The anniversary of Mother Candida’s canonization is always a good occasion to remember the event with gratitude, but, above all, to ask questions to oneself:
Posso ir tão longe quanto a M. Candida foi?
God’s call to holiness is not a “burden” to be carried, a cross to be carried, but an invitation to enter into the dynamic of his love, which is gratuitousness, Sun. Pope Francis emphasizes this:
“No início de nosso ser cristão não estão as doutrinas e as obras, mas o espanto de descobrir que somos amados, antes de qualquer resposta nossa. The Gospel reminds us of the truth of life: “we are loved”.
To be a saint is, first of all, to let oneself be enveloped by the love of a God who “heals us and transforms us, expands our hearts and predisposes us to love”, the rest comes by itself. To accept, in fact, that we are loved by Him means to open the doors for the Spirit that has the power to transform everything and, therefore, also our hearts.
Mother Candida did just that: she let herself be loved and transformed herself, leaving us a beautiful testimony of this love, her life given to others . The beauty of our vocation to holiness lies in the fact that God chose us even before coming into the world to fulfill his plan of salvation, a plan that each one of us must discover, patiently discerning in prayer the signs that God himself sends us.
She began her journey of holiness the moment she heard the Lord’s call and decided to be all and “only for God”. This was from beginning to end. Thinking about the day of her canonization, when Mother Candida’s life and work became history and an example of holiness in the Church, I feel filled not so much with emotion, but with gratitude to God , who wanted me to be part of that history, an extension – like all the Daughters of Jesus – of Saint Candida’s desire to carry the Gospel to the end of the world.
I look at myself and I see again his big and deep eyes, reflecting peace, his eyes projected in another horizon, “the Other”, establishing that goal already certain in his life, because certain and palpable was the promise that God made him to be a docile instrument in his hands. Eyes from which goodness shines through, eyes that certainly cried in difficult moments when everything seemed to go against him, but that never lost the horizon… I go back in my mind to that 17th of October 2010? I repeat to myself that holiness is not achieved by doing great things, but by doing the small daily things with great charity and fidelity to God’s plan for us, with joys and sufferings, like her, who knew how to live and practice that indifference that led her to desire to do only the will of God.
Mother Candida wanted to be a saint and wanted her daughters to be saints too? She wanted to “sanctify herself” and “sanctify the next”, but I don’t think she was thinking about the holiness of the altars and, however, to see her as a saint is one of the most beautiful gifts that God could give us, because, like all the saints, she is an illuminating beacon that constantly exhorts us not to be afraid to desire holiness, because that is what we are destined for from eternity. And may this happy day in which we remember the canonization of our Mother Candida be lived by all the Daughters of Jesus with great joy and hope, always ready to go “to the ends of the earth in search of souls”!
Obrigado a você, Santa Cândida.
Caterina Ciriello FI, Rome
