“Never lose sight of the Church or of your religious community, actually your heart must be there, in your ‘retreat’, but then you must go out and bring God’s mercy to everyone, without distinction”. This was said earlier today by Pope Francis, as he gave audience to the participants in the General Chapter of the Sons of the Divine Providence (Orionini). “The whole Church – Bergolio started off – is called to walk with Jesus the streets of the world to meet today’s humanity, who need – as Don Orione used to write – the ‘bread of the body and the divine balm of the faith’”. “The main road – he explained – is always keep these two dimensions of your personal and apostolic life joined together”, “to stay with Jesus and serve Him in the poor and in the outcasts”, in whom “you feel and serve Christ’s flesh and grow in your union with Him, always taking care that faith will not turn into ideology, and charity will not boil down to philanthropy, and the Church will not end up being an NGO”. “Being Christ’s servants – he pointed out – qualifies all that you are and all that you do, it vouches for your apostolic performance, makes your service fruitful”. Then the call “to go out”, since the “announcement of the Gospel, especially in this day and age, takes a lot of love for the Lord, combined with outstanding resourcefulness”. And if, “the founder still alive, somewhere they called you ‘the running priests’, because they saw you running about all the time”, “with Don Orione – the Pope added – I too urge you to not stay locked up in your places, but go ‘out’. There’s a huge need for priests and religious people who do not just stop in the charitable institutions – even if they are necessary – but who can go beyond their borders, to bring in any place, even in the remotest ones, the scent of Christ’s charity”.