Rome (Italy). The community of the International Novitiate Sister Teresa Valsè Pantellini of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Rome present, through a video, the experience of donation to the poor of Sister Nancy Pereira, Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of India.
A strong woman, with an extraordinary love for the poor, she left no stone unturned in order to look for ways and means to help them with concrete projects.
The Novices, in the formation journey of preparation for Religious Profession in the FMA Institute, every year study and present the life of a Daughter of Mary Help of Christians. In 2018 the biography of sr. Maria Romero. in 2019 a theatrical performance on the personality of sr. Teresa Valsè Pantellini.
In 2020, attention was paid to the tireless work among the poorest in India of Sister Nancy Pereira, in an innovative way, because due to the pandemic from Covid-19, it was not possible to materialize a show.
Reconverting the original idea, they expressed the desire to highlight the life and passion of Sister Nancy, fascinated by her being fully consecrated to God and the poor. Her gaze was always attentive and caring for everyone because she understood that, despite the fatigues of daily life, she must never stop fighting for the dignity of her people and all those she met on her way.
This belief is testified to by the encouraging smile that she showed on every occasion. Her mission was to serve the poor, helping them to savor life.
She lived all this … And us?
This is the question that called and guided the Novices in their reflection and that today, they want to share, inviting also to the prayer that accompanied them during this time of formation.
The Compagnia del Cielo is the lived experience of a group of young European sisters of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians who are committed to making Salesian youth spirituality known and to circulating materials for catechesis and pastoral care. They published on their own Youtube Channel the video of Sr. Nancy Pereira, Sr. Nancy Pereira Daughter of Mary Help of Christians con il desiderio di farla conoscere e di suscitare domande di senso sulla vita e sulla vocazione.
The Story of Sr. Nancy Pereira
Indian from Kerala, in the southwest of the country, Nancy Pereira was born on August 14, 1923 into a wealthy family, the last of five children.
Sister NANCY PEREIRA, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, Salesian of Don Bosco.
An extraordinary woman, enlightened and inspired by the Holy Spirit, who dedicated her life to the poor of the Bangalore slums. She was among the first to use micro-credit to help the poor with a fair, sustainable, and non-welfare development tool, thus giving the opportunity to those who have nothing to start a dignified and autonomous work activity. That’s why John Paul II called her the “entrepreneur of the poor”.
Always with her smile and her arms open to everyone, whom she considered brothers and sisters, because she always said “we are all children of the One Father”. Simple words, capable of containing the whole truth.
Little more than a teenager, she feels the desire to do something concrete for the many poor people she meets every day when going to school. She feels the call to religious life be born in her and, after meeting a Salesian sister, she decides to enter the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.
From the novitiate onwards, for fifty years, Nancy Pereira lives in Madras, in the south of India. About this time Sister Nancy says: “I was almost thirty and my hair was still black. Land was donated to our institution, on which we wanted to build a school complex. Unfortunately, the money we had was not enough. I improvised as a builder and, at the head of a construction site made up of 400 men and women, I managed to complete the construction with a much lower sum than the estimate. At the end of the construction, however, I my hair was all white.”
