THURSDAY April 6, 2000 volume 11, no. 69	To print out entire text of Today's issue, go to	SECTION ONE SECTION TWO SECTION THREE	INTRODUCTION TO THIS SPECIAL ON-LINE RETREAT:    Thanks to ZENIT News Organization, we are able to bring you in its entirety each day the spiritual exercises that Retreat Master Archbishop Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan preached to the Holy Father and Curia the week just before the Pope's "Jubilee Journey" to the Holy Land. Because of the wonders of the internet, all readers can now share in the inspiration that touched the Vicar of Christ and give all readers the opportunity to make a Lenten On-Line Retreat, so to speak, by contemplating on what the Archbishop presents, then going in silent prayer and meditation as John Paul II and his staff did to gain a greater peace and spirituality. The ideal way is to be able to go before the Blessed Sacrament and attend Daily Mass, but if this is not possible, then quiet time with Our Lord in meditation and prayer is the best scenario. Each day we will bring you these spiritual exercises in chronological order to when the Archbishop presented them. Eventually, at the request of the Pope, there will be a book published containing the depth of these meditations.     For past Spiritual Exercises, see Day One and Day Two and Day Three and Day Four and Day Five and Day Six

   Today's Introduction: Today, continuing with his preaching of the Spiritual Exercises to John Paul II and his collaborators in the Roman Curia, Archbishop François Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân cast his gaze two days before the Holy Father's "Jubilee Journey" to the Holy Land was to begin on Jerusalem and the places where Jesus preached 2000 years ago. During the meditation, the Archbishop described with striking force the presence of Christ in a Church "that on occasions is tired, sad and disillusioned" in face of today's world, as were the disciples of Emmaus but which, like them, is capable of returning to the Holy City, recognizing the "ineffable certainty" of Jesus' presence by their side. John Paul II could not have prepared better for his pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

    The story that took place in those 11 kilometers that separate Jerusalem from Emmaus is the image of the interior road to which every believer is called: from sadness to joy, the "great joy of the art of loving," which united the Church, thanks to Jesus' presence among his own.

    Thus Archbishop Nguyên Van Thuân explained how Christians can maintain peace of heart including in the most difficult times: "Every time Jesus appears after the resurrection, he always greets with these words: 'Peace be with you.' Jesus is our peace, our hope. This real peace, which is a joy the world cannot give and which no one can take away from us, is only reached on the penitential road, by a real change of life, as we are asked to do during the Jubilee. To change the human so that it will become divine. This requires a 'metanoia,' a change. As that progressive and later decisive change of the disciples of Emmaus, converted by the Word and by Christ's presence among them, they changed their direction. They were fleeing from Jerusalem, the city of the scandal of their Master's death in whom they had placed their hope. But now, fearless, they return to Jerusalem, the city of the death and resurrection of their Lord."

    "The peace Jesus announces to His disciples is also love. The heart reconciles in love, it is unified, and it reaches that peace for which we have been created and which is our end," the retreat Master said. "The incident of Emmaus reminds all of us of a joyful reality of the Christian experience: the perennial presence of the resurrected Christ in the Church," he continued. "It is a living and real presence in the Word, in the sacraments, in the Mass. But also in persons and among persons, in the Church's ministers, in the poor and in each brother." "For the last 2000 years the Church has lived from this presence. And, looking toward the future, it has the hope of his promise: 'I will be with you always until the end of the world.' We must be witnesses of this presence and this hope." Therefore, Archbishop Nguyên Van Thuân invited John Paul II and his collaborators of the Roman Curia to "return to the origins of the Gospel. Let us constantly return to Jerusalem, as the Holy Father is now preparing to do: a return to the sources, to the Church's center, where Jesus taught, suffered His passion, died and was buried. It seemed to be the end. Pilate sent soldiers to guard Jesus' tomb; the Jews saw to it that the stone was rolled and sealed. They wanted to be done with Him forever. To erase Him from everyone's memory, including their own. But Jesus resurrected in Jerusalem and appeared to many persons. The Church exults with joy because Jesus said: 'Have confidence: I have overcome the world.'

