Messaggio della Consigliera per le Missioni_14 july 2021 ENG

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Rome, 14 July 2021
Dearest Sisters,
Once again the joy of meeting is renewed and renews us! I greet you with great affection
and I think of you engaged in summer activities (for those who have finished the school year), or
involved in normal educational and pastoral activities, despite the restrictions and difficulties
imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
I hope that the month of June, so full of love for the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, has allowed
you to revisit Don Bosco’s missionary dreams, as had been suggested in the previous message.
In the context of the Year of Saint Joseph, and of the XXIV General Chapter that invites us
to be communities that generate life in the heart of contemporaneity, I would like to offer you a
brief and simple reflection on the community of Mornese and the devotion to Saint Joseph.
The Cronistoria (vol. 2) tells us that in Mornese, we are in 1872, when the number of
postulants increases and the means of subsistence decrease, trust in the dear ‘treasurer’ St. Joseph
also increases. Later in 1877, “the month of March brings a new increase in devotion to St. Joseph.”
All are invited to “show him more than ever their gratitude for having corresponded to the
responsibility entrusted to him as the ‘economer’ of the house.”
On a certain occasion, the community prepares to begin the novena to St. Joseph. “Mother
advises the community to make it very fervent to obtain two graces.” One refers to the health of a
Sister, Sr. Rosa Mazzarello, so good and so sick. The other, that Saint Joseph, “by accepting the
office of economer of the Institute, helps to pay the debts that are becoming bigger every day.”
In Mornese, St. Joseph was also invoked in the discernment of vocations, as is the case of
the adolescent and orphan Maria Belletti, who was disoriented
because “her heart was already filled with quite different hopes.”
Initially, Maria Belletti refused the idea of becoming a Sister, but
then … followed by the community, especially by Mother, by Sr.
Enrichetta, and by the Confessor, under the loving gaze of Saint
Joseph, she asked to be accepted into the Institute. “Oh, mother, I
am unworthy of it, but … I want you to be a mother for me as
well.” And Mother Mazzarello replied, “If you want to be my
daughter, I will be your true mother.” The ‘conversion’ of this
young woman will be considered a ‘gift’ from St. Joseph.
The adoptive father of Jesus, who so carefully cared for and
protected the life of the Son of God and of Mary, His Mother, will
often be invoked by the sisters of the first community, even and
above all in times of danger. Proof of this is the story in the
Cronistoria (vol. 2). On March 20, after going to Gavi, on their
return Mother and some sisters meet with a horse that has escaped
the driver’s control. They invoke St. Joseph “and the horse passes
them by, pulls straight in its mad run, without causing any damage.”
Now, what I would like to emphasize more concerns the
departure of the second missionary expedition. We are in the year
1878, towards the end of December. There are 10 FMA leaving,

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headed by Sr. Maddalena Martini, who will be the first Provincial of the Institute. This expedition
will then depart on January 1, 1879.
The Cronistoria recounts (vol. 2) that, to each of those departing, Mother gives her particular
reminders, “according to personal needs.”
Meanwhile, what is most striking is the initiative of the Director of Mornese, Fr. Lemoyne.
In greeting each missionary, he “places in each hand a small image of Saint Joseph, with these
reminders: 1 - prompt obedience to the will of God; 2 - cheerful resignation to the will of the divine
good pleasure; 3 - generous indifference for everything that does not concern the will of God.”
A lot could be said about each of these reminders. But what immediately leaps to our eyes is
the repeated expression, God’s will. Even more relevant is that these reminders were given together
with a small image of Saint Joseph. He is the ‘just one’ who shaped his life to the will of God. In
everything, he ‘listened’ to and accepted the will of God with an open heart. To every
request/revelation of God, he answered his ‘yes’ with generosity. He put nothing before the will of
God.
Dear sisters, we are invited to meditate on these three reminders of Fr. Lemoyne to the
missionaries of 1879, which are of great relevance and are still today very appropriate for the
growth of each of us. We implore the intercession of St. Joseph so that our life may be a single ‘yes’
to God’s will. Let us ask him to help us live “prompt obedience, cheerful resignation, and generous
indifference,” because, above all, we want to live according to God’s will.
In our personal and community prayer, let us invoke Saint Joseph. Let us entrust to him the
health of all people, especially those affected by the Coronavirus; young women in discernment;
people who, due to the pandemic, have lost their jobs and are in great economic difficulty. Let us
ask him to defend the neediest people from dangers, tried in many ways, and that he be the support
of those who invoke him.
Let us pray with Pope Francis (Patris Corde):
Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer,
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
To you God entrusted his only Son;
in you Mary placed her trust;
with you Christ became man.
Blessed Joseph, to us too,
show yourself a father
and guide us in the path of life.
Obtain for us grace, mercy, and courage,
and defend us from every evil. Amen.
We ask the intercession of St. Joseph, Mary, and our Saints for the XXIV General Chapter
and for the success of our educational-evangelizing-missionary mission among young people, with
young people, for young people.
We remain in communion in mutual prayer. With fraternal affection, and a warm embrace.
Sr. Alaide Deretti
Councilor for the Missions