On 14 July last in Bucchianico, the town where St. Camillus was born, we inaugurated the centenary year of his death and at the same time this took place in all the Camillian communities spread throughout the world. The initiatives engaged in have been very many in number and very many others will be engaged in both in individual communities and on the initiative of the General Consulta.

To everyone, and in a particular way to those responsible for the animation of the celebrations – at the level of Provinces, Vice-Provinces, Delegations and individual communities – I extend a invitation to go forward with unchanging enthusiasm and with great confidence and audacity, bearing well in mind that our charism and our spirituality are, and remain, a great treasure, even though contained in those clay vessels – we ourselves, our frailties and our not always generous living up to them.

The centenary is in addition a valuable opportunity to Re-motivate Our Vocations as Camillians. I take the liberty of suggesting as follows:

• CONTINUING TO MOBILISE our courage, energy, inventiveness and human and spiritual aptitudes in order to express all of our passion for life, especially the most fragile lives, even though the moments that we are living through are particularly sad yet which, by contrast, offer us an opportunity to live the Gospel in the faith that the Spirit supports us, in the hope that does not go away, in the charity that is called to become more creative, without which everything else is ‘sounding brass and clashing cymbals’ (1 Cor 13:).

• DOING DEEDS that make a charism shine that still today maintains all of its strength and an image of the Order that has not lost its beauty but which has only been obscured. Here I have the impression that St. Camillus and the Camillians are not known about as much as they deserve and that the year we are living through can offer us an opportunity to give greater visibility to the great Family of St. Camillus, narrating what we do, in particular through the mass media, both those that are Christian and those that are secular.

• GENERATING, during this centenary year, in every part of the world where we are present as Camillians, a tangible and concrete sign, ‘a supplement of charity’, for those poor people and sick people who are most alone, who are abandoned people. The constant and pressing invitation of Pope Francis to reach the existential outskirts of man cannot leave us indifferent. This is what Camillus did in his time in an ordinary and everyday but heroic way, taking care of the frailest people in all their needs, brothers and fathers together. This is the inheritance that St. Camillus left us and it is with this inheritance that we must interact so as to examine and constantly revise our journey in the today of history and the Church.

The wish that I address to everyone, at the beginning of this new year – and in a special way to those people locally responsible for the fourth centenary – is that they will continue the journey with courage, with enthusiasm and with joy.

At the meeting that I had on 16 December with Pope Francis, his words warmed my heart: ‘go forward with courage, with hope, and I will follow you through the Sacred Congregation that is doing good work with you’. These words are an encouragement for all of us.

If we live the jubilee year in this way and with these feelings, 14 July 2014 will not mark the end of the jubilee year but, rather, the continuation of a permanent jubilee Camillian life, of that joy to be Camillians which does not fade.

                                                                                                           Brother Carlo Mangione

                                                                                         Reference Point within the General Consulta for the activities of the Fourth Centenary

On the occasion of the meeting of the Major Superiors and Delegates, the calendar of the activities planned from January to July 2014 will be given to them.