Salesian Center
Pentecost 2011
“He breathed upon them and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit”
Dear Friends, Dear Sisters,
During our last meeting, the General Council examined all your reflections on the three objectives which we proposed to you last year, in this same Pentecostal letter. We send heartfelt thanks to all the Groups who took the time to reflect and all the Regionals who organized these reflections. You let us know your worries, needs and also your difficulties concerning several subjects. We will consider these in the next letter to the Regionals. Also we noted that a number of your remarks fall into the same category: our Rule of Life. This is why I invite you to reflect on it together today.
The design of our Rule of Life seems important: different chapters invite us to successively Live according to the Spirit of Jesus, then Live the Gospel in the Church and in the World, thenlLive the Gospel as Disciples of Saint Francis de Sales, and finally to live the Gospel with Mary, Mother of the Church and our Mother.
Thus we must first of all try to live according to the Spirit of Jesus. Indeed, since the day of our baptism, we received the Spirit of Jesus, which is the Holy Spirit; becoming Children of God, our God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. By the sacrament of confirmation, we received the grace to open ourselves to the action of the Holy Spirit in us. It is He who gives life, guidance and lights our way…to the degree we allow Him to guide us. In becoming Daughters of Saint Francis de Sales we have chosen to fully live our baptismal consecration and to answer God’s call. This cannot be done without prayer, a life of prayer, this life of intimate union with our Triune God, as our Founder said: “To glorify the Father, the essence, the life and the ultimate aim of the Christian soul is union with our Lord Jesus Christ in His Holy Spirit” (cf. art.1). Moreover, our Pope Benedict XVI just reminded us of this in his Wednesday audience: “Man knows how to go out of himself by moving towards that which can more than satisfy his most profound desires. He has an infinite thirst, nostalgia for eternity, a search for beauty, the need for love, light and truth: all things which take him towards the absolute, the desire for God. He likewise knows he can speak to Him, and he can pray. (…) But even if man forgot his Creator, this living and true God would never cease calling him to this mysterious meeting in prayer.”[1]
Our Rule of Life next invites us to live the Gospel in the Church and in the World. Indeed, in Baptism we become children of God, but we have also become members of the Church. As such we must participate in Her life and Her apostolate. We committed ourselves the day of our Salesian consecration, and we say it each time we renew our act of consecration, on Pentecost, for example. Because we are a cell of the Church we must thus be faithful to Her. For Father Chaumont, it was an absolute necessity and our Rule of Life reminds us of it in this chapter (cf. art. 11).
The third part of our Rule asks us to Live the Gospel as Disciples of Saint Francis de Sales. This is because we are, by our baptism, first children of God, then members of the Church, and thirdly, by our Salesian consecration, members of the Society of the Daughters of Saint Francis de Sales. As members of this spiritual family, we always try to practice the Salesian virtues which we mediate on regularly in the probations.
Finally, we must Live the Gospel with Mary, Mother of the Church and our Mother. Mary, whom our Founders gave us “as model to imitate in the midst of the world” (cf. art. 32); Mary to whom Father Chaumont consecrated the first Missionary catechists and, following them, all our SMMI Sisters;[2] Mary, who was always entirely open to the action of the Holy Spirit. She was there, the day of Pentecost, among the disciples, praying with them. She is always there, near us, and she intercedes for us. Ask her to help us to be open to the gifts of the Spirit (cf. art. 33).
Our spiritual advisor has prepared for us a Pentecostal novena about the Beatitudes. We can find these same Beatitudes in our Rule of Life, as you will (re)discover in the text below, from Bond #6, August-September, 1980. We will meditate on it, not only while completing the novena, but also each month, as reread the Rule of Life, as our Founder wished.
We have just celebrated a great feast in the Church: our beloved Pope John Paul II has been declared Blessed on May first. From now on we are able to ask him to intercede for us, that “we may allow ourselves to be transformed by the action of the Holy Spirit, conforming our will to God’s will.”[3]
I wish you a very beautiful Feast of Pentecost,
Annie Trabichet, General Directress
“Seeing the crowds, He went up on the mountain, and when He sat down, His disciples came to Him. And He opened his mouth and taught them”:
BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT: FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
“We shall try to free our hearts in regard to this world’s goods, the better to love God and our brothers”. (art. 30)
BLESSED ARE THE MEEK: FOR THEY SHALL POSSESS THE LAND.
“Amiability, simplicity, self-denial, gentleness (…)”, Salesian virtues flowing from humility. (art. 25)
BLESSED ARE THEY WHO MOURN: FOR THEY SHALL BE COMFORTED.
“(…) We will apply ourselves (…) to reflecting the peace and serenity of the children of God
(…) even in our afflictions”. (art. 24)
BLESSED ARE THEY WHO HUNGER AND THIRST AFTER JUSTICE: FOR THEY SHALL HAVE THEIR FILL. “(…) We shall take care to develop our family, civic and social understanding and the virtues which result from this: integrity, a spirit of justice, sincerity, tact, strength of soul and conscientious effort in our work”. (art. 15)
BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL: FOR THEY SHALL OBTAIN MERCY.
The Rule of Life (art. 14) gives us the dimensions of love described by St Paul.
BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT: FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
Following Mary’s example, “we will keep our hearts open, poor and prayerful in order to grasp and welcome the Spirit”. (art. 33)
BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS: FOR THEY SHALL BE CALLED THE CHILDREN OF GOD.
“In the unusual as well as the usual situations of life, we shall try to keep the self-possession and good balance with which Salesian spirituality endows us, so that we shall be elements of peace in the world”. (art. 16)
BLESSED ARE THEY WHO SUFFER PERSECUTION FOR JUSTICE’ SAKE: FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. “Therefore, by the offering of our activities, our sufferings… to bear witness before all men to ‘Christ gentle and humble of heart’”. (art. 25) – Bond No. 6, August-September, 1980
[1] General Audience, May 11, 2011
[2] See Act of Consecration of the first CMMI, in Mother Mary Gertrude of the Precious Blood, Chapter VI.
[3]Benedict XVI, General Audience, April 13, 2011
