Dear Religious Family,
From the religious communities working in hospitals in Argentina, we want to share with you some “little flowers” of the Lenten season, more specifically of Holy Week.
It is an enormous grace for the religious of our province to be able to carry out our apostolate in four hospitals, each one with its own peculiarities: care for children, the elderly, etc., but in all of them we are in direct contact with the suffering Christ. We want to bring to these souls a little comfort, we want their suffering to be transformed into a “salvific” suffering. And what better opportunity to unite these souls with a God who died for them nailed to a cross than on Good Friday!
As it is traditional, on this holy day, the Stations of the Cross are prayed throughout the different areas of the hospital. One could tell and describe so many things that one sees and hears, but sometimes words fall short: from the gaze of a man who is in pain because of his cancer who encounters Christ nailed hands and feet or that of the tears of a lady who has her husband in therapy in very serious condition…, the consolation and mercy of God that are constantly poured into those souls.
In particular, we will dwell on two stories that took place in some of these hospitals:
The first is that of a gentleman who had lost his son in an accident some time ago. When the crucifix was in front of him, he began to cry and told the sisters that, after having been angry with God for a long time, this was the first time he was able to thank Him for having allowed him to enjoy his son for so long.
The second: a girl had been hospitalized in one of these hospitals a few years ago for drug problems and, in her sickness, she did not want to talk to anyone, but Divine Providence wanted a Sister to visit her and open her heart to the grace of God. Thus, years later, after a radical change in her life – she now participates in Sunday Mass and attends adoration of the Blessed Sacrament – she is a volunteer and leads the Stations of the Cross in that hospital. She also told her testimony to the same Sister who had visited her years before.
Surely each of our missionaries will have many stories like these to tell: we unite ourselves to all of them and together we thank God.
May God continue to allow us to make his Cross fruitful in everything it touches.
In Christ and Mary,
Sister Maria Filia Crucis
