Extracts from circular letters

CHARITY:

My dear Sisters: you call me “Mother,” and as Mother I address you, each one in particular. I make my own the words of St. Paul:

“As God’s chosen one, his holy and beloved, clothe yourself with feelings of deep compassion. Practice kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Forgive your sisters. The Lord has forgiven you; do the same. Clothe yourself in the love that is the symbol of perfection. May the peace of Christ reign in your heart, that peace to which you have been called…”.

I was talking one day with our Father (Bishop Frederick Kaiser), we were talking about construction, we were talking about the workers, and he said to me: “if a worker has to restore the tabernacle where the Blessed Sacrament is, that is Christ himself, and he does it in a way that is not at all dignified, perhaps even smoking, without any respect. So we say to him: brother, be careful, Christ is inside, please treat him with respect!”.

Now, therefore, my sister (or), is a chosen (or) of God, holy (or) and beloved (or), I must approach then with all reverence, for in her (or him), is Christ himself. Believe, my sister, in the Word of God: “He who loves me will be faithful to my word, and my Father will love him; we will come to him and take up our abode in him.” (Jn 14:33).

My dear sister (or brother), you stand before a temple, a tabernacle where God is present, Christ is present.

Be gracious, the Lord has forgiven you, do the same. Then you will have peace. “Live in thanksgiving,” says St. Paul, and his Mother Wilibrordis says to you, “For all eternity, you will give thanks to God, why don’t you start now?

I make a confession to you: my last wish is that my last word on this earth be ‘Thank you!’ For everything is to thank God.

MISERICORDY:

Mercy means bringing the misery of the other into my heart, and I can only bring this misery if my heart is not full of selfishness. Our Father says, “Charity consists concretely in giving pleasure to my brother (sister), avoiding all displeasure.” Or “expense for me” and “pleasure for my brother (sister).”

COMMUNITY LIFE:

To achieve community life in unity, it is essential, to listen to all opinions, and then draw a solution, or act according to the best opinion. However, we have a perfect model in the Church, where we are all very diverse, different cultures, different races, different forms of worship, etc. But all united in Christ.

Everywhere there are problems. We try not to problematize, but to make it less problematic. Because for the saint there are no problems but only cross.

FRATERNAL CORRECTION:

Fraternal correction, we do it “with charity and for charity”. That is, only and only with love, because to love is to respect, rejoice, encourage, serve. If you do it this way, you will undoubtedly get excellent results.

RECREATION:

Recreations are very important, where everyone participates and has the opportunity to tell something that makes them recreate, sometimes they can play an instrument. How happy I would be to have a break animated by one or more instruments!

Let play time be a time of expansion and recreation, where no one is missing. When we play, we play to entertain ourselves and others, not just to win.

COURTESY:

Courtesy is proper to every educated and cultured person, and at the same time it is the food that should reign in our communities. We know how to respect one another, “esteeming one another more highly” (Rom 12:10). In this way we will succeed in becoming a family.

In order to maintain unity in the community, let us follow our Father’s motto “always together and in joy”. God has been good to us; he will always be our help.

KHATE’S EXAMPLE: TRUE LOVE:

I learned a lot from my sister Khate, who, separated from her husband for ten and a half years because of the war and her imprisonment in Russia, did not have time to write me letters because she was very busy, even though she had no children. I asked her:

– Why don’t you write to me?

– I am always so busy. It is because of Schorsch. Thinking at every moment: maybe he will come today…maybe tomorrow…maybe he will come.

And he did come, after ten years of waiting. A few years ago I was at his house. In the morning I was amazed to find in the bathroom a glass of water, a toothbrush with toothpaste, polished shoes and various little things for her husband. I was thrilled. So much affection from a wife for her husband after almost forty years of marriage. He only cooks what he likes, even if he has to give up his tastes.

CHASTITY:

It is beautiful what religious life tells us about chastity: The vow of chastity is the total renunciation of human love. If the person consecrated to God renounces this human love, it is not out of contempt, but to consecrate herself to a spiritual love, which is the love of God without any sharing with creatures. The consecrated woman must fall in love with Him, to the point of loving Him with all her strength. Then she will have achieved full and absolute mastery over her natural instincts almost without any effort.

BE IMBUED WITH THE SPIRIT:

Pope Pius IX, in a letter to the Superiors General, says: “First of all we exhort you religious not to lose sight of the examples of their founder and lawgiver, if they wish to be sure of participating in the abundant graces of their vocation. Therefore, all those who reproduce in themselves the characteristics with which their founder had marked his religious family, are sure not to depart from his spirit, and as long as they walk in the footsteps of their founders, they will remain faithful to the duties of their state.”

