Dear Confreres,
Dear beloved sick people
Dear brothers and sisters of the Camillian Charismatic Family
And to all of you reading this short Easter message,

We are celebrating Holy Easter in a special context in the Church: the Synod on Synodality. This event to which the Pope invites us all consists of journeying together as members of the same family who build communion in mutual listening and discernment together. Cardinal Mario Grech tells us that Synodality “refers us to the very essence of the Church, her constitutive element, and is oriented towards evangelization. It is also a prophecy for today’s world: ‘For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, form one body, so it is also of Christ’ (1 Cor 12:12).” In this Synodality, no one is excluded; all are called to walk together.

The long-awaited General Chapter of the Ministers of the Infirm (Camillians) that will be celebrated from May 2-21, 2022, is like a mini-synodality that we will experience since our Order is “a living part of the Church” (Const. art. 1). In it “resides the supreme collegial authority of the Order.” Together we will walk in search of the truth, of the will of God, guided by the theme: What is Camillian prophecy today? We will walk discussing in fraternity and communion among ourselves and with the Church.

Like the disciples of Emmaus on Easter evening (Lk. 24,13-35), we, too in the General Chapter, will walk in fraternal dialogue, but confident in the hope that the Risen Lord will be beside us to warm our hearts, to explain the Scriptures to us, particularly to explain to us those passages of love, mercy, compassion, fraternity and those passages that will inspire us to leave “without delay … to Jerusalem” to announce that Jesus Christ is Alive and to offer our charism as a contribution to the building up of the Great Family that is the Church.

On Easter evening, the Risen Lord offered peace to his frightened disciples. The war in Ukraine is a sign that this precious gift of peace is missing. Together with the Consultors, I wish a Holy Easter to all, especially to our brothers and sisters affected by various violence, illness, and suffering. I ask the Lord to give us the gift of peace together with the gift of mutual forgiveness, reconciliation, and the compassion of true love.

And to our forthcoming Chapter, I wish that the Breath of the Risen Lord invade it through the intercession of our Founder, St. Camillus de Lellis, so that we may walk in the search for the will of the Father.

Health and peace!
Father Laurent & the Consultors