1.
1
Rome, 14 September 2021.
Dearest Sisters,
With a heart full of gratitude and thankful for what God has achieved in the missionary
history of our Institute, we have arrived at the last monthly message of the 14th
.
From January 2011 until today, we have met every month and we were able to ‘dialogue’
through reflection on one or another specific topic, all to warm our hearts together and keep alive
the missionary impulse of the origins (C 6).
On 26 September, with the whole Church, we will celebrate the 107th
World Day of
Migrants and Refugees, on the theme Towards an ever wider “We”. As a Sector, we have
illustrated the message of Pope Francis in a PowerPoint presentation that you have already received
through the Sister Coordinators / Province Referents.
I hope that all of us will be able to read, meditate, and implement what Pope Francis
indicated in his message, to further broaden our horizon of welcome and proximity to migrants and
refugees. Let’s remember that they are people like us, and that being born in the ‘right’ part of the
world is just a coincidence!
Furthermore, I think it is fundamental to take up the project “For a common home in the
diversity of peoples”, combining with the life in all our realities the verbs he proposes: go out, meet,
be close.
In the Apostolic Letter Patris Corde, Pope Francis presents St. Joseph as the Father of
creative courage. This appellation refers precisely to the condition in which the Holy Family finds
itself when, from the flight into Egypt as a migrant family, when forced to escape danger, crosses a
border, and becomes a guest in a foreign land. It was certainly a family that had no intention of
leaving their home!
In fact, Pope Francis writes, “Faced with the impending danger of Herod who wants to kill
the Child, once again in a dream Joseph is alerted to protect the Child, and in the middle of the night
he organizes the flight to Egypt (cf. Mt 2: 13-14). … The Gospel does not give information
regarding the time in which Mary and Joseph and the Child remained in Egypt. But they certainly
had to eat, find a home, a job. It doesn’t take much imagination to fill the silence of the Gospel in
this regard. The Holy Family had to face concrete problems like all other families, like many of our
migrant brothers and sisters who even today risk their lives forced by misfortune and hunger. In this
sense, I believe that St. Joseph is truly a special patron for all those who have to leave their land
because of wars, hatred, persecution, and misery.”
Dearest Sisters, I invite you to experience the next World Day of Migrants and Refugees by
looking at and contemplating the Holy Family and praying for all the families who are today on the
road or on a boat or step on the sand of a desert because they are forced to leave their land and to
live as foreigners, as migrants, as stateless persons in a world that builds walls instead of bridges;
instead of welcoming, rejects; instead of seeing in the other a brother, a sister, sees an illegal
immigrant, an invader, a criminal.
Prayer alone is not enough! To the extent of the ‘evangelically possible’, we try to take care
of our migrant brothers and sisters, if not materially, at least in our heart by welcoming them, not
judging them; hosting them, not condemning them; approaching them, not rejecting them. Let us try
to see in their face another face so well known by all of us, “… For I was hungry and you gave me

2.
2
food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you
clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me. … Come, you who are blessed
by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mt. 25).
Now I would like to end this message, letting my heart speak and giving to each of you my
THANK YOU!
Thank you because in these years of service in the Missions Sector, through the monthly
message I had the possibility of meeting with each of you and also with the missionaries ad gentes.
Thank you for your welcome and for the various resonances that have always arrived.
Thank you because I was able to experience the dynamism of the missionary spirit in the
diverse province and local realities. Thank you for your readiness to prepare and send to the mission
ad gentes the Sisters who felt and accepted this new call of the Lord. Thank you for welcoming and
accompanying the missionaries ad gentes when they return to their Province of origin to visit their
family and also to attend to their health or for a time of rest.
Thank you for having always received the new missionaries who, in view of the mission,
had the need to learn a new language. I thank you from my heart for having always facilitated, not
only the learning of a new language, but also a beautiful experience of community life.
Thank you for having helped the new missionaries to enter into the new culture they were
sent to. A special thank you to the missionaries for their closeness, sense of belonging, and their
readiness to give their life with love.
To all of you, dear sisters, my thanks and my prayer that accompanies you every day. My
gratitude towards everyone also becomes a blessing, “The Lord bless you and keep you! The Lord
let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The Lord look upon you kindly and give you
peace!” (Nm 6: 24-26).
Once again, thank you to each of you for feeling yourselves a truly living part of the
charismatic-missionary dynamism of our Founders. Today more than ever, we feel resound in our
heart the urgency and the joy of the “Da mihi animas cetera tolle” and the mandate, “I entrust them
to you”, that make us an outgoing missionary Institute. Best wishes for your MISSION in the
present and in the future.
May we always remain united in sisterly communion and feel ourselves in synergy through
reciprocal prayer.
Affectionately,
Sr. Alaide Deretti
Councilor for the Missions