishes us, and we with this Word will have the strength of Elias, the strength to journey even in the desert and amidst trials. Courage, dear brothers and sisters! Thank you for this choice that you have made and that certainly the Lord inspired you: the Lord’s word to which you have corresponded. Thank you for having given it a welcome, thank you for what you are, thank you for what you will be in this community. We will vey soon see together what we can do for each other, we have already begun to ask some things of you, already in the following days you will speak some words to us and in any case you will hear man words, because brothers listen to one another, and all of us listen to the one Master. As pastor of this Church I am truly glad today to be able to say to you “welcome”. I know that in my words it is the Lord who tells you this, but also many brothers and sisters who have awaited you. It was a long wait, it had its moments of weariness. But, as you see, when the Lord wants something to be done, he then in the end has it come about. Thank you for being: we will journey together. We find ourselves together at the right moment, when your spirituality, your journey can really be in step with the Church. Thus it will not be hard for us to understand each other. These places by now speak to us, we feel them already as ours, we feel them already alive. They speak with their light, their tradition, their openness towards the future.