Benguela (Angola). On 13 February 2022, Queen of Peace Preprovince (ANG), at Laura Vicuña House in Benguela, celebrated the opening of the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (1872-2022). Present were the Superior of the Preprovince, Sr. Natália Miguel, the Provincial Council, the FMA of the Bl. Laura Vicuña Community, the young women of the Period of Assessment and Guidance, and the Postulants of the House of Formation.
The celebration took place in three itinerant moments: With gratitude, I entrust them to you, and boldly Planning the future. A significant gesture was the inauguration of the Well of Mornese, a symbol full of meaning for the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, as a spiritual heritage of Mary Domenica Mazzarello.
The Well of Benguela contains several meanings: source of water, of the ever-living Charism, a place of simple and trusting obedience, a play corner for school children, a meeting place for celebrations and meetings. Wherever the Institute is present, everyone is invited to drink from this inexhaustible source which is the contemplation and apostolic passion of the spirit of Mornese.
Every 13th of the month, the day of the commemoration of St. Mary Domenica Mazzarello, until August 2022, the FMA of the Angolan Preprovince will live a Celebration, coordinated by the Formation and Communication Teams, with a symbolic place linked to the Charism associated with one of the Houses in which the celebratory moment will take place. On March 13, the celebration will have at the center the symbol of the House of birth in Mornese and will take place in Cacuaco, Luanda.
“The fire of belonging to the Lord and of the call to Salesian life, the fire of the charismatic passion that makes us generative communities in the service of the young and the poor, made possible the expansion of our Institute throughout the world”, says Mother Chiara Cazzuola in Circular 1014, animating the FMA from all over the world in this 150th anniversary of the Institute, “not to forget the grace of the origins” and to “rekindle the fire” (L 27,8).
