INSTITUTE OF THE DAUGHTERS OF MARY HELP OF CHRISTIANS
founded by St. JohnBosco
and St. MaryDomenicaMazzarello
N. 921
Holiness
Secret of the Institute’s Fruitfulness
We are living a time of grace as Church and as Salesian Family. There is the 140th anniversary of the foundation of the Institute and the beginning of the three years of preparation for the bicentennial of DonBosco’s birth. Even the 2011 World Youth Day, in which I participated with immense joy, was a strong experience of Church. The Salesian Youth Movement knew how
to make the specific colors of our spirituality shine forth.
If received with faith, these events help us to put out into the deep in order to give our life a high degree of holiness according to God’s plan, which is love. They renew our awareness that we are all called to sanctity and to accompany the young people on this journey so that they, in turn,may become apostles among their peers. This is the Lord’s gift offered gratuitously to our freedom. It is also a commitment and an apostolic urgency in a time when the temptation to eliminate God from culture is spreading far and wide.
WYD was an event whose depth, joy, beauty, music, art, reception of the Cross, of the Word, adoration, silence, prayer, peaceful co-existence, and communion revealed the face of youth in the Church today. I was very impressed with the strong experience I lived, together with 11,000 young people coming from the Salesian world, during the vigil on August 17 in which diverse languages and cultures formed one sole family with one sole spirit in the presence of the Eucharistic Jesus. We were one heart vibrating with the Salesian spirit. DonBosco and MaryMazzarello were there and I thinkthey contemplated from Heaven, this youth spectacle in which they recognized themselves.
Salesian youth spirituality is truly a power capable of leading to an encounter with Jesus, of tracing out a path that leads to holiness today as at the time of DonBosco and Mother Mazzarello. As the Salesian Family, as the Institute, we are called to propose it to the young people with renewed courage. The cascades of light, as Pope BenedictXVI defined WYD, must remain a bright horizon in our life as FMA called by our charism to educate to holiness.
In the unified circular of July 24, 2011, there remained an open question. “What is the secret of the fruitfulness of the Institute, born in a tiny village and now spread over the five continents?” Doubtlessly, it is holiness! I felt irresistibly stimulated to share some reflections with you on this vital theme in the hope that the Holy Spirit will make the seed of new life blossom throughout the whole Institute.
The Dynamism of Holiness – Font of Renewal
When I contemplate the history of the Institute, I do not merely consider the events, important as they are, but above all, I encounter the faces of the sisters, simple women, open, passionate seekers of holiness with an Easter face, who have had in their contexts, the power of charismatic radiation.
Our religious family is a family permeated with holiness. It is not an abstract holiness, distant from life, but a discrete, concrete, and realistic holiness measured on the challenges, the difficulties, and inevitable human contradictions. At the same time, it is radiant, full of joy, and of apostolic creativity.
We find this style in DonBosco and in MaryD.Mazzarello, in many sisters of all ages, formations, and cultures. This dynamism leavens history and makes it fruitful. As the Apostolic Exhortation of Consecrated Life reminds us, “The saints have always been the source and origin of renewal in the most difficult circumstances throughout the whole history of the Church.” (No. 35) The actual social and ecclesial context present us with unheard of challenges and great opportunities to say with our life that what counts is to meet, know, love, and proclaim Jesus, the true source of justice, peace, and happiness.
Pope BenedictXVI, when addressing the young religious during WYD, stressed that the witness of holiness to which God calls us, consists in closely following Jesus unconditionally in consecration, communion, and mission. (Cf Discourse of August 19, 2011) Therefore, it means giving Jesus the first place in our life. It means ardently desiring with a lover’s heart, a constant and deep relationship with Him. It means following Him without other aims to the point of embracing “the precious treasure of the Cross in which we recognize the icon of supreme love; where we learn to love that which God loves and how He loves. This is the Good News that restores hope to the world.” (Madrid, August 19, 2011)
Implicit in these words is the invitation to live holiness without timidity, available for everything, even martyrdom, rather than fail in our covenant with God, the source of fruitfulness, of renewal, of hope for everyone and especially for the young people. But are we truly convinced that holiness is possible today, that it must be the program of life that prompts us to live God’s will each day? Dear sisters, saying yes to the journey of holiness means avoiding any compromise with spiritual mediocrity, which can slowly extinguish our interior fire, put at risk our constant understanding with Jesus, and weakenour witness in the mission.
