Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians
founded by St. John Bosco
N. 800
Dear Sisters,
We have come to the end of the month in preparation for the feast of Gratitude on a worldwide
level. It is a celebration of gratitude to God and to each Sister who, in different ways,
collaborates with the animation of the great FMA family.
The theme which unites us in this year of the Spirit takes inspiration from the journey proposed
by the Church towards the Jubilee and it helps us to live it with greater responsibility.
To weave “unity in diversity” was, in fact, the program motto of the past month which saw us
involved in the reciprocal getting to know one another between provinces and in the communal
prayer for unity. Now, we feel more conscious and more grateful for the gift of unity in the
Institute and for the beauty of the “colors” which the charism assumes by inculturating itself in
the various parts of the world.
The logo of the feast depicts on the Mexican Serape the sweet countenance of our Lady of
Guadalupe and, under her gaze, the face of la Madre. The image is accompanied by the words:
“Tu tejes la unidad en la diversidad.” The theme: “You weave unity in diversity” refers clearly to
the fundamental mission of la Madre: to be a bond of communion and the center of unity (C
116). I thank all of you because with prayer, with creative fidelity, with the family spirit which is
expressed in so many festive and ordinary ways, you help me carry out the mission which the
Lord entrusts to me in an attitude of trust and joy.
First of all, however, the task of weaving unity in diversity is attributed to Mary, true superior of
the Institute, mother of believers, rather of all the living. To her, before the painting of our Lady
of Guadalupe, as well as the painting of Valdocco next May 24, I make my plea for the unity of
the Institute in fidelity to the Church and to the charism, for the harmonious appreciation of each
Sister’s gift in the provinces and in the communities.
There is a great need to weave unity on all levels, from the worldwide level where nations coexist
to the interfaith and ecumenical level, down to the level of the daily rapport within families. This
year in particular, the Pope is asking all the faithful to reflect on the value of unity within the
Church, to which the various gifts and charisms enkindled by the Spirit are aimed.
I am writing to you at the beginning of the month dedicated to Mary. I suggest that you live it in
her company continuing to deepen the theme of the Feast of Gratitude with her help. During her
earthly life, and above all in the cenacle, Mary was the center of unity, animator of communion
among the disciples of Jesus. The catechism of the Catholic Church acknowledges this in a
beautiful synthesis: “Through Mary, the Holy Spirit begins to bring men, the objects of God’s
merciful love, into communion with Christ. The humble are always the first to receive it: the
shepherds, the magi, Simeon and Anna, the wedding couple of Cana and the first disciples. At
the end of this mission of the Holy Spirit, Mary became the new Eve, mother of the living,
Mother of the whole Christ” (nn. 725-726).
A while back, I read a comment made at a Marian Congress. It contained a question that often
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comes to my mind. It went something like this: How is it that we encounter within the Church
difficulties of reciprocal acceptance, of understanding of our brothers and sisters, and of a
plurality of legitimate opinions? Is not the difficulty of accepting one another as brothers and
sisters related to the difficulty of accepting a common Mother? If we had a more adequate and
faithful devotion to Mary, would we not find a motive of reciprocal understanding, of respect for
other’s liberty, of promoting other’s initiatives?
The recent publication of two volumes of several years of research on Mary accomplished by the
Groupe des Dombes, made up of 40 scholars of different Christian faiths (who met in the abbey
near Lyons that bears the same name), testifies to the profound desire of communion of faith in
Christ, who under the cross appointed Mary, Mother of the disciples (cf Marie dans le dessein de
Dieu et la communion des saints, vo.I, p. 87) - (Mary, in God’s Designs and the Communion of
Saints). In the end, it is because of her, that unity among all disciples of Christ becomes possible.
The will to rediscover such unity and to strengthen it from within the Catholic Church with
Mary’s help becomes ever more alive and it is supported by the prayers of many brothers and
sisters who are sensitive to the frequent exhortations of the Holy Father. He affirms that in this
last period of the millennium, the Church must turn to the Holy Spirit with a more heartfelt plea,
imploring from Him the grace of unity among Christians, a crucial gift for witnessing the Gospel
to the world (cf TMA 34). The Holy spirit asks religious, in particular, “to give more space in
their lives to ecumenical prayer and genuine evangelical witness, so that by the power of the
Holy Spirit, the walls of division and prejudice between Christians may be broken down” (VC
100).
