Messaggio di Sr. Alaide Deretti, Consigliera per le Missioni -14 settembre 2017_english

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Rome, 14 September 2017.
Dearest Sisters,
With gratitude and much joy I come to you with my sisterly greeting and encourage you to live full
of missionary enthusiasm, of the power that flows from the missionary mandate of Jesus: “Go into
the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16: 15).
My deep gratitude goes to all of you who last month dedicated your prayer and also the renewed
offering of your ‘yes’ to God and to the young for our Temporary Professed Sisters. Many echoes
have come to the Missions Department. We received them with great joy because they reflect the
sense of belonging and the strong charismatic passion that is always a missionary passion: “Give
me souls; take away the rest… I entrust them to you!” (“Da mihi animas cetera tolle”. “A te le
affido!”.)
I also thank all the Provincials who have given us the possibility of knowing their prophetic
gesture. Discernment and the choice of a prophetic gesture involving all the sisters, help us to
broaden our gaze and to truly be with the young, missionaries of hope and of joy.
We are gradually approaching the celebration of the 140th
anniversary of the first Missionary
Expedition. I would like to recall the invitation addressed to the whole Institute on November 14,
2016:
“We invite you to form a GREAT MISSIONARY EXPEDITION involving all of our educating
communities in a special way, the various missionary groups, the missionary groups of Infancy and
Adolescence (IAM), the Missionary Volunteers, and the missionaries ad gentes, wherever they are.
We pray that no FMA will remain outside this Missionary Expedition! All of us by the power of
our Baptism and of our religious consecration are ‘missionary disciples’ and we have the immense
joy and also the huge responsibility to proclaim Jesus to the new generations, first with our life and
then with words… if needed!
Dearest Sisters, let us prepare ourselves to go…We do not have to bring large suitcases… an
open heart and a broadened gaze are sufficient …a strong missionary impulse is enough!”
As I remind you of this invitation, I would also like to present to
you another Sister of the Missionary Expedition whom we
recalled on the centenary of her death last March: Sr. Teresa
Gedda.
Sr. TERESA GEDDA was born at Pecco (Turin) on January
17, 1852. She entered the Institute on November 8, 1876 at the
house in Turin that had opened that same year. She remained
there for a month and then was sent to Mornese where should
could continue her religious formation under the guidance of
Mother Mazzarello. In April of 1877, she began her Novitiate
and on September 3, 1877, after an apprenticeship in the house
of Alassio, she made her religious profession in the Basilica of
Mary Help of Christians in Turin, in the presence of Don Bosco
and of Mother Mazzarello. When she left for Uruguay, she had
2 months and 11 days of profession. She died in Granada on

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March 24, 1917 on the very day she had foretold, after 40 years of religious life. She lived in
Uruguay, Mexico, and Nicaragua, always humble and generous in community works as in tasks of
responsibility. She was a daughter of obedience and was called the ‘holy Sister’. Her simple and
generous life, her fidelity to the Constitutions, and to the teachings received in Mornese and Turin
were sustained by her great devotion to Mary Help of Christians and to the Eucharist. Her heart
overflowed with divine love and led her to often exclaim: “Oh, my good Jesus, how much
You love me!” Holy Communion was vital nourishment for her soul. The flame of generosity in
sacrifice, ardent zeal for the spiritual good of souls, and of self-control shone ever brighter in her
and made her always appear in the constant practice of all the virtues. Detached from everything
and on fire with divine love, she was a ‘Eucharistic woman’. It is told that when Sr. Teresa Gedda
went to receive Jesus at Communion time, the Eucharist often fled violently from the hands of the
priest to go to meet her.
We thank the Lord for Sr. Teresa Gedda’s witness to Eucharistic love. We too wish to nourish
ourselves with this Heavenly Bread to give ourselves generously, with a free heart, without
measure, to the mission God entrusts to us.
Dearest Sisters, to mark September 14th
in a Eucharistic way, and not only this day, but the whole of
our being and working, I invite you to live, within your possibilities and with a heart in love with
Jesus, a community time of Eucharistic Adoration. The intention I propose to you is that of asking
our Lord for new vocations, for help and blessings for the missionaries ad gentes, and a special
remembrance for the Sisters of Missionary Expedition of 2017 who on September 24th
, will
receive their Missionary Crucifix in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin. Their names
and pictures are found on the attached file.
I take this occasion to thank the Provinces that have given from their poverty and have responded,
together with these 13 FMA, to the Lord’s call. If a sister leaves for the mission ad gentes, it means
that the whole Province has given its “yes” to the Lord; that the whole Province has accepted the
missionary mandate of Jesus and now supports the sister with prayer and closeness.
Think how beautiful and prophetic it is when a Province chorally responds: “Here I am. Send
me!” I am sure that this is how it was for the Provinces of: INM, INS, INB, KOR, FIL, CAM,
CMM, BMA, VTN, FRB, SPA, and MME.
Dearest Sisters,
I greet you in Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello. With a sisterly embrace full of the certainty that
we will meet and always remain united in the Eucharist, I wish you a happy continuation of the
journey toward the 140th
anniversary of the first Missionary Expedition.
Let us thank the Lord because “the harvest is great” and there are still generous workers with
broadened gaze and a wide-open missionary heart!
Councilor for the Missions
alaide@cgfma.org