This letter from the Councilor for Missions: 1) Thanks sisters for supporting the 50th anniversary of Blessed Maria Troncatti and the missionary work of the "Sacred Heart" Province of Ecuador. 2) Encourages nourishing missionary enthusiasm daily and inflaming reality with the desire to bring the Gospel to all. 3) Informs sisters that new missionaries will soon conclude their Italian course and prepare to experience mission in Mornese-Nizza-Turin.

1. Rome, 14 September 2018.
Dearest Sisters,
On this day as we celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, I
greet you with affection and gratitude, especially because on August 25th
you gave your adhesion to the inauguration of the 50th anniversary of the
birth of Blessed Maria Troncatti.
A big thank you also to “Sacred Heart” Province of Ecuador for their work in synergy with the
Missions field.
Missionary enthusiasm must be nourished every day, and we can all inflame our reality with the
‘fire’ and the desire to bring the Gospel to everyone everywhere.
I take this opportunity to inform you that the 2018-2019 new missionaries are about to conclude
their intensive Italian course and, when you read this message, they will be preparing to go to live
the charismatic-missionary experience in Mornese-Nizza-Turin.
On September 30th
in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin, they will receive the
missionary mandate and crucifix. We ask you to support them with closeness, affection, and above
all with prayer, so that they may be ready to live with intensity this year of preparation for the
mission ad gentes, which is also a ‘global mission’, because it embraces all realities, all peoples,
and cultures, all brothers and sisters, ‘guests’ of the same ‘common home’.
Regarding our ‘common home’, we continue our journey with our eyes, mind, and heart fixed on
the project “For a common home in the diversity of peoples”. I say ‘fixed’ because, as FMA we
cannot live disconnected from the cry of our migrant brothers and sisters, especially young people
and unaccompanied minors, forced to leave their home, land, family ... in search of life, of dignity,
of peace, with the dream of being able to build their future.
During the press conference during his return from Ireland (08.26.2018), Pope Francis said that
“Welcoming migrants is as ancient as the Bible. In Deuteronomy and in the commandments, God
commands this: welcome the migrant, the ‘stranger’. It is an ancient attitude, which is in the spirit
of divine revelation and also in the spirit of Christianity. It is a moral principle.”
The Gospel of Matthew as well in chapter 25 is very precise in this regard when it says: “Come,
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Because… I was a stranger and you welcomed me”.
Dearest Sisters, sometimes many of our migrant brothers and sisters are labeled by prejudices,
convictions ... and looked at with suspicion, considered the outcastes of our time. Let our gestures
be marked by hospitality and fraternity more and more! Let us continually seek to look at migrants
as children loved by God, as our brothers and sisters, as persons and not as numbers. Jesus gave
His life on the Cross for them too!

2. On the 14th
, I invite you to make a concrete gesture in the community: prepare a wooden cross and
leave it in the Chapel, in front of the altar. On this cross, write the names of some migrant people
whom you know or are in touch with; or the name of the nations where the migratory flow is
greatest, that is, from where more people flee, where more people land. Contemplate this cross and
pray: “Jesus, you are still a stranger today and we wish to welcome you into our hearts. You are
truly present in the face of every migrant and we wish to welcome you into our heart”.
I also ask you to place near this cross the name of the new missionaries of 2018-2019, praying to
Our Lady for these sisters, for their yes to the missionary vocation ad gentes, for their fidelity and
adherence to God's plan, to be available to cross the frontiers of the world to bring everyone the
Gospel of joy and hope. May they be able to transform into life what God said to Abraham: “Go
from your town, from your country, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you”.
May they ‘leave their home’ (Nation, culture, Province ...) and set off on their journey, ‘light’
without much luggage, to go to another land as a joyful response to the Lord's call.
With our renewed missionary commitment, we can open our hearts and even our homes to welcome
those who walk to another land: the migrant, the foreigner, the refugee ...
“Come ... I was a stranger and you welcomed me”.
In communion along the roads of the world, a fraternal embrace and a prayer of intercession for
your intentions.
Councilor for the Missions
The Cross of Lampedusa
Mk 16:15