Franciscan Missionaries of Mary

Via Giusti, 12

I – 00185 – ROMA

N° 14

December 2013

Dear Sisters,

The Church’s Advent liturgy is our companion in our familiar yet ever new preparation for the birth of Jesus Christ, true God and true man. In our prayer together let us ask for the grace of wonder...the wonder of Francis as he contemplated the humility of God in the Incarnation of Jesus of Nazareth.

Another companion during this Advent season and afterwards will surely be “Evangelii Gaudium”, the Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis. It is a passionate reminder that “the joy of the Gospel is such that it cannot be taken away from us by anyone or anything.”

The final chapter, for example, is dedicated to “spirit-filled evangelizers”: those who are “fearlessly open to the working of the Holy Spirit” and who have “the courage to proclaim the newness of the Gospel with boldness … in every time and place, even when it meets with opposition” (259). These are “evangelizers who pray and work” (262), in the knowledge that “mission is at once a passion for Jesus and a passion for his people” (268): “Jesus wants us to touch human misery, to touch the suffering flesh of others “(270).

Pope Francis urges us not to be discouraged before failure or scarce results, since “fruitfulness is often invisible, elusive and unquantifiable”; we must know “only that our commitment is necessary” (279). Encouraging words for us FMM as together we enter into the third step of the General Chapter Preparation process.

What encouragement we have already received from the Lord as we rejoice at the recovery of Sr. Sue and Sr. Ana Maria! As they both regain their strength and energy, we can now hope that St. Michael’s will be together again as a “community-in-mission” when Ana Maria returns to Rome early in 2014. Many have shared their joy at seeing Sr. Sue on video on November 15th. Our celebration of Mary of the Passion on November 15th was one of profound thanksgiving for all that the Lord has done for us during this difficult but grace-filled year.

This ‘tempo forte’ was also marked by the peaceful though sudden death of Mrs. Cristele Tarraz, Sr. Marilyn’s mother. Sr. Marilyn is now with her three brothers and their families in this time of mourning and of thanksgiving for their dear mother’s life. We keenly miss our beloved sister Cristina Carrozzini, fmm who went to the Lord on August 22nd, 2013 when many of us were away from Rome on visits to the Provinces. Cristina came to Via Giusti in 1975, after spending some years in South Africa and Mozambique. For almost 40 years she was an ever kind and generously helpful presence to the St. Michael community, supporting us in ways too numerous to mention.

In response to the intense suffering of so many people in the Philippines as a result of Typhoon Haiyan, a donation on behalf of the whole Institute was sent to the Provincial and her council to help in their aid effort. Many sisters of the Philippine province as well as the community of the Novitiate for Chinese speaking Provinces have become directly involved in bringing comfort to the victims.

Our daily work has been accompanied by the often shrill sound of workers rushing to complete the work of construction at Via Giusti. We fervently hope that all this banging, drilling and digging will soon be over and we can begin to use the house to its full capacity:

Ø  The sisters in St. Helen’s Community have already begun making the many preparations necessary for the General Chapter of 2014 (8th September – 20th October) which will be held in Via Giusti for the first time since 1920.

Ø  The Community, faithful to the tradition begun by Mary of the Passion in this house, continues to reach out to those in need and are also reflecting on how a large section of the ground-floor (on Via Ferruccio) can be fully dedicated to outreach to the most vulnerable of this area of the city.

Ø  Conscious too of the need to generate income to contribute to the cost of running the General Houses, a team appointed by the General Council has advised that a pilgrim hotel (Casa per Ferie) in the St. Agnes part of the house is the best option at this time given the steadily increasing number of pilgrims visiting Rome since 2009.

We had a meeting from 11th to 15th November with the Chapter Preparation team (Sr. Cecilia, Sr. Emma and Br. Pierre, ofm) and by now you would have received the third step in our General Chapter Preparation process. We urge you to enter wholeheartedly into this final step where you are invited to reflect for the Institute as a whole.

The Charism Team also returned for the last of their planned meetings together here in Rome for two weeks to continue their reflections on the development of the Charism and to propose models of formation which will help each sister to encounter at an ever deeper level the person of Bl. Mary of the Passion. They will continue this work together (sifting and analysis of original documents which are now more accessible, translation, etc) by establishing a network of exchange via Internet.

FMM Pilgrimage 18th September to 18th of October: The 17 participants of 9 nationalities and from 16 Provinces[1] were very happy with this pilgrimage journey in the footsteps of Mary of the Passion (in Italy and in France) and of Francis of Assisi. In their evaluation, many sisters said that it was a time of spiritual renewal and transformation helping them to deepen their understanding of the FMM Charism, to appreciate their FMM vocation and to strengthen their love for the Institute.

On the negative side, a certain ambiguity in terms of the difference between a “tourist” and a “pilgrim” was evident.

