We MISSIONARIES are the presence of God among the people; we are, therefore, the creators of the “ever greater WE” of which Pope Francis speaks in his Message for the 107th World Migrants and Refugees Day 2021. Christ died and rose again so that all may be ONE (cf. Jn 17:21). In the present time when we are in the mission field, the future appears broken, fragmented, and we MSC are called to “heal the wound that exists between man and God” (cf. Const. 6), the wound that bleeds in the violated humanity of migrants, the marginalized, the sick, the poor, those who are educated to consumerism and false values. These are the “OTHERS” that the Lord continues to entrust to us so that, through the discerned and prayed apostolate, we may bring back to the “WE”. This task is what gives prophetic meaning to the reason for being Catholic: “that all be one”. We are called, today more than ever, to make accessible the borders that those who feel powerful raise, indolently; to give human, moral and economic value to the works that we already have and to rethink those that we can put at the service of the Church, as a resistance to the onslaught of individualism and all the negative “isms” of our time, 

Our Mother already said it, and she continues to say it in her writings when she refers to those who have been entrusted to us to form them as good women and men, with solid principles: “the Lord will ask us for an account”. 

We see and we hear: The Holy Spirit has given us the grace to see the huge work of the Mother and to continue to “hear” through her writings, the directives to go out, like her, to “cross the roads, to meet the neediest”.

What appears before our eyes; what we discover in prayer and discernment; even what leaves us in the shadows in moments of uncertainty, must be fire in our hearts; fire that comes from the sacred and eternal fire flowing from the Heart of Jesus and that must impel us to go out, “ardently and quickly”, on the roads, in spite of difficulties, hostilities, lack of workers. Sometimes, when we place all these things that discouraging us in the Most Holy Heart of Jesus, He gives us the gifts to stimulate our hope and our creativity.

We are MISSIONARIES, WE ARE THE STORE OF A PRAYING AND ACTIVE CHARISMA; OF ADORATION AND ACTION. WE CANNOT DISCARD WHAT WE HAVE “SEEN AND HEARD” from the one who has launched her boat into the sea and does not want it to stop in any way until the Lord is among us again. She is still with us, she is our Mother and she is our support in our weaknesses and in our hopes. That desire expressed by her in prayer must resound in us, and even more so at this time:

“IT IS BETTER THAT THE INSTITUTE DISAPPEARS BEFORE THE CHARISMA DETERIORATES”.
(C.f. Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus – Spiritual Journal)

It is our responsibility to keep it alive, active and true. We cannot, says the Pope, fail to speak of what we have seen and heard, in the message for World Mission Day 2021. (Cf. Acts 4:20). With Jesus and with our Mother we have seen and proven that things can be different. Perhaps we are as we were in the early days of the apostles and in the beginnings of the Institute: the apostles were few; the Sisters were few. But the Church is still standing, the Institute is still alive and widespread. Let us be courageous: how many times does our Mother repeat to the Sisters: Courage, Courage, my daughters, infinite times! May it be her voice that, like the wind in the sails of evangelisation, takes us where the Lord of the harvest wants us to sow, and if necessary, even to the point of leaving our lives in the furrow.

Sr. Stella Maris Elena MSC, General Assistant


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