We continue deepening in our Sister Teresa Mira as MISSIONARY BY ESSENCE and EXPERT IN COMMUNION.

In this part it is made obvious for us that she RESTORES THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH AND OF BRETHREN.

«The Lord left us alive, not to remain static,

but to do good to all who need it ».

Teresa Mira, cmt

  1. With Teresa Mira, TO RESTORE THE BEAUTY …
… of every human being where it is veiled, carrying out a liberating and healing service for the wounded Body of the Church.
“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean”.

He extended his hand and said; “I wish, be clean” (Lc 5, 12-13).

Jesus not only announces the beauty, but he also restores it, liberates and heals. The will of God is that we all might be healed from our evils, our egoism, indifference, hatred and jealousy, of all that separates us from him, of all what makes love a failure.

Jesus reveals to us the tenderness and mercy of the heart of “God who is rich in mercy”.

Saint Paul reminds us that “We are collaborators of God: we are the field of God, the building of God”. Because of that, we are called to collaborate in restoring the wounded body of Christ in our brethren through the concrete gestures of love.

To restore means to love extremely, even up to the point of giving our life at example of Jesus, who “loved his disciples who were in the world until the end” (Jn 13:1). To be close to those who suffer, to care for them, to love them. To remain at the side of those who were rejected and forgotten, to remember that they are also worthy and loved by God, by us.

What does it mean for me: TO RESTORE, TO REPAIR, TO REMAIN?
In this area of restoring and repairing the beauty of the Church, I got inspired by the deep desire of Pope Francis of being in communion with the afflicted, a desire he expressed in the Bulla for the Jubilee Year of Mercy: “Wherever the Church might be present, the mercy of the Father should be patent there. In our parishes, communities, associations and movements, in the end, wherever the Christians might be, everybody should be able to find an oasis of mercy… that we all might rediscover the joy of the tenderness of God” (MV).

An oasis is a fertile space in the desert, a place where there is water and plants in a desert. It’s a place of life. It is there where one can find refuge, consolation, restoration, healing and interior renewal. Where one can recover his interior beauty making an experience of the merciful love of God. A place of listening, of staying and remaining at the side of those who suffer and of reminding them that they have dignity and are loved by God and by us. It is also a state of interior peace, of profound joy that is born out of the encounter with him who loves me and fills me with his tenderness.

“Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”, Jesus says. Teresa Mira made of her heart this oasis where she was carrying with love the afflictions of those who trusted in her, from her listening, prayer, words of consolation. In her, the others found rest when, listening to her and seeing her living, they were feeling less burdened with their preoccupations.

Other testimonies reveal to us the restoring attitudes of Teresa Mira. Naming some of them:

“During the time of war, Teresa Mira was an arm to cry on for me. She always encouraged me to trust in the Lord and in his love… The difficult moments of her life she spent them consoling others”

“I was able to have several intimate conversations with the Servant of God, because I was able to say everything to her. Her examples to encourage and console me were coming directly from heaven, from the love of God; she was encouraging me to trust and wait in the Lord”.

“She was a friend to anyone who might need it. She was praying for everyone and helping everyone. To do good was her only concern; she was ready for whatever it might take to take care of those who needed her”.

“The spiritual good of persons was her greater concern. She was encouraging us and helping us to trust in the Lord and to follow him and love him heartily”.

“I remember that she used to go out very early to buy things and she was ‘getting lost’. She wouldn’t come back until it was already late, because she was taking advantage of this time not only for buying, but also to visit the sick in their homes or the needy to show them her concern and encourage them”.

“If she would see any girl with low mood, she would do anything to bring her back. She was always ready to help others… for every one she had a word of consolation and encouragement”.

“In her last sickness, conscious that she was living her last days, she abandoned herself in the Lord in a way that, instead of taking care of herself, she would do her best to animate others and to make easier the ultimate pain of separation. She didn’t want us to live anxious or afflicted for this reason. She was always consoling others”.

Through this example of life of Teresa Mira, I feel invited, as consecrated and CMT, to cloth myself with liberating and healing strength of Jesus through my words, my listening, my prayer, my testimony of life and concrete gestures of sincere love.

What do Constitutions say about that?

“Since my childhood I felt possessed and dominated by a passion called love…” (MR p.719)

The love that was burning in the heart of our Founder is the love that liberates, love that renews, repairs and restores the beauty of humanity created at the image of God, especially of the wounded Body of the Church. “Attentive to the mandate of our Founder, we contemplate with particular attention in the Body of Christ so many brothers and sisters of ours who are wounded, crucified, destitute, persecuted and mocked, and we go forth to meet their needs” (Dir. 11).

In his Letters, Father Francisco Palau left his spiritual legacy of gazing at Christ in those who suffer and to offer ourselves to take care for him: “Look at this Body that is his Church, wounded and crucified, indigent, persecuted, despised and bullied. And under this consideration, offer yourself to take care of him and give him those services that are at your hand” (Letter 42,2). The Constitutions would say: “Our missionary commitment springs from this contemplation of the depths of each human being and of the reality which surrounds them, it is a liberating and healing service to His injured and wounded Body” (Const. 3) (Letter 39,7; 41,2).

Our mission of restoring and repairing the beauty is also expressed through our relations of communion in community and family: mutual love and forgiveness, sincere treatment and mutual respect “when we live love from forgiveness, we enjoy community as a place of celebration” (Const. 43), likewise “the care of sisters who are sick and old” (Const. 46).

What can I learn from Teresa Mira?

How would I like to restore the beauty in my surroundings, in my daily life, in my family, in my community, in my apostolate?

  • Personal and communitarian efforts to create the ambience that favors communion in my surrounding.
  • “I could tell her everything”, one witness says. To be a sister to whom others can tell anything, a sister who consoles, an “Oasis of mercy” for all, that all who surround me may “experience the tenderness and mercy of God” at example of Teresa Mira.
  • “She was friend of anyone who needed it”. Just like Teresa Mira, to foment relationships of fraternity with everyone in community, to be trustful.
  • To be at the side of those who suffer and those who need the most to be encouraged and consoled. To be a sister concerned with the needs of others and fight against indifference and individualism, the great enemies of universal charity that Teresa teaches us.
  • Like Teresa, to sow peace, knowing always how to forgive and how to be a woman courageous enough to construct communion, fomenting justice and truth in my mission and in my community.

Teresa Mira was like this!