Turin (Italy). On the occasion of the Solemn Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Consecration of Mary Help of Christians Basilica in Turin, the Mother General of the FMA sent a message that was read by Sr. Phyllis Neves, Visiting Counselor, representing her.
Message of Mother General – Mother Yvonne Reungoat, FMA for the 150 years of the Consecration of Mary Help of Christians Basilica.
“Dearest Fr. Stefano Martoglio, Dearest Provincial Fr. Enrico Stasi and Salesian Confreres, Dearest Sr. Elide Degiovanni Provincial, Dearest Sisters, Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Dearest members of the Salesian Family and pilgrims devoted to Mary Help of Christians and all who are present here, Although I am physically far, I am in deep communion with you and I wish to share the joy of this special recurrence at the feet of the Virgin Mary Help of Christians.
As Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, we are the living monument desired by Don Bosco to express his gratitude to Mary. The stones of this shrine that she herself built as a miracle of grace were not enough to express his gratitude. Living hearts were needed. This is why today, after 150 years since the consecration of the Basilica, all the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians on the five continents are found here, in an immense spiritual pilgrimage, together with the young and the laity of our realities and with the people of God, diverse and multi-cultural, of the whole world. All of us as Christians are also Marian. In fact, Mary gives us Jesus and brings us to Jesus. Looking at her, we discover the awe of the daily proclamations with which the Word of the Lord reaches us. Her adoring silence allows us to distinguish them among the many proclamations and promises of the world. With her we discover the surprise of being looked at by God, loved and sent by Him.
Mary teaches us to get on our way to meet the women and men of today, and to contagion especially the hearts of the young with life and hope. Mary helps us to overcome the sense of powerlessness and of indifference toward our brothers and sisters: the lack of trust in relationships.
She involves us in a holy haste to ask Jesus to work the miracle of new wine: the wine of joy that transforms hearts and opens them to the newness of the Holy Spirit. With Mary’s heart, we affirm that life, especially fragile life that is rejected, offended in its dignity, is precious and merits our care with special attention to details.
To You, Mother, we entrust the labors and travails of humanity. We hand you the desire of all who are searching for their vocations and of those who have lost the meaning of life, or no longer seek it.
Make us open to the action of the Holy Spirit so that we may in daily life write a new page of history: in humility, in littleness, in tenderness, and in compassion, bending over with concern situations of greater need and fragility. Give us eyes able to marvel, to see the new that is blossoming, to open ourselves to mystery.
Grant that everyone, especially the young people, may discover not only that they are destined for proclamation, but that their own life is a mission on this earth.
Form in all of us a heart open to trust, able to transmit it to the young so that they do not feel they are guests, but rather the beloved children in God’s house, and thus ready for a fraternity without barriers, at the caring and solicitous service of others. Grant that we may also learn from their freshness and generosity, from their desire to put themselves into play for something that is beautiful and great.
To you, Mother, I entrust the deep desire for holiness present in the heart of every Daughter of Mary Help of Christians: that pleasant and attractive holiness that was witnessed to us by St. John Bosco and St. Mary Domenica Mazzarello whose relics are kept in this Basilica.
I invoke over all of us from Your Son Jesus, the Father’s blessed embrace. Amen!
Turin, 9 June 2018 Sr. Yvonne Reungoat, FMA
