As Mother Chiara Cazzuola, Superior General of the FMA Institute, wrote, ‘we too, together with the educating communities and the many young people we meet, can shine as small lights in our daily lives and be signs of the Father's prevenient and merciful love, as Sr Maria Troncatti was.’
The novena, composed by Sr Luigina Silvestrin, of the FMA St Mary Domenica Mazzarello Province, Triveneto (ITV), proposes some reflections and prayers on the theme ‘Hands that heal, heal and build peace’.
The text was developed on the basis of a homily by Fr Pierluigi Cameroni, Postulator General of the Causes of the Saints of the Salesian Family, who presented the figure and some characteristics of the future saint precisely from the hands.
The event of the canonisation of the first Daughter of Mary Help of Christians after the Co-Foundress of the Institute, St Mary Dominica Mazzarello, is a gift and an appeal, as Mother Chiara Cazzuola further explained: "Contemplating the most beautiful face of the Institute - St Mary Dominica Mazzarello, Sister Mary Troncatti soon to be canonised, our blessed and servants of God who have lived the Constitutions in full fidelity - we open our hearts to the great Hope, with the grace and boldness that come from God. With gratitude we sing the Magnificat for the holiness recognised by the Church in these sisters and for many others who live their daily lives giving love, hope and joy".
The recent Apostolic Exhortation of Leo XIV, Dilexi Te, emphasises how holiness is the fruit of care for the poor, who have always been considered ‘the treasure of the Church’. Don Bosco, quoted in no. 70, was a model and inspirer of a special way of educating the poor through the Preventive System.
Blessed Maria Troncatti, the ‘Madrecita buena’, as she was called by all those she approached, considered the poor, the orphans, the abused young, the dying... as her only concern. For them she was ready to face dangers and hardships, demonstrating a maternal charity that took personal care of each one.
We read in the Summarium elaborated on Sr Troncatti's life: ‘Sr Maria's active predilection for the poorest, the needy, the abandoned is known from her life... unable to work any longer (she is 84 and a bit old...) she stays at the hospital and watches over and attends to the poor savages who come to tell her of their sufferings and worries.’
Sister Troncatti's hands, today, become a gift and a model: drawing on the power of the Holy Spirit, on the love of Christ Crucified, the heart becomes capable of simple but effective gestures of closeness, care and peace.
The text of the novena is available, in Italian, here.
