Sister Jacqueline, Voice Of A Project
Sister Jacqueline of the Missionary Congregation Sisters of St. Gemma, tells how she gave continuity to the HIC SUM project
Asking Sister Jacqueline questions is the prelude to mystery: a testimony filled with surrender into God’s hands and to His will without backsliding. We have told each other many stories of hope, of false fears contained in our making ourselves simple and small in the presence of God. Not everything can be written but this is an invitation to live in God-Relation!
With sincerity will then flow the face of the joy of faith, a message of purity will come to us! Let us be accompanied by his words.
The life of every day
I am a sister of the Missionary Congregation Sisters of St. Gemma. Our Congregation began on May 4, 1939, in Camigliano (LU) by foundress Gemma Eufemia Giannini, a friend and confidante of Gemma Galgani.
I like to recall, in this regard, the words of Mother Gemma Eufemia Giannini about the inspiration she had regarding the foundation of the new community: “The last time, standing before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, I saw, not with the eyes of the body but with the spirit, in a moment, as in a painting, what the Lord wanted: that is, that the places where St. Gemma was born, lived and died be guarded by souls consecrated to God under the direct protection of St. Gemma and dedicated to works of charity.”
We are called Sisters of St. Gemma because Mother Gemma was inspired by St. Gemma Galgani, the young stigmatized mystic who was welcomed by the Giannini family as a beloved daughter and sister. Euphemia shared about four years of life with this young Saint, from June 1899 to April 11, 1903, and became her spiritual heir. The legacy she received from her was handed over to us Sisters of St. Gemma.
As with St. Gemma, the heart of our spirituality is Christ Crucified, the revelation of God’s love for man. Like Gemma Galgani we want to reproduce in ourselves the image of Jesus crucified in daily life.
The spirit of family
St. Gemma Galgani’s experience of welcoming St. Gemma Galgani into the Giannini family led the foundress to set as the fundamental characteristics of the institute the spirit of family, that is, living as a family, making room for charity among us following the example of the early Christians. This is what should distinguish us most.
Charism and the fourth vow
We share with the whole Passionist family the spirituality of the Passion as it was lived and transmitted by St. Paul of the Cross but, as Sisters of St. Gemma, we are called to decline this spirituality according to the four characteristic virtues that Mother Gemma identified in Gemma Galgani namely: charity, simplicity, humility and sacrifice.
The charism is embodied in the fourth vow, which entails making remembrance and promoting the memory of Jesus’ passion through our daily, community and apostolic life, having great understanding for all situations of suffering in the world, especially those that are not accepted in society, so that none through despair may be in damnation, but may be transformed into possibilities for salvation.
Where we are and what we do
We Sisters of St. Gemma have been present in Italy, in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1966 and in the Ivory Coast since 1999.
According to what our Mother Foundress reiterated many times, the whole world rests on our shoulders, so the Sister of St. Gemma lives her fidelity to the Church and her mission in the world by offering her life of silence, work and prayer for the Church, for the Pope, for the priests, considering the whole world as a field of apostolate and ideally embracing the whole earth, to bring souls to Jesus.
Concretely, we work in the following areas of apostolate: proclamation of the Word (evangelization, catechesis, youth and missionary ministry), care of the sick (dispensary), promotion of women (foyer, family home), education and protection of minors (kindergarten, street children, family home).
Some thoughts from the Writings of St. Gemma
I want to live by faith and hope, I no longer care to see you on earth, it is enough for me to see you in heaven! When I breathe, Jesus, I always breathe you, I will seek only you! (Ecstasy 13)
Lord my Jesus, when my lips come to yours to kiss you, let me feel your gall. When my shoulders lean against yours, let me feel your scourges. When your flesh communes with mine, let me feel your Passion. (Ecstasy 100)
O Jesus, I would… I would have my voice reach to the ends of the whole world… I would call all sinners and tell them all to enter your heart. (Ecstasy 42)
The Sisters of St. Gemma, spazio + spadoni and the Congo.
I learned about spazio + spadoni from Luigi Spadoni presented by Selene to our Superior General who decided to join the proposal.
I then learned more about the HIC SUM project as an opportunity to foster generative paths between the (free) volunteer experiences of the Confraternities of Mercy and Religious Women Congregations that have humanitarian social experiences in the world particularly in Africa, South America and Asia.
I also had the opportunity to do training and field experience at the Misericordia di S. Gemma in Camigliano (LU).
The continuity of the HIC SUM project in Congo? Each reality is on its own. Certainly in Kavimvira, a village in Congo where I live, there is the big problem of malnutrition, the difficult situation of prisoners who normally lack food if there are no relatives who can bring it to them. Certainly it is impractical in our village to practice the “proximity services” typical of the Confraternities of Mercy in Italy, because accompanying them by car always remains a big problem due to the lack of adequate communication routes, while it turns out to be interesting to decentralize the first aid and emergency services through adequate training of young volunteers who go to animate the various realities.
Tied to every HIC SUM project must be a part dedicated to “The Bread of Mercy,” which is the activation of a small social enterprise aimed at supporting the Community and enabling the sisters to do charity toward those most in need. Taking into account the context in which I operate with my sisters, we decided to invest in a cutting and sewing project.
In our daily activities together with the volunteers with whom we meet both to pray and to perform services almost daily, however, we cannot fail to do a fundamental work of spiritual mercy, which is to console the afflicted! How many brothers and sisters are so because of family situations, the difficult socio-political-economic situation of the Country!
How did I get started? From a small group of volunteers where we tried to study and understand well together the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
Conclusion
I conclude my brief testimony with this prayer of trusting abandonment to Jesus, composed by St. Gemma before the Crucifix that is still in the Giannini House today.
Dear my God, I abandon myself entirely into your most holy hands,
so that you may do with me and with my things
What most and best pleases you.
In this sweet abandonment I rest on your divine heart
as the tender child rests on her mother’s breast.
You think of everything and I will think only of loving you
And to fulfill your most holy will. Amen!