On July 11, in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Monsignor Gabriele Bernardelli presented the book Il Sacro Cuore e la Madre Cabrini, on the occasion of the centenary of the dedication to the Sacred Heart of the Church of the Tabor in Codogno. This church, located within the Spirituality Center of Saint Francesca Cabrini, is also known as the “cradle of the Institute,” since it was precisely in these spaces of the former Franciscan convent that Mother Cabrini began her missionary journey in 1880.
It is also worth mentioning a providential coincidence: this year marks the 350th anniversary of the first apparition of the Sacred Heart to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in Paray-le-Monial, as well as the ongoing Ordinary Jubilee.
“A convergence of dates that mark the passage of time in which we find ourselves as pilgrims journeying toward the Heart of the Savior, which the litanies call ‘the house of God and the gate of heaven’,” said Mons. Bernardelli in his address.
The book features 17 contributions, introduced by Lucetta Scaraffia, historian and journalist, who had already published a remarkable biography of Saint Cabrini in 2003 titled Francesca Cabrini. Between Earth and Heaven (Pauline Editions).
The authors represent a diverse group within the Cabrinian world: a bishop, two priests, six Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart (including the current Superior General and a former one), journalists, an archivist, and teachers from Cabrinian schools.
Rather than offering a single theme explored from multiple perspectives, the work brings together varied contributionsranging from historical essays and spiritual reflections to testimonies on the fruitfulness and enduring relevance of the Cabrinian charism.
Monsignor Bernardelli closed the presentation with a personal memory:
“During my high school years, spent in the Seminary of Lodi, we would pray the Rosary in the evening, walking through one of the long corridors. At the end stood a large portrait of Saint Cabrini. It is that beautiful image where the Saint, already elderly, is smiling.
Years later, I happened to look at that portrait again: no longer the young and beautiful Cabrini, but from her face radiates a deep and peaceful beauty that always moves me. It is the beauty that comes from one whose heart is rooted in God and whose limbs are worn out from apostolic service.
And the source of it all is that Heart which, as her beautiful litanies say, is a ‘furnace of ardent charity’.
There now dwells forever the Holy Mother, and we hope one day to be there too.”
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