Our Father Frederick once said: I admit that you are good. But I am not satisfied that you are good. Because the weather is not ordinary, on the contrary, it is extraordinarily bad. That is why I tell you that it is not enough for you to be good. At the very least, you must be RELIGIOUS as the present time demands! You must not disappoint the hope God has placed in you.

I pray to God that “we may persevere and progress in the vocation to which we have been called by God, for the more abundant holiness of the Church and for the greater glory of the Holy Trinity, which in and through Christ is the source and origin of all holiness.”

PRAYER:

My dear sisters today I thought during meditation: there is a lack of vocations in the Church. Keep in mind that souls will not be converted if at the same time a large number of prayers do not ascend to heaven. Souls will not be saved by your activities and preaching. We must accompany with our prayers the souls that God has entrusted to us in any situation. Our apostolate does not mean that we have to cover much. Therefore, let us not overload ourselves with work.

PASTORAL:

Canon 673, says that “the first apostolate of all religious consists in the witness of their consecrated life, which they must foster by prayer and penance.”

Canon 675:

1. In institutes dedicated to the apostolic life, apostolic action belongs to their very nature. Therefore, the whole apostolic life of their members should be imbued with an apostolic spirit, and all apostolic action should be permeated with their religious spirit.

2. Apostolic action must always proceed from intimate union with God and must confirm and foster it (our Father said: our active life is but the overflow of our contemplative life).

3. Apostolic action must be carried out in the name and by mandate of the Church, in communion with it.

The Year 1983: Perpetual Vows

My dear sisters who are about to take perpetual vows: what immense grace awaits you, my dear sister! Many times during my 50 years since my first vows I have meditated on this word of Jesus in Jn 15:16: “It is not you who have chosen me, but I have chosen you.” And how many times have I meditatively looked at my ring… I have thought and prayed: that on the day of my departure from this world to eternal life, no one will be able to take this ring away from me… that when there will be only dust of she who was called Mother Wilibrordis, there will be on this Peruvian land this ring, testimony of a love. But, my dear sister, the condition and price of this love is PRAYER and CROSS. Only she who lives intimately united to Christ can bear fruit. She alone is Bride and Mother. So loved by God, you need not fear?

Our Father and Founder said in a retreat: “By what name did God call you? Mary, Missionary of Jesus, Word and Victim. And Mary always says her “fiat.” Your “fiat,” my dear sister, takes on a new accent on the day of your Perpetual Vows. Write inwardly in golden letters what you are about to say, “These vows I make today for as long as you will give me life in this world.” With Christ you are crucified, with Him you will die every day. Take the crucifix in your hands. Turn your gaze to your crucified Bridegroom, may the gazes of two dying men meet! So Mary fixed her gaze on the eyes of Jesus. This is the contemplative life. And in this life I will ask God for perpetual vows for my dear sisters.

Sharing your joy, I greet you, your Mother.

OUR MOTHER’S GOLDEN JUBILEE:

Our Mother Wilibrordis, had no intention of spending her Golden Jubilee in Peru, much less in Caravelí, because of the commitment it represented. She had planned a trip to Argentina, to spend it among the MJVs in the “Nazareth” Convent of San Rafael. This trip had to be cancelled because he had work to do. While she was in Lima for a few days, she returned to Caravelí, a few days before the scheduled date.

On the 12th, the mayor of Caravelí informed us that the Provincial Council, along with the entire city, would offer a Holy Mass for our Blessed Mother’s health on August 15. The Mass would be in the cathedral. The first to rejoice were the professed sisters, since there was already a reason to celebrate the feast. We had rehearsed a Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mass a few days earlier, because we had thought to timidly tell our mother that we wanted to sing only Mozart’s Mass.

So the intervention of the Caravileños was helpful. Our mother agreed and we began to “get to work.” We were making a golden crown, which was finished on the 12th. Mother Cristófora made it, and our Father directed it. As a form of complicity, before dinner we showed up in the dining room of the infirmary with the wreath so that our Father could bless it. For our Mother, it was a surprise, and for those present, what a beautiful spectacle that ornament offered that would gird our Mother in her golden jubilee!

On the 14th: at the beginning of Vespers, a surprise for our Mother! Incredible! -He looked around, starting from the altar and proceeding to the columns. In the chapel, our Father and the whole Community were all dressed up to sing First Vespers.

The big day arrived. Since 5 a.m., the Upper Room community was on the move. At 5:30 we entered the chapel, and this time it was our Mother who gave us the surprise. We found her in front of us in her place, with her golden crown on her blue veil. No one expected to see her like this. And many eyes were fixed on our Mother, who looked like a queen, worthy bride of the king.

