The document is a letter from the Councilor for Missions to her sisters. In the letter, she discusses recently concluding a visit to a province in Brazil, attending the inauguration of a missionary spirituality project in Brazil which filled her with joy, and proposing focusing on Blessed Sr. Maria Troncatti during an upcoming novena of Mary Help of Christians.

1. Dearest Sisters,
Together with Mother Mazzarello whose feast we celebrated yesterday, I greet you
affectionately from Rome. From here, I am accompanying the missionaries ad gentes who are
participating in the updating course known as ‘Missionary May’. Right now, the missionaries are at
Mornese for the Spiritual Exercises. Shortly, I will reach them in Mornese and then we will go to
Turin together.
I have recently concluded the Canonical Visit to Laura Vicuna Province in Manaus, Brazil. I
thank you very much for your accompaniment, your closeness and prayer. It was a challenging
experience but one of great hope, hope in the present and in the future, hope in the young people,
hope in the strength and positivity of the charism during this unification process of the Brazilian
Provinces.
Yesterday, May 13, the first Itinerary of PEM – Project of Missionary Spirituality – in Brazil
took place. Another thank you comes from my heart to the heart of God and to each one of you!
Thank you to the coordination Team, to the various Brazilian Provinces for supporting this dream
that has become a reality, to the participants for their availability and openness in receiving this gift
of God for the benefit of the young and the vitality of the charism.
From April 23 to 25, I was present at the inauguration of PEM, at San Paolo and I assure
you that what I saw filled my heart with joy and vibrant missionary enthusiasm! I was able to visit
the ‘FMA Memorial in Brazil’, set up in the rooms of the ‘House of the Most Pure Heart of Mary’,
in Guaratinguetá, San Paolo. It is a challenge to describe what the Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena
Province have prepared there. The Memorial represents the history of the FMA arrival in Brazil, the
fruitfulness of the charism and of the Preventive System in the feminine style translated into
images, colors, songs, testimonies, technological inter-activity, dialogue with the visitors, and an
‘inner space’ where one does not know if the person has entered the environment or the
environment has entered into the person. It is a Memorial translated in words as well and above all,
the Word of God meditated and lived!
My great desire is that everyone of you will have the possibility one day of visiting the
‘FMA Memorial in Brazil’. It is not a visit of tourism, but rather a pilgrimage, an immersion into
the missionary heart of Don Bosco and of Mother Mazzarello because it renews the desire to give
our life for the young and because its work lets one see vocational adhesion in depth: “da mihi
animas, cetera tolle”.
As we prepare for the novena of Mary Help of Christians, I propose a thought on Blessed Sr.
Maria Troncatti, a missionary who only sought souls, to save souls, devoid of all, centered only on
God and on her promise of love.
Rome, 14 May 2019.

2. In Letter 22, sent to the General Superior, Mother Luisa Vaschetti, Sr. Maria Troncatti
described a long trip through the forest with dangers of every kind and where she felt the tangible
protection of Mary Help of Christians. “Oh, from how many dangers our Help of Christians saves
us every day and how She makes us feel her valid patronage on all occasions! I had a sensible proof
of this during my trip from Macas to Mendez where I went for a few days after our good Provincial
had left…”
After witnessing a quarrel in the home of a kivara family, with death threats between
husband and wife, and where she was to remain as a guest during her journey, Sr. Maria invokes the
help of Our Lady: “My Mother, protect me. I am a poor missionary, alone in this jungle and in
danger. I can only turn to you!” Sr. Maria ends her letter this way: “Our life here, more than
elsewhere, is always exposed to vendettas and the cruelty of the indigenes. But OurLady covers us
with her motherly mantle and takes us by the hand, saving us from dangers at every moment. If
then, She wants to reward us with the crown of martyrdom, oh how great would be our fortune, and
with what joy we would irrigate this forest with our blood so that it will germinate the flowers of
Christian truth that should mark the way to heaven for many unhappy souls, still the slaves of the
infernal enemy!”
In the Apostolic Letter, ‘Maximum Illud’, Benedict XV presents a special exhortation to
women missionaries. Thus he wrote in 1919: “At this point, we cannot ignore the women who since
the beginnings of Christianity have efficaciously collaborated with preachers in the spread of the
Gospel. Especially worthy of well-merited praise are those virgins consecrated to God who are
found in great numbers in the sacred Missions, dedicated either to the education of the children or to
other diverse works of piety and of beneficence. We desire that from this Our praise, they may draw
new energy and courage to continually increase their merits in favor of the Church, being certain
that their work will be all the more advantageous, the more they commit themselves to their
spiritual perfection”.
Dearest Sisters, invoking Mary Help of Christians and truly living as her daughters, I invite
you to pray on May 14 for the community of Blessed Maria Troncatti at Renca Santiago, Chile,
founded on March 8, 2013. I affectionately greet the sisters who live and work there, inserted in the
local Parish, in favor of the neediest young people, in evangelization, in catechesis, and also for the
migrants.
I wish you a fruitful Novena in honor of Mary Help of Christians. May She cover us with
her maternal mantle and lead us by the hand toward a life of consecration totally given to God and
to the young. Let us always remember that we are her daughters and the living Monument of Don
Bosco’s gratitude to Her who did everything and continues to do so today as well. Let us invoke her
presence and protection and make her work, imploring her intercession for the gift of peace for all
of humanity.
In communion of prayer and of mission, with a warm embrace!
Councilor for the Missions