First of all, I feel I must tell you that there has always been peace and cheerfulness here along with goodwill on the part of everyone to become holy and I thank God for this. To tell you the truth, I am amazed and embarrassed when I see all these Daughters always so cheerful and serene. It is clear that despite my great unworthiness, our dear Mother Mary Most Holy, Help of Christians really gives us great graces. Please pray that we may always maintain and increase this spirit and that the virtues which we see blossoming may be more interior than exterior.
-Mother Mazzarello
In a letter to Fr. Cagliero, October 1876
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Sounds like something I could’ve written! I think that even though we look like we have all together, we usually don’t!
With the way the world is today it is so refreshing to read the post above. It is a blssings that the Salesian Sisters have a model to follow (even though their foundress felt unworthy) and that this saintly woman saw in her Sisters their spiritual longings to be a force for good in the world for all time.
I still believe that any life has its ups and downs including religious life. Yet, it is what one does with the ‘downs’ that shows true character. The foundress shows she is always praying that her Sisters contine to grow (they are not perfect). She knew religious life demanded a great deal. For some people in life it’s hard to get out of bed and here St Mozarrello is asking her daugters to give of their all. Fourteen thousand sisters has to be some type of proof. The Sisters deserve respect and gratitude.
What I like the best is the encouragement of seeing the good in her daughters. This makes me wonder why so many communities have lost so many sisters.? I have a feeling the Salesian Sisters have that inner drive and maybe some special secret
i have really fallen in love with St. Mary Mazzarello this year…she is helping me so much during my year of novitiate!! i love in this quote how she stresses the importance of the interior virtue over the exterior. i don’t think Mother Mazzarello would have had anything to do with a flashy, showy, fake spirituality. she wanted real, humble, interior holiness. thats so beautiful!! i pray that she can ask God to grant me these virtues she speaks of here!