14 febbraio 2020 eng

1. Rome, 14 February 2020.
Dearest Sisters,
We still hold in our heart the joy of having been
able to make the gift of a New-missionary to various
Provinces. We thank the Lord for the sisters who said
their Yes and for the Provinces of origin that supported
them on this journey.
We hope that the journey proposed by the
Missions Sector in this Chapter year – the encounter
with Mother Mazzarello and with her letters to the
missionaries – may arouse missionary enthusiasm and
dynamism in all the communities. Who knows how
many other FMA will yet respond to the call of the Lord!
The needs of the Institute and the requests of the Church
are always many…
In the previous message I shared with
you the great desire of Mother Mazzarello to
go to the missions, repeatedly expressed in her
letters to Fr. Cagliero! She was not the only
one who had this desire… In the first
community of Mornese, the missionary dream
lived in the heart of all the FMA and even of
the girls.
Today, I propose reading and reflection on Letter 17 – To the Community Animator of the
House of Montevideo – Villa Colon, Sr. Angela Vallese, written from Mornese in December 1878.
This is the first letter of Mother Mazzarello to the missionaries one year after their departure (14
November 1877). In it, Mother exhorts and advises the sisters and presents the first Provincial of the
houses founded in America, Sr. Maddalena Martini.
Mother Mazzarello is very concrete in what she writes because it is concrete in her daily life.
To the Sisters of Montevideo-Villa Colon, she speaks of how time passes quickly, urges them to
grow in virtue, and to ‘be ready when the Lord calls.’ She speaks of cheerfulness, of work, of prayer,
and, even if in a non-explicit way, of community life, of good relationships, of the animation of
government! It is enough to read the first two paragraphs attentively.
As an experienced farmer, she indicates that it is good to be attentive so that defects do not
put down roots. On the other hand, she knows that nature needs time… thus the person must not be
alarmed at her defects, but must fight them – “not… all at once, but little by little – with good will.”
In the meantime, good will is not enough, “courage and great confidence in God” is needed.
As in all the letters that Mother Mazzarello writes to the missionaries in America, even in
this one she communicates some family news, but just a little… because the news will arrive with
the missionaries of the second expedition that is already being prepared. In fact, they will leave on 1
January 1879.
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2. Among all that Mother Mazzarello writes in letter 17, there is an expression that I especially
consider a jewel:
“I am happy that the sisters there are good and work hard. It is up to us to help them to
grow always in virtue, first of all by example, because what is taught by example remains deeply
impressed on the heart and does much more good, and then by words.”
We can say – without forcing the issue – that Mother Mazzarello was convinced of the
consequences and of what could be produced with a simple life witness. Even with this expression
in a letter, she simply intends to refer to the good example of the animator in regard to the sisters.
We can go further and think of the challenges of evangelization.
We live in a world in which in order to believe, people need to see, to touch with their
hand… People look at us and measure our gestures, attitudes, choices, the way we live together…
St. Paul VI, in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975), in the short chapter in
which he speaks on the witness of life, writes, “For the Church, the witness of an authentically
Christian life… is the first means of evangelization. Contemporary people listen more willingly to
witnesses than to teachers, or if they listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”
Mother Yvonne, in the Letter of Convocation of GCXXIV, emphasizes, “Fidelity to the
Word of God and to the Constitutions is the guarantee of the future because it generates fidelity. A
joyful community, rooted in Jesus, coherent, notwithstanding its fragility, contagions those who
live beside them, as in Valdocco and Mornese.”
The Rector Major in Strenna 2020, expressed himself, “The Synod on the Young showed us
with disarming clarity that what the new generations expect from us who have dedicated our life
intimately to the Lord is to find us ‘radiant and coherent witnesses’”.
Dearest Sisters, may each of us feel urged to evangelize more with life than with words.
May each of us hear Mother Mazzarello tell us, “I leave you in the Heart of Jesus and I pray that He
may bless you, and make you totally His, and keep you always united and cheerful… Courage,
courage, my good Daughters!”
In preparation for GCXXIV, let us pray together, Mary, first disciple of Jesus, fill our jars
with the wine of a coherent life and of evangelical witness.
We remain in communion through mutual prayer.
With sisterly affection, a strong embrace!
Counselor for the Missions
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