On this Lenten journey, we share with the entire Congregational family an excerpt from Circular Letter No. 51 of our Superior General, Graciela Francovig, fi.
In this time of grace, the letter invites us to live a filial conversion, to review our being Daughters of Jesus and to renew the fraternity that unites us as a congregational body. We encourage you to read it with an open heart, allowing ourselves to be challenged by the Word and by the call that the Spirit makes to us as a congregation.
Revisiting our being Daughters of Jesus
This Wednesday we begin the journey of Lent, “a time in which the Church, with maternal solicitude, invites us to put the mystery of God back at the center of our lives, so that our faith may regain its momentum and our hearts may not be lost in the worries and distractions of everyday life”.1
This penitential season wants to remind us of the conversion to which we are permanently called as Christians. We need to draw close to the Lord and to our brothers and sisters and, from them, to discover in ourselves that which does not lead to life, but rather distances us from the true life to which the Lord calls us. This is why we need conversion, metanoia, a grace that is asked for and the interior freedom to accept it. “Every journey of conversion begins when we approach the Word and welcome it with docility of spirit.”2
Institutionally we have a profound call to conversion, mediated by GC XIX: filial conversion. To review our being Daughters of Jesus and, as a consequence, our being sisters. The first call to be sisters is among ourselves, in our communities, with those who are near and those who are far away, with those of one culture and those of another, with those of one generation and those of another.
I invite you to look at ourselves as a congregation, with simplicity and humility, in the light of the Word and ask ourselves with a heart that wants to live Lent as a spiritual process:
How is my relationship with Jesus from my being a daughter?
How is my relationship with the sisters of my community?
What help will we ask from God and the congregation to heal everything that damages our
fraternity?
How is my belonging and union with the congregational body? How is my belonging and union with the congregational body?
Reception of the Determination
I am also grateful for the communication that reaches me from the cordial, spiritual reception of the Determination, through the guides that we have sent. In different communities, true dialogues are being promoted in the spirit, listening to all and to all; profound dialogues from which truths emerge that liberate. May this help us to grow in our vocation and in our bonds with others. For this experience that many are having, let us give thanks to God.
I conclude my letter with what the Pope tells us in his message: “…let us ask for the grace to live a Lent that will make our ears more attentive to God and to those most in need. Let us ask for the strength of a fast that also reaches the tongue, so that the words that hurt may diminish and the space for the voice of others may grow”. 3
I ask for prayers for the vocational awakening that is taking place in some places and for the sisters who are directly accompanying young people who are interested in religious life, specifically in our vocation. I wish you all a good and fruitful Lenten journey.
