This September, the new issue of *Vita Più* will arrive: issue number 30. This time, the magazine’s pages will explore the future of the Canossian Family, with projects, visions and dreams. The issue is already complete, but, to make readers wait for the magazine with even greater desire, the cover and a short article are being released in advance.
TOMORROW “DI PIÙ” (MORE)
“Transmit the spirit of the Institute with integrity and perfection to those who will come after you”: Magdalene invites us to be faithful to our origins and, at the same time, creative in charity, because true love is creative and always finds new ways of expressing itself. The future of the Institute will therefore depend on how well we manage to keep alive the fire that burned in Magdalene’s heart, allowing ourselves to be moved by the same Spirit that always drove her to a “DI PIÙ” (a “MORE”).
I dream, for all of us, three “DI PIÙ”:
1. MORE in love with Jesus: Magdalene had a profound experience of God and was fascinated by the love of God, by the Eucharist and by the Word. Our Foundress was indeed a great mystic, who had intimate and profound encounters with the Lord.
We read in the *Memories*: “I could no longer love Him… I felt compelled, being unable to do it on my own, to love Jesus with the heart of Jesus”; and then: “I found myself assailed by outbursts of love for God and drawn to unite myself intimately with Him”.
Like her, every day we have our moments of prayer: Holy Mass, lectio…
May these moments become encounters with the One who loves us, encounters that transform us, make us fall in love and send us on mission, encounters in which we allow ourselves to be increasingly fascinated by Him.
I dream of an Institute with sisters ever MORE in love with Jesus, who, like Magdalene, ask Jesus for his heart in order to love Him and to love as He knows how to love.
2. MORE passionate in making Him known and loved: Magdalene never kept anything for herself; so moved was she by her great desire that Jesus be known and loved that nothing could stop her. Through tireless charity, she knew how to give herself with extraordinary generosity, with a special gaze towards the poorest, forgetting her own interests, her tastes, her personal desires.
She was always ready for what God asked of her, as she writes in the *Memories*: “I felt very willing to go, for the Lord and his service, even to the North Pole”; “to go to the Pole”, “to be transformed into dust”: all expressions born of a heart passionate and fascinated by Jesus, which leads her to give herself without calculations, without measure, without seeking any gratification, only the satisfaction that Jesus be known and loved.
I dream of an Institute with sisters ever MORE generous and dedicated to others, who do not measure their dedication because the fire of God’s love burns in their hearts and “their only distinctive mark is charity”.
3. MORE joyful and fraternal: joy and fraternity were what Magdalene most desired and what made her heart happy: “They prolong my life by 10 years”, she told the sisters when they were living in charity. Joy and fraternal love are vocational signs.
For the Institute to continue to live for many more years, we must be joyful witnesses and we must take care of one another, support one another, respect one another, value one another, love one another greatly. In this way, there will always be young people who allow themselves to be challenged by our lives.
Magdalene repeats to us again and again: “I advise you to be as joyful as possible”; “Try to be joyful, showing outwardly also the joy you have in your heart”.
Joy is a very Canossian characteristic, since we have also inherited Magdalene’s joy; for this reason, every Canossian is called to be, in her concrete reality, a joyful sign of God’s love. May all those who meet us leave a little happier!
I dream of an Institute made up of communities that live fraternity ever more joyfully, where all the sisters feel supported, listened to, loved and together are joyful witnesses of God’s love.
In short, I dream of Sisters who burn with the Love of Jesus and love without measure.
I dream of Sisters who every day risk themselves to BE daily ever MORE Daughters of Charity.
I dream of Sisters who are MORE servants of the poor, capable of giving MORE in mission and who are not afraid to risk MORE to transform their reality with the Gospel.
I dream of an Institute poor in titles, but rich in charity.
I dream of joyful communities, which make visible the tenderness and mercy of God; sisters who spread the joy of consecration.
I dream that, every time someone meets a Canossian, they will always be able to recognise something of Magdalene’s heart.
I am convinced, I am certain, that this future, this dream, begins today, in the small and silent fidelity of each one of us, of every Canossian, in every corner of the world where we find ourselves. Let us dream together and build together the present and the future, sustained by the fidelity of so many Mothers who have gone before us. Tomorrow depends on our yes to what Magdalene proposes to us TODAY. Surely, today she would say to each one of us: “Courage, dear daughter, it is about MORE!”.
Dear Sisters, let us remain faithful to the beautiful gift of the Charism we have received, to Jesus who has called us and whom we follow, to Magdalene from whom we receive this splendid inheritance, to the brothers and sisters to whom we are sent and, always by the hand of Mary our Mother, let us go towards a “DI PIÙ” (a “MORE”)!
Mother Jorgelina Edith Sancho, Argentina and Paraguay
