To Sister Amalia Sesti

Superior in San Cataldo

Palermo, July 28, 1887

My daughter in Jesus Christ,

may Jesus be loved by all hearts.

Long live Jesus, my daughter, in our hearts, and with this most powerful Name, and with this sweetest love, we will win everything, we will accomplish everything in the Mission entrusted to us. Known by ourselves we can do nothing, but we will be able to do everything in the One who comforts us! Courage! Therefore, and forward in the Name of Jesus, do not be discouraged by your own misery, but put yourself all in the hands of God. Remember, that the jaw of the donkey, in the hands of Samson, became a powerful weapon to defeat all enemies. of God, and if she will deliver herself whole into the hands of the true Samson, who is Jesus Christ, she will be able to become an instrument of God’s true glory, although by itself it is worthless.

In our Rule the Superior is none other than the first among the equals, and she, with her good example, with her impeccable observance, must fill all her companions with the Spirit of God. Whoever is first must be the last, says the Lord, and this is the norm that a Superior must keep for herself.

By his rule, we summarize our experience in three articles:

The 1st Article is the presence of God. Every soul who embraces our Rule must use all his diligence, so that God who is in heaven, on earth, and in every place, may always be present in his mind, and not never forget. When the soul, with this effort of diligence, manages to keep itself always in the presence of God, love for this God of goodness is born in it; and when she comes to love him, then love lights up the heart so much that it will be impossible to forget it for a single moment and, warm with that fire, it will go to every place singing “love, love!”.

​The 2nd Article of our holy Rule comes to the aid of the first. “Receive everything from the hands of God and look at the image of Jesus Christ in everyone”. By practicing this 2nd article with lively faith, every observant soul will calculate himself as alone in the House of the Lord, and looking at his image in all, not only will he accept everything calmly from the hands of God, but will be eager to serve him in all, and consequently she will have in herself the keen desire to carry not only all the work of the house on her shoulders, but will be happy when she can make the sufferings of all her own, to relieve each one of the portion that would be due to her. In doing this he would feel in his heart the joy of relieving Jesus from the enormous weight of the cross. This second article comes to the aid of the first, because, looking in everyone at the image of the Lord, the soul, far from being distracted by falling into the particular and disordered love of creatures, loves and sees its God in every creature, and consequently the presence of God will be continued in her, also dealing with creatures. And consequently there will never be rudeness among observant souls, but the highest competition of the charity of Jesus Christ will reign in all, and in all circumstances, who let himself be crucified by his crucifiers.

The 3rd article commands that we must do everything for the pure love and glory of God! This, while consolidating the two preceding articles, enriches the soul with every treasure of God because it makes not only the acts which are good in themselves, but also those which are indifferent and necessary, deserving of eternal life. The bell rings for the alarm clock and for rest, for recreation and for work, for the choir and for the refectory: if the observant soul has managed to do everything for pure love and glory of God, he will draw the same merit from every observance of eternal life; and doing everything out of pure love and glory of God, at the same time it will help to observe the first two articles, that is, to keep the divine presence, to receive everything from his divine hands and to look at his beautiful and most lovable image in everyone. However, in order to succeed in this observance, which leads to true charity, that is, to the love of God, the soul must be entirely stripped of itself and therefore the holy Rule, in its Constitutions, inculcates us to bring contemplation into activity of our life.

To sustain the strength of the body, we go to the refectory three times a day and the Rule wants each one to eat everything that the Lord gives her. Thus, to keep the strength of the soul, the Constitutions inculcate that three times a day people go in choir, so that the soul takes its food in holy prayer. And as the material food of the body supports the material forces for the space of 6 hours, so the food of the soul, renewed three times a day, must maintain the spiritual forces in perennial contemplation. Either you go out for the collection or you go to the laundry, or to the kitchen, or to any other office, the soul must always remain united to its God in holy prayer, and must profit from everything to awaken and nourish that spirit within itself. which he derived from the holy prayer proposed in the choir of vespers, remembered before the rest and immediately after the alarm, reread in the morning choir. In this holy conversation he will be in his work and also in his rest. “It is a useless sleep, if sleep comes, the lights sleep, but the heart is awake”. And if the night wakes up, the first thought must be to remember the conversation he had with his Lord, to restart it. Holy contemplation makes us forget about ourselves and makes us live in God and for God; for this reason internal and external silence is inculcated […].

The Sister is also obliged by the Rule to always be sincere, simple, humble and obedient until the death and death of the cross itself, consequently she must carry within herself the feeling of being the most unworthy, she must carry within herself the spirit of mortification and of self-denial, desiring to want to suffer and die for Jesus Christ by serving him in his poor, as he wanted to suffer and die for his soul. What a beautiful antechamber of paradise it will be in that house where these Sisters live! May God grant you this fate and console you in your mission […].

I bless you with everyone.