Happy Feast Day!
Two great festivals coincide on the same day, one ecclesial and one congregational. Feasts that evoke two generous women with great inner freedom. Women who knew how to open themselves to the Father’s plan to carry out His Will. They continue to inspire us today.
This feast has been preceded by two other great ones on the previous Sundays, Pentecost and the Holy Trinity. Once again, we are reminded that the Spirit comes to enliven up the work of the Son, sent by the Father and with whom we, Daughters of Jesus and laity, want to collaborate. And the Trinitarian life reveals to us that we are born of love, that it is communion, and that with the dimension of fraternity it is in the bosom of our lives and mission.
It is good to stop and look at the process of celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of our Congregation, what we are celebrating and what the Holy Spirit is “moving, transforming in us today”. What emotions, what desires, do they arouse in us? What fears are holding us back? What situations are disappointing us?
Our jubilee year, in the midst of a pandemic situation, must be a sign of light and challenge for our Apostolic Body. We want to be grateful for so much received and offered in the 150 years and, at the same time, we ask for a grace: that of being faithful to the inheritance received, that of “preserving and increasing the Body in its well-being”, that of bourgeoning decrease…
I invite you, we invite you, to become aware of that call in apostolic action that the CGXVIII made us: to remain open and in search of the horizon and the steps that the Spirit impels us to take as a charismatic family. Let this happen. This means being attentive, putting resources in place, enabling their action in our midst. Ours is to support the action of the Spirit – but without getting ahead of ourselves or letting it go – while attending to the diversity that is presented in the Congregation. We can no longer think alone… Together, laypeople and Daughters of Jesus, we are sent to discern and set in motion the six calls in apostolic action that were given to us by CGXVIII itself.
It is very comforting to see the steps that the Congregation has taken in opening to the laity and how they have gone from being collaborators of the Daughters of Jesus to feeling that we share charism and mission.
May Mary, Star of our ways, and Mo. Cándida intercede for all of us.
Happy Feast Day of Mother Cándida!
Graciela Francovig, Superior General