POPE´S COMMENT

    At the end of the Spiritual Exercises, John Paul II addressed Archbishop Nguyên Van Thuân very familiarly, to thank him for the meditations. "These have been days of intense and prolonged listening to the Spirit Who spoke to our hearts in the silence and the attentive meditation of the Word of God."

    In commenting on the meditations of the Archbishop, who is president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the Pontiff acknowledged that "he has guided us in deepening our vocation as witnesses of evangelical hope at the beginning of the third millennium. A witness of the Cross, during the long years of imprisonment he lived in Vietnam, he has often told us about events and incidents of his harsh captivity, thus reinforcing us in the consoling certainty that, when everything collapses around us, even in our interior, Christ continues indefatigably to be our support. We thank Archbishop Nguyên Van Thuân for his testimony, which is especially significant in this Jubilee year."

    The Holy Father explained that the "crucified and risen Christ is our only real hope. Fortified by His help, His disciples became men and women of hope. But not of fleeting hopes, which would leave them tired and which disappoint the human heart, but of real hope, a gift of God that, supported from on high, tends to obtain the highest Good and is sure of reaching it. Today's world has urgent need of this hope. The Great Jubilee we are celebrating takes us step by step to go profoundly into the reasons for our Christian hope, which demands and fosters increasing trust in God and an ever more generous opening to brothers."

    In his book, "The Road of Hope," Archbishop Nguyên Van Thuân writes about his experiences and reflections following 13 years of imprisonment in Vietnam. The book is available at: Federation of Vietnamese Catholics in the U.S.A. 4827 N. Kenmore Ave. Chicago, Illinois 60640 USA ZE00031904

EPILOGUE

UNEXPECTED IMPACT OF PAPAL SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
Pope Asks Archbishop to Prepare Book

    This year was the first time an Asian had preached the Spiritual Exercises to the Pope and his collaborators of the Roman Curia. John Paul II's decision to ask Archbishop François Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân to direct the meditations absolutely hit the mark. The Lenten meditations never inspired so much interest, as this year's, from a man who spent 13 years of his life in Vietnamese prisons.

    Archbishop Nguyên Van Thuân's words not only helped the Pope in his reflections, but they have gone across the world. ZENIT's editorial board received congratulatory letters for the Archbishop, thanking him for his depth and simplicity, as early as the second day of the retreat.

    Requests for the re-publication of the meditations have arrived from the most unexpected places. One such place is Oslo. General information secular newspapers in Latin America, the Philippines, and Spain published some of the meditations. No less interesting have been the reactions of the people who heard the Archbishop in person, the majority of whom were Cardinals, Bishops, and collaborators of the Roman Curia, who followed the 22 meditations with utmost concentration. The meditations were especially liked because they were "simple but very profound," combining in a balanced way "the Biblical dimension, with personal testimony and theology," communicating "not only with words, but also with the heart."

    "It was an evangelically simple talk," one of the Cardinals who took part in the retreat said. "Clearly, we must continue on that road." The Archbishop interspersed his preaching with notes of good humor, an element which helped his listeners to "get into" the reflections. In response to one of the Papal collaborators, who acknowledged the originality of the presentation, Archbishop Nguyên Van Thuân said: "The content is always the same. But the way of cooking it is Asian. Because of this, in the year 2000, instead of eating with a fork, we ate with chopsticks."

Pope Requests Book

    At the end of the Spiritual Exercises, the Holy Father asked the Vietnamese Archbishop to publish a book with these reflections, as they could be "very helpful to many persons." Moreover, before leaving for the Holy Land, the Pontiff sent Archbishop Nguyên Van Thuân a letter, in which he said: "I hoped that during the Great Jubilee special time would be given to the testimony of persons who have suffered because of the faith, paying with courage interminable years in prison and other privations of every kind. You have shared this testimony with us with warmth and feeling, showing that in the life of every man, the merciful love that surpasses all human logic is measureless, especially at times of great anguish. You have associated us with all those who in different parts of the world continue to pay a heavy price because of their faith in Christ."

    "By basing yourself on Scripture and the teaching of the Fathers of the Church, as well as on your personal experience, especially during the years you were in prison for Christ and His Church, you have manifested the power of the Word of God which, for disciples, is firmness in faith, food for the soul, and a pure and perennial springtime of the spiritual life," the Holy Father wrote. ZE00032105

          

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