Dearly beloved Brothers and Sisters,

	It is with great joy that I welcome you, the representatives of the Group of the Renewal in the Holy Spirit, for the thirtieth anniversary of your presence in Italy. I greet the chairman of the National Service Committee and those who assist him.
	I think back with pleasure on the meetings with you of the years gone by. From the first one, for the celebration of Christ the King in 1980, to the one in 1998, on the eve of the Meeting with the Ecclesial Movements and new Communities, at Pentecost. Besides this, I can hardly forget the contribution of RnS to the Great Jubilee of the year 2000, particularly as to your help with young people and families, which since the beginning of my Pontificate I have ever pointed to as being special areas of pastoral  concern.
	I also wish to thank your leaders for having guided the Renewal to adopting a distinct pattern of cooperation with the Hierarchy and with the leaders of other movements, associations and communities. For all this, together with you, I praise the Lord, who enriches his Church with innumerable spiritual gifts.  

2. Yes! The Renewal in the Holy Spirit may be considered a special gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church is these times of ours. Born within the Church and for the Church, yours is a movement in which, in the light of the Gospel, people experience meeting with the living Christ, faithfulness to God in personal and community prayer, a faithful listening to his word, a vital rediscovery of the Sacraments, but also the courage to withstand trials and hope in coping with tribulations. 
	Your love for the Church and your observance of its Magisterium, in a walk of ecclesial maturity supported by a solid permanent formation, are eloquent signs of your effort to avoid the risk of unwittingly indulging in a purely emotional experience of the Divine, an overwrought search for the sensational and an intimist withdrawal from apostolic commitment.

3. On this special occasion I wish to ideally bless three projects which you are dedicating your efforts to, and which are propelling the Groups and Communities of the Renewal in the Holy Spirit "outside of the Cenacle" with a generous missionary abandon.
I refer first of all to the support you are giving to the "implatatio Ecclesiae in Moldavia", in close cooperation with the "Regina Pacis" Foundation of the Archdiocese of Lecce, to set up a missionary community linked with the Diocese of Chisinau. I send my affectionate greeting to the pastors of those ecclesial Communities, Monsignor Cosmo Francesco Ruppi and Monsignor Anton Cosa, together with the bishops that are participating in this meeting.

	Another interesting project is the spiritual animation of Marian Sanctuaries, privileged places of the Spirit. This gives you the chance to offer pilgrims ways in which to deepen their faith and spiritual reflections.
	Then there is also the "Burning Bush" project, which is an invitation to incessant, day and night  adoration. You have started this very welcome initiative in order to help the faithful to "Return to the Cenacle" so that, united in the contemplation of the Eucharistic Mystery, they may intercede through the Spirit for the full unity of Christians and for the conversion of sinners.
	These are three different apostolic areas in which your experience can provide a providential testimony. May the Lord guide your steps and make your plans for the future rich in fruits for yourselves and for the Church.

4. On further reflection, all your evangelization activities basically tend  to advance the People of God towards a constant growth in holiness. And holiness is the priority of every age, and therefore also of our age today. The Church and the world need saints, and the more we allow the Holy Spirit to mold us in Christ's image, the more saintly we become. This is the secret of the regenerating experience of the "outpouring of the Spirit", a typical experience that distinguishes the journey of growth offered to the members of your Groups and your Communities. I hope with all my heart that the Renewal in the Holy Spirit will be a true "gymnasium" of prayer and of asceticism, of virtue and of holiness.

	Above all, keep loving, and teaching others to love,  the prayer of praise, the form of prayer that most immediately acknowledges that God is God; it sings of God for Himself, it gives Him glory because He is, even before than for what he does (cp. CCC, 2639)
	In our time, hungry for hope, teach people to know and love the Holy Spirit. You will then contribute to shaping the "culture of Pentecost" that alone can fertilize the civilization of love and of  a shared life among peoples. With fervent insistence, do not tire of invoking: "Come, o Holy Spirit! Come! Come!".
	May the Most Holy Mother of Christ and of the Church, the Virgin, praying in the Cenacle, always be beside you. May you also be accompanied by this Blessing that I give you, with great affection for you and for all the members of the Renewal in the Holy Spirit.

From the Vatican, March 14th 2002 

Joannes Paulus II