Messaggio della Consigliera per le Missioni_14 marzo 2020 eng

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Rome, 14 March 2020.
Dearest Sisters,
I greet you with great affection from Colombia, Mary
Help of Christians Province, wishing each of you a serene and
fruitful Lenten journey. Today the Lord gives us the grace of
taking some concrete steps for conversion. He never leaves us
alone. He is our companion on the road. May Lent 2020 be a
special time to do all He tells us, to grow in the commitment to
be communities that generate life in the heart of
contemporanteity.
Last month, we dedicated our attention to Letter 17, in
which Mother Mazzarello – from Mornese (December 1878) –
writes to the Superior of the house of Montevideo – Villa
Colón, Sr. Angela Vallese.
Among the 68 letters of Mother Mazzarello, 5 are addressed to some novices: Laura
Rodríguez (L 18), Ottavia Bussolino (L 45), Rita Barilatti (L 60), Mercedes Stabler (L 62), and
Lorenzina Natale (L 67). So today we are going to jump in time and space! We will go to Turin,
from where on January 24, 1881 Mother Mazzarello wrote to the novice Sister Lorenzina Natale.
The journey we propose to you this year is that of taking up again and re-reading some
letters of Mother Mazzarello to the missionaries. Letter 67 is written to a novice who is not yet a
missionary. Perhaps she will ask, who knows? And why the choice of this letter?
Sr. Lorenzina Natale has a very interesting story. I invite you as far as possible, to know her
(Let us Remember – Biographical notes of FMA who died in 1936, pp. 161-167). She was 23 years
old when she was received into the Institute. She had entered at Nizza as a Postulant in October
1880, and on December 12 of the same year, she began her Novitiate. She was chosen to be part of
the Third Missionary Expedition. On February 2, 1881, through Don Bosco’s desire, she made
her First Profession at Genoa Sampierdarena. The next day, February 3, 1881, she left as an FMA
missionary towards South America. She had a long life and was a missionary ad gentes for 55 years.
The Letter of Mother Mazzarello to this young future FMA occupies only half a page and is
divided into 6 points. Mother Mazzarello traces out a formation journey for Lorenzina, almost like
‘directions’ to continue her Novitiate in faraway lands. In fact, it is said that Lorenzina always kept
these recommendations of Mother Mazzarello with her so that she could compare herself with them
during the Spiritual Exercises.
To the young woman who was leaving, Mother Mazzarello reminds her of the basic values
of consecrated life: humility, piety, modesty, obedience, sacrifice, mortificaton. She reccomends
Lorenzina to “…Never make friends with her self-love” and invites her to “Think often that our
Holy Rule is the sure guide that will lead us to Heven.”

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Dearest Sisters, I see in these few lines of Mother Mazzarello that crossed the ocean not only
on paper, but above all in the heart of Sr. Lorenzina Natale, a kind of Itinerary for the time of
Lent! Let us try to read them “with the heart of a novice.”
In fact, to Sr. Vittoria Cantù, missionary of the Second Expedition, Mother Mazzarello will
write in 1879, “You are a professed Sister, but remember that you must also be a novice. You must
unite the fervor of a novice with the solid virtue that a professed sister should have” (L 22).
To you, dearest Novices, I wish to say a word especially for you, read with joy and
gratitude these reminders of Mother Mazzarello to Sr. Lorenzina Natale. They will do you much
good! In addition, I leave you an appeal that is close to my heart: have you ever thought of
consecrating your life in the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians as missionaries
ad gentes? If this desire is hidden in your heart, consider it a call from the Lord ... “have great
courage and don’t have such a small heart, but a big, generous heart. Don’t be so fearful,
understand?” (L 27). When the Lord calls, He Himself supports our response, “Here I am, send
me!”
On this March 14th
you will be very present in our prayer, asking the Lord to sustain you and
to grant each of you what you need most. We will also pray to Mary, the woman of the Fiat, to
intercede for your perseverance and fidelity.
I invite all of you, dearest sisters, to offer your prayers for the 306 Novices that at this time
are living their formation journey in our Novitiates in various parts of the world. They will be the
future FMA! And, entrusting ourselves to Divine Providence, we pray that some of them will also
be future FMA missionaries ad gentes!
In preparation for GC XXIV, let us pray together, Mary, Mother of the Church and
sapiential model of Consecrated Life, fill our jars with the wine of humility and obedience, so that
we will have the strength to live Lent with a trustful heart on the journey towards the Pasch of Jesus.
With sisterly affection and a warm embrace!
Councilor for the Missions