The visit of the Minister General, Fra Massimo Fusarelli in the Holy Land continues.
After the trip to Galilee and Mass onMount Tabor , the morning of Wednesday 17 April was dedicated to two communities in Jerusalem, with a visit to the Holy Sepulchre and to the Flagellation.
The community Mass at the Holy Sepulchre
In the early morning, the Minister General – invited by the community – presided over the community Mass in front of the Holy Sepulchre, which he visited last in 2021. At the end of the celebration, the 121st successor of St Francis lingered mat length in prayer in the Edicule.
Lastly, the President of the Holy Sepulchre, Fra Stéphane Milovitch accompanied Fra Fusarelli and his Vicar, Fra Ignacio Ceja Jiménez, on the fraternal visit to the Community.
The visit to the Terra Sancta Museum
The Minister then went to the Monastery of the Flagellation, where he visited the archaeological section of the Terra Sancta Museum where he was guided through the finds and precious objects that are in the Museum which opens in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem by Fra Eugenio Alliata, Full Professor of Biblical Archaeology at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum and Fra Amedeo Ricco, archaeologist of the SBF.
Today the Museum preserves and gives full worth to a rare archaeological and artistic heritage of Christianity: a treasure that the Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land have looked after for more than 800 years.
The Mass for the Centenary of the Studium Biblicum
After the visit, together with lecturers and students of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, Fra Fusarelli celebrated Mass in the Church of the Flagellation during which the Centenary of its foundation was recalled (1924-2024).
“It is with great joy,” Fra Rosario Pierri, Dean of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum , began, “that we are here around the Table of the Lord with you, Father Massimo: in you we see not only the successor of St Francis, but we also feel the closeness and the solidarity of our beloved Order. Today with you we remember the centenary of the Foundation that makes us reflect on our history and our identity: since they landed here in the Holy Land, the friars have never stopped looking for evangelical memories to gain and to look after.”
“Thank you for your mission,” Fra Massimo Fusarelli said at the end of his homily. “And on behalf of the Order I thank the Custos for all the support that he has always given to the Studium Biblicum, which is the “living” custody of the Holy Places. I give you all the support for your presence in these places, you who are here and continue to remain alongside the peoples who have always lived in this land, to show where God put up his tent in the midst of men. We ask the Lord that there always be a presence that can continue to fulfil this mission and that abides by this vocation, which is the vocation of the Friars Minor: to welcome the Word of the Gospel, to live it, to give it flesh with our lives and to make it loved.”
Silvia Giuliano