MaryDomenica knew how to receivethe call to holiness with an attentive and docile heart and she sought to respond to it day by day. This gave her life a tone of evangelical freshness, of trust, and of missionary daring. She does not speak of sanctity in an idealized way but rather traces out a concrete path. She gives very practical advice to the young missionary, Sr. Giovanna Borgna, “I am very happy to hear that you are full of good will to become a saint. But remember, it is not enough to begin. You must continue. You must do battle every day.”
(L 19: 1)
The point of departure is always charity, a ‘great charity’ rooted in ‘remaining’ in God’s love, in a personal relationship with Him, and with staying continually in His presence. This is how it becomes concrete in the quality of our relationships, in our trust in Mary, and in our fidelity to the plan contained in our Rule of life. MaryDomenica’s experience is transparent with what AnselmGrun calls, “simplicity of heart.” The simple heart “is clear, full of God’s Spirit. It sees things as they are.” It does not fear its own ‘zones of darkens’, or its defects and weaknesses. Thus it knows how to see others with true perspective and to realize there is always the desire for the good in them.
Simplicity of heart is humility, rectitude, purity, liberty. From here derives that love which is not polluted by the pretence to possess and infantile desires. It is solely pervaded by the search to remain in deep communion with God, inhabited by His peace, ready to diffuse it with evangelical courage. For MaryDomenica, simplicity and holiness are closely connected. Love is simple!
In fact, when she seeks to define prayer, she sees it as immersion in God’s will in the drama of each day. “True religious piety consists in doing all our duties at the right time and place, solely for the love of God.” (CronistoriaII: 338)
It does not mean prayer alongside work but within work, in the concreteness of each action that is thus transformed by a greater Love. Each action becomes the privileged place for encounter with God and the fire that keeps lit apostolic passion. Even a stitch can be transformed into love and the whole house may be called ‘the House of the Love of God,’ the temple of ‘perennial praise.’
The dream I carry in my heart and I would want to be realized in each community is to see ourselves as Daughters of Mary Help of Christians who radiate simplicity, humility, peace, charity, and educative passion. Sisters ‘rooted and founded in Christ, steadfast in the faith.’ (Cf.Col. 2: 7) Then it will be holiness with a community face. In the charismatic identity of the FMA, there is the call ‘to live and work together in the name of the Lord.’ (C 49) The community is an essential dimension of our vocation. In fact, the call to holiness is reached, not only as individual persons, but as community. Together we serve the Lord in joy and work with optimism and hope for God’s Kingdom. In this way, we become for the young a sign of His love, as GCXXII called us to be, and as it is evidenced in the first article of our Constitutions.
At Mornese as at Nizza, the first community is born as an experience of apostolic charity that finds in Christ and in caring for the young girls, its unifying element and its motivating dynamism. The first FMA feel that are a family of sisters called together by God and by MaryHelp of Christians. They are animated by St. MaryDomenica, a woman with great communicative capacity, able to weave relationships that are not always easy but possible because oriented toward one aim alone, the authentic happiness and salvation of the young. Every other problem, be it personal or community, passed into second place because all was relative to the reason they were gathered.
As an Institute, we were born from a community whose ideal was holiness with a joyful face, lived in a family spirit. This community guarded and radiated the genuineness of the charism in the simplicity and responsibility of daily life. Mother Mazzarello was aware of the motivating energy of this place when she wrote to Sr. Angela Vallese, “Sr.Victoria cannot have already assimilated the spirit of the Institute because she spent too little time at Mornese.” (L 25: 3)
One had to remain and live in that community to assimilate the spirit. In fact, all knew that God nourished in each sister ‘a firm will to become saints.’ (L 26:2) They were convinced that the Holy Spirit could create masterpieces of grace in their welcoming soil, even if it was poor and fragile.
