Message of Mother from Lisbon – 5 August 2023

Lisbon (Portugal). On 5 August 2023, on the occasion of the Anniversary of Foundation of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Mother General, Sr. Chiara Cazzuola, reaches all the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians through a video-message from Lisbon, where she is attending the XXXVII World Youth Day.

“Celebrating August 5 this year has a special flavor. We are in Lisbon with many young people from all over the world, accompanied by their bishops and priests, consecrated men and women.

They are beautiful and serene young people who in airports, on the streets, in churches, in public places are lively but composed, polite and kind. They offer us a particular vision of youth and of the church. It is a young, dynamic, smiling, hopeful church, in stark contrast to the statistics which highlight its inevitable decline, lack of flowering, certain death.

We are contemplating a young and lively church, of which the Salesian Youth Movement is a part. There are many young men and women, accompanied by the FMA, by the Salesians, by other members of the SF. They come from all over the world. We can well say that the Salesian charism in the Church assumes the same global proportions”.

Mother Clare then turns a look back to her origins:

“Now it would be interesting to look out the window of the Valponasca and try to see in the distance the faces of our young men and women that perhaps Mother Mazzarello dreamed of or saw. Certainly, her gaze, like that of Don Bosco, was always stretched outward because it was always in God. Who knows if they will have seen us too…”.

Recalling the date of August 5, a day “of thanksgiving and amazement for the Lord’s goodness which still pours out abundantly on our religious family”, she highlights:

“Memory becomes a force of hope. It reminds us that God is also present in our personal history, thus memory opens the way to the future; even in darkness, it is light and star that guides us. On this day, we wish to revive the memory of all that God has done in the Institute and we open ourselves to hope because His love is eternal and is always new”.

From Lisbon, where Mother has already lived SYM DAY, the day with the youth of the Salesian Youth Movement, and the reception of Pope Francis at Parque Eduardo VII, she then invites all FMA to continue accompanying the youth:

“As Mother, Mary is called to generate in us the image of her Son, and in her and with her, we are called today to express her motherhood which generates life, which generates Jesus in the hearts of young people.

Let us pray for each other that this may really be so. In our prayers, we continue to accompany the young people who are about to conclude their meeting with Pope Francis, and above all with the Lord, and who in Fatima will meet with Mary in a special way. May She still be the Guide and the powerful Help that supports us in the fundamental choices of life and urges us to the unconditional gift of self”.

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