We are very grateful to Sr. Evelyn Delicata, fmm, Sr. Florine Lobo and Sr. Mary Lobo, fmm as well as the Community of Via Giusti and the Provinces of Italy and France-Switzerland for their efforts to organize, accompany and welcome this first pilgrimage.

The next session will be in French from 16th March to 2nd May, 2014.

Sr. Marilyn Tarraz (General Bursar) with the members of the Institute’s financial team, Sr. Linda Price and Sr. Jolanda Delleman, met with all seven Provincial Bursars of Latin America[2] in Chile from the 21st to the 26th of October last. The aim of this encounter was to plan together a financial structure for their provinces which would best serve the Institute at this time.

We attended a conference organized by our OFM brothers on Fidelity and Perseverance of Vocations in a Culture of the Provisory at the Antonianum on 29th October, 2013. Cardinal JoãoBraz de Aviz and Archbishop Jose Rodriguez Carballo, ofm[3] were among the speakers who shared their concerns with us. Speaking about the high numbers of dispensations from final vows issued by their Congregation in the past five years (an average of 3,000 dispensations per year) they underlined the following as the most significant reasons why sisters/brothers abandon religious life:

  • Lack of spiritual life - serious neglect of prayer and sacramental life with an exclusive focus on work/apostolate.
  • Loss of a sense of belonging – little reference to community life (problems with relationships, individualism…); often critical of the congregation but with little sense of what might be their personal responsibility for these difficulties.
  • Emotional reasons/New relationships….

The leading Italian expert on formation, Fr. Amadeo Cencini, underscored the significance of a crisis for the spiritual growth in the life of any religious and spoke at length of the need for appropriate models of formation which allow for a life-long and constant search for faithfulness to God.[4] The full texts of this conference will be published in June, 2014.

We also attended a SEDOS Workshop (19th October) entitled “The God of Surprises – the Perpetual Novelty of Missio Dei”[5] given by Fr. Bede Ukwuije, CSSp. He addressed the need to reflect on the demands of mission in the contemporary world, particularly in the face of the temptation in missionary institutes to despondency when faced with many challenges including an apparent unwillingness among the younger generation to assume life-long commitments. Fr. Ukwuije makes a powerful call to young missionaries “to discover and integrate the cost of mission as total self-giving” and to older missionaries to “age gracefully”, which involves “humbly welcoming the reality of transition and being grateful to God for the marvels he works through our fragility.”

During this time our OFM brothers held their Plenary Council in Poland (17-30 November) to consider more deeply the government structures of the Order in the light of the challenges of mission today together with the reality of numerical decline and aging in Europe and the Americas alongside growth in Africa and Asia. The brothers were invited to dare to experiment with unchartered paths of presence and witness and the meeting also addressed the “much deeper process of restructuring that must take place, one that deals with a conversion of minds and hearts, the restructuring of each of us… allowing the Spirit of God to lead us on a path of constant conversion”[6]

We wish to express our grateful thanks to Sr. Hélène Prévot for her unassuming and dedicated service in the archives of Blessed Mary of the Passion for the past 13 years. It has been an arduous task of research and verification of original documents. Thanks to her work and after many years of planning, we have been able to computerize and microfilm the most significant part of these archives, using Mnémotique, a Belgian company specialized in this area. The preservation of these archives is thus assured for future generations. Hélène has been sent on mission to the Province of France-Switzerland and, in gratitude, we ask God’s abundant blessings on her future mission.

On November 24th last, many FMM sisters joined the crowds in St. Peter’s Square who gathered at the closing Mass for the Year of Faith. In his homily, Pope Francis thanked Benedict XVI, for giving “us an opportunity to rediscover the beauty of the journey of faith begun on the day of our Baptism, which made us children of God and brothers and sisters in the Church.”

He added: “the attitude demanded of us as true believers is that of recognizing and accepting in our lives the centrality of Jesus Christ, in our thoughts, in our words and in our works. And so our thoughts will beChristianthoughts, thoughts of Christ. Our works will beChristianworks, works of Christ; and our words will be Christianwords, words of Christ.”[7]

May the Peace and Joy of Christmas and Epiphany renew our faith as we look forward in hope to 2014.

Affectionately yours,

6

[1] India-Delhi, India-Chennai, India-Bangalore, India-Bombay, India-Ootacamund; Morocco, Philippines, Angola, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Vietnam, United States, Ghana-Liberia, Central & Eastern Europe, Canada

[2] Argentina/Uruguay, Bolivia/Chile, Brazil, Colombia/Ecuador, Mexico/Cuba/Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru

[3] Prefect and Secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life

[4] See Vita Consecrata 70.

[5]http://www.sedosmission.org/sedosarticles/documents/the_god_of_surprises_final_text.pdf

[6] New Wine in New Wineskins (Mt. 9, 17) The Future of Our Structures at the Service of Fraternity and Mission in the World: Brother Michael A. Perry, OFM Minister General

[7] Homily of Pope Francis, November 24th 2013