Mother Mazzarello’s transparent gaze recognized God’s hand working in the sisters (Cf L 66: 2), and for this reason she was full of awe in seeing that charity reigned among them, that they were united, serene, generous, and humble. They were open and courageous in individuating the eventual needs of the young and of the families, and were ready to give adequate help even at the cost of sacrifice.
It was a community built on listening to the Word of God, on the power of the Eucharist, on confidence in MaryHelp of Christians. At the same time, it was a community built on human weakness,yet following God’s steps at the price of continual reconciliation in the daily routine. Joy was contagious in this climate.
Our journey of holiness lies right here! We experience it so many times. Godusesourpoverty to work. What’s more, He needs it. This is why community relationships are an authentic workshop of holiness, a continual school of love, of forgiveness, of patience, and of gratuity. (Cf Fraternal Life 25)
Does one breathe the desire for Mornesian holiness in the life of our communities? Are we convinced that the fruitfulness of our Institute flows from holiness as the constant commitment of every person and of every community? Fidelity to the Constitutions lived together is the sure way to follow. “We will love the Constitutions as the ‘pact of our covenant with God,’ the sure guide to holiness.”
A project shared in the educating community
If the goal of the spiritual journey for MaryMazzarello is to become a saint, in the educative plan holiness becomes as ideal shared with the young and those who collaborate in the same educative mission. ‘To become a saint’ is a good that makes us joyful and ‘infects’ those who come close to us. It nourishes a positive and radiant climate. In her letters, Mother Mazzarello exhorts the sisters, “It is not enough for us religious to save our souls. We must become saints and, through our good works, make saints of many other souls who await our help.” (L 18: 3)
We read in the first biography that under her guidance the FMA entrusted to her were inflamed with “the desire to cooperate in the good of souls and to make the whole world know, if possible, how sweet it is to love and serve the Lord.” (Lemoyne, Sr. Mary Mazzarello, 1881) The efficacy of evangelization derives from a deep encounter with God. It is through prayer and communion with Him, verified in community relationships, that the mystery of our spiritual maternity grows and develops. To become a saint means to welcome God who is holy, and to guardthe traces of His holiness in our being in order to guide others toward this goal. It is true that only God is holy. However, He needs mediators. The more we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, the more He transforms and sanctifies through us.
Today more than ever, a renewed commitment to holiness on the part of consecrated persons is necessary, even to favor and sustain the tending toward holiness of every Christian, of every young person, and of every member of the educating community. Our first sisters of Mornese, through their simple and coherent life, aroused in the young and lay collaborators a deep desire for holiness, and a concrete need for conversion and renewal.
Their fidelity in following Jesus in joy and suffering, discretely and clearly guided the young on the journey of discovering God’s plan for their life. The educating community was the space of growth and of an explicit vocational proposal for the young. Mornese became the fertile womb of the future vitality of the Institute and of its generative capacity,which does not cease to amaze us.
The message that comes from this is valid even for us today, dear sisters. Those who authentically seek holiness and take care of others with gratuitous love are a prophetic voice, a bright vocational call, not only with their words, but above all with their lives. As Blessed John Paul II solicited us in the Apostolic Letter, NovoMilennioIneunte, it is time to propose anew, the ‘high measure’ of ordinary Christian life, one that demands a true and proper pedagogy of holiness. (Cf NMI 31)
This is the journey to undertake so that the charism may shine forth in all its brightness. Let us do all that is possible so that every educating community may grow in this responsibility. What can be greater in the educative field than having the awareness that we are called to be educators to holiness in a reality that is increasingly thirsty for God?
The Holy Spirit helps us to find adequate ways of speaking to the heart of youth a language that is rooted in the coherence of an evangelical life. MaryHelp of Christians accompanies our journey of holiness and that of all those who collaborate for the good of the new generations. It is to her that we entrust the new vocations above all.
She helps us decide to undertake with daring this way of love that is the secret of the Institute’s fruitfulness. “In her we find a living presence whose help directs our lives decisively to Christ and makes our personal relationship with Him ever more authentic.” (C 79)
Feel me ever in deep communion with you.
Rome, 24 September 2011
Your affectionate Mother
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