ORDER OF MERCY (Father General, Mercedarian Order…)
- The program for the celebration of the 700th anniversary of the foundation of the Mercedarian Order is already prepared, ready to be printed. (p. 44)
- I would love for the Mercedarian Order, which has been eminently missionary in nature since the beginning, to occupy its rightful place at this time in history of the Church. (p. 54)
- Mother Nieves called on me and we spoke for a long while about the plans presented to the Father General… (p. 64)
- The Father General of the Order is about to go to Chile… From there, they plan to leave for the Mercedarian Mission of Piauhy, in Brazil. (p. 69)
- The triduum of prayer confirmed our plans…Now we are only awaiting a visit from the Father General, which will happen in May at the latest. (p. 76)
- Soon, I will be able to give her all the details. This month the Father General of the Order will come to Berriz and then everything will be decided. (p. 79)
- Father General was here at the end of August and we presented the missions plan to him. The entire community was alone with him and he left very touched… (p. 81)
- Without us having tried, they offered us a considerable amount of capital…We told this to Father General a few days ago…Our Father General ended his letter with some very endearing words and blessed us as missionaries… (p. 82)
- I also hope for a resurgence of the Mercedarian Order… (p. 82)
- In addition, even though as an autonomous convent we don’t depend on the Order when making decisions, the Order has approved, blessed and applauded the steps we are taking. The previous Father General helped us quite a bit. And now the current one, Father Juan del Carmelo Garrido y Blanco, recently elected and previously unknown to us, has written to us with loving congratulations. (p. 88)
- … and persuaded that I am incapable of governing aptly, prudently, or intelligently, I place my supervisory responsibilities in the hands of the Virgin so that She might watch over the Order and over this community with the care and tenderness of a mother. (p. 103)
- I met with the community. We took a look at our Order, its history, and the first redeemers. So many saints, so many martyrs and so many heroic nuns! And in the present time, how many women of prayer who would gladly give their lives for the love of Christ! And us, within this Mercedarian family, we are a privileged community that is very much loved by our Mother. Her favors are generously bestowed so that, following the footprints of the first redeemers, we live totally committed to the redemption of our brothers and sisters… (p. 112)
- It’s difficult to imagine how the Mercedarian Spirit is growing in the community and how we feel about the apostolic zeal of the early Redeemers, who were anxious to die in order to save their brothers, is being revived in us. Within this atmosphere, a desire has sprouted within us to actualize the Fourth Vow, the essence of our Today we can formulate and express the vow in the following manner: “I promise, according to the dispositions of my superiors, to aid in the redemption of unbelievers and to place my life for them if necessary while doing so”. This afternoon I wrote to the Father General of the Order expounding this desire… (p. 113)
- This afternoon I wrote to the Father General of the Order expounding this desire. I asked him if this letter is enough or if we need to request this from the Holy See… (p. 113)
- I received a wonderful letter from Father General encouraging me to do everything that I have proposed for my trip. (p. 128)
- I think it advisable that we resolve it with the support of the Father General of the Order if we don’t want them to look upon us like a branch that has split from the Mercedarian trunk. It occurs to me that it would be good if I could travel to Rome in order to speak personally with the Father General about the necessity for this new direction… (p. 174)
- … But what we all like the most…one is on parchment, painted in miniature, and gives a very good summary of the past ten years of the school’s Missionary Association…And another one, the larger and painted on gold cloth, gives the rationale behind the redeeming origin of the Order and the missionary direction of the Convent of Berriz… (p. 177)
- Considering everything that we’ve asked for, it appears to be a better tactic to me to wait for the Congregation of Religious to propose it to us. In this way the Order will be more receptive to it, and all of the changes will more easily accomplished. (p. 179)
- We celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy by showing our gratitude to our Mother for the many favors that she has always wanted to bestow upon us, and especially for the favor of having chosen us to make Jesus known to others. I asked her to look for the Order that she founded, and to make it a redeeming Order for the many captives that there are in the world. (p. 180)
- By chance I found out that the Father General of the Order is in Spain and on the 13th he will embark for America. (p. 180)
- The decision has been made. We will ask Rome to transform us into a Congregation while retaining the title of Order… (p. 185)
- We’ve send Father Vidal a copy of the Constitutions… Most of all, we want him to look carefully at how the vows are worded because the revised fourth Mercedarian vow is written there, the one in which we vow to give up our lives is necessary for the redemption of captives. This ideal of redeemers recovers its former sense of “remaining as hostages” which is understood to mean remaining in the mission, if necessary, even if our lives are in danger. It’s been a while since I wrote to the Father General of the Order expressing our desires to him. (p.188)