8 December 2020
Dear Sisters,
I am glad to have the opportunity to send you my greetings on this feast that is so dear to us.
The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception prepares us for Christmas and immerses us in the mystery of the Son of God who, to come among us, chose the immaculate womb of a Woman.
This festivity is a renewed invitation to holiness, to fulfil his Word in each one of us, to make His personal call resound in our hearts, which is renewed every day and calls for our response in fidelity and love.
“Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live in love in his presence.” (Eph 1: 4)
Mary listened to, and accepted the Word of God. She, Mother of the Church, Mother of our Institute and each one of us, invites us to be “all listening” and to be witnesses.
Let us ask her for the grace not to “get used to” the Word, but to take the responsibility of guarding it, interiorising it, deepening it and living it with intensity, throughout the journey of life.
May the listening of the Word through her immaculate heart accompany us on the path that she first walked.
To Mary, maternal guide of our Congregation, we ask that the love for her Son may increase in us.
In this Advent, a time of hope and certainty, let us intensify our prayer and our fraternal charity. We entrust to her this time that precedes the appointment of the Provincial and Delegation Councils, that our hearts may be free, available, open to love and to the service of the sisters and brothers from all over the world.
The Lord needs us to make visible that love that the world is longing.
Let us await with Mary the coming of the Son of God with the desire to be evangelisers and givers of hope in the realities in which we find ourselves.
Together we implore: “Come, Lord Jesus.”
With the Sisters of the Council,