Finally, unity is a gift of the Spirit, deeply inscribed in our being as baptized persons in the name
of Jesus, by which we can truly cry out: “Our Father!” Today, on the journey of formation, we
feel the urgent need to revive the gift of God within us. The gift of our call to unity which allows
us to be recognized as followers of Christ. The profound desire of growing in unity is, therefore,
an appeal from the Spirit to let Him transform our hearts, and to let go of the petty visions of selfcenteredness or of egocentrism in order to live as God’s daughters, who recognize the beauty of
creation in the harmonious interdependence of its components; who recognize the goodness of
his fatherly heart in the experience of being in his image, called to unity in love; who find the
truth and the happiness of human existence in the vocation of self-fulfillment through the gift of
self and the welcoming of the gift of others.
In the final analysis, the desire for unity helps us to ascend to the mysterious font of our faith, the
unity of God in the diversity of Persons. It helps us to penetrate and to dwell on Jesus’ prayer:
“Just as you, Father, are in me and I in You, may they also be one in us, so that the world may
believe that you sent me” (Jn. 17,21). In these unfathomable depths of God’s mystery, we are
called to live our daily lives with the simplicity of Mary, our sister and mother. She was the first
to travel the road as a follower of Jesus in faith and in hope, welcoming us as children at the foot
of the cross and accepting to remain in the Church as a human model for all those who trust in
God’s promises with all their heart.
I will let myself be guided by the gaze of the Church on Mary in the year of the Holy Spirit in
order to share some thoughts which can help us to develop the attitudes necessary to live the call
to weave unity in diversity.
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A Woman, Docile to the Voice of the Spirit
During this year, the Church invites us to contemplate and imitate Mary, above all, as a woman
who in her entire existence, let herself be guided by the action of the Spirit. Mary is the creature
completely centered on God’s plan, which she gradually understands and agrees to with her
continual “yes.” She manifests to us the face of the person who most resembles the Son of God.
For this reason, she is our companion and guide in the journey of life according to the Spirit. She
teaches us to discern through events the gift of our specific calling, to cultivate this gift and put it
at the service of others with detachment and solicitude in order to collaborate with the plan of
salvation.
Because of her docility to the Spirit, Mary grasps the truth of her existence and makes herself
available for a continuous exodus, employing her freedom in complying with what the
circumstances manifest as being the will of God in her life: from Nazareth to Calvary, from the
beginning of the Church to her mission in history, until the end of time. In this way, the Virgin
engaged to Joseph, becomes by her faith and by the work of the Spirit, Mother of the Son of God
and Mother of all the living. Her physical maternity expands to a spiritual but real maternity of
all her Son’s brothers and sisters.
Truly, as an author comments, Mary spiritually conceived and bore us: “She conceived us, that is,
she welcomed us in herself when, perhaps at the same moment of her call... she discovered that
her Son was not a son like others, a private person, but that he was the first born of many
brothers (Rm 8,29), that others were gathering around about him and forming a community. The
thought spontaneously goes to many great mothers of founding priests...as, for example, Don
Bosco’s mother, who at a certain point saw their son bring into their home an increasing number
of little friends, or poor boys, and in silence, without the need for many explanations, began to
organize themselves according to the new needs: preparing food and lodging for them and even
doing laundry, as if they were their own children, no more, no less. But for Mary it was
something more profound...When Mary heard for herself, or came to know that her Son was
going about saying: “Come to me, all you who labor and are oppressed...(Mt 11,18), she
understood that she could not turn her back on them by refusing to welcome as her own, those
invited by her Son, without ceasing to be spiritually their mother.” (Cantalamessa R., Maria, uno
Specchio per la Chiesa, 141-142).
After the time of conception, of the “yes” which came from her heart, the Spirit guides her to the
following of Christ to Calvary. Beneath the cross, she experiences the pains of childbirth. The
words which the dying Jesus addresses to her are the institution of her new maternity, founded
not on her own merits, but on the word of God. “Beneath the cross”, comments the same author,
“Mary appears to us as the Daughter of Sion who, after mourning the loss of her children,
receives from God a new progeny more numerous than before, not according to the flesh, but
according to the spirit. One of the Psalms which is applied to Mary says, “Behold, Palestine, Tyre
and Ethiopia, they were all born there. It will be said of Sion: one and all were born in her. The
Lord will write in the book of the people: This man was born there” (Psalm 87, 2). It is true: we
were all born there. It will be said also of Mary, the new Sion, the one and the other was born in
her. Of me, of you, of each one, even of those who do not yet know it. In the book of God it is
written: “There he was born.” But weren’t we generated by the living and eternal Word of
God?...reborn of water and of the Spirit? It is true, but this does not take away the fact, that in a
different sense, one that is subordinate and instrumental, we were born also by the faith and by
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the suffering of Mary. (Ibid 145).
