“Let us invoke Mary, our Mother, who brought peace into the world, being the Mother of the Prince of Peace.” — Saint Magdalene of Canossa
In this time marked by wars, tensions and uncertainties that touch so many families, communities and nations closely, we return to the words of our Foundress, Saint Magdalene of Canossa, who invites us to invoke Mary not as a refuge far removed from the world, but as the Mother who generates peace — she who brought into history, in the flesh of her own Son, the Prince of Peace himself.
A peace born from the Cross
Those who know us are aware of how central the Crucified Christ is to our spirituality. At the foot of the Cross, Mary was not a stranger to pain, violence and injustice: she lived through them with silent faith and faithful love. This is the peace we can invoke today for a wounded world — not the absence of conflict, but the presence of Christ Crucified and Risen amid the fragility of humanity.
A charism that challenges us every day
As a Canossian community, rooted in Christ Crucified and called to bring him into the most wounded situations of history, the thought of Saint Magdalene continually calls us back to a concrete question: what peace are we bringing today, in our environments, in our relationships, in our service?
It is not enough to invoke peace: we are called to become instruments of it, in every school, mission, work and everyday gesture that marks our presence in the world.
An invitation we renew together
To you who follow our journey, who share our spirituality, or who are simply moved by these words, we renew the invitation to unite prayer and action:
- to pray for those living amid war and violence;
- to educate the younger generations in reconciliation and mutual respect;
- to be a presence of consolation alongside those who suffer;
- to cultivate, in everyday life, concrete gestures of kindness, listening and forgiveness.
Just as Mary brought the Prince of Peace into the world, so each of us — within our own vocation and context — is called to be a small sign of that peace which the world cannot give, but which comes from God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God” (Mt 5:9).
Mary, Mother of Peace, pray for us.