125 YEARS… THE DREAM CONTINUES!

… Difficult to see the number 125 shining among the banners, among the various celebration signs and on a birthday cake!
… difficult? NO!: impossible! Possible instead!

f these signs of great joy, for a very special birthday, are dedicated to a great family, to a great fraternity, which precisely for 125 years has been traveling through history, growing in numbers, life, works, hopes; expanding in an incessant design, in the burning passion for the Kingdom, in the inexhaustible, regenerating Eucharistic energy, which produces missionary fruits now everywhere, from the next “here and now,” to the most distant goals already reached and still attainable in the operative daring of true faith!

Oh! but what sprang from your heart, Mother Seraphina in that distant 1898!!! what has gushed from this spring in Bertino?!! What sprouted from this charismatic Badia?! Yes, because we, too, CFMSS had, 125 years ago, our “Big Bang”: “GO, ENKINDLE, CARRY THE LOVE OF THE EUCHARISIC JESUS TO ALL!” and since then, this new creation of the Spirit has not stopped, on the contrary: it has developed, evolved, adapted to the times, to the needs of a running history, to the many cultures, to the poverties wittingly called “new” but which, after all, are the one, eternal hunger and thirst for God, in Christ: the only way truth and life, true food and true Eucharistic drink.

And here 125 years now become a new and miraculous kairòs, in which, on the level of authenticity and vitality, a distant beginning is combined with a today that is more alive than ever, and between whose folds, enclosed in the memory of the heart, it is right to reread together… How many a journey, how many efforts! How much rejoicing and how many tears! How so much prudence and so much divine folly! Great wisdom and abundant simplicity! How many deaths and how many resurrections! How much going and how much stillness, yes, but only at the foot of the tabernacle, only to resume….! And here we are. Here we are, it’s us CFMSS: 125 years of life and not feeling it! or rather, savoring it all in thanksgiving to the Lord, to every sister, every neighbor, every always enriching experience, especially to the Spirit, who has aroused us, accompanied us and still propels us in the apostolic pathways designed by the Father. Here we are, it is us: CFMSS, advancing undaunted – typical Seraphic style – carrying the Mysteries of a greater love, which has never failed us, but rather enlivened and pushed us toward the good of everything and everyone.

Here we are, this is us CFMSS. May 1, 1898-2023: Banners, icons, messages, presence, happiness and togetherness: our beautiful family deserves all this, today in an ‘unusual and sacred stopover at the Badia … but it is to celebrate our glorious and sunny number 125 YEARS. So “ad majora”, CFMSS!

Now a brief glimpse of this magical feast: At 9 o’clock the General Chapter members arrive, Mother Karuna and so many sisters who in Bologna are celebrating this event of grace, verification, growth and self-giving for all of us, in today’s world. At.10, in an ‘atmosphere filled with spirituality and recollection, our renewal of vows: different names, ages, voices, accents – same conviction, enthusiasm, gratitude, confidence and momentum! Then everything else: a ubiquitous swarming of sisters and people celebrating, under an cloudy sky, but in the splendor of many smiles. Beautiful was the Eucharistic celebration! presided over by our Bishop Monsignor Livio Corazza, for us more and more father, brother and friend; and other priests, affectionately close and familiar with our reality. Great celebration, with the absolute center of Word and Eucharist, adorned by songs in various languages and a graceful and evocative Indian dance. Then refreshments, yes, because agape is always beautiful and invigorating for body, soul and fraternal relationship. So many came, saw … tasted … until slowly, almost wavering, each one took the way back. Slowly, the evening silence fell over a Badia now “consumed” by so much joy and beauty.

But here we are, it is still and always us, CFMSS! And if the logbook counts as of today “its first 125 years,” space is still there! and plenty of it! So onward! And as if it were the rhyme of her telling us, Serafina,
LET’S GO, LET’S ENKINDLE, LET’S CARRY THE LOVE OF EUCHARISTIC JESUS TO ALL!

1st May 2023
Our Religious Family commemorates and celebrates the opening of the Jubilee Year, the EUCARISTIC MISSIONARY YEAR, on the anniversary of the Foundation of our Institute.