Rome (Italy). On 24 December 2023, the FMA Communities Mary Help of Christians of the Generalate (RCG) and Sacred Heart, of the Roman Province of St. J Bosco (IRO), expressed Christmas Greetings to the Mother General, Sister Chiara Cazzuola, and to the General Councilors of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.
“In a night like many others” is the title of the auspicious moment prepared in a beautiful collaboration by the two communities, sharing the gifts and richness given by interculturality. The word Hope, out of Pandora’s box the last, after all the negative words released in the world, is the leitmotif. “It is hope that makes us look to the past to live the present and embrace the future. Today this hope becomes a child, a child who enters the world and gives us the strength to walk with Him,” the leading voice explained.
Around the Nativity scene completing the crib are several characters: John the Baptist, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the angels, the Magi accompanied by dances and songs from Asia, Africa, and America. “The crib is an invitation to feel, to touch the poverty that the Son of God chose for Himself in His incarnation and so it is an appeal to meet Him and to witness to Him in joyful hope.”
John concludes by explaining the gesture of the personal delivery of a note with the reasons for hope, and prayers for those who no longer hope, in a basket in the hands of the Mother: “When I, you, and we are a sign of hope, a light in someone’s life…it is Christmas… hope never stops; hope is always on the way and makes us walk. Turn on the light of hope and let the face of God illumine the world. We also want to offer to Jesus our gift, fruit of the spiritual work of this Novena.”
Then the Animator of the Generalate Community, Sister Carla Castellino, spoke: “We really have no reason to envy Pandora. She had all the gifts, but alone; we have so many gifts all together. Truly in this community, there is a richness that touching.” She wishes everyone a Christmas of wonder, of adoration, of great interiority.
“Sacred Heart Community also wishes everyone a Merry Christmas,” continues the Animator, Sister Antonella Cangiano. “Here is your Christmas: God relieves the fatigue that you carry on your shoulders and makes them sweeter.”
Mother Chiara thanks the two Communities for the beautiful family moment in preparation for Holy Night and, taking up the discourse to the Roman Curia, she says, “The Pope recalls that the event of Christmas, which we celebrate every year, awakens wonder in us. In the wonder that we are losing little by little in this society. Wonder places us in line with what we have seen. God becomes human, shortens the distances to become small like us and lives the human life of every child.” She then speaks of the attitudes suggested by the Pope, taken from some characters: “listening” with the heart” of Mary, if we want others to find a home in us; the discernment of John the Baptist, not painless, but made with his disciples; the journey of the Magi, who leave their security to go in search of true Wisdom, and when they find it, they return proclaiming it.”
The Pope says, if we want it to be a Christmas of life, we must place ourselves in listening, in discernment, in the journey. We too must walk, if we do not want to be overwhelmed by habit. So, I want to wish myself and all of us to live this Christmas, not as a habit, but as a journey. We too go to meet Jesus and bring all that we are, our life, our joy, our toil. In a special way we remember our suffering communities.”
For the Eucharistic celebration of the night, the General House Community, with Mother and Councilors, welcome Msgr. Daniele Salera, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Rome for the North Sector, who in his homily dwells in particular on the symbol of the manger as a place that symbolically corresponds to the world of passions and the tendency to sin, which gives an illusory food that does not satiate. There, the Child Jesus is born and, by giving Himself, He gives an alternative food, which restores fullness and heals the illusory desire for autonomy begun with the ancestors. “Help us say yes simply because You are with us and You are love,” he concludes.
At the end of the Celebration, there is the usual exchange of greetings with a moment of fraternity and with the traditional tour of cribs in the corridors and offices of the Generalate, amid the popular songs of the different Countries. This witness once again to the richness of an International Community united by the common mission of ‘supporting’ the Institute and the Sisters, as Pope Francis recalled in his visit on 22 October 2021.
The day ends with a Hail Mary in front of the crib together with Mother, who does not fail to remember all the Communities that are suffering and the intention for peace.
