At noon today, in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus who are celebrating one hundred years since the death of Saint Frances Cabrini.
Dear sisters and dear brothers,
It is a great pleasure for me to welcome all of you, representatives of the Cabrinian Family, who desire in this way to conclude the celebrations for the centenary of the birth in heaven of Saint Frances Saverio Cabrini. On the 17 December 1917, this holy woman, who crossed the ocean at least twenty four times in order to help migrants who had come to the Americas, and who tirelessly travelled as far as the Andes and even to Argentina, found herself in Chicago and left on her final voyage.
I greet His Excellency, Rino Fisichella, who follows your activities with great affection; and I thank your Mother, Barbara Louise Stanley, for her words of greeting and for her commitment in places where migrants can be found, always making present to them the welcome and the witness of Christian love.
Saint Cabrini was a true missionary. She had grown up keeping before her the example of Saint Francis Xavier, the pioneer of evangelization in the Orient. She held China in her heart and in that far-away land, she hoped to proclaim the gospel. She did not consider the thousands and thousands of emigrants who set out for the Americas carrying their few possessions due to hunger, a lack of work and the possibility of a future, motivated by the dream of a better future. As we know, it was the vision of Pope Leo XIII that, based on a joke, she changed course: Not to the East Cabrini, but to the West! The young Mother, who had recently founded the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, had to open their eyes in order to see where God was sending them on mission. Not where she wanted to go, but rather where He had prepared the path for her, the path of service and of holiness. This is the example of a true vocation: to forget oneself in order to abandon him- or herself entirely to the love of God.
After many years, the truth of migrants, to whom Saint Francis Xavier had dedicated his entire life, had evolved and was more current than ever. New faces of men, women and children, marked by many forms of poverty and violence, can once again be found before our eyes, waiting to find on their way open hands and willing hearts such as those of Mother Cabrini. To you, in particular, is offered the responsibility of being faithful to the mission of your holy Foundress. Her charism is extraordinarily pertinent, because migrants certainly need good laws, programmes of development, organization ... but they also need first of all to be loved, to experience friendship, human closeness; they need to be welcomed, to be looked in the eyes, to be accompanied; they need God, encountered in the freely-shared love of a woman who, with a consecrated heart, is your sister and your mother.
The Lord always renews in you the attentive and merciful glance toward the poor who live in our cities and in our countries. Mother Cabrini had the courage to look into the eyes of orphan children who would come to her and confide in her, young people who were unemployed and tempted to be delinquent, men and women exploited by the most humiliating work; and therefore we are here today to thank God for his holiness. In every one of those brothers and sisters, she recognized the face of Christ and, as ingenious as she was, she was able to put to good use the talents that the Lord had entrusted to her (cf Mt 25:14-23). She had a strong sense of apostolic action; and if she had such great energy to accomplish such extraordinary work in just a few years, it was only due to her union with Christ, following the model of Saint Paul, from whom she took her motto: Everything is possible in Him who gives me strength (Phil 4:13). A dizzying life filled with work, endless travel on foot, in trains, in ships, on boats, on horseback ...; creating out of nothing sixty-seven endeavours among exiles, schools, colleges, hospitals, orphanages, laboratories ... all in an effort to propagate the strength of the gospel, which had opened her heart so she could belong to everyone.
Saint Cabrini lived according to the spirituality of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Step by step, hers was a life entirely dedicated to consoling and making the Sacred Heart known and loved. And this made her capable of looking at the hearts of those who came close and helped them to correspond in a coherent way. This important anniversary reminds us all of the need for a faith that knows how to grasp the moment of grace that is experienced. As difficult as it may seem, she tells us that we must do as she does, being capable of welcoming the signs of our times, reading them in the light of the Word of God and living them in such a way as to respond to the reasoning of the heart in each person.
Dear sisters, and dear brothers who share the Cabrinian charism, I thank you for your commitment. I accompany you with my Apostolic blessing, and I ask each of you not to forget to pray for me.
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Dear sisters and dear brothers,
It is a great pleasure for me to welcome all of you, representatives of the Cabrinian Family, who desire in this way to conclude the celebrations for the centenary of the birth in heaven of Saint Frances Saverio Cabrini. On the 17 December 1917, this holy woman, who crossed the ocean at least twenty four times in order to help migrants who had come to the Americas, and who tirelessly travelled as far as the Andes and even to Argentina, found herself in Chicago and left on her final voyage.
I greet His Excellency, Rino Fisichella, who follows your activities with great affection; and I thank your Mother, Barbara Louise Stanley, for her words of greeting and for her commitment in places where migrants can be found, always making present to them the welcome and the witness of Christian love.
Saint Cabrini was a true missionary. She had grown up keeping before her the example of Saint Francis Xavier, the pioneer of evangelization in the Orient. She held China in her heart and in that far-away land, she hoped to proclaim the gospel. She did not consider the thousands and thousands of emigrants who set out for the Americas carrying their few possessions due to hunger, a lack of work and the possibility of a future, motivated by the dream of a better future. As we know, it was the vision of Pope Leo XIII that, based on a joke, she changed course: Not to the East Cabrini, but to the West! The young Mother, who had recently founded the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, had to open their eyes in order to see where God was sending them on mission. Not where she wanted to go, but rather where He had prepared the path for her, the path of service and of holiness. This is the example of a true vocation: to forget oneself in order to abandon him- or herself entirely to the love of God.
After many years, the truth of migrants, to whom Saint Francis Xavier had dedicated his entire life, had evolved and was more current than ever. New faces of men, women and children, marked by many forms of poverty and violence, can once again be found before our eyes, waiting to find on their way open hands and willing hearts such as those of Mother Cabrini. To you, in particular, is offered the responsibility of being faithful to the mission of your holy Foundress. Her charism is extraordinarily pertinent, because migrants certainly need good laws, programmes of development, organization ... but they also need first of all to be loved, to experience friendship, human closeness; they need to be welcomed, to be looked in the eyes, to be accompanied; they need God, encountered in the freely-shared love of a woman who, with a consecrated heart, is your sister and your mother.
The Lord always renews in you the attentive and merciful glance toward the poor who live in our cities and in our countries. Mother Cabrini had the courage to look into the eyes of orphan children who would come to her and confide in her, young people who were unemployed and tempted to be delinquent, men and women exploited by the most humiliating work; and therefore we are here today to thank God for his holiness. In every one of those brothers and sisters, she recognized the face of Christ and, as ingenious as she was, she was able to put to good use the talents that the Lord had entrusted to her (cf Mt 25:14-23). She had a strong sense of apostolic action; and if she had such great energy to accomplish such extraordinary work in just a few years, it was only due to her union with Christ, following the model of Saint Paul, from whom she took her motto: Everything is possible in Him who gives me strength (Phil 4:13). A dizzying life filled with work, endless travel on foot, in trains, in ships, on boats, on horseback ...; creating out of nothing sixty-seven endeavours among exiles, schools, colleges, hospitals, orphanages, laboratories ... all in an effort to propagate the strength of the gospel, which had opened her heart so she could belong to everyone.
Saint Cabrini lived according to the spirituality of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Step by step, hers was a life entirely dedicated to consoling and making the Sacred Heart known and loved. And this made her capable of looking at the hearts of those who came close and helped them to correspond in a coherent way. This important anniversary reminds us all of the need for a faith that knows how to grasp the moment of grace that is experienced. As difficult as it may seem, she tells us that we must do as she does, being capable of welcoming the signs of our times, reading them in the light of the Word of God and living them in such a way as to respond to the reasoning of the heart in each person.
Dear sisters, and dear brothers who share the Cabrinian charism, I thank you for your commitment. I accompany you with my Apostolic blessing, and I ask each of you not to forget to pray for me.
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