The joy of fidelity – Circular n. 1001

Rome (Italy). The Mother General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Sr. Yvonne Reungoat, dedicates Monthly Circular n 1001 to the theme of Fidelity, and urges the commitment to “contagion” the joy of the Covenant of love with God which is essential for consecrated life.

“Fidelity is the expression of God’s gratuitous love and is an intimate and profound experience that impels us to give a total and exclusive response, consecrating ourselves to Him forever! Fidelity becomes a lifestyle expressed in joy, which makes us available to embrace the demands of the Paschal Mystery with faith, with renewed hope, in the certainty that the yes forever always finds meaning and radiance here.”

Remain in my love (Jn 15: 9), it is the request that Jesus makes to His disciples during the Last Supper. Remain! Here lies the strength of the consecrated person’s vocation: to correspond to the love of the covenant and to adhere to the style of Christ, in docile listening to His Word (cf. Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, The gift of fidelity. The joy of perseverance. ORIENTATIONS, Vatican Edition 2020)

The fidelity of God is our ‘rock’

God’s fidelity is an expression of His paternal goodness: He knows how to wait patiently and does not stop loving. God in His saving plan, asks us to give all of ourselves: mind and heart, will, decision, and availability in saying our ‘yes’ to Him, and He does so with confidence, certain that, despite our frailties, we want to be faithful to Him for love. It is in this encounter between His fidelity and ours that the path of fruitfulness opens before us and it is here that the true happiness we all desire lies.

Fidelity, gift to share

Article 10 of the FMA Constitutions concerns the profession of fidelity to God. It is like returning to our first love, rediscovering what made us respond ‘yes’ to Jesus’ call and living in the fullness of love, as did Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello. It is this love that makes us courageous witnesses, enterprising missionaries of hope, in a historical moment marked by uncertainty, fragility, and precariousness due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Fidelity to the mission

The joy of fidelity to God shared in a community radiates in the mission to network with the young people of today in the spirit of the da mihi animas cetera tolle and I entrust them to you. As Educating Communities, let us educate the hearts of the new generations to desire through the mysticism of closeness, seeking their good. Together, adults and young people, in a network with the Church and with educational Institutions, it is possible to find the right path, the appropriate language to ‘approach’ them “not as an obligation, not as a burden that exhausts us, but as a personal choice that fills us with joy and gives us identity” (Evangelii Gaudium, n. 269).

At the conclusion of the Circular Mother says: “Being faithful to the mission is the great joy that prompts us to proclaim, without timidity and perplexity, not only to young people, but also among ourselves and to the people we meet, that today: ‘Christ is alive! He is our hope, and in a wonderful way He brings youth to our world’ “(Christus vivit, n. 1).