Venerable Mother Thecla Merlo was the first Superior General of the Daughters of St. Paul. Her cause for canonization has been initiated in Rome. Learn more about Mother Thecla at www.daughtersofstpaul/motherthecla

1. Mother Thecla Merlo
First Superior General
of the
Daughters of St. Paul

2. “The way traced out by Mother Thecla is for us a
great, spacious and luminous way that rises
towards the heights of perfection.”

4. “My God, you are always
thinking about me. You are
with me and around me.
I am written on your hands.
I surrender myself to you
completely and forever.”

5. The dimension of
trust became the
secret of her
courageous
apostolic energy.

6. everything
“By myself
I can do
nothing, with
God I can do
everything.”

7. “She lived
always
under the
gaze of
God.”

8. “We need to
pray just like
we need to
breathe, we
need prayer
like we need
water to
live.”

9. “The Lord used her as he willed
because he never found
resistance in her, she never
resisted the will of God.”
“You sensed that it was
the Lord who sustained
her. She was a
contemplative soul.
She knew how to turn to
others, but always and in
the first place she turned
to God.
Everything had to come
from God and everything
was done for God.”

10. God at the foundation
of EVERYTHING

11. “Look here: let
us put all our
wretchedness
and defects in
our foundation,
which is God,
and then let us
build solely on
him. Let us count
on him alone.
Those who come
after us will have
enough if they
continue to
count on God....
Jesus is the living
stone.” (1928)

12. Count only on God
In the
foundation
of the
Congregation
there is the
humility and
littleness of the
first sisters, for
this reason the
foundation is
strong.…

13. Already in 1927 one
finds in her a
longing for holiness.
“This year,
with the grace of God,
I want to become a saint,
quickly a saint,
a great saint.”

14. A
JOURNEY
OF FAITH,
IN TRIAL
in darkness

15. The first
trial that
purified her
was the
discovery of
herself as a
person who
resists God.
She felt
herself as
part of the
world of
sin.
“I only do that which
is bad” (1927).
“Jesus have mercy
on me.”

16. The
understanding
of her personal
poverty
brought her to
work hard on
herself
through the
examination of
conscience so
as to remove all
that which was
resistance, in a
particular way,
pride.

17. January 1927
“Search only for Him. Beginning right now, I unite
my prayers and sufferings to the intentions of
Jesus in the holy Host, and I want to renew this
offering with every beat of my heart.”

18. The
understanding of
her personal
poverty brought
her towards an
always deeper
growth in trust
in God.

19. A trust that in time is transformed
into great love for the Master,
a love that is personal and explicit.
“This year has just begun. Will I finish it? I don’t
know... I know however that if I do well the will of
God, if I love the Lord very much I will go to
Heaven with him... It is not important if I have a
long or short life, what is important is to love God”
(1938).

20. She
experienced
darkness
during the
journey of the
Congregation.
“In certain
moments,
things seemed
so dark we
understood
nothing.” (1918)
“Here we are
truly in
darkness”…
(1937)

21. It is a
journey of
bare
FAITH
The darkness
was even
more dark
when in 1939
she had to
guide three
sectors of the
apostolate,
led by three
superiors....

22. “I am truly in
darkness… Let us do
as they tell us and
we will not make a
mistake. One can see
that the Lord wants
to fortify our
Congregational
charism because he
is sending us many
crosses.”

23. A constant glance at Jesus.

24. “That my thoughts and my
affections become always
more humble and united to
those of Jesus.
Unite myself to him;
let myself be transformed
into Him” ( 1931).

25. Mother Thecla placed her
gaze on Jesus, and this gaze
was transformed into a
commitment of imitation and
profound union:
Jesus is good, I am bad,
Jesus is everything, I am
nothing. Jesus is humble,
I am proud.

26. When she was alive,
She became a constant
teaching for the Congregation.
A Congregation made up of
persons who are sincere,
simple, poor, carriers of
peace: persons committed to
the imitation of Christ.
“Do we want to be true
disciples of Jesus? Imitate him:
he responded always with
meekness and kindness even
to sinners. Let us remember
that humble and kind words
are seeds that will sprout and
bear fruit….”

27. Her prayer life was expressed
through the practices of piety
of the Institute:
“Take the points of
piety one at a time:
1) First moment – spirit
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
of energy
Preventive Exam –
recollection
The Mass according
to our method
Communion
Union with God –
ejaculations, etc.
The Visit – Rosary.”
Attitude to assume:
vigor and spiritual
energy.

