Celebrate in Heaven for eternity

Rome (Italy). “Celebrate in Heaven for eternity” is the title of the song written by Maria Dina Bertotti, FMA Past Pupil, and set to music by Fr. Maurizio Palazzo, Salesian of Don Bosco, given to all the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians on the occasion of the 150^th anniversary of the foundation of the FMA Institute.

Part of the song accompanies the Mother Chiara’s Video-Message for August 5, 2022.

“Happy Feast to all the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians who with their presence in the world continue to bring the perfume of holiness of Mother Mazzarello! And Happy Birthday!” are the grateful words of Maria Dina.

“Today Heaven and earth gratefully look at each other.  Heaven thanks the earth for the life of this humble and strong daughter of the land of Mornese; the earth thanks Heaven to be able to celebrate her in the splendor of the Saints.  There is celebration; there is joy.

It is a feast to which I feel invited.  And it is a feast where one never goes with empty hands.

My gift is a song. Music knows how to recount the deepest emotions and all that is perhaps difficult to say.  A desire, an intuition that little by little appeared with the approach of the 150^th.

I entrusted this text to Fr. Don Maurizio Palazzo, SDB, Choir Master of the Chapel of the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin.

Together, we wanted it to be a narration of the simple story of Main, who was called to an increasing love of the Lord and of total self-giving.  It is an increase declined on a linear melody easily learned and easily performed that opens to a majestic and solemn finale.

It is a song that, just like Mother Mazzarello and her message could resound in the heart.

It was performed for the first time on 13 May 2022 in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin, during the Eucharistic Celebration through the voices of the FMA Postulants.  How beautiful!  Their young, clear voices gave it strength.

The next day, 14 May, it was the turn of Mornese, within a Spiritual Meditation in Music and Words, “Mornese lights up with light” in the evocative grandeur of the Sanctuary, with the ‘San Bernardo’ Choir of the Parish of Saints Martin and Gaudenzio in Novara, in the presence of the Provincials of Italy (UNISIT).

On 18 June, we performed it again in the intimacy of the Chapel of the Collegio, in the presence of Mother Chiara Cazzuola, of the General Councilors, and of the Salesian Novices, present in Mornese for the Spiritual Exercises.  It was an unforgettable encounter!

And now we give the hymn to Mother Chiara and in her, to the entire FMA Institute, to speak of our affection for Mother Mazzarello, Co-founder, first Superior, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, but also and for a long-time daughter, sister of a host of little brothers and sisters, a woman who worked the land, who gave herself to the care of the girls, zealous in the service of the Parish. A laywoman, like me. Like all of us who have sung.

This is why we wanted to celebrate her.

To you, therefore, dear Sisters, my sincere wish to continue walking and living every day, in the footsteps of Mother Mazzarello because …

“The dream is still the same,
Walk the streets of the world,
Gather the challenges of time
The prophecy of a ‘yes’”.

To us who meet you, who dialogue with you, and who share the mission with you, we love this dream so much. It is precisely the dream we are looking for. It is called acceptance, closeness, testimony of a life offered and given to the Lord, to young people, to the Church. The dream of the origins. The dream of Mornese.

May Mary Help of Christians, Don Bosco, all the Saints of the Salesian Family accompany us and bless us.

“ …and let it be a celebration in heaven for eternity!”.