In celebration of the Maryknoll Sisters‘ Foundation Day this Saturday, February 14, we offer this reflection from Mother Mary Joseph‘s 1942 Foundation Day talk to the Sisters:
“We are members of one body, members of a religious congregation…and whatever each one of us does effects the others. Whatever pain one experiences, gives pain to the whole body. What comes as joy to one comes as joy to the others. That is the ideal of perfect unity.
We have the obligation of feeding one another, of loving one another, of enlightening one another, of keeping close to one another, drawing one another from danger to the safety and security of the love which envelops and enfolds our entire family.
Let us, therefore, today ask for this special grace – an increase of the understanding of what unity means, of the sacrifices that it demands of us, of the efforts it calls upon us to make. Let us ask especially for the love which must animate our hearts if we are to work for one another, to sacrifice for one another, all because of our love for Christ…”
