Testimony of Hope

Whilst in London yesterday, I bought a copy of Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan's book Testimony of Hope. These are the texts of his meditations preached to Pope John Paul II and the Curia for their Lenten retreat in the Jubilee Year 2000.

I have just dipped into it as I was having a cup of tea, and noticed one or two interesting bits. Cardinal Van Thuan shows a very good familiarity with the new movements in the Church - he refers to them explicitly in a meditation on the Holy Spirit, at one point he quotes the founder of the Schoenstatt movement, and several points reflect closely the spirituality of unity of the Focolare movement.

Cardinal Van Thuan's celebration of Mass - with a small piece of bread and drops of wine, held in his hand - during his imprisonment are I expect very well known. When he was accomodated in a re-education camp with other prisoners, Cardinal Van Thuan describes how he would say Mass after "lights out" for a group of Catholic prisoners, five each night, who would deliberately locate themselves next to him to share in his celebration. He describes, too, the smuggling of the Sacred Host to other prisoners at the weekly re-education meeting, the Host being smuggled in small sachets made from the silver paper of cigarette packets. Two particular sentences from this account jumped out at me:

Everyone knew that Jesus was in their midst. At night the prisoners would take turns for adoration.

The first sentence is straight from the spirituality of the Focolare. These sentences speak to me particularly because, more by a kind of accident than any really deliberate intention on my part, two people who first introduced me to praying the Focolare's Word of Life together each month have also become very enthusiastic participants in the "first Friday" Eucharistic Adoration in our parish.

The chapter of this book dedicated most directly to the Eucharist is entitled "My flesh for the life of the world". I wonder whether it was the inspiration for the theme of the recent International Eucharistic Congress - The Eucharist: Gift of God for the Life of the World?