On a day like today, 