Today is the 6th World Day of the Poor. “Jesus Christ became poor for your sake” (cf. 2 Cor 8:9) is the title of the Message released on June 14 by Pope Francis. It is important to celebrate this date not only for the whole Church, but also for our Congregation. In fact, on November 13, 1938, Pope Pius XI beatified Mother Cabrini in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
The poet of Lodi Ada Negri (1870 – 1945) dedicated this poem on the occasion of the beatification.
– November 13th, 1938 –
Mother Francis Cabrini’s Beatification
She was Beatified by Pope Pio XI – St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome
Mother Cabrini
Woman, you were of my land! The wind
Of charity drove you to the dark west,
It opened wide its doors for you to pass through
with the loving fury of God’s word.
Neither of you nor of others did you fear; you looked at the cross.
For you, each day was risk, battle, victory.
Every night was an arms vigil, spent in prayer.
Only the death of the body stopped you in the moment
That a vein burst in your chest.
On your way, at your wave, they rose from the ground
Wonders of stone, wonders of faith, the asylums
of Christ: each one hugged their heart
Within base blocks. So big, so small
the world. To be able to love it all,
redeem everything; to this you were born.
But most of all, you loved the poor people of your country
who came from the sea for a loaf of bread
drenched in tears,
for a squalid one
home, dark with nostalgia, there in the two Americas.
How many were the children of Italy, Lombard woman,
that, in the two Americas, you with your militia,
you saved from hunger, from disease,
from the night of the soul
sadder than the evil that humiliates the dead flesh?
How many have you helped to live? How many to die?
Shadows today
The dead and the living follow you in the holy return
Toward the ancient homeland, renewed in glory.
And you, pilgrim of God, never satiated with offering souls
To God, through them you ascend the majesty of the altars.
Up there your greatest work begins
Until human crying reaches the blessed and “Mother!
the bells of Rome sing to you, roaring.
Ada Negri
Also, to remind us of the connection between Mother Cabrini and the poor, we offer these passages, one from Free yourselves and put on wings, another from Journal of a Trusting Heart and finally one from To the Ends of the World.
Segundo Galilea Jesuit Priest said: “Francesca Cabrini founded and established for the benefit of the poor, with the ease and speed of one who plants trees“
In the Journal of a Trusting Heart we find written:
“The work in M. Cabrini is a sign and a means of holiness because it is done ‘without letting oneself be bent by one’s own inclination, but only by the will of God, and for his glory’. The objective then is the salvation of souls, the happiness of people, the human and Christian promotion of the poorest and most abandoned; in short, it is the constant commitment to “give life and give it abundantly” (cf. Jn 10:10), in imitation of Jesus who “did not come to be served, but to serve” (Mk 10:45)”.
On the other hand, in the book: Free yourselves and put on wings, we find written that: “the charism, marked by the love and compassion of the Heart of Jesus, proposed that the missionary style have a profound dimension of solidarity with the suffering of humanity, privileging above all the preferences of Jesus: the poor, the weak, the sinners and the marginalized and excluded”.
From the Book: To the Ends of the World:
Readiness in charity, in responding to the needs of others, in listening to the voice of the poor, the marginalized and the marginalized, is also possible when one is careful to live in the criteria of the Kingdom.
