“The work is not yours, it is God’s.”
Today is a day of celebration and grateful remembrance for the foundation of our beloved Congregation. At the same time, we celebrate as a Church the Solemnity of Mary Immaculate. “You have been chosen to be the foundation of the Daughters of Jesus Congregation, which today and with this act begins to rise in the Church, under the protection and tutelage of the Immaculate Virgin whose feast we celebrate today“, in the words of Fr.
M. Candida and her five companions took the step they had to take that December 8 and opened a path of gospel life for many. It is a day that invites us to place ourselves next to M. Candida and her first companions, who were also ours. Candida and her first companions, also ours, and to feel their feelings. It is a day of family, of touching roots, of renewing affections, of entering into the essence of our consecrated life as Daughters of Jesus.
This December 8 has a special nuance because of the moment we are living: we are already in the time of the Provincial Congregations, which are preparing the way for the XIX General Congregation. This is a time of grace in which the Holy Spirit will want to communicate many things to us. That is why we want to be attentive, ready, prepared, joyful and available. What do you want from us, Lord? Where do you want to lead us? Who do you want to send us? Questions that can dispose our hearts to welcome the voice of the Lord. His voice will reach us through the many petitions that have already been discerned in the communities and that will continue their process until reaching the great discernment of the GC.
As a Congregation, we could celebrate our anniversary by contemplating Mary. She knew how to keep all things in her heart and learned true evangelical silence. We look to Mary who teaches us to be silent, to keep things in our hearts, waiting for Him to reveal more of Himself to us and to speak from there. With Mary Immaculate we learn to make silence within ourselves so that we can better listen to the whispers of God and to speak with courage in the moments when it is appropriate to do so.
Let us live with joy the 153 years of congregational life and let us remember the cloud of witnesses who preceded us along the way. We are certain that they are interceding for us today.
I bid us all farewell, wishing us all a fruitful feast of the Immaculate Conception and the 153rd anniversary of our foundation. May gratitude for our past awaken in us feelings of joyful hope for the present we live and the future we dream of, “loving the Congregation as it is, assuming its life and reality as a whole and giving ourselves to God in it with our whole person” (LVAF 1).
Let us pray for each other.
Superior General, Graciela Mirta Francovig – From Circular Letter number 40
