THE XX GENERAL CHAPTER

Dear confreres, I send you cordial greetings in Jesus Christ, our Divine Saviour. I am writing this letter to you from the vast country of India, where I am visiting confreres living in the most populous country in the world. India, as we know, is a highly significant archetype of the Salvatorian mission. For it was in these distant lands that the missionary charism that burned in the heart of Blessed Francis Mary of the Cross Jordan was first put into practice. Already as a theology student he had a list of witnesses of great apostolic zeal who served as a source of inspiration for his vocational journey. He wanted to keep alive in his heart the burning and luminous fire of the prophet Elijah, of John the Baptist, of Paul of Tarsus, of Francis Xavier and so many others. Later, he took as his own these annotations of St. Gregory: “He who does not burn, does not set others on fire.” (SD I,186), even the quotation from St. Chrysostom: “A single man inflamed by the zeal of faith is sufficient to correct a whole people.” (SD I,200) and the motto of St. Ignatius: “Go in the name of the Lord and inflame all” (SD II,21).