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Three years after GC XVIII

May 4, 2022

We share some paragraphs of the letter that our Superior General has written to the Daughters of Jesus encouraging us to thank life, listen to Jesus and discover how to be artisans of peace in our world.

Dear Sisters,

We begin this Sunday the third week of Easter. I hope that the Easter season will keep us in that joy of the resurrection that we want for ourselves and for the world. The Word offered to us by today’s liturgy invites us to listen to Jesus telling us where we are to cast our nets.  May this be the dynamic of religious life, when we want to rediscover our synodal identity: to listen to the Lord, to listen attentively to everyone, to see where we have to move, where we have to look and walk. It is the Lord that we want to follow and it is His voice that we desire to hear in the midst of the turbulence of our world. We are certain that He does not abandon us and walks with us.

Let us thank the Lord together for what we have experienced in these three years. The pandemic broke out throughout the world as soon as the six-year term began. The deaths have struck us, those of our sisters, families, friends, and those of all humanity. When, after almost two years, vaccines are appearing and it seems that we are emerging from this situation, we are surprised by this war in Europe, strident because of its geographical proximity to a part of the Congregation, because of the foreseeable economic consequences for many peoples and because of the threat it can be for the whole world. We link it to other places that are at war as well.

Wars impact us. It is difficult for me to think that the human being does not respect the life of other people and other people and that he kills himself as he is doing… Without wanting to fall into simplism, I come to the conclusion that human being has a hard time living together or does not know how to live as a peaceful civilization in search of the common good, of the good for all. Peace, that great gift, is difficult for us to discover, to work it from within ourselves, and to build it.

Fratelli Tutti, the last letter of Pope Francis, is a confirmation of this reality. The felt need to make a call to be brothers and sisters speaks to the fact that we are having a hard time living this way. Cuántas veces decimos que la vida religiosa tiene than to be countercultural and reveal something different, with a taste of gospel. How do we live in peace, and union with each other and with others? Are we concerned about being artisans of peace, generators of communion, reconciled and reconciling women?  Let us ask ourselves these questions with the Lord and allow Him to reveal our truth to us. And, in any case, let us ask for the grace of conversion.

Three years ago, on a day like today, the election of the Superior General was held and the next day, that of the Counselors. We are exactly in the middle of this six-year term and it seems to us that it is a propitious moment to thank, to remember what we have lived since that 2019 and the process we are doing. 

It is also to take our pulse, evaluate some aspects of our life, and take into account the revision that the same Determination asks of us. We trust that the Holy Spirit will help us to be faithful to tradition, inspiring us to many novelties and helping us to glimpse towards which consecrated life we walk today, which presences are better evident that God is in the midst of his people and what steps need to be taken. (Det. 18). We are preparing material to do that “examen” and move forward on the way. I will send it in due course with a small work schedule.

 

Graciela Francovig, Superior General

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