Rome (Italy). The Superior General of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Mother Chiara Cazzuola, opens Circular no. 1053 motivating the choice of the vocational theme in the context of the jubilee celebrations of Consecrated Life, held in Rome from 8 to 12 October, of the Canonization of Saint Maria Troncatti, and of the month of October, Marian and missionary, which invites the rediscovery of the prayer of the Rosary.
“Here I am”
Mother Chiara goes to the root of the expression, “Here I am”; “To surrender and entrust oneself is to make the impossible possible and this presupposes a call and a response of love.”
The origin is in the “yes” of Mary (Lk 1: 38), who opened herself unconditionally to the will of God. For this reason, “it is an exclamation that indicates availability, readiness, and joyful presence,” imitating Mary who “made the impossible possible.”
The “yes” of Mary is weekday, daily, without calculations. For this reason, “Here I am is not a formal expression” and Mary, a living icon of this availability, “teaches us to say our ‘here I am’ every day, in every situation (…). She is the answer to the One who calls us by name; (…) a way to glorify God and thank Him for the wonders He does in us and around us.
As Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, we are called to express, in the daily routine of our lives, the ‘here I am’ of Mary in an attitude of faith, of hope, of charity, in profound communion with Jesus, in the joyful and grateful humility expressed in the Magnificat (cf. C 4)”.
Thus, the ‘here I am’ of Jesus is the example of total trust in the Father, of free and definitive surrender in which obedience is “a synthesis of His whole life and of the Paschal Mystery.” It therefore becomes a fundamental aspect of following Christ, “a call to enter a path of availability, like Jesus and in Him.”
An availability which, at an educational level, becomes fruitful and “contributes to strengthening fraternal communion”. For this reason, “Don Bosco was convinced that obedience kept the Congregation united. In fact, he said, ‘We are bound to one another […] and all together we are bound to God’ (MB IX 572).”
Mother therefore emphasizes that, “It is not a question of carrying out orders, but of totally handing oneself over to the Father in a mission that becomes salvation for young men and women in the Salesian style.” This recalls Art. 32 of the Constitutions: “We will live ‘with all simplicity’ obedience in the Salesian attitude of ‘I will go’, ready to perform even ‘great sacrifices of the will’, making our own the ‘Fiat’ of Mary who, with her adherence to the will of God, became the mother of the Redeemer and our mother.”
The primacy of God in our life
“Surrendering means recognizing the absolute primacy of God in one’s life,” observes Mother Chiara. A primacy that is the cardinal principle of the Rule of St. Benedict, “Place nothing before the love of Christ.” This originates in recognizing “that Christ loves us.” It is therefore not a question of preference, but rather “of believing in love.” “Faith helps us to accept the surprising fact that the Lord loves us with a love of predilection,”specifies Mother.
Recognizing the primacy of Love, making an authentic experience of God in one’s life, leads one to perform, as highlighted by Pope Leo XIV in the homily of the Eucharistic Celebration of the Jubilee of Consecrated Life (9 October),“generous outbursts of charity, as happened in the lives of your founders, and foundresses, men and women in love with the Lord and therefore ready to make themselves ‘everything for everyone’ (1Cor 9:22), without distinction, in the most diverse ways and areas.”
The Holy Father also feels the risk, which can also occur in religious life, of the “paralysis of the soul, whereby one is content with a life of elusive moments, superficial and intermittent relationships, passing fashions, all things that leave a void in the heart.” These are ephemeral experiences, which do not satisfy the heart. “To be truly happy, we do not need these, but rather consistent, lasting, solid experiences of love, and you, by the example of your consecrated life […] can spread the oxygen of such a way of loving throughout the world.”
Mother invites us to take up the words of Saint Paul VI, which conclude this homily, where he exhorts men and women religious to “Preserve the simplicity of the ‘smallest’ of the Gospel. (…) You will then know ‘the startling of joy of the action of the Holy Spirit’, that is of those who are brought into the secrets of the Kingdom.”
Reviving awareness of the ‘here I am’ with a missionary heart
It is the same Holy Spirit who sends, “as a Church, to continue the mission of Christ in the peripheries of the world, affected by injustice, suffering, violence, wars.”
“For this reason, Mother encourages, we are called to revive in ourselves the awareness of’ here I am’, the fire of the missionary vocation that we realize when we take care, in the spirit of the Gospel, of suffering of humanity.”
Aware of the apparent ineffectiveness of “an often-silent proclamation” and of many gestures and words spent in everyday life which, however, like a small seed, nourish “a missionary spirit that slowly grows” when one puts oneself at the service of others, “only to radiate the love of the Lord.” Mother Chiara highlights, “the need for a new missionary impetus, of people who offer their service in mission lands or at home, of new proposals and vocational experiences, capable of arousing this desire, especially in young people.”
It is an appeal to the evangelizing mission that also challenges the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, called to revive the missionary impetus of the origins, expressing it today.
“We cannot forget that our first Rules, drawn up by Don Bosco, specify how the purpose of our Institute is that of holiness, which is expressed in the evangelizing mission,” she underlines.
A few days after her Canonization, “Saint Maria Troncatti is the most eloquent icon of this holiness with a missionary face.” Hers is a testimony of apostolic passion, of the da mihi animas cetera tolle lived with daring and “accepting the demanding asceticism of work and temperance, as an indispensable condition for bearing fruit.”
Sister Maria is “a contemplative woman and, at the same time, totally given to everyone without distinction, without calculations.” Her mission embodies Marian spirituality according to the spirit of Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello; a strong, joyful, and missionary spirituality that distinguishes our Institute, which is “all Mary’s!”
Mother Chiara encourages us to let ourselves be “involved by her holiness, lived in that poverty of spirit, typical of the Beatitudes, which makes her kneel before God, certain that He alone is the true Author of good, who acts in the hearts and minds of men and women of whom He takes care.”
Concluding the Circular, she recalls the now imminent event of 11 November in which, in communion with the Salesian Confreres, we celebrate the 150th of the first missionary expedition composed of ten very young Salesians. It was led by Fr. John Cagliero who, “with faith and intrepid courage, contributed to the growth of the Salesian charism on American soil,“ thus preparing the ground for the arrival of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, two years later.
Muito obrigada querida Madre Chiara😊🙏