This long citation helps us to penetrate the mystery of God’s plan for humanity and realize how
far docility to the Spirit can lead us. That which happened in Mary in a singular way, because of
her mission as Mother of God, happens in an analogical way also in each believer in Christ,
called to collaborate with the coming of the kingdom of God in history, from generation to
generation, up to the accomplishment of the Father’s plan to unite all things in Christ. Docile to
the Spirit, we, too, by weaving each day threads of communion, collaborate in generating the
civilization of love, the unity of the human family.
Woman of Silence and of listening
Mary’s docility to the voice of the Spirit is rooted in her habitual attitude of silence and listening.
In the last October 24 circular, I already spoke to you on the theme of silence. The proposal of
the Church for 1998, to consider Mary, the woman of silence and of listening (cf TMA, 48)
encourages me to return to this subject. I am convinced that the greater part of the difficulties
which we encounter in relationships, and which, at times, render problematic the weaving of
unity in diversity are born from superficiality and from a scattered disposition that are derived
from our diminished capacity to live in silence. This silence is fundamental to the existence of
every living being who wants to grow steadily, unifying herself around the central nucleus of her
choices; even more so for the believer in Christ, called to enter in contact with the Word that
came forth from the silence of the Father, to treasure it in his heart, and to confront every event
with it.
Our Rule of life speaks of silence which is conducive to listening to the Spirit (48), and when it
considers the conditions of listening to and meditating upon the Word, affirms explicitly: “In the
stillness of our whole being, like Mary, the ‘listening Virgin’, we let ourselves be penetrated by
the power of the Holy Spirit who guides us gradually to put on Christ.” (39). Even community
life requires “that silence which is an expression of charity and consideration for others...it is
conducive to reflection and attentive listening, leads one to union with God and makes our
mission more fruitful” (54).
If silence is necessary to receive the word of God, it is also necessary to pronounce human words
that are true, and which express the authenticity of the person. Silence and words, when they are
authentic, are inseparable, they are reciprocal. One does not exist without the other, and it is
silence which renders speaking possible. D. Bonhoeffer affirms that silence and speaking are two
alternating elements of interpersonal relationships and that “the right word comes from the right
silence, and the right silence comes from the right word.” (La Vita Comune 102 tr.it.).
Above all, silence is fundamental when one wants to weave a dialogue. It is good to know how to
keep silence in order to listen, and to listen in order to dialogue. I think that some of us share the
same experience of the main character of a novel who declares: “No one has time to listen to you,
not even those who love you and would be ready to die for you” (Caldwell T., Il Mio Cuore
Ascolta, 14-15 tr. it.). At times, the young, members of the Educating Community and even
Sisters can make the same statement.
Listening is not so much a matter of time, as of an interior disposition. Today, more than in the
past, it is necessary to form ourselves to the art of listening, if we want to live and transmit the
Salesian spirituality. But, in order to listen, interior silence must grow in depth. It is necessary
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above all, to silence the habitual haste to do so many things which impede us to be aware of the
persons around us, of their expectations and what they have to offer. All of us, instead, have
known Sisters who know how to create an unmistakable climate of acceptance and of benevolent
kindness proper to the family spirit, with their silence filled with an attentive ear. “To know how
to listen to others, to be silently attentive, to be present with a silent look, filled with interest and
attention. To know how to listen: I assure you, this transforms the atmosphere and makes it
fraternal. To know how to listen is also to learn how to ask questions, because this is a way of
conveying our attentiveness and the desire to listen” (Voillaume R., Sul Cammino degli Uomini,
72-73 tr. it.).
The listening silence, before turning to others, is prepared with an interior dialogue, in a dialogue
of truth within oneself. In the silence of interior dialogue, we can discover, as St. Augustine
attests, the truth of our being made in the likeness of God. God’s initiative, in creating by means
of the Word, has left in man the mark of dialogue which manifests itself in a nostalgic anxiety
toward the Thou. “All life is a response to a “Thou” who calls and questions incessantly on the
decisive themes of existence, making of life a complete response to a vocation” (Masciarelli M.,
Abitare il Silenzio, 55).
