Lettera Madre Epiphany 2020

My dear Sisters …

CONGREGAZIONE
SUORE DELLA PROVVIDENZA ROSMINIANE
Via Aurelia, 773
ROMA

My dear Sisters,
As we continue to celebrate this time of Christmas – let us go with the Magi to offer the Christ Child
– the Word made flesh for us – what we are and what we have.
“Let us approach with humble reverence, but without fear, so as to offer our homage to the Son of
God, the eternal Word made flesh for us and born in a stable, placed in a manger among the cattle
(such a mystery of love, a miracle of mercy!) Let us approach, I say, the divine Child, our redemption,
our justice, our salvation, our joy, our love – and therefore our one hope, desire and consolation.” (A.
Rosmini, AL. Vol V Lett. 174)
“When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his
mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him”.
In a similar way, God communicates with us through the great and small events of our lives.
Are we conscious and aware of this? Are we open to receive an abundance of goodness from Him?
He is the Epiphany of the Father’s Love: “… if you dare, to open your heart to the most tender
emotions and accept the gift of that peace he offers to all who love him. … then may you experience
and conserve among you that perfect peace, the peace of Jesus Christ that is the fruit of charity, in
the scriptural expression, the beauty of peace: “in pulchritudine pacis”.
I pray with all my heart to the infant Jesus that he would himself imprint on your heart all these
teachings which are His. It was he who gave them and only he can make them efficacious. (A.L. Vol
VIII 22)
In the Message for the 53rd World Day of Peace, Pope Francis describes peace as a journey of hope
to be undertaken in a spirit of dialogue, reconciliation and ecological conversion.
He sees peace “a precious good” and a goal towards which to strive despite obstacles and trials.
“Hope – he writes – is the virtue that sets us on the way, gives us wings to move forward, even when
obstacles seem insurmountable. Our human community bears, in memory and in the flesh, the signs
of the wars and conflicts that have taken place, with increasing destructive capacity, and which never
cease to strike especially the poorest and weakest.”
“Setting out on a journey of peace is a challenge made all the more complex because the interests
at stake in relationships between people, communities and nations, are numerous and conflicting.
We must first appeal to people’s moral conscience and to personal and political will. Peace emerges
from the depths of the human heart and political will must always be renewed, so that new ways
can be found to reconcile and unite individuals and communities”.
He also urges to be artisans of peace: “The world does not need empty words but convinced
witnesses, artisans of peace open to dialogue without exclusion or manipulation. … In the first place,
this means believing in the possibility of peace, believing that others need peace just as much as we
do. Here we can find inspiration in the love that God has for each of us: a love that is liberating,
limitless, gratuitous and tireless. …Having received his forgiveness in Christ, we can set out to offer
that peace to the men and women of our time”.
The joy of the birth of the Saviour of the world crosses the confines of the peace that his coming has
brought. Peace – Shalom, not only evokes the absence of war, but the fullness of life, the abundance
of the grace of God.
Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me…
“May Mary, Mother of the Prince of Peace and Mother of all the peoples of the earth,
accompany and sustain us at every step of our journey of reconciliation.
And may all men and women who come into this world experience a life of peace
and develop fully the promise of life and love dwelling in their heart”.
We thank God for the Sisters in Muheza, Tanzania, who on 3 January 2020 took a new step in
following Jesus:
– 2 Novices who made their First Profession: YOHANA EVODI ASSENGA and JENIFA FELIX SHIRIMA
– 4 postulants who entered the Novitiate on 1 January: SELINA HAQWE QWENDO, LUCY BAYNIT
YUDAS, EMANUELA FILIPO ELIAS and DEVOTHA SHAYO;
we remember the Junior Sisters in Tanzania and in Kerala who renewed Vows at this time.
Happy Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord!
Let us become ‘epiphanies’ of goodness for one another and for all whom we meet on our
pilgrimage journey during 2020.
God bless.
With love, c.m.