28. Humility - littleness
abandonment
“We need to become
little, little.”
“Let us kneel
before the crib….”
“We cannot do anything
without grace.”
“We are nothing….”

29. Dearest,
I have learned that
we are nothing, we do not
count for anything and we
cannot do anything without
the grace of God.
But the nothingness that we are
is gathered up by God,
who “made his dwelling among us,”
rewards us,
has pity on our weakness
and who will sustain us
with his strong arms
(Cir 76)

30. From the
littleness of
Mother
Thecla
springs
forth total
trust in
God:

31. providence
“Because God is
our Father, if we
seek him alone,
he will send us
the food and
clothing we need
each day.... We
will be nourished
by the
immaculate flesh
of the Savior and
his Gospel.”

32. “BE LITTLE
Let us keep ourselves little, therefore doubt ourselves and
place much trust in the goodness of the Lord.”

33. believe
“Believe
that everything
is arranged by
our good
Heavenly
Father....
I will examine
myself to see
whether or not
my heart rests
serenely in the
Lord, in the
heart of God,
who is
continually
thinking about
me....”

34. “With Him one can live
without worrying, even
if the trials are many....
Do not worry
yourselves, he will help
us gradually….”
A strength that is born
from confidence

35. Abandonment
“Total abandonment in God,
complete... I abandon myself like
a little child.
I completely entrust myself to the
Lord in everything.”

36. “Stay
with the Lord
in trust and
serenity
recalling that
he loves me
and I love
him.”

37. “Full trust in Jesus and in the
Madonna. Patience in everything and
with everyone. Trustful serenity”
(1947).

38. Fr. Alberione
gave his approval
to her resolutions
saying:
“Live in Jesus
Master. Jesus
Master will be
light for the mind;
comfort and
intimate joy. His
continual
presence in the
soul will be
always more
felt....” (LMT)

39. Holy Year 1950-1951.
- This year has just begun. Will I finish it? I don’t
know.
- I want to dedicate all the minutes, hours, days and
months of this year to God, to Him alone.
- I renounce my own will and cling only to the will of
God.
- I renounce my preferences and my way of seeing
things, so as to have only God’s preferences.
- I want to do everything for him alone.
- May my life be a continual “Magnificat.”

40. Mother Thecla teaches us that contemplation does not
impede the most intense actions.
The apostolate signifies prolonging the apostolate of Jesus
and as such unites us to God.

41. “If there is not recollection, a
spirit of prayer, one cannot do
good to souls.”
“The apostolate is vital
prayer that unites us to
God..... When we give a
book, we give grace.”

42. A strong and constant tension
“That you
arrive at full
transformation
in Christ”
(1963)
“Live in Jesus.
In this way our thoughts
and our affections will be his.
Our will is his will, so that
we have his same desires.”

43. “It is Jesus who lives in me with the Father
and the Holy Spirit. Adoration, union,
recollection….
The Trinity is my family.”

44. “… Live unity of life with
Jesus Master.”
Stay united to Jesus. May
my thoughts be his
thoughts, my will his will.
Love the Father above all,
for him and with him.
Sacrifice for souls.”
Imitate St. Paul in his union
with the Divine Master: ‘Who
will separate me from the
love of Christ’?” (1963)

45. “Today a more intense life with Jesus Master.
Everything with him: unity” (1963)
“The silence of Jesus in the tabernacle
governs the world in silence.”

46. “Live in Jesus…
Arrive at intimate union
with the Divine Master;
reach the highest degree of
prayer, to ‘it is no longer I
who live but it is Christ
living in me’… to the point
of being the praise of God.”

47. She concentrated all her teaching on
only one objective:
the vocation to holiness.
“The apostles
of the press
should all be
saints: do we
at least have
the firm and
resolute will to
become one?”

48. The key word of her
teaching is:
Progress…

49. Progress to the
point of total
abandonment, to the
point of being “in
continual adoration,”
to the point of
expressing the
“magnificat”
with one’s life.

50. “We need to
acquire a heart
full of God
so as to carry him
to souls.”

51. “How beautiful
and holy it is
to communicate
Jesus to souls,
this Jesus
whom we desire
to always carry
in the center of
our heart.”

52. “Prima Maestra is not absent,
she is present…
do not feel her far away,
but feel her always near.”
Blessed James Alberione, Founder)

53. www.daughtersofstpaul.com