Rome (Italy). Mother Yvonne Reungoat expresses to all the FMA, the Educating Communities, the young people, and the Salesian Family, her gratitude for the good wishes received on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of her election as Mother General of the FMA Institute.
“Dearest Sisters,
Your messages that you send me with great affection through various communication channels in memory of my election as Mother General continue to reach me.
I would like to respond to each one personally and through you, to be able to reach young people and adults of different contexts who have made themselves present in this moment lived in the simplicity of the family spirit that characterizes us.
On 24 October 2008, the day of the first election, the Lord, through the mediation of the Chapter members, asked me for my availability to be Mother. I replied with great confidence and hope: “Counting on the help of God, of Our Lady, of Mother Mazzarello, and of the whole Institute, I accept to answer ‘yes’ to the Lord and to serve with joy!”
On 24 October 2014, the day of re-election, I pronounced with emotion a second ‘Yes: I accept!’ Thank you for the trust. The biblical expression that supports me is ‘When I am weak, then I am strong’. I entrust myself entirely to Mary and I accept her invitation: “Do whatever He tells you”.
On 24 October 2020, GC XXIV having been postponed because of contingent situations due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, in full availability and with serenity of heart, I renewed my third ‘yes’! until the next General Chapter. I placed it on the altar during the Eucharist, so that it would become for me and for all of you a reason for communion and acceptance of the mandate: “I entrust them to you”.
In the hands of Mary Help of Christians, the true Superior of our Institute, I placed my life, the service that has been asked of me, and I entrusted to Her the Sisters of the General Council who share with me the mission for the good of the Institute, all of you along with the Educating Communities, the young people, every person you hold dear, your mission that you carry out with initiative, courage, even with all its difficulties during this very delicate time.
I thank you for your prayers, for your affection, for your constant closeness, for the trust that becomes responsibility. The Lord chose us gratuitously to place us at the service of one mission open to the young of the whole world. Let us continue together to give our entire selves with joy because ‘God loves a cheerful giver,’ even in this time of so much suffering that envelops the whole world. I think that today, as Institute, we are called to sow small and important seeds of hope, of trust, because the times we are living are in God’s hands. It is up to us to live them with great faith, inhabited by the ardor of the da mihi animas cetera tolle.
I reciprocate your messages by renewing my gratitude for the prayers that always accompany me, which is my strength, for your sense of belonging, for your love of the charism, of the Institute, for being faithful daughters! There would be no Mother if there were no daughters!
A special thank you to the elderly and sick Sisters who each day pray and offer everything for the Institute. They are the precious mustard seed that, with its vital dynamism, generates life in silence and with hope in their heart. I feel them in communion with all of us to sing the Magnificat for the ‘new yes’, sign of the joy of the vocation that has been given to us and that radiates around us until it reaches, I hope, many young women in search of God’s plan for their life.
Thus, dear Sisters, there are three ‘yeses’ that have been asked of me. But the one golden thread that binds them together is living the will of God for you and with you in contemporaneity to be a fruitful womb of new life and a witness of joyful holiness.
I wish you a luminous solemnity of All Saints that this year we live in communion with the universal Church in a different way, but one that is no less intense and authentic.
The month of November speaks to us of holiness, of eternity, and reminds us of the value of the Essential that we embrace in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in situations of suffering and of special need.
May God bless you and Mary, Mother of gratitude, bring you my thank you!”
Rome, 30 October 2020
Sr. Yvonne Reungoat, FMA
Superior General of the FMA Institute
Gracias Madre Ivonne de sus tres sí, pero especialmente de este último que le ha pedido el Señor y ud con amor y no sin renuncia lo dio con tanto ardor misionero.
Es hermoso ver como la nuestra madre no deja pasar ningun detalle, me hace sentir HIJA AMADA, nos mueve para seguir dando mi SI en el cotidiano. Gracias Madre Yvonne!!!
Mi cariño Filial y mi Oración