Monastero "Ut unum sint"
Syros (Grecia)

dic. 2007

italiano - english - esperanto

Our beloved,

Here we are, again, like every year at the beginning of Advent, to share with you this period of waiting, of joyful hope, of conversion. The Lord is coming!

We are getting ready to celebrate the mystery of Christ’s birth, the memorial of his first coming into history, a memorial of the great “yes” of God to humankind. We also celebrate the waiting of his coming again and that means to redirect our whole being towards the meeting of the Lord, to live this event: the pole of attraction, the lighthouse that enlightens our steps on the way, within the paths of life.

In between these two comings, there is the constant coming of the Lord, which invites us to accept him and follow him, and he calls us to be witnesses of his presence in our daily life. Precisely, watching his action in the success of our days, we narrate some points of our lives during the year that is being completed.

We are here in Greece, in a particular way, in order to ask from the Lord the gift of the unity of all the Christians. Every step, even every small sign of communion between the Churches, gives us strength to keep our arms raised and our hearts turned to him, the only one who can keep us “one”.

2007 was marked by some important moments of the ecumenical movement, which was influenced by the positive impact of the brotherly meetings that took place during the end of the previous year:
The meeting of the Pope Benedict XVI in Constantinople with the Patriarch Bartholomew, and the meeting in the Vatican of the Pope with the Archbishop of Athens and the whole of Greece, His Beatitude, Mr Christodoulos.

We were given a “memento” of this last meeting. The Metropolitan of Syros, Mr. Dorotheos, who participated in the Orthodox representation that visited Rome, remembered us, knowing that we were present with our prayer and brought us from Italy three beautiful rosaries, which he personally presented to us on the first of January, when he came to the Catholic Cathedral for the Day of Prayer for World Peace.

During last September we accompanied with our constant invocation upon the Holy Spirit, the Ecumenical European Council that took place in Sibiu of Rumania. Our bishop, His Excellency Fraghiskos Papamanolis, was present, as President of the Greek Conference of Catholic Bishops. This council proceeded – for the first time of the history of the relations of the Christian Churches of Greece – a precious meeting between the representations: of the Orthodox, the Catholic and the Protestant.

Finally, in October, our prayer accompanied the Meeting of Joined Committee of the Dialogue between the Catholic and the Orthodox Church that took place in Ravenna and lead to the signing of a common document regarding the “hot” subject of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.

A gift during this past year was our intensifying of our relations with our Capuchin brothers. The renovation of the Capuchin’s Monastery here on Syros still continues. The monastery has been vacant for a couple of years now, and now and then we offer hospitality to some Capuchin who comes from Athens to supervise the work

In July, Fr. Gabriel, the Capuchin Superior in Greece, came along with Fr. Roberto, the Sub-Provincial of the Capuchin Province of Venice, with some young volunteers, who contributed generously and fruitfully to the progress of the renovations. Every day, very early in the morning, they would come to pray with us, and after breakfast they climbed down to the monastery to work. These were days of brotherly communion, in a totally “Franciscan” joy: brothers, sisters of St. Clare and members of the Third Order. We hold dear in our heart a sweet memory.

The truth is that we hold in our heart every meeting. During the year they are a lot the brothers and sisters who arrive at the convent, especially during the summer months: lay people, priests, monks. Some of them are faithful friends, but we met some others, also, Capuchins, Benedictines Olivetians Monks, Marian Brothers, Sisters of St. Joseph, Sisters of the Holy Cross, sisters of the movement Focolarini.

A particular characteristic of 2007 was the sharing of our prayer and of some moments of our lives with some couples to whom we offered hospitality. A great wealth, an instigation to support each other in the faithfulness of love, an invitation to open our hearts so everyone can find a space in it.

During the last period of the liturgical year the Lord gave us to feed our spirit with Don Fabrizio, a priest friend from the Province of Bergamo.

These are some snapshots of our life which includes all the others that you already know: prayer, welcoming and listening to brothers and sisters, study and work. A steady repetition of actions and words, which, though, seems always different to us, because the surprise for the attention, the caring, the kindness towards us is always different from all those we meet every day here on Syros or those who show their presence somehow, from various parts of Greece, of Italy, of the world.

Someone, still recently, asked us what is the meaning of us being here so few, even. We think that in order for us to be an important presence, a big number is not necessary, but rather, our will to respond to a call, which includes a challenge of Christian witnessing in the present time, which sees us as a “minority” in many aspects of life.
Being just the three of us, excites our creativity to take care to live our charisma in faithfulness, here and now, with our eyes focused ahead, fixed on Jesus Christ, our hope, being sure that in Christ we all possess life!

We wish you holy Christmas and a serene New Year
in the joy and the truth of the Lord who loves us

Your Sisters
Annarita, Elisa e Stefania

Urbo Syros-Ermoupoli, vidita de la monastero














Ortodoksa preĝejeto suprenire al Ano Syros