You are my friends ... I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you (Jn 15:15), Jesus says to his disciples.
I have made known to you! It is not an intellectual activity, but a knowledge that is a life experience and involves the entire existence.
Also to the Samaritan woman, being amazed at the request: "Give me a drink" Jesus says: If you knew the gift of God and who is he who tells you "give me a drink", you would have asked him and he would have given you living water ( Jn 4:10).
Who are the Friends in the Charismatic Family?
The term family means the bond between people who mutually enrich each other through their diversity; it is a word that indicates belongingness.
The term charismatic refers to a gift of the Spirit that is given to a person so that s/he can live and share it with generosity. In our case, it is the charism [word that comes from the Greek and means gift] given to M. Maria Oliva Bonaldo to understand the motherhood of the Church and to commit herself to making this wonderful mystery known and loved.
In the charismatic family there are different levels of being part of it: the Sisters Daughters of the Church, the Association of the laity - the Sons of the Church, within which there is a group of consecrated lay women called "Ecclesia Mater", the Priests, the well-wishers.
Friends are people who after a casual, or better, providential meeting with a community of Daughters of the Church or with a fraternity of Sons of the Church or with other men and women who in different parts of the world have come into contact with them, feel the desire to "know the gift of God" given to M. Maria Oliva Bonaldo. She too, in amazement, understood in a moment what the Lord wanted her for himself and narrates her experience using the verb understand three times: "I understood Jesus, I understood the Church, I understood what I had to live for".
Everything was born from the rediscovery of the preciousness of Baptism, which unites us in one Family of the Children of God and keeps us united in the bond of Love. The "Friends" wishes to experience the richness of the gift that the Spirit continues to distribute to all the People of God.
The gift of the Father par excellence is Jesus, it is His Spirit, it is the Word that allows us to rediscover and live Baptism and the Mission of the Mother Church.