To educate ourselves and others to an interior silence as a premise to true dialogue among people
is always a reciprocal education. We grow together in our diversity by means of a dialogue which
requires listening and silence from within us before outside of us. Even the personal meeting and
community sharing of which article 34 and 35 of our Constitutions speak, would gain in quality
and reach their objectives if we would help each other to educate ourselves to silence.
Woman of Hope
Docility to the Spirit, founded on the attitude of listening in faith, makes of Mary the woman of
hope. With her continual “yes” Mary renews the surrender of her being and becomes the creature
who knows how to wait and to hope, in the fatiguing journey of a pilgrim.
Mary, whom we contemplated as the person accustomed to keep silence, to listen, to observe and
discern, teaches us another fundamental attitude in order to be weavers of unity in the concrete
situations of daily life. She reminds us that in hope we have been saved (cf Rm 8,24) and that
hope is nurtured by listening, contemplation and patience. God’s times are not ours. “The greater
the demands, as in Mary’s case, the greater the duty of listening, of patience, and of faith. This
commitment requires a greater spiritual asceticism which affects life on every level, that of
knowing, that of truth, and that of love. In this way we become like Mary, more open to the
consequences of the Incarnation.” (Balestriero A., Madre Che Ci Accompagna, 58).
The 1998 Strenna commits us in this direction, to rediscover together with the young “the
presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in the world, so that with trust and confidence we
may live and work with God’s kingdom in view.”
Mary is the mother of our hope. By the events of her earthly life she teaches us to enter into
human situations, to be attentive to catch the urging of the Spirit and be ready to respond with
simplicity and courage. With our gaze always turned to the will of the Father, we reflect on the
events of history, which, when read in the light of the Paschal Mystery, arouse profound
motivations to commit ourselves daily to work for the transformation of reality.
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The Holy Father invites us to recognize and to appreciate the signs of hope present in this last
part of the century, notwithstanding the shadows which often eclipse them. Among these, he
points out in the civil field: the efforts to re-establish peace and justice, the will for reconciliation
and solidarity among peoples, in particular in the complex rapport between the North and the
South of the world. In the ecclesial field: the attentive listening to the voice of the Spirit by
means of the acceptance of charisms and the promotion of the laity, the intense dedication to the
cause of unity of the Christians, the space given to dialogue with all religions and with
contemporary cultures. ( cf TMA 46).
Mindful of the presence of these signs of unity and of hope, but also of the short comings of the
reality which they represent: “ Christians share in the waiting of Her, who, filled with the virtue
of hope, sustains the Church as she journeys towards the future of God.” (John Paul II, General
Audience, Nov. 12, 1997).
The commitment of weaving unity in diversity directs us to collaborate decidedly to a wide
spread social renewal, which requires the willingness to encounter, assuming attitudes and means
of communication bringing about a constructive dialogue. Society cannot renew itself without
conscious awareness of the motivations for a healthy social co-existence: the sense of belonging,
shared responsibility, the ability to pardon reciprocally. Someone might think that we are
speaking of an unrealizable utopia. Let me borrow the words of Cardinal Martini to express one
of my convictions: “Allow us to dream! Let us look beyond the fatigue of each day! Let us take
inspiration from great ideals! Let us contemplate ... The figures who ...have marked out the
passing of an epic... teaching that the power and the kingdom of God are already among us and
that it is enough to open our eyes and our heart to see the salvation of God at work.” (Alla Fine
del Millennio Lasciateci Sognare, 235).
The upcoming feast of Mary Domenica Mazzarello can be the occasion to read into the figure of
our co-foundress and of our first Sisters with vision. We will need women animated by the strong
desire to dream great things, persevering in their daily commitment, difficult yet inspiring, to
incarnate such dreams into life, in the wake of another great dreamer: Don Bosco. May their
inspirer and guide, Mary, urge us also with the tenderness of her presence to journey in operative
hope, to offer courageous gestures of “amorevolezza”, of solidarity and corresponsibility that will
mark the passage towards a culture of life. Perhaps, they will be little gestures, considered by
some to be inadequate, but if performed with humble conviction, will spread to others. By
networking, these gestures clearly express faith in the unity of the human family and the hope in
the work of the Father who accomplishes this unity and desires to be in need of our small
collaboration.
The Sisters of the Council will be with me in Turin May 24 also to experience with the Holy
Father the event of the exposition of the Holy Shroud. Venerating the precious document of the
price paid by Jesus in order to make of us one family, we will pray for unity in the communities,
in the Institute, in the Church, and among nations.
Rome, April 24,
1998
Your affectionate Mother
Sr. Antonia Colombo, FMA
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