At 7 a.m. there was Mass in the cathedral, we went in procession. At the beginning of the Mass our Father preached beginning with the words of the psalmist, “May the goodness and kindness of the Lord be with me always, and may I remain in the house of the Lord for many years to come.” ….

The sermon ended with a solemn “Amen.” It was time for the ceremony. Our Father approached our Mother and addressed her with these words:

Our Father: “Dear Mother Wilibrordis, Jesus here present in the Tabernacle wishes to hear from your lips the confirmation of your Vows, that 50 years ago you were united forever to Him in a sacramental betrothal. Jesus is attentive and listens to her.

Our Mother: “My beloved Jesus, today is a feast for us. For you, Jesus, and for me. We celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of our engagement. Our golden jubilee. I wear this ring. Your gift to me, your most precious memory.

Before you, my Jesus, and before your Most Holy Mother, who is also mine, I now confirm my sacred vows. I want to offer you again my charity, with which I promised you obedience, chastity and poverty, that is, my whole life as a religious, obedient, chaste and poor, offering and sacrificing to you my will, my body and my material goods”.

Now hear, Jesus, the renewal of my vows:

“Jesus Christ my God and my Love. You are my true freedom, my perfect delight and my only wealth. With the single deepest desire and firmest resolution to live my obedient, chaste and poor life in your Congregation, Jesus Word and Victim, I now ratify my sacred Vows of Obedience, Chastity and Poverty. Evoking that blessed hour when I became Your Bride.

Faithful to Thee, my Jesus, forever, until my death. For with death I shall pass rather happily and joyfully into our Eternal Wedding. Amen.”

Then the Holy Mass continued. But before it ended, our Father addressed those present:

The Holy Father in Rome, through the nunciature, sent a telegram to our Mother Maria Wilibrordis. Here is an excerpt of the text:

“Rome, Vatican, August 8. The Holy Father grants to Mother Wilibrordis, Superior General of the Missionary Sisters of Jesus Word and Victim, on the occasion of her 50 years of religious profession, his apostolic blessing as a pledge of abundant divine favors, which will help her in her fidelity and consecration to the Lord and in the service of the Church. This blessing is extended to the relatives of Mother Wilibrordis, to the religious of her Congregation and to the people who participate in the jubilee ceremony.”

The reading was followed by warm applause.

At the end of the Holy Mass, our Mother was welcomed in the atrium of the Cathedral. And the mayor invited everyone to a reception in the municipality of Caravelí.

Mrs. Mayor Abisaac Vda. de Bernedo, opened the reception with very heartfelt words. Then the national anthem of Peru was sung. She continued her speech, and said:

“Rev. Mother Wilibrordis, in every Caravileño heart there is a gesture of gratitude that raises its prayers only to God, because as human beings, Mother, we cannot thank you as you deserve. She is co-founder of a congregation of nuns and founder of the educational center “San Miguel”. Those children who woke up to the light of education.

Her religious vocation is admirable, and her daily dedication in the sacrifices of life is admirable. Blessed Virgin of Buen Paso, I ask you from the auditorium of the Provincial Council, plead before God to give countless more years of life to our Mother Wilibrordis, and that He may always fill her with virtue, strength, and fill her with holiness by the example of the women of Caravelí, because what a woman must have in her heart is modesty, honesty, and virtue, treasures that no one can take away from her if she knows how to preserve them.

On behalf of the Provincial Council of Caravelí and its inhabitants, I declare you to be an illustrious daughter of Caravelí, a favorite daughter of Caravelí. Because you deserve everything, Mother. And as a sign of gratitude, on behalf of the Council and the entire community, I present you with this humble remembrance.”

At the end, our Mother recalled that many of those present had been her students in the kindergarten.

I want to say the same thing that Bishop Kaiser said when he took possession of the Prelature on March 8, 1958. When asked if he would always remain in Caravelí, he replied, “Of course! Not only until I die, because I want to be buried here. I also want to say the same words, and not only until death, but until the end of the resurrection. ….I really don’t know how to thank you for all of this. It really is so beautiful…. I am so happy to be here today. Thank you so much.” ….

In the afternoon there was the Eucharistic blessing given by our Father, after the usual half hour of adoration. And at the end a play of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

So we had a beautiful day. Our Mother wore her crown, which everyone thought was gold, all day. In the evening she had to take it off. But her daughters insisted until they convinced her to wear it until the next day. And so she did.

Now everything has passed but we are left with the happiness of having our Mother with us one day to celebrate her feast in our Cenacle Convent.