INSTITUTE OF THE DAUGHTERS OF MARY HELP OF CHRISTIANS
Founded by St. John Bosco
and St. Mary Domenica Mazzarello
No. 957
Dearest Sisters,
The time of grace that God in His goodness gives us today is surprising, demanding, and beautiful. It
is the beauty that comes from the One who, with infinite love, opens the eyes of the soul so that we
can discover the fragments of beauty that shine in daily life, in our educating communities, in the
Church, and in society.
The hour we are living, though in the dialectic of light and shadows, of peace and violence, of the
solicitude to walk without tiring, to go deeply until we reach the dwelling where the Holy Spirit awaits
us and sanctifies us, traces out the road for an authentic encounter with Jesus, the Master of the
interior life. Then, He asks us to proclaim it, to witness that the joy of remaining with him satisfies the
thirst of the human heart, of many young people searching for something, for Someone who gives
meaning and happiness to existence, encouragement, and strength to build a better world.
This reflection comes from deep within my heart, and, though in synthesis, I want to share it in this
short circular. Above all, I desire to thank the Lord of history together with you for the Year of
Consecrated Life that is ending chronologically, but that continues in impassioned fidelity to God’s call
and renewed commitment to the mission.
I thank Him for the Jubilee of Mercy called by Pope Francis so that “Everyone, believers and those
far, may reach the balm of mercy as the sign of the Kingdom of God already present in our midst”
(Misericordiae Vultus, No. 5).
It will be an experience open to everyone, without excluding anyone, so that everyone may taste the
joy of God’s tenderness and see that forgiveness is possible in every time and in every culture.
We feel we are pilgrims walking toward the Door of Mercy, “where anyone who enters may
experience the love of God that consoles, that forgives, and that gives hope” (Misericordiae Vultus,
No.. 3), together with many brothers and sisters of the world, with the young, above all, with those
who live troubled situations, and those who do not tire searching for the truth of existence.
All of them are dear to us and have a privileged place in our heart. God asks us to be a journeying
people, open to great and unthinkable horizons, often unknown to us, but already conceived by the
Holy Spirit for the salvation of every creature loved and saved by Jesus, the One sent by the Father,
rich in mercy.
I see Strenna 2016 of the Rector Major, Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime, as a delicacy of the Lord. It
presents to us a journey of great human, spiritual, and Salesian quality. It places us in full synchrony,
as Salesian Family, with all those committed to giving human and Christian depth to their life, open to
the transcendent dimension, often forgotten or silenced by our culture, as Pope Francis has stated
many times.
The theme of the Strenna is: “With Jesus Let Us Adventure in the Spirit Together”. It is articulated in
six points, followed by “three simple suggestions that can illumine our effort to walk together during
this Year of Mercy”.
The Strenna is a call, a reminder of the essential in the awareness that only with Jesus, in Jesus, and
beginning with Him, can we make a truly meaningful and decisive journey for our life and for the
fruitfulness of the mission entrusted to us.
Following Jesus is “an adventure” lived in the Holy Spirit, which fascinates, attracts, and surprises. It
implies walking after the Lord without having a “navigation map”; placing our security solely on
friendship with the Teacher who asks of us fidelity, trust, new life.
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The decision to follow Jesus radically demands audacity, the one that conquers every fear, and eases
difficulties inherent in the following itself like exclusion, misunderstanding, rejection. The adventure of
the Spirit is our very relationships; it is our daily mission in the midst of the young.
The Strenna well emphasizes that a relationship with Jesus is a journey that changes life and is the
priority of the mission for educators of the young. “Always with them and always for them”, we are
called to revive the life of faith, the encounter with Jesus. This is not only for an ideal, or for a pastoral
activity to carry on, but for God present in every young person. Thus, the Rector Major underlines
that the Strenna is much more than a pastoral strategy. It intends to send us on the adventure of the
Spirit, which is an interior journey understood as awareness of dwelling in God with joy. It is an
interior journey, a spiritual road that penetrates all the dimensions of the person because its source,
its reason to be, and the meaning of life is Jesus. It deals with a vital experience that is fundamental
and the root of Salesian spirituality. It is a concrete journey that is expressed in the educational
charism, and therefore, involves the young themselves.
During the triennial of preparation for the Bicentenary of Don Bosco’s birth, we were able to study his
intense interior life that was docile and patient attention to the demands of the Holy Spirit for the
mission entrusted to him by the Lord.
Don Bosco’s taste for the spiritual life, the Strenna underlines, was not the fruit of improvisation. He
took care of his interior life with constancy and courage in order to nourish the motivation for his
mission, the strength that animated him, and the missionary ideals that God inspired in him.
All the young people who entered the doors of the oratory, all without exception, almost through
osmosis, were drawn to live a full Christian life, to live the life of the Spirit in a climate of holiness.
The Rector Major shows that a brilliant intuition and realization of Don Bosco is that of having
introduced into the experience of every young person, the taste for spiritual life made attractive by the
joy of the Christian and Salesian choice.
Dearest Sisters, these brief highlights desire to be an invitation to study the Strenna and to reserve
adequate times of prayer to grasp its richness and depth, and then to share it among yourselves, with
the young, with the members of the Salesian Family, and with the persons involved in education and
in the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus.
I invite you to pause in a special way, on the proposals that the Rector Major offers us and to evaluate
them according to the specific needs of your reality.
The life of Mary helps us to understand that the presence and the action of the Spirit is always
manifested in a respectful encounter that is both proposal and response. I pray that we may all taste
the adventure of life in the Spirit as she lived it, Woman of the ‘yes’.
I thank the Rector Major in the name of all of you for the marvellous gift of the Strenna and I assure
him of our commitment to live it in full communion with the groups of the Salesian Family. I think this
is the best way to concretely show our gratitude to the Successor of Don Bosco, who is the animator
and centre of unity in the Salesian Family (Cf. C 3).
Mary, the Mother of Mercy and Mother of the Church, will help us to be radiant signs of mercy, of
forgiveness, of peace for all the peoples of the world.
In deep communion with each of you, I assure you of my prayer and great affection.
God bless you.
Rome, January 1, 2016
Your affectionate Mother
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