Rome (Italy). On 4 May 2025, Mary Help of Christians Community of the Generalate (RCG), celebrated the Feast of Gratitude to Mother Chiara Cazzuola, who returned from Vietnam after the World Feast of Gratitude.
Already with the entrance procession of the Eucharistic Celebration, presided by Fr. Carlo Maria Zanotti, SDB, Director of the Community Jesus Teacher of Mary Seat of Wisdom Preprovince (UPS), together with a Vietnamese concelebrant, the internationality of the Institute was breathed, with candles of the colors of the 5 continents brought by FMA from each of them dressed in typical costumes.
“Gratitude is a value and a gift, because it is the certainty of feeling loved, for which one feels the need to thank. Pope Francis has repeatedly recalled this value,” stressed Fr. Carlo Maria at the beginning of his homily. He then commented on the Word of God through three verbs: obey, worship, and share.
“After the resurrection, the disciples are not frightened, but are convinced that ‘it is necessary to obey God rather than men’ (Acts 5:29). Obedience to Jesus is life. Acting in the name of Jesus means believing that it is Jesus Himself who acts and the power of His name, of His presence, makes all this possible. Will we also be able to live like this, obeying God rather than men?
Adore. The Eucharistic liturgy is image and anticipation of the celestial, eschatological assembly. The cosmic praise, the thanksgiving of Revelation is realized today in our assembly, to give honor, glory, and witness to the Lamb, who has redeemed us.
Share. ‘Little children, do you have anything to eat?’ (Jn 21: 5). Jesus invites again to the mission. The mission that Jesus is giving to the group of apostles must be addressed to the excluded, to the ‘multitude’ of the marginalized. It is there that the fish will be abundant. (…) Celebrating the Eucharist means being enabled to share what we are and what we have. (…)
We ask the Lord, through the power of the Eucharist that we are celebrating, to help and support us in this journey of the sequela so that our obedience, adoration, and sharing may be an expression of total love for Him. We are grateful for the gift of motherhood of Mother Chiara who in her attentive, dedicated service manages to communicate, facilitate, encourage, and make possible for every Sister this obedience, adoration, and sharing, as a way to ignite the Gospel of hope in today’s world.”
In the intercessions, the “intercultural gaze” was resumed with the invitation to the assembly to make itself a voice of all peoples through some symbols: a shell for Oceania, symbol of communion and call for the villagers; a grape bunch for Europe, an indispensable element for the Eucharist, a fruit appreciated at table and a sign of fraternity; the lotus flower, symbol of female dignity in many Asian countries; the drum, which in traditional African societies symbolizes cultural and ethnic identity; a clay vase, for the American continent, reminds how every life is created and guarded by God.
The song of communion, with the intervention of a Vietnamese SDB deacon, made us meditate on the greatness of God’s love “like a wave of the Pacific Ocean, like a beneficial rain, like the wind that brings clouds to Heaven, like a mother who accompanies on the way.”
Even the time of the festive dinner with Mother and the Councilors, was garbed with symbolic value through the presence of some dishes based on rice, fundamental element of Vietnamese life and relationships.
In the evening, after the celebration of the second Vespers for the 3rd Sunday of Easter, the bronze drum, a sacred symbol of the culture of Vietnam, called to the Feast the communities of the Generalate and Sacred Heart of St. John Bosco Province (IRO),
It is the same hope that gave Vietnamese Cardinal Francesco Saverio Nguyễn Văn Thuận strength in his “journey through the storms of life”. Although isolated for 13 years from his diocesan community, he has in fact witnessed with his life that the path of hope is paved with small steps and that life is made of short but incisive minutes of hope. Hope helped him to glimpse, in the absurdity of the events he lived, a providential design of God.
Hope is based on faith, which is breathed and cultivated in the cradle of the family. It is the mother of the family who teaches her children the first sign of the cross and prayers of thanksgiving to God. The image of the mother in Vietnamese culture, carrying her young children in baskets hanging at the ends of a stick on her shoulders was projected on the screen, recalling in a special way the maternal love of God, who takes care of each child and carries him/her on His shoulders along the earthly journey.
In the family of the Institute, it is the Mother General who continues to transmit the Gospel of hope through her spiritual accompaniment. For this, with the explosion of celebration around her, the FMA of different cultures have thanked the Lord for her presence and her guidance of the Institute.
Taking the word, Mother Chiara first thanked the community “of the House of the Mother”, “unique in the world,” because anyone who arrives “feels at home”. Another thank you was “for the gift that each one of you is. Mother Ersilia Canta said that each FMA is a patrimony for the Institute. I also believe this, because even if we lose everything, we can start again, but if we lose people, then we lack the vitality of the charism, the generativity, the future is lacking. Therefore, it is very important that each of you feel unique, a precious treasure in the Institute, the patrimony of the Institute.
A thank you is always an act of humility, because none of us can do it alone and being able to feel the joy of others is not always easy, we take everything for granted. When we are away a little, we realize the value of the Community. When we have to fend for ourselves and we are alone, we realize how much the community gives us and supports us. I also experience this and I thank you with the words of Pope Francis.
First of all, he says: ‘Cultivate joy and be bearers of gratitude’ – it could be a phrase from Mother Mazzarello. And then he says: ‘Those who treat everything as though it was due to them remain in a certain attitude, but those who welcome everything as a gift, take a different step, all becomes grace. Being able to accept every event, every need as good for us at that moment, can really become a reason for gratitude. (…)
The wish is to continue the journey with giving thanks in the heart for all the gifts with which the Lord fills us from morning to evening every day. I liked the prayer of Card. Xavier, who says ‘I decided to live the present moment’ – this one he writes in prison, with the uncertainty that they could come to kill him at any time. It resembles the message that Jesus left to Mother Clelia Genghini in Nizza, ‘Live the present moment, live it in love’. May every present moment in our lives be a return of gratitude to the Lord, to Mary, and to each one of us. May we know how to become people who express mutual gratitude. Thank you.”
