Messaggio della Consigliera per le Missioni_ENG

1. Dearest Sisters,
A very fraternal greeting filled with joy and hope! Yes, joy and hope because we are in the time
of Advent. Our heart readies itself again to receive the Mystery of the Incarnation of Jesus who freely
accepts to pitch His Tent among us. Best wishes for a Holy Novena in preparation for the birth of the
Lord!
In this last message of 2019, I would like to glance together with you on the past and the future
with the certainty that the present is the best opportunity to live as missionaries of joy and hope
according to the heart of Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello.
Last January, we presented 2019 as a ‘year of grace from the Lord’ because there were many
celebrations and events presented to us that would directly interest the Missions Sector.
Let us recall them:
 The Centenary of the Apostolic Letter Maximum Illud of Benedict XV on the activity carried
out by missionaries in the world (30 November 1919);
 The Extraordinary Missionary Month on the theme: Baptized and sent. The Church of Christ on
mission in the world (October 2019);
 The Panamazon Synod with the theme: Amazon: new journeys for the Church and for an
integral ecology (October 2019);
 International Year of Indigenous languages;
 The 50th
of the death of Blessed Sr. Maria Troncatti (25 August 1969);
 The 50th
of the creation of the Central Missionary Office (today the Missions Sector) and of the
nomination of a General Councilor with the specific task of the Missions (Special General
Chapter XV - 1969);
 The 50th
of the transfer of the Generalate from Turin to Rome (11 October 1969).
In addition, the 140th
of the Second Missionary Expedition (January 1879), which means the
140th
of St. Francis di Sales Province (ABA – Buenos Aires, Argentina).
We know that there have been other recurrences at the Provincial level in various parts of the
world where the FMA are present and seek “to be more significant and contagious” insuring the
“original freshness” of the charism. I hope that all these events have helped us to have a broadened
vision and to already live in the perspective of the Wedding at Cana, where the miracle of our everyday
makes us enter into the heart of contemporaneity personally as FMA and also as communities that
generate life! Thus, I pray that all we have lived in 2019 has been the occasion to gather, defend, and
promote life in our ‘Common Home’.
Dearest Sisters, 2020 will certainly bring us many gifts and much hope! Above all, I am
thinking of the realization of General Chapter XXIV for which each of us continues to prepare
personally, and that will be a precious time to welcome the newness of the Spirit even more because it is
inserted in the context of the three years of preparation for the 150th
of the foundation of the Institute.
Rome, 14 December 2019

2. Every moment of life is for each of us an opportunity to grow in our sense of belonging and for
living intensely missionary zeal made concrete by the “Da mihi animas cetera tolle” and by the
mandate “A te le affido”. At the start of this message, I spoke of glancing together at the past and at
the future. I will quickly mention the themes that we developed during these six-years, offering to the
communities a monthly proposal for reflection and also some concrete gestures and attitudes to live.
During 2015, we dedicated the 14th
of each month to the celebration of the Bicentennial of Don
Bosco’s birth, offering you important reflections on the missionary heart of Don Bosco. The year
2016 was dedicated to the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, and the acrostic of the word MERCY
helped us to regain our missionary identity. 2017 was a special year as we let ourselves be involved in
the invitation to form a GREAT MISSIONARY EXPEDITION in preparation for the 140th
of the first
departure of FMA missionaries for Uruguay. In 2018, we were challenged by the urgency of the
migration phenomena and we dedicated the reflection of the 14th
of each month to the Project “For a
common home in the diversity of peoples”, a project that was re-launched on October 22, 2017, while
still on the horizon of the 140th
of the first Missionary Expedition. As a Sector, we proposed studying
the theme of young migrants and unaccompanied minors as a precise gesture regarding the XV
Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops - Young people, faith, and vocational
discernment. The present year of 2019, found us involved with the centenary of the Apostolic Letter
“Maximum Illud”, the realization of the Panamazon Synod, and the 50th
of the death of Blessed Sr.
Maria Troncatti. This is our gaze on the past!
Now we turn our gaze to the future! We anticipate our desire to meet with St. Mary
Domenica Mazzarello, our Co-foundress, on a journey that is very missionary in the simplicity and
concreteness of ordinary life! Thus, 2020 will be dedicated to the Letters of Mother Mazzarello to the
Missionaries. We will go back in time to the years 1878-1881 to rediscover a great TREASURE that
will help us to fill our jars that have become empty due to a lack of meaning, of joy, of life, of hope,
because of the absence of the Spouse; to thank God for the holiness of Mother Mazzarello and that lived
by many FMA today on the various continents!
In her simplicity and in her vigorous desire to be missionary in the most remote territories,
Mother Mazzarello touched the great themes of life and of the mission that are of an impeccable
timeliness. We can prepare ourselves right now, perhaps by dusting off the volume “I will Never Forget
You”1
and re-reading some of her letters. It will be an important start to this journey!
Today, December 14, we unite in prayer for Blessed Maria Troncatti Community in Tapo-
Papua New Guinea, founded on January 8, 2017, belonging to the Philippine Province of St. Mary D.
Mazzarello. Many greetings to the sisters who live and work in that reality. Thus we conclude the
celebration of the 50th
of Sr. Maria Troncatti and we continue it in life by imitating her missionary
passion!
To all of you, a sisterly embrace and a prayer full of affection and gratitude. Together let us
invoke the Lord for the great needs of humanity, especially for peace and fraternity among all peoples.
Also pray to the Spirit for the work of the Plenum. A heartfelt thank you!
Councilor for the Missions
1
I Will Never Forget You Letters of Mary Domenica Mazzarello. M. Esther Posada, Anna Costa, Piera Cavaglià (2000).