Newsletter N° 61 April 2021 jerusalem cross ordinis equestris sancti sepulchri hierosolymitani @granmagistero.oessh www.oessh.va @GM_oessh Message from the Grand Master “Custodians and missionaries of the Easter proclamation” Wrapped in light we live in the joy of the Resurrection the time of Easter that accompanies us to the Solemnity of Pentecost, May 23. In his Easter message, the Grand Master invites us to welcome the gift of the Risen One, all the more so in this time still so profoundly insecure. May the restored friendship – as with the Disciples – continue to be present in our lives, making us become “custodians and missionaries of the Easter proclamation”. aster is a ‘story’ that is passed on and an thanking the Father for the love manifested to ‘event’ that continues. It is not a simple us in Him, our brother. In a famous Paschal Erecurrence on the religious calendar, even homily, Bishop Melito of Sardis prefigured Jesus if it is sometimes perceived that way; nor is it like a lamb: slain in Abel; bound hand and foot merely an annual event. Yet there is always an in Isaac; in Jacob a stranger; in Joseph sold; in element of this, in respect to the repetitiveness Moses exposed on the waters; in David of our lives, to the cyclic nature of the calendar persecuted; in the prophets dishonoured; and in the habits of not forgetting. “Easter is a ‘story’ that is In the daily liturgy of handed down and an the Mass, the Church ‘event’ that continues,” prays to God: “as we says Cardinal Filoni as he addresses the celebrate the memorial of Knights and Dames of the death and the Order of the Holy resurrection of your Sepulchre (in photo: Son… we give you thanks mosaic by Father Marko Ivan Rupnik and (o Father)” (Eucharistic collaborators, Descent Prayer II). We find the to the Underworld and core of our Easter in Resurrection, 2006, Chapel of St. Stanislaus these words; that is, we College in Ljubljana, celebrate the death and Slovenia). resurrection of Jesus, contents The Order in Union with The Order and the Holy Land the Universal Church THE ORDER’S SUPPORT FOR IRAQI “FROM THE RUBBLE OF OUR HEARTS GOD CHRISTIANS IN JORDAN XIII CAN BUILD A WORK OF ART” III THREE DAYS FOR A RESURRECTION IV The Life of the Lieutenancies Proceedings of the Grand Magisterium KNIGHT OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE OF JERUSALEM ON HIS WAY TOWARD OBEDIENCE, TRANSPARENCY, COLLEGIALITY, CANONIZATION XVI AND FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY VI BETWEEN A PARALYSING SHOCK AND A NEWS FROM THE COMMISSIONS OF THE CREATIVE AWAKENING XVIII GRAND MAGISTERIUM VI LOOKING DOWN THE ROAD TO RECOVERY: THE SPRING MEETING OF THE GRAND RESUMING PILGRIMAGES TO THE MAGISTERIUM IX HOLY LAND XIX “SUPPORTING PEOPLE IN THE HOLY LAND IS OUR PRIORITY” IX THE MEETING OF THE LIEUTENANTS AND MAGISTRAL DELEGATES OF ASIA GRAND MAGISTERIUM OF THE EQUESTRIAN AND THE PACIFIC XI ORDER OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE OF JERUSALEM VIA DEI CAVALIERI DEL SANTO SEPOLCRO 00120 Vatican City IN ROME XII E-mail: [email protected] sacrificed at eventide, buried at night and not sacrificed Son of man and Son of God. The subjected to corruption, because God raised primordial womb of Mary was now replaced him from the dead by drawing him from the by the womb of the cold earth. depths of the tomb and reviving humanity in However, it could not all end in such a him. God’s inscrutable plan becomes a ‘sign’ way. ”Then I will remove my hand” the Eternal or ‘sacrament’ of salvation. Easter is a Lord had said to Moses, and it was new life. sacrament of grace! Jesus is risen! The resurrection is the life that Jerusalem, with the empty tomb, is the Jesus takes up again; he is not a revenant, place of the event, but the tremor of his dead only by appearance; his life is no longer resurrection went beyond the Holy City and what it was before. In Him, there is new life beyond all time. and with it, he precedes his disciples and us in that ‘Galilee’ of the peoples where our The Eternal Lord spoke to him existence, our work, our illnesses and fears, our sins humble us. The book of Exodus tells us that Moses, moved by the theophany – the powerful The gift of the Risen Lord is a gift that we manifestation of the Eternal Lord speaking to need him – sought a hiding place on Sinai, such was his surprise and his fear: ”I will set you in The Church now proclaims in the same the cleft of the rock and will cover you with my words of the Angel: ”Do not be afraid! (…) hand” (Ex 33:22) the Lord then said to him. Come and see the place where he lay (…) he is Moreover, Moses saw a little of the glory of going before you to Galilee; there you will see God. That “cleft of rock” was the prefiguration him. Behold, I have told you.” (Matthew 28:5-7) of Jesus’ tomb carved in the rock, and in the This encounter with the Risen Lord has an words – ‘I will cover you with my hand’ – there index of absolute necessity; it is necessary in was a pious gesture of affection, almost a order to re-establish relations with the final caress of the Father towards the confused disciples, new relations that stir the ● ● N° 61 Newsletter III ● JERUSALEM CROSS ● spirits: ”Peace be with you” (John 20:19). Peace would say – a profound universal flavour: Ur is the gift of the Risen Lord, and God knows was the homeland of Abraham, the man who how much we need it in order to reconcile believed, and to whom Jesus made a clear ourselves with nature, with ourselves and Easter reference: ”Abraham your father with others, and to give meaning to the faith rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.” that is troubled by unbelief, in order to centre (John 8:56). Abraham had glimpsed the day ourselves on Christ. of Jesus and at the same time the day of his resurrection, rejoicing in his heart, because Today, a new Easter the promises of becoming father to a multitude of peoples were fulfilled in this We live in a new Pasch of resurrection still ‘other’ Son (cf Gen 17: 5-8). shrouded by the fog of the Covid-19 At Easter, we can now look up to the pandemic (and we do not know how long it Risen Lord, who was pierced and whose will last), with its Lenten restrictions and wounds have been made glorious. We must perhaps purification, but also laden with not forget. Jesus fulfils the promises of the many hopes. The papal trip to Iraq, the land covenant with Abraham and his resurrection of many martyrs, which was so brief but renders them eternal. The Risen Lord intense, has raised expectations there of peace therefore, has meaning for our life and our and reconciliation, as well as the possibilities humanity. of dialogue and understanding between As Knights and Dames of the Holy peoples and religions that have always been Sepulchre, we know that we can make our in conflict for supremacy, thus opening a contribution to peace and to the good; we are horizon that embraces the whole of the custodians and missionaries of the Easter Middle East, Palestine, Syria and every proclamation: Peace, peace be with you, the continent. Lord is truly risen! The visit to Ur of the Chaldeans had – I Fernando Cardinal Filoni The Order in Union with the Universal Church “From the rubble of our hearts God can build a work of art” The Easter message of the successor of Peter uring the Easter Vigil, in St. Peter’s from the ruined remnants of our humanity, Basilica, the Pope summarized in a God can prepare a new history.” The Holy Dfew words his message connected to Father also stressed the fact that God always the announcement of the Resurrection: “it is goes before us “in the cross of suffering, always possible to begin anew, because there desolation and death, and in the glory of a is always a new life that God can awaken in life that rises again, a history that changes, a us in spite of all our failures.” The successor hope that is reborn. In these dark months of of Peter added that “From the rubble of our the pandemic, let us listen to the Risen Lord hearts – and each one of us knows the rubble as he invites us to begin anew and never lose of our hearts – God can create a work of art; hope.” ● ● IV N° 61 ● ● The next day, on Palazzo della Rovere, the occasion of the in the church of Urbi et Orbi message Santo Spirito in on Easter Sunday, Sassia, renewing the Francis did not fail invitation he has to speak of the Holy made since the Land, which is very beginning of his close to our hearts. pontificate: to adore “The Resurrection the five wounds of naturally takes us to Christ, sources of Jerusalem,” he said, supernatural love. stressing that “On “In adoring and Jerusalem we ask kissing his wounds, the Lord to grant we come to realize peace and security that in his tender (cf. Ps 122), so that it love all our can embrace its weaknesses are calling to be a place “From the rubble of our hearts God can build a accepted (...) His of encounter where work of art,” Pope Francis emphasized on the radiant wounds all can see one occasion of the Easter Vigil.