RAGUSA – The Congregation of the Sacred Heart is celebrating the solemn profession of 9 nuns. On the anniversary of the foundation of the Institute of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, on May 9, and in the city of Blessed Maria Schininà, where it all began way back in 1889, they pronounced their perpetual vows, in the presence of the bishop Monsignor Giuseppe La Placa and in the hands of Mother General Sister Ester Mazzara, Sister Emilienne, Sister Victoire, Sister Viviane, Sister Omega, Sister Claudine, Sister Julienne, Sister Monica and Sister Joy. Another 21 nuns have renewed their simple profession.
The cathedral of San Giovanni Battista was the setting for the bishop’s solemn pontifical on a day in which, in every part of the world where the work begun by Blessed Maria Schininà is present, the Renewal of the yes of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart is celebrated. Joy was the key word used by the bishop during his homily.
«The men and women of our time ask you: the prophecy of joy. Joy – she said – is one of the fundamental aspects of the prophecy that consecrated life is called to offer to the world. And it is precisely this that the Lord places in your heart today on the day of your solemn religious profession: the prophetic testimony of joy, not as a simple possibility, but as a real responsibility towards those who, looking at you, have the right to know that God is capable of filling their hearts and giving full meaning to their lives, without the need to go and look for their happiness elsewhere”.
Mother General Sister Ester Mazzara, at the beginning of the celebration, had underlined the meaning and value of the yes said to the Lord during this assembly and how, also through this yes, the message of Blessed Maria Schininà can continue to be transmitted and conveyed to all the countries of the world where the houses of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart are present. In this regard, the bishop asked everyone to pray for vocations and that they may also come from Italy and from the Church where Blessed Maria Schininà began her mission of evangelization and charity.
Photo above by Salvo Bracchitta
