Location: St. Vincent de Paul
This is the third Mass I preside in thanksgiving for the centennial of the founding of the Daughters of the Holy Spirit. You can tell that the sisters like to party! Are you going to spend the year having parties? How many do you plan to have? As long as you keep inviting us, we agree that you should continue having parties. God’s people in San Antonio are struck by your joy, which is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. And since the fruits of the Holy Spirit are given in bunches, that joy comes together with charity, peace, and other fruits. Today, we gather to give thanks particularly for your faithfulness. The life of the Holy Spirit in you is a sign of God’s fidelity to his promises. And Pope Francis has said: “God’s faithfulness is a feast, a free feast.”
I presided over the first centennial celebration at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The second was in San Luis Potosí, with the community of Motolinía School. If we compare them with a tree, then they are very young. I mean the congregation, not the sisters. The sisters are even younger than the congregation. I’m serious! 100 years ago, the root sprang in the land of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and its first sprout was precisely Motolinía School. If the Masses we celebrated in January were at the root of the tree, today’s Mass bears witness to a new branch, showing that there is still much left for them to continue growing and bearing fruit.
A few days ago, a dad here in the Archdiocese shared with me something that happened in his house. It was his family’s turn to take the chalice home to pray for vocations. The father asked his 5-year-old son: “Do you know why we have this chalice here?” The boy responded: “Yes dad, to pray so we can go to the beach.” The dad looks at the mom and asks: “The beach!?”
Then the older sister says to the boy: “No, brother! We are going to pray for vocations, not vacations.” I have to clarify that this boy is not a student of Sister Esi.
Then the father asked the older sister: “Do you know what it means to pray for vocations?” She answered: “Yes dad, so that we all find our mission in life.” And the father clarified: “And so that we are faithful to God.” In other words, the sisters are doing okay spreading a vocational culture. Sister Esi, with the children at Saint Mary Magdalen; Sister Constanza, collaborating in the formation of leaders for the Church at MACC; Sister Mónica, developing intercultural skills; Sr. Ana Cecilia, working full-throttle in archdiocesan vocational ministry, and now, Sister María Elena, receiving the baton as the new local animator and promoting vocations here at St. Vincent de Paul and in other communities.
Ever since they arrived, it was obvious that they were not on vacation. They grafted themselves into the life of the local Church. They have a finger in every pie. They are very busybodies, but that’s why we love them!
God Himself has wanted to get involved in our history to redeem it. By the union of divinity and humanity in the person of Jesus, we have been incorporated into the Lord through Baptism as children of the same Father. The participation of the Daughters of the Holy Spirit in the fidelity of Christ to his Father is manifested in their confidence to call God “Father,” and Mary “Mater.” Let us ask the Mother of Divine Grace, Our Lady of Guadalupe, to continue to move you with her tenderness to respond to the call to participate in the priesthood of Christ, offering creation to the Father through the Cross.
