Accept a mandate: “I entrust them to you”

Rome (Italy) On August 5, 2020, the Mother General of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Mother Yvonne Reungoat, with a video message, officially opens the second year of preparation for 150^th  of Foundation of the  FMA Institute (1872-2022).  On August 5, 2019 in Mornese (AL), a charismatic place, she had started just a year ago, the “three years of praise, of gratitude, of new educational and vocational vitality” (Circular 989).

The first year, illumined by the words of Mother Mazzarello, “We truly thank the Lord who gives us many graces” (L 37.10), underlines Mother in her Message – “It was a year we wanted to be under the banner of ‘thank you’ and this tone has continued to follow it despite fears, lockdowns, mourning, because we know we are in the hands of God and that every event, happy or sad, prepares the Easter dawn: for this reason, even in tears , we can keep saying “thank you”.

Gratitude  for the year 2020-2021 is followed by the theme Accepting a mandate: “I entrust them to you”.

“In Mornese, Mary accompanied the young Maín and guided her, especially in her uncertainty about her future, towards a new horizon of the mission: taking care of poor girls by giving her a precise mandate: I entrust them to you” (Circular 989).

In Circular no. 1000, Mother Yvonne Reungoat invites us to approach the figure of Mother Mazzarello with new depth to penetrate more into that “I entrust them to you” which was the guiding thread of her life and which challenges each one of us. She also proposes questions to keep in mind throughout the year, as a motive for reflection with the educating community: “Who is entrusted to us today? What conditions does this mandate require so that, from generation to generation, it will be a fruitful womb of new life for all of us and for the new generations? What can ‘Mornese’ say to today’s young people?”.

“I entrust them to you” from generation to generation, so that the young people will be fully realized and happy even on this earth, because they will discover the richness of the gift of self for the love of God, so that they may be saints and saints of the Third Millennium;  so that young women may always feel this mandate as addressed to them personally and respond by accepting to become living stones of the monument to Mary Help of Christians!

In communion with the FMA all over the world, August 5^th  is the day to remember the roots and renew our ‘yes’ to the Salesian vocation, opening to a future of hope where the expression of Don Bosco, “Mary walks in this house” (cf. Cronaca V, 51-52), gives us the certainty that Mary is present where the mission entrusted to the FMA and the educating communities takes place as protector, guide, and inspirer, to live the generative power of the charism in the today of history.

Full text of the Message