Messaggio della Consigliera per le Missioni, Sr. Alaide Deretti _ ENG

1. Dearest Sisters,
I greet you from Ulaanbaatar with great joy and gratitude because not only do I hear it
spoken of, but I see and touch with my hand how much the Word of God continues to make its way
in this beautiful reality of the Institute which is Mongolia. The FMA are present here since 2007
and the charism finds space and welcome among the children, the young people, and the families.
Let us thank the Lord because He precedes us in proclaiming the Good News and in the response to
His missionary mandate!
After living with a special spirit of gratitude August 5th
, the start of the triennial in
preparation for the 150th
anniversary of the Institute’s foundation, all of us feel we are even more
supported by the presence of Mary who walks with us in our communities, and helps us to be
generators of life in the lives of many young people and laity who share the educational mission
with us.
Surely, the 150th
of the Institute will be for us “an opportunity for renewal in the Holy
Spirit” (Cir. 989) because it will see us committed to nourish and to live missionary passion. It
suffices to think of what Pope Francis said to the Chapter members on November 8, 2014: “I too
allow myself to be insistent thinking of Patagonia... I do not say more!”. And then, in his recent
greeting in St. Peter’s Square on July 21: “I now address a cordial greeting to all of you, Romans
and pilgrims! In particular, I greet the novices of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians
from different countries. I greet you in a special way, and I hope some of you will go to
Patagonia: we need to work there!”
For the FMA, Patagonia is the confirmation that the missionary dimension is present in our
charismatic history since the beginning. It is a constitutive part of our being, not only as Daughters
of Mary Help of Christians, but as daughters of Don Bosco and of Mother Mazzarello as well who
very soon intuited the need to bring the Gospel there where no one else wanted to go. For us FMA
Patagonia is every land, without frontiers, because every land is mission land!
The Patagonia of Sr. Maria Troncatti, whose 50th
anniversary of death occurs this month,
had another name: Ecuador! At any rate, her missionary heart was the same as that of the first
missionaries who left for South America: full of the “da mihi animas cetera tolle”, capable of not
only leaving for a distant land, but above all, of offering her life for peace among the ‘colonists’ and
the Shuar; able to make herself a total gift for the poor and the little ones, even with very poor and
limited means, but with a huge and generous heart, without measure, open to everyone.
Dearest Sisters,
I propose to you a section of the book written by Sr. Maria Collino, La grazia di un sì tutto
donato. Maria Troncatti, missionaria nella foresta amazzonica (p. 449).
Then there was in Macas, on August 5, a ‘promised feast’ of the Puríssima, the priestly
ordination of Ugo Villarreal, a native of the place, and another of his companions. It was Father Ugo
Rome, 14 August 2019

2. who wanted at any cost that Sister Maria also take part in the celebration; she was his spiritual
mother. It would not have been possible for him to consecrate himself to God without the blessing of
her presence.
And Sister Maria left because she wanted the same thing.
She also wanted something else: she wanted to consult with her little Madonna. She wanted
her to read inside her and tell her a final word.
She knew that this was the last time; she would never see the Puríssima of Macas again.
However, she also knew that she would accompany her on that journey...
Which journey? The disastrous one that a few days later she would have attempted to
complete by plane? Certainly not: she could not be thinking of that.
She knew, however, that she had reached the ‘therefore’. Her intimate desire was becoming
an imperative. She, in her infinite littleness, felt that she had to make herself completely available to
the totally given love of the Lord Jesus.
On that 5th of August after the feast, it fell to Sr. Pierina Rusconi to receive an explosive
confidence from Sister Maria. The Madonna had spoken to her.
Sister Pierina recounts: “Sister Maria spoke these words: ‘The Puríssima told me to keep
myself ready. Something will soon happen to me, something impressive and serious’".
They were outside, around the house; they walked slowly. Sister Pierina does not say what
her emotions were. She only adds: "She asked me not to tell anyone what she had confided to me. I
had to keep the secret until the facts happened."
What facts? And when?
A few more steps, in a silence in which Sister Pierina must have been very tense; then Sister
Maria, with a ray of prophecy, continued: "No one will touch my body. They will watch over me in the
shadow of the Immaculate”.
Dearest Sisters,
I hope that all the communities can live intensely the 50th
anniversary of Sr. Maria
Troncatti celebrating the Triduum proposed by the Sector for August 22, 23, and 24. With this
wish, I reiterate the importance of accompanying the realization of the Panamazon Synod, within
the extraordinary Missionary Month, of which we have already spoken on other occasions. It is
important to know the Synod Working Document and to be interested with a missionary heart in this
ecclesial event so important for the Church, for the life of the people of the Amazon, and for an
integral ecology to become a reality on all continents
On this August 14, we will pray especially for the community Blessed Maria Troncatti of
Seoul (South Korea), founded February 14, 2014, belonging to Morning Star Province (KOR). In
the coming days I will have the joyful opportunity to visit the sisters who live and work there. It
should be emphasized that this community works for the promotion of women and the reception of
immigrant mothers with their children.
A strong sisterly embrace and always in communion of prayer and missionary commitment,
Councilor for the Missions