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The beginnings of a great work do not always coincide with extraordinary events. Indeed, they often have to do with simple and apparently random encounters that disrupt the lives of those who live them and decisively change the future. This also applies to us! Pauline history The spark from which we can begin to tell our story is to be found in a church, or rather, to be precise, in a sacristy about 100 years ago. June 27, 1915 was an unforgettable day for Teresa, a young 21 year old, for Don Giacomo, a young 31 year old priest, and for all of us, the Pauline Sisters, who from that day began to take our first steps. Teresa, and with her a small group of young women, accepted Don Giacomo's invitation and, sewing clothes for the soldiers, began to train themselves to become the apostles of the Good Press, of the Word made of paper, of the Gospel announced by all powerful means. and effective that progress would provide. "In the first decade of life of our Congregation (1915-1925) - writes Sister Assunta Bassi, for many years the operative arm of Fr. Alberione in the development of the Pauline apostolate - we felt the need to ask ourselves the question:" What meaning Does the Bible have for me? What does a leaflet, a newspaper, a book mean to me? What sense does it have for me to dedicate my life to print and distribute? [...] I think it was unthinkable to be able to live our life without depth and clear convictions about a new mission, demanding, demanding and, at that time, little understood and humanly not very gratifying. "Pauline story 2 So much poverty, much misunderstanding, incapacity, little experience: this characterized the beginnings, but it was immediately clear one thing: the work that was being born was willed by God and could have been realized and expanded only with people totally of God. "It was truly a departure from Bethlehem. [...] The poverty of those beginnings was poverty of means, of culture, of experience, of everything - emphasizes Sister Assunta - poverty of everything, except the conviction of having been called by God and sent by him ». And God would truly be the guarantor of everything, by virtue of faith: from the foundation and beginnings, which took place during the First World War, to the missionary and apostolic expansion that would then clash with the second war conflict; both with respect to the opening of new communities in the world; and with respect to the beginning of new apostolic enterprises (bookshops between '28 and '29, Famiglia Cristiana in 1931, and cinema between '37 and '45). It became increasingly clear what the founder wrote to the young and enterprising sisters in a strong and often insistent way: «Our bookshops are not to make money, but to benefit people. The library is a Temple; the bookseller a preacher ». And this affirmation of July 1946 extended well to all apostolic works which were to be spaces and possibilities for orientation, social education, proclamation of the Gospel, centers of light and warmth in Christ Jesus. stronger and more decisive. It was a question of starting again, yes, but how? It was a question of studying, listening to people's needs, to avoid wasting energy in something that would have wasted neither time nor strength. From 1953 to the 1980s, the Pauline apostolate experienced one of the greatest flowering of its history, going through years of social recovery, but also of strong contrasts and renewal at the civil and ecclesial level. In recent years, the editorial staff now understood in the sense, today we would say, multimedia, had a considerable development: the house of the writers, the catechetical center and its journals Via Verità and Vita and Parish Catechists, the Ecumenical Center Ut unum sint, the Center San Paolo Film studies and the precious filmographic files, the audiovisual sector with its musical products, catechetical short films, and finally the conceptual preparation of exhibitions and conferences for catechetical animation, Gospel feasts, missions. Years of great ferment which were joined by new methods for dissemination that flanked in a more decisive and widespread way the already many Paoline bookstores present on the Italian territory. Pauline history 4 And today? After a glorious story to tell, the 90s and the evolution of web 2.0 give us the precise task of a great story to continue to build. New roads are opening up ahead of us, ever faster; new possibilities are being delivered into our hands that we are exploring with courage and with the usual passion for the Gospel. Our presence on the web, the digital attempts at evangelization, the communication training centers and paths, the new faces of publishing, the communities on social networks ... all this tells the development of a story that cannot yet be written. It simply needs to be lived. There is therefore no point, to put at the end of a story, because what was built by the courage, audacity, faith of those who preceded us, is alive and, like a precious seed, silently, continues to blossom and bear fruit in the heart of those who welcome it.
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Viale Dante, 22, 33170 Pordenone PN, Italy
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