THE FORMATIVE PROGRAMME 2024-2025 OF ADMA: A GREAT SYMPHONY OF PRAYER IN THE JUBILEE YEAR OF THE CHURCH

ADMA's formation program for the year 2024 - 2025 places us in the path of the Jubilee of 2025, which, as Pope Francis writes: "has always represented in the life of the Church an event of great spiritual, ecclesial and social significance. Since Boniface VIII, in 1300, instituted the first Holy Year - with a secular recurrence, which then became, on the biblical model, fifty years and then fixed every twenty-five years. The Church has experienced this celebration as a special gift of grace, characterized by the forgiveness of sins and, in particular, by indulgence, the full expression of God's mercy."

Pope Francis indicates to us that the Jubilee's title "Pilgrims of Hope" puts at the center of the Jubilee year, the "keeping lit the torch of hope that has been given to us, and to do everything possible so that everyone regains the strength and certainty to look to the future with an open mind, a trusting heart and a farsighted mind. The coming Jubilee can greatly enhance a climate of hope and trust, as a sign of a renewed rebirth for which we all feel the urgency."

The Pope invites us to cultivate this Hope by looking at the dramas of today's world "capable of recovering a sense of universal brotherhood" and not closing our eyes to the rampant poverty that prevents millions of men, women, young people and children - especially the many refugees forced to leave their lands - from living in a manner worthy of human beings. "May the voices of the poor be heard in this time of preparation for the Jubilee which, according to the biblical command, restores to each person access to the fruits of the earth."

We are also called to walk this spiritual journey of conversion: "Feeling that we are all pilgrims on the earth in which the Lord has placed us", to cherish its beauty. We are also invited to be "ever more and ever better a sign and instrument of unity in the harmony of diversity" by participating in the life and building of the Church and by valuing all the charisms and ministries that the Holy Spirit never ceases to bestow.

Aware that in order to live all this, our strength alone is not enough. This year's formative journey will follow the Pope's invitation, to dedicate the time of preparation for the Jubilee, to a great 'symphony' of prayer. First of all, the desire to be in the presence of the Lord, to listen to Him and to adore Him. Thank God for the many gifts of His love for us and to praise His work in creation, which commits everyone to respect and take individual responsibility to safeguard it. Prayer is the voice "of the one heart and the one soul" (cf. Acts 4:32), which translates into solidarity and the sharing of daily bread. Prayer that enables every man and woman in this world to turn to the one God, to express to Him what is reposed in the secret of the heart. Prayer as the best way to holiness, leading to living contemplation even in the midst of action. In short, an intense year of prayer, in which hearts open to receive the abundance of grace, making the "Our Father," the prayer Jesus taught us, the life program of every one of his disciples."

Therefore, in continuity with the summer spiritual exercises, we will strive to deepen our prayer life, starting from listening to the Word, so that it can become a concrete help in our daily life, as a couple, at work, in the family.

The journey will be divided into three steps, each declined in three stages:

Step One: Listening to and praying the Word: we will set out to listen to the Word, with simple and concrete tools, to pray the Word and with the Word, to learn and re-learn how to make it alive in our lives. We will seek to set our hearts to listen to Jesus, who insists on becoming One with us. We will walk together in listening to the Word in order to understand how to make it become nourishment and guidance in our journey, giving it space in silence, silencing our thoughts to listen to voice of Jesus. We will learn to experience extended moments of prayer through Lectio Divina and common sharing of testimonies.

Step Two: Discernment: We will take some steps to grow in discernment of spirits, through the Ignatian experience, so dear to Don Bosco and St. Francis de Sales. We will grow in our understanding of how we can find, precisely in prayer, a privileged moment and a concrete tool for daily discernment, in small and big choices. In this way, we will learn to intercept and promptly cast out temptations and welcome the inspirations of the Holy Spirit.

Step Three: Living in the Presence of God: Finally, we will try to learn a little more about living, what for Don Bosco was contemplation, in action. Prayer is authentic, only if this vertical dimension towards God is directed towards the horizontal dimension of good deeds towards man.

Meditating upon the dream of Don Bosco when he was just 9 years old, we have perhaps arrived at the moment of realizing the beauty of virtue: "...set out now to teach the ugliness of sin and the beauty of virtue" by avoiding sin and cultivating virtues in a joyful attitude of trust, confidence, smile and actions.

We will make this journey cultivating, according to Pope Francis' instructions, a ray of Hope, especially for the poorest. We will not forget to contemplate the beauty of creation and to care for our common home. We will seek the best ways to be more and more a sign and instrument of unity in the diversity of the situations that the daily life presents to us.

We ask Mary to accompany the Church, the Salesian Family and the Association in this journey of preparation for the great event of grace, the Jubilee.