50th Anniversary of Profession of Mother Chiara

Rome (Italy). On 5 August 2025, on the 153^rd anniversary of the foundation of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, in a grand atmosphere of celebration, the great solemn Eucharistic Celebration took place in the Chapel of the General House for the 50^th anniversary of religious profession of the Superior General, Mother Chiara Cazzuola.

The Celebration was attended by the Provincials and Superiors of the Preprovinces of Italy and some of Europe, the temporary professed of CIME, the Postulants, numerous FMA of the Community of the Generalate and the Houses of Rome, and members of the Salesian Family. It was presided by the Rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco, Fr. Fabio Attard, and concelebrated by his Vicar, Fr. Stefano Martoglio, by Fr. Andrea Bozzolo, Rector Magnificus of the Salesian Pontifical University (UPS), Fr. Carlo Maria Zanotti, SDB, Fr. Giuseppe Ruta, SDB, and Fr. Luigi Ferrari, parish priest of Scanno.

The whole Institute rallied around Mother to thank the Lord with her. “With a heart filled with gratitude and inhabited by an interior and luminous joy, today, August 5, birth of our Institute, we feel in deep communion with all the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of the five continents. It is a day full of memory, where the past becomes a source and the future prophecy, where gratitude is intertwined with fidelity,” was read in the introduction.

In his homily, the Rector Major began with a first thought on gratitude for the goodness of God, “50 years of consecrated life is first and foremost 50 years of divine fidelity. When we look back at the path we have traveled, what emerges most clearly is not so much the merits, or our constancy, but rather the patient and tireless goodness of God towards us. The Lord called us. Perhaps we are uncertain and fragile, and He knows this. However, just the same, He placed a sign of love in our hearts, which has grown by overcoming our occasional resistance. It flourished, through the cracks of our weaknesses, and bore fruit beyond our expectations. (…)

The gratitude that comes from the heart on this day of celebration is not only a human feeling, but an act of justice, recognizing that everything is grace, that everything is a gift, everything is mercy, everything was an instrument in the loving and merciful hands of the Father, so that He could gradually shape the image of His Son in the human heart. (…) Dear Mother Chiara, we give thanks to the Lord for the many people and communities who have been part of this journey, for every brother and sister who have been at your side, for every person that the Lord has placed on your path, which has become an opportunity for mutual growth and sanctification. We give thanks for God’s faithfulness which never fails, not even when ours seems to falter.”

The long experience of divine fidelity, in the arc of 50 years, is also a support for the present path. “The Salesian charism embraced 50 years ago continues to be relevant, to ask questions of the world, continues to question us in a profound way. We realize more than ever that it is a treasure to be shared, a testimony that young people and the world are thirsty for. We had the proof last week…” He highlighted this by recalling the recent experience of the Youth Jubilee, lived together with  Mother, with the young people of the Salesian Youth Movement.

Joy was at the center of the last thought, drawing on the gospel of John (Jn 15: 1-10), ‘so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full,’ “is not a superficial, or ephemeral, joy, but the profound joy that arises from awareness of having done everything possible to respond to the call of the Lord, to have made a complete gift  of one’s life… a renewed yes every day through small and large daily fidelities… It is the joy of discovering that consecrated life is not  renunciation, but  fullness; not impoverishment, but enrichment, not  death, but  continuous resurrection.

This joy becomes testimony for all those who meet us, especially for young people, who seek the meaning of their existence, but also for the Sisters. (…) The serenity, peace and light that reside in the heart, say more than a thousand words about the faithful love of God, about the beauty of a beauty totally given.”

The final wish: “50 years of Religious Profession are a song of praise to the faithfulness of God, a hymn of gratitude for His infinite goodness, a cry of joy for the beauty of a vocation that continues to flourish. Dear Mother Chiara, may the Lord bless these past years of yours and those to come, so that until your last breath you may always be a credible witness of His Love, of the joy of belonging to Him completely.” Drawing on Mother’s Message for August 5^th, he added: … every day my you and the whole Institute, become more and more ‘happy women, generators of life and of ‘hope that does not disappoint’.”

With great emotion, but with a firm voice, Mother Chiara then pronounced the formula for renewing her vows and received a crown of roses, a sign of the life, given by the Vicar General, Sister María del Rosario García Ribas.

The ceremony was embellished with symbols offered at the altar along with bread and wine: the small wooden window, like the one in Valponasca, enriched by the spikes of wheat and the bunch of grapes, the fire of Love that Christ lit in the hearts, with the desire that it continue to burn and nurture the flame of vocation.

Before the final blessing, the Rector Major gave Mother a lit lamp, a sign of faithful vigilance and perpetual thanksgiving. A temporary Professed FMA then handed her the souvenir image with her chosen slogan, “Keep alive the fire God has kindled in you”.

“It is He who has done everything in our lives; it is He who has chosen us,” Mother Chiara underlined in her words. “I was very moved thinking about the greatness of the Institute, where it was born, the smallness of Mother Mazzarello, of Mornese, to 1872, to Don Bosco’s homily, to his belief in Mother Mazzarello and her first Sisters, to his trust in the work of the Holy Spirit and in Mary, of whom we are personal witnesses.” In addition to thanking those present and all the communities, Sister Chiara wanted to thank those she has encountered in her life. “We are never what we are alone. We are what we are through meeting many people who supported us, helped us, oriented us, who gave color, quality, strength to our lives.”

The moment of celebration that followed was enlivened by expressions of affection, the singing of the young FMA and the General Councilors, and the performance of a group of young people from the Dominican Republic in a cheerful dance with the sounds and colors of their land.

Photos: Flickr FMA