Villa Colón (Uruguay). From 23 to 30 October 2023, the Spiritual Exercises were held in Villa Colón, Montevideo, in Immaculate Conception Province (URU), in which the Mother General of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Sister Chiara Cazzuola, and the Provincials of America participated. On 21 October, Mother Chiara was welcomed at Montevideo airport by the Provincial, Sister María de los Ángeles Grassi.
They were intense days of meeting, discussion, and prayer in the footsteps of the first six missionaries who set foot on American soil. The experience was in fact, part of the Missionary Spirituality Project (PEM), which finds its foundation in the Church’s exhortation to revive the missionary spirituality that should characterize every Christian. The FMA Institute feels urged to renew itself with the ardor that has characterized it since its origins, as evidenced by the many extraordinary stories of charity written with life in unknown and distant places.
The PEM team made up of FMA from the CICSAL and CIB interprovincial conferences, has been operating since 2005 and has accompanied the different stages of this missionary experience carried out at the origins of the charism in America. On this occasion, Sisters and a lay person from Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, and Uruguay were present. The preparation of these Spiritual Exercises was for them a reason for study, prayer, and synodal work. This enriched the team and the proposals provided.
The motto that accompanied the days was: “Go and bear fruit”, in harmony with the biblical reading of John 15:1-15, explored in depth in the Lectio Divina of 24 October. The memory of those who helped the Charism take root, not only in Uruguay, but throughout America, was a reason for gratitude and recognition of courage, self-giving, and incessant dedication for the good of the mission.
Traveling through the significant places of the “American Mornese”, making so much life pass through one’s heart, making the feelings, stories, sufferings and joys of the early communities one’s own, has given a new meaning to today and to the realities of each Province. Villa Colón, Las Piedras, the Island of Flores, have been transformed into concrete places in which to rediscover the passage of the Lord in life and mission.
The reference to Mother Mazzarello and her American daughters through the Letters spoke to the Provincials of freshness, of trust, strengthening Mother’s gift of motherhood and the filiality of those who had left Genoa at a very young age, never to return.
One of the most significant encounters of these Exercises was that with the Help of Christians holding the smiling Child. As the Chronicle of the FMA Institute joyfully recounts, it accompanied the crossing of the Savoy and is still there today presiding over the Chapel of the Mother House in Uruguay:
.. Fr. Cagliero shows up with another beautiful painting on canvas: Mary Help of Christians, holding a lovely smiling Child in her arms. “I stole it in the sacristy of Valdocco, he says jokingly. I stole it for you. It was painted by a gentleman who suffered eye pain and was about to go blind. He turned to Don Bosco who, after guiding the brush for a moment on the canvas, blessed it. The patient found himself perfectly cured and gave us this beautiful Madonna.” It is therefore a miraculous painting. It gives joy just to see it! Don Bosco re-blessed it and sends it to the missionaries. “Bring it with you, and may the Madonna bless you and accompany you on the long journey” (Cronistoria 2, p. 288).
Mary, present at the beginning of Christianity in each of the countries of America and the Caribbean, was welcomed, received, and celebrated in these Exercises as that good Mother who takes care of her children and encourages them to seek Jesus, to place in Him all their worries and fatigue.
The testimonies of those who participated show that missionary “fire and ardor” are still present in the FMA, beyond the adverse conditions of the countries, and that the da mihi animas, cetera tolle is the commandment of the heart to continue to do good.
This graced experience will certainly be shared by the Provincials in their own Provinces, and will help them to keep their “hearts burning and their feet on the move” just as Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello dreamed, to always go “beyond”.
To find out more about this experience, to pray, to listen to the resonances, the PEM team invites you to visit the website of the Missionary Spirituality Project where you can also find the photos, the summary videos, and the video message of Mother to the Sisters of America.
