"From Him, the Master, the whole light…. " Contemplating the picture of the Master

The great objective of our life, confirmed always by the Blessed Alberione is this: "To live Jesus, in Jesus, for Jesus, with Jesus. Establish our life in Him."

The central point of our spirituality is an attraction that produces a deep interpersonal relationship: "Come to me". The Master is the one who attracts us to himself, who invites us to enter in his logic and in his horizons…

Let us invoke the light of the Spirit to understand always better what he wants to tell us "to establish our life in the Master", what it means to be called to communicate the unfathomable riches of the love of God.

Let us feel being gazed by Jesus Master and let us look at the details of the picture that expresses a visual synthesis of the Pauline charism. All the characteristic elements of the Pauline vocation are present.

The open book in the left hand and the writing: "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life" (content to receive and to communicate every day in the apostolate);

The gesture of the exhortation by the right hand of the one who asks for listening and attention… "learn from me"

The standing entire figure: not sitting as the ancient teachers but an itinerant Master on the paths of men and women of every time.

A Master who wears sandals…

Standing on the terrestrial globe… not with the globe in hand as in some pictures, but on the path of men and women, always on the move.

A Master who has the signs of the passion on the hands and on the feet (he is a crucified Master), that not only teach but gives life, he is the Master with the heart of a Shepherd. The signs of the passion are dazzling: the bright cross as halo around the head, which points out that our Master is a crucified and risen Master: Living and glorious.

In front of this beautiful picture that is very significant for us, let us welcome in silence the invitation of the Master: "Come to me… Come to me, totally, with your whole person."

"In November 1900, at the end of the Holy Year, Leo XIII promulgated an encyclical which was destined to look into the new century that was beginning and to give a direction to Christianity of the new century. The direction was this: to study, to imitate, to follow Jesus Christ who is Way, Truth and Life. It is not a beautiful expression, nor a suggestion, but it is the substance of the Congregation, to be or not to be Paulines. There must not be any deviations. The study has to be conformed to the devotion to Jesus Master the Way, the Truth and the Life; the religious discipline has to conform itself to Jesus Master the Way, the Truth and the Life; prayer life has to conform itself to Jesus Master the Way, the Truth and the Life; the apostolate has to give this. When it does not give this, it is out of place and it is not blessed. When it gives this, it is on his path, the way of God. Then follows benedictions after benedictions…". (James Alberione)

"Oh, when grace takes possession of a soul, it is like when the yeast is placed in the dough! It makes it to grow so much as to change it into Jesus and that soul then will speak like Jesus, thinks like Jesus, gazes like Jesus, loves like Jesus; this souls life is no more ones own but Jesus lives in it (…) ". Through us Jesus wants to speak, think, love and live…. Meditation to the FSP on December 10th 1932

Jesus Master, may I think with your mind and wisdom. May I love with your heart. May I see with your eyes. May I speak with your tongue. May I hear with your ears. May I relish the things you relish. May my hands be yours. May my feet follow in your footsteps. May I pray using your words. May I treat others as you do. May I celebrate the Eucharist with your self-immolation. May I dwell in you as you do in me, to the point that I disappear. (James Alberione)

Heavenly Father, you have invited us to follow you more closely. Today renew for us that call, which has marked forever our life and the life of the Founder: "Come to me, all of you". Grant us the same spirit of Blessed Alberione, so that we may enter into a journey of transformation, to be not only of Christ but to become Christ (cf VC 109), to be the place of his life in imitation of our Father St. Paul: "I live, but no longer I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal 2,20).