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Celebration of the 110 years of the Foundation of the
Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles
Borromeo-Scalabrinian
An Invitation to make memory and to be prophecy
Sr. Analita Candaten, mscs
This year the date of October
25 assumes a special meaning; hence, we celebrate the 100 years
of the death of Our Founder Blessed John Baptist Scalabrini, as
well as, the conclusion of the Eucharistic Year. We know how
much Scalabrini loved the Eucharist, devotion that John Paul II
recalled in the homily of His Beatification: “Scalabrini was
proufoundly in love with God in and extremely devoted to the
Eucharist.” In this profound relationship with the Lord,
Scalabrini’s confidence and optimism grew, which led him to
intervene in each situation and give him the certainty that God
conducts history. In a period of profound economic
social-political changes, in which provoked a great European
migration towards the Americas, Scalabrini undertook a specific
pastoral action, personally assuming the responsibility of
gathering collaborators and continuators of his work, which the
Congregation of the mscs Sisters makes part. The beginning of
Congregation was accompanied by successive difficulties and at
the same time, it was a period rich of fruits of sanctity and
the affirmation of the identity of the congregation thanks to
the charismatic fidelity of the co-founder Mother Assunta
Marchetti.
Today, in the context of globalization a diffusion of
integration process and interdependence in the life of the
different people of the world increase more and more the
mobility of the workers and on the other side, the restrictive
migratory politics in the countries of destination impede a
praiseworthy developed order, and becoming vulnerable condition
of millions of migrants. Intense interlacing marks the new
historic contexts itself of migration, where we can see the
presence of thousands of faces of the other: other peoples,
ethnics groups, cultures, languages, and religions.
In this reality is incarnated the Scalabrinian Charism in which
needs a constant renewal. This signifies to return to the
fountains and to the original foundation of our mission,
drinking the crystalline water in the spirit of the founder and
co-founders. Reinterpret the spirit of Scalabrini in front of
the daily challenges of migration; it makes us walk in direction
towards new frontiers, which challenges us. The tradition and
the prophecy constitute two complementary dimension of the
charism, and in this resides the strength of the expression
“creative fidelity”. Therefore, it is necessary to nourish from
the fount and of the root not for crystallize the time and the
history, but to denounce the differences, which takes to a
constant dislocation. Announcing the urgency of the profound
change of the relations between persons and countries, to
witness peace and justice in the frontiers of many diversities,
to be artifices of a culture of welcoming and of the solidarity,
the familiarity of differences, where no migrant feel stranger
and without a country.
If we know how to welcome migration as one the “signs of the
times” a real Kairos and a providential occasion for the
rejuvenation and an enrichment of the Congregation, our presence
in the world of human mobility will become ever more prophetic.
This demands discernment and renewed commitment with the Lord of
history, conversion of our hearts, in a continued putting
competition with our differences in a respectful and
collaborative responsibility. Our structures also need to become
ever more flexible, and open with the boundaries and horizons.
In which permits greater promptness and swiftness in front of
the new missionary needs of the Congregation. Therefore, our
mentality and our performance need to recuperate the originality
of enthusiasm and freedom of the movement, feeling how important
it is the virtue of itinerancy, in which penetrates especially
in the ends of the neuralgic of the migratory reality, this is a
provocative impulse for the change.
In this sense we find the figure of St. Charles whose feast we
celebrate on Nov. 4, an example of someone who made himself a
synthesis between a radical dedication to God and the exigencies
of the man and provoked significant changes in the Church and in
society of that time. The strength in the struggles, the
perseverance in the projects the sensibility with others, also
with the self-sacrifice, came because he was rooted in Christ.
In his pastoral action he touched with the hands the problems of
the people and brought the priest in their midst. Scalabrini
wanted that we be called Missionaries of St. Charles, because he
discovered in this great Saint the expression of himself and of
his own inspiration. They were two men with their feet on the
ground, but with their look towards the future. To have them as
an example of life moving in us motives of thanksgiving in the
forthcoming Congregational Celebrations encourages us in moments
of difficult in our missions with the migrants and give us
audacity of those who walk in the path of hope.
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*This article was written by
Sister Analita Candaten, mscs as part of an integrated plan of
action between CSEM and collaborating sisters.
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