Messaggio della Consigliera per le Missioni_14 agosto 2020 eng

1. Rome, 14 August 2020
Dearest Sisters,
I greet you from Rome with great joy and gratitude.
After living 17 days of ‘quarantine’, I am finally able to
integrate into the community of the Council and of the
Generalate. I thank all of you who accompanied me with
prayer and I can truly say that we felt the prayers and
closeness of so many sisters. Thank you from my heart!
Also on the occasion of my brother’s death, I
experienced the affectionate closeness of many sisters.
I wish to express special gratitude to the Sisters
of Mary Help of Christians Province (CMA),
especially the Provincial, Sr. María Victoria
Montoya; to the Provincial Economer, Sr. Maríangela
Restrepo; to the Provincial House Animator, Sr. Luisa
Margarita Zuluaga, who always accompanied us with
attentive care; and to the local Economer, Sr. Ross Mary
Ramírez, who provided for everything, from food to other personal
needs. Thank you to all the Sisters for the delicacy and attentiveness shown to us. Truly you made us
feel of the HOUSE and at HOME during the time of our stay in Medellín. Thus, leaving Colombia
was not easy. To the entire Province, to each Community and Sister, a heartfelt THANK YOU for the
time we lived together as sisters in a true family spirit, and also for the availability of the means that
allowed us to continue the mission of animation in our Sectors.
Now, dearest Sisters, we continue to accompany the world situation struck by Covid-19,
asking for the gift of healing, but remaining in an attitude of gratitude for all the gestures of solidarity
and closeness activated by many people, by many volunteers, believers or not, who have and continue
to put into practice ‘Gospel charity’, going to the aid of the neediest, giving their time, offering
material help to relieve the pain and suffering of others.
After having celebrated on August 5th
the anniversary of the foundation of the Institute, today I
would like to propose to you the encounter with Mother Mazzarello in Letter 56, addressed to Sr.
Vittoria Cantù, and to the community of Montevideo, Villa Colón.
In the letter written on 21 December 1880, Mother thanks for the greetings received,
communicates some news, and recommends to the missionaries the characteristic virtues of the
Salesian Spirit.
I was very impressed by the number of times Mother Mazzarello refers to the attitude of
gratitude.
First of all, right at the beginning, she expresses her joy because the sisters of Montevideo,
Villa Colón, are all in good health, she thanks the Lord and solicits them to do the same. “First of all I
am happy to hear that you are all in good health, thank God.”
In the fourth paragraph, Mother Mazzarello, after having announced the departure of the third
missionary expedition (this announcement is also found in the preceding letter n. 55), she thanks them
for the greetings received and for their prayers, “I thank you with all my heart for the beautiful wishes
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2. you sent me and I thank you even more for the prayers you promised me; continue to pray for me
always.”
After encouraging the sisters to live the ‘beautiful virtues’: “humility, great charity, obedience,
patience, bearing first of all with yourself,” spirit of poverty, mortification of your own will, zeal, and
fervor in the Lord’s service, Mother concludes, “Oh, may Jesus really fill you with all these things and
console you. You must thank Him and correspond.”
Dearest Sisters, it seems opportune to remind ourselves how beautiful it is to cultivate a
grateful heart that does not wait for the big occasions of life to say ‘thank you’, but knows how to
recognize in daily life, all the opportunities to say a word of gratitude to God and to other people.
As Pope Francis said, “We must become firmly determined to educate others to be grateful and
appreciative: the dignity of the person and social justice must both pass through the portal of the
family… Gratitude, however, stands at the very core of the faith of the believer. A Christian who does
not know how to thank has lost the very ‘language’ of God… ‘Gratitude is a plant that grows only in
the soil of noble souls’. That nobility of soul, that grace of God in the soul compels us to say ‘thank
you’ with gratitude. It is the flower of a noble soul.” (General Audience, 13 May 2015).
I would also like to share with you the invitation that Mother Mazzarello makes to the
missionary sisters in the letter already cited, and she repeats it three times, “Take courage”. This
expression is the sign of how Mother participates directly in the discomforts, in the hardships of the
missionaries and seeks to relieve them of their suffering like a mother, “Take courage, we are sending
you help. On January 22 or 26 a group of Sisters will leave to join you there.” “Take courage, love
one another, be understanding of one another, always advise one another with charity…” “Take
courage and pray much for me. I assure you that I do not forget you in my poor prayers.”
Like and with Mother Mazzarello, I wish to end this message by telling each of you, “Dearest
Sisters, let us do some good while we have the time and opportunity to do so… I am praying and will
continue to pray to Jesus… for you… may He give you His choicest blessings, firstly spiritual health,
and then great physical strength.”
I heartily recommend that you reread Letter 56. There you will discover ‘the word’ of Mother
Mazzarello, very special and particular, that she will say to each of you in the secret of your heart.
In preparation for GC XXIV, let us pray together: Mary, Our Lady of the Magnificat, fill our
jars with the wine of gratitude and courage. Teach us to welcome the sunset of our each day with a
heart full of gratitude.
Dearest Sisters, with a thank you for your closeness and for having accompanied me during
this time of confinement, I assure you of my prayer. Let us remain in sisterly communion! A warm
embrace.
Councilor for the Missions
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