Today is the Feast of the Sacred Heart, established by Pope Clement XIII in 1765. Let us discover together why this solemnity was for Mother Cabrini and is still so important for our Institute today, so much so that it is present in the naming of our missionaries.
Mother Cabrini never theorized about her spiritual experience, drawn mainly from the cult of the Sacred Heart, but through her Christian experience, her actions, her gestures, her options and her many writings, we can come to deduce some keys to understanding her spirituality as lived and experienced in missionary life. The fundamental characteristics are those, as mentioned above, of the spirituality of the Sacred Heart, all centered on sharing the feelings of the Heart of Jesus, making His interests, His preferences one’s own, “learning from Him gentle and humble of heart” (Mt. 11:29), sharing His mission of salvation, offering oneself in oblation, for humanity and in reparation for sin. Mother Cabrini takes on all the richness and depth of the experience of this spirituality, which, however, she continually adapts to the needs of missionary life, working to overcome those intimistic aspects, even if very valid, in favor of an active, preventive and curative reparation for the evils of humanity. On the other hand, the historical period in which Mother Cabrini lived was characterized by a strong emphasis on the cult of the Sacred Heart because of the same political situations that were being experienced in the second half of the 1800s. The accentuation of secularization, which affected not only the fields of science, politics and culture, but also the sphere of morals and customs, seriously worried the Church, which was going through a difficult period that endangered its very survival. (pag.12)
In 1875, Mother Cabrini was then 25 years old, on the occasion of the second centenary of the revelations to B. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Pius IX had called on the Catholic world to consecrate itself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Bishop Gelmini (who would later advise Mother Cabrini to found her a missionary institute) of the diocese of Lodi, strongly urged “everyone” to make this Act of Consecration and to make their consecration lasting by renewing it every week or at least every first Friday of the month. This practice was later taken up by Mother Cabrini, who formally incorporated it into her own religious institute. (pag. 13)
The worship of the Sacred Heart, which had a deeply spiritual influence for Mother Cabrini because of her adherence to God’s plan of love for humanity, later became a social reparation in her work as well. One often finds very strong phrases in Mother Cabrini’s writings that indicate her ardent desire to snatch from the realm of evil, Satan, souls in danger of being lost (pag.16)
Free yourselves and Put on Wings
