A meeting of Shared Prayer

After two years of online meetings, on Sunday, May 15, 2022, the Salesian Family of Lazio region, met at the exquisite setting of the Catacombs of St. Callixtus, on the ancient Appian Road in Rome to pray together the Via Lucis – the 14 stations from the Resurrection to the Pentecost. The celebration was organized by the Salesian Cooperators of Lazio and by the Witnesses of the Risen One of the Cenacles of Rome, Salesian Pontifical University - Rome and Genzanum. It was presided over by the Vice Provincial of the Italian Central Province ICC – Fr Francesco Marcoccio sdb, with the participation of lay and consecrated persons of various groups of the Salesian Family.

The Via Lucis roused the Lay Movement of the Witnesses of the Risen One, as the twentieth branch of the ever-fruitful tree of the Salesian Family which, by its charism, is grafted into the spirituality of Don Bosco's Paschal Joy. Via Lucis is a prayer born to spread Easter as a way of life with 14 stations ranging from the empty tomb on Easter morning to the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. It was the favorite prayer of the Rector Major Egidio Viganò, who promoted it until its recognition by the Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacramental Discipline. Today, it is celebrated all over the world. In the Jubilee of the Year 2000, John Paul II included it as a popular devotion alongside the Way of the Cross and the Rosary. Precisely to commemorate that occasion, the Witnesses of the Risen One had provided for the installation of the bronze stations of via lucis along the avenue of the Catacombs of St Callixtus.

It is a fascinating journey that allows you to let yourself be surprised by the Risen Lord. It is an itinerant prayer that becomes an itinerary of faith and friendship to be lived in the Cenacles by the Witnesses of the Resurrection Movement, in the Salesian Family and in the Church, where the Lord calls us to live in.

Celebrating the Via Lucis, the Salesian Family of Lazio experienced an exciting moment of shared prayer, as outlined in its charismatic Charter of Identity which, in article 36 indicates the spirit of Salesian prayer specifies: "widespread prayer is  typical of those who live the spirit of Don Bosco and carry out his mission. Without neglecting those moments of explicit prayer, nourished by listening to the Word of God as a response of love, we can transform life into prayer and prayer into life".

At the end of the prayer-filled meeting, the Salesian Provincial of the Italian Central Province Fr Stefano Aspettati greeted the participants, hoping that everyone would bring into their daily lives what they  had just meditated through the Via Lucis, as a prayer celebrated together as a Salesian Family for the young people, to involve them eventually in experience of resurrection starting from what we are in life as children of the Risen One,  capable enough to show our face as the resurrected ones.

Alberto Pellis – Cenacolo TR (Witnesses of the Risen One), Rome