The Urgency of the Method
Ezio Prato - "A charism is not preserved in a bottle of distilled water! Fidelity to a charism does not mean 'petrifying' it—it is the devil who 'petrifies,' don't forget! Fidelity to a charism does not mean writing it on parchment and putting it in a frame. The reference to the legacy that Fr. Giussani left you cannot be reduced to a museum of memories, of decisions made, of rules of conduct. It certainly involves fidelity to tradition, but fidelity to tradition—as Mahler said—means 'keeping the fire alive and not worshiping the ashes.' Fr. Giussani would never forgive you if you lost your freedom and turned yourselves into museum guides or worshipers of ashes. Keep the fire of the memory of that first encounter alive and be free!"
These are some words of paternal and decisive appeal from Pope Francis in his speech on the occasion of his meeting with the Communion and Liberation movement on March 7, 2015.
The twenty years that have passed since Fr. Giussani’s entry into heaven are probably too few to verify the alternative posed: living fire or ashes. History requires more time. The short texts in this dossier, however, do not have such lofty aspirations. It seems to us, though, that they offer flashes of light and flickers of flame testifying that not all is extinguished.
We hope that those who read these texts will find in them at least a source of help, confirmation, or correction. They contain accounts of personal experiences as well as elements for an incisive cultural critique of the mindset in which we are all immersed. If we were to suggest an interpretive key (not necessarily the first or only one), we would recommend prioritizing the theme of method. In the short accounts and concise analyses, there are indications of the method—the path—for fruitfully engaging with reality, where the fruit is personal growth. It is a method entrusted to freedom, containing nothing mechanical or automatic.
What is recounted, in essence, is how we can come to embrace our own humanity (even in difficult and challenging situations) through an encounter with Christ. Our humanity awakens in an encounter, in the impact of a witness; it is befriended through the discovery of the most radical questions (as Elena Nikolayeva reminds us: “What is the meaning of life?”, “Where am I going?”, “Is there anything beyond the daily routine?”) and by confronting them not primarily in theory, but by immersing ourselves in everyday life, living reality intensely. “What is the formula for the path to the ultimate meaning of reality? To live reality. The only condition for always being truly religious is to always live reality intensely without denying or forgetting anything” (L. Giussani).
On this journey, in the recognition of the ultimate meaning, in the encounter with God, the self is revealed more and more in its greatness, and we are, in a sense, surprised by ourselves: “What is the self, that it can be the realistic point of departure, always and in every case?” (Margherita Bertani). As Giussani said, perhaps it is precisely because the heart of the self is made for the infinite that it is never tamed.
In his contribution, Ignacio Carbajosa writes: “Fr. Giussani’s personal history, the historical events he had to endure, are part of the way in which God intervenes in history.” By God’s grace, we hope to see, over time, the fruits of this intervention—fruits far greater than the limitations of those who gather them.
The author has not revised its translation. Source: Convergenze 2 - September 2025