At 11:30am today (5:30am EDT), in the Consistory Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father received in audience those who are participating in the 37th General Chapter of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary.
Dear Sisters,
I greet you with joy during the celebration of your 37th General Chapter, and with you I want to extend this greeting to the Sisters who work for the world and to all the members of the family of Jesus and Mary. I also want to remember the little ones, the children in your schools and colleges. The theme you have chosen for this Chapter is: On the road, with hope, as an apostolic family, holding the Visitation of Mary as a biblical icon (cf Lk 1:39-56).
Saint Claudina Thévenet began this apostolic work focused on the little ones, on the poor. Over these last 200 years your presence has spread fruitfully throughout the world, so that you are present today in 28 countries on 4 continents. This story tells us about a journey without rest, one that is always on the way, like Mary in the Visitation, attentive to the needs of others. Walking in a hurry, but not anxious. Always on the way, with joy and hope, to be able to communicate to all people the goodness and love of God. In this sense I would like to suggest three paths to continue walking; and I take them from the prayer that you have used for the Congregation of the General Chapter.
The first path is to witness the merciful goodness of God. The name of God is mercy. This was the founding experience of Saint Claudina, the knowledge of the goodness of God, the merciful One who always forgives. From that day on which she herself witnessed the execution of her own brothers and the message that they entrusted to her: Claudina, forgive as we forgive, your Foundress knew how to look at reality from the perspective of God who is good and loves people with love that has no conditions. Once, when I talked about this, there came a person who had heard this message of mercy; the person said: God is always a loser, he always loses. And yes, it seems that he is not interested in winning, he is interested in winning. That is his mercy. God looks at us and we experience his mercy; with his goodness he changes reality by loving us. It would be good in these moments of the Chapter to review and to remember your life, your vocation, your mission in light of this gaze, to continue being touched by God who is present in the sufferings of our time. Only with this look are all things new; only by looking for the Lord, like the Virgin Mary did (cf Lk 1:48), can we look at reality with the eyes of God and be his witnesses, because the gaze of God changes, changes us, He teaches us, educates our gaze.
We need to look at our world with sympathy, without fear, without prejudice, with courage, as God sees it, feeling our pains, the joys and hopes of our brothers and sisters; from there we can proclaim the Word of life, and make Jesus and Mary known and loved with the creativity of diakonia and the works of your apostolate. How good is God! These were Claudina's last words. Let these words also be yours on your journey, every day.
The second path to walk is the life of fraternity and solidarity. You are an apostolic body that lives in fraternal community. In this way they encourage each other to follow Jesus and foster new vocations. You need to delve into your community with increasingly evangelical relationships, so that you con develop increasingly apostolic fraternities, sisters on mission, capable of infecting other young women so that they can follow this form of consecration. For this to happen, you must open up to the encounter with young people, do not be afraid of them, do not be afraid of them: through your testimony of life you will be able to see in you something different that the world cannot offer you: the joy of following Christ. But joy is only one of the notes of one's life, right? It makes me sad, I confess, when I see sad religious, with a downcast faces, funeral faces. And I want to say: Tell me, what did you have for breakfast today, coffee with milk or oil? Or vinegar?
Joy, please, that look with peace, with a smile, comes from within, and escapes from spirituality: yes, but. The yes, but. The word but is always a path to sadness.
Fraternal life in community is prophecy for the world. Your Founder told you may charity be like the girl of your eyes (Positio, page 231) so that this great desire might open fraternal relationships of communion in you that may be signs of the gospel. This same path opens you up to solidarity with the rest of our brothers and sisters, sharing how much they are and how much they have. In collaboration with the Family of Jesus and Mary and their collaborators in the mission, continue to build networks of communion and solidarity. It is as you said in prayer for the chapter love and serve without conditions.
The last path I would like to point out is to discern and have the courage to go beyond. There is always more there. There is a very nice song that young people usually sing that says: Beyond borders. Do you know it? And young people sing that, right? There is always more there. The Church is missionary, because God is the first missionary. God opens himself in going out, God enters the world and takes on human form. You participate in this mission with your life and your apostolate, for testimony is paramount in evangelization (cf Paul VI, Evangelii nuntiandi, 69). But as love is demonstrated in works, do not get tired of making the goodness of God known through the apostolic works that you do. You must always remember that it started when Saint Claudina welcomed two abandoned orphans on the porch of the parish of Saint Nizier, but the new scenarios are also asking creatively for new ways to evangelize and mission, and to make Jesus and Mary known. Do not be afraid, if you go in community, if you have the support of fraternity, and know how to discern, there is no need to fear. Because a beautiful thing in us is that when we are wrong, we have the possibility of going back. When we go with the community, with the Lord and with good discernment.
We need to go out, outside the door (Acts 16:13), as your Founder did, not to make a moving memory, but to find the charism in statu nascenti again. That is, the charism that is just born. Discernment is required in order to know how to go further and to ask whether our apostolates and our works, our presences and our ministries respond to what the Holy Spirit has asked of Saint Claudina and the Congregation throughout these 200 years of history. I encourage you to discern, evaluate and choose in order to be able to respond better and better to what God wants from you today. Our times also ask us to discover new means of evangelization and mission, but always as an apostolic body because the lonely commitments and tiredness have no future. It may be that some of you have a special vocation to open a gap in a certain way. And you alone has that gift. Let her go there, physically alone, but with the whole community behind her. Do not leave anyone alone.
Dear Sisters, I thank you for all the good you do in the Church and in the world, and also for this fraternal encounter. May the Virgin Mother accompany you on this path so that you can continue to find our brothers and sisters, as Saint Claudina did. And please, don't forget to pray for me. Thank you.
Texto original en español
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
offered to the Congregation of Jesus and Mary
Dear Sisters,
I greet you with joy during the celebration of your 37th General Chapter, and with you I want to extend this greeting to the Sisters who work for the world and to all the members of the family of Jesus and Mary. I also want to remember the little ones, the children in your schools and colleges. The theme you have chosen for this Chapter is: On the road, with hope, as an apostolic family, holding the Visitation of Mary as a biblical icon (cf Lk 1:39-56).
Saint Claudina Thévenet began this apostolic work focused on the little ones, on the poor. Over these last 200 years your presence has spread fruitfully throughout the world, so that you are present today in 28 countries on 4 continents. This story tells us about a journey without rest, one that is always on the way, like Mary in the Visitation, attentive to the needs of others. Walking in a hurry, but not anxious. Always on the way, with joy and hope, to be able to communicate to all people the goodness and love of God. In this sense I would like to suggest three paths to continue walking; and I take them from the prayer that you have used for the Congregation of the General Chapter.
The first path is to witness the merciful goodness of God. The name of God is mercy. This was the founding experience of Saint Claudina, the knowledge of the goodness of God, the merciful One who always forgives. From that day on which she herself witnessed the execution of her own brothers and the message that they entrusted to her: Claudina, forgive as we forgive, your Foundress knew how to look at reality from the perspective of God who is good and loves people with love that has no conditions. Once, when I talked about this, there came a person who had heard this message of mercy; the person said: God is always a loser, he always loses. And yes, it seems that he is not interested in winning, he is interested in winning. That is his mercy. God looks at us and we experience his mercy; with his goodness he changes reality by loving us. It would be good in these moments of the Chapter to review and to remember your life, your vocation, your mission in light of this gaze, to continue being touched by God who is present in the sufferings of our time. Only with this look are all things new; only by looking for the Lord, like the Virgin Mary did (cf Lk 1:48), can we look at reality with the eyes of God and be his witnesses, because the gaze of God changes, changes us, He teaches us, educates our gaze.
We need to look at our world with sympathy, without fear, without prejudice, with courage, as God sees it, feeling our pains, the joys and hopes of our brothers and sisters; from there we can proclaim the Word of life, and make Jesus and Mary known and loved with the creativity of diakonia and the works of your apostolate. How good is God! These were Claudina's last words. Let these words also be yours on your journey, every day.
The second path to walk is the life of fraternity and solidarity. You are an apostolic body that lives in fraternal community. In this way they encourage each other to follow Jesus and foster new vocations. You need to delve into your community with increasingly evangelical relationships, so that you con develop increasingly apostolic fraternities, sisters on mission, capable of infecting other young women so that they can follow this form of consecration. For this to happen, you must open up to the encounter with young people, do not be afraid of them, do not be afraid of them: through your testimony of life you will be able to see in you something different that the world cannot offer you: the joy of following Christ. But joy is only one of the notes of one's life, right? It makes me sad, I confess, when I see sad religious, with a downcast faces, funeral faces. And I want to say: Tell me, what did you have for breakfast today, coffee with milk or oil? Or vinegar?
Joy, please, that look with peace, with a smile, comes from within, and escapes from spirituality: yes, but. The yes, but. The word but is always a path to sadness.
Fraternal life in community is prophecy for the world. Your Founder told you may charity be like the girl of your eyes (Positio, page 231) so that this great desire might open fraternal relationships of communion in you that may be signs of the gospel. This same path opens you up to solidarity with the rest of our brothers and sisters, sharing how much they are and how much they have. In collaboration with the Family of Jesus and Mary and their collaborators in the mission, continue to build networks of communion and solidarity. It is as you said in prayer for the chapter love and serve without conditions.
The last path I would like to point out is to discern and have the courage to go beyond. There is always more there. There is a very nice song that young people usually sing that says: Beyond borders. Do you know it? And young people sing that, right? There is always more there. The Church is missionary, because God is the first missionary. God opens himself in going out, God enters the world and takes on human form. You participate in this mission with your life and your apostolate, for testimony is paramount in evangelization (cf Paul VI, Evangelii nuntiandi, 69). But as love is demonstrated in works, do not get tired of making the goodness of God known through the apostolic works that you do. You must always remember that it started when Saint Claudina welcomed two abandoned orphans on the porch of the parish of Saint Nizier, but the new scenarios are also asking creatively for new ways to evangelize and mission, and to make Jesus and Mary known. Do not be afraid, if you go in community, if you have the support of fraternity, and know how to discern, there is no need to fear. Because a beautiful thing in us is that when we are wrong, we have the possibility of going back. When we go with the community, with the Lord and with good discernment.
We need to go out, outside the door (Acts 16:13), as your Founder did, not to make a moving memory, but to find the charism in statu nascenti again. That is, the charism that is just born. Discernment is required in order to know how to go further and to ask whether our apostolates and our works, our presences and our ministries respond to what the Holy Spirit has asked of Saint Claudina and the Congregation throughout these 200 years of history. I encourage you to discern, evaluate and choose in order to be able to respond better and better to what God wants from you today. Our times also ask us to discover new means of evangelization and mission, but always as an apostolic body because the lonely commitments and tiredness have no future. It may be that some of you have a special vocation to open a gap in a certain way. And you alone has that gift. Let her go there, physically alone, but with the whole community behind her. Do not leave anyone alone.
Dear Sisters, I thank you for all the good you do in the Church and in the world, and also for this fraternal encounter. May the Virgin Mother accompany you on this path so that you can continue to find our brothers and sisters, as Saint Claudina did. And please, don't forget to pray for me. Thank you.
Texto original en español
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