TO THE FAMILY OF MOTHER CANDIDA, DAUGHTERS OF JESUS, AND LAITY
Dear Sisters, Hijas de Jesus, and dear lay brothers and sisters:
The God who saves us is here. We celebrate these days that God is close, in each one, in the depths of myself, of my very self. Here and now and “in all things”, in each reality, we can discover Him. Because He allows Himself to be found, touched, and finds us and touches our persons, our daily living, if we want to and prepare ourselves, with the confidence that His closeness is salvation. This is the good news that fills our lives.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life … so that the world may be saved through him.” (Jn. 3, 16-17) God gives Himself entirely, He gives us His Son, He gives His very self. He doesn’t know about anything else, only love is His constant. And in the Son, who does what He sees the Father do, we see Him and Hear him, we feel Him, we are witnesses that He gives life, gives us His life: “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own…” (Jn. 10, 18)
Mary and Joseph cooperate with grace, they show us the way of welcoming God-savior. “She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins…, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us’.” (Mt. 1, 21-23) Let us contemplate the power of this identity, of this name, is our name, Jesus: God saves, the God who is with us.
We have just celebrated the 150 years of history of the HIjas de Jesus, but our joy is not exhausted: let us live the joy of salvation, the gift of God without conditions, His presence with us in the circumstances of the present time. In the middle of the night, in the open, in diapers, and lying down where the animals eat, that is how the shepherds found him. What circumstances do I live and how does God present himself to me, offering His salvation?
Luke says that “the glory of the Lord shone around them” (Lk. 2, 9). May He also give us that light, the grace to meditate on these things in our hearts, as Mary did, and to recount with our own lives the salvation by a God. Made a child, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger and discovered during the night, while the shepherds were doing what shepherds do, taking care of the flock.
A Mystery to contemplate and proclaim for a lifetime.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Graciela Francovig – Superior General y Sisters of the General Government
Rome, December 25, 2021
Download the Christmas greeting to the Mother Candida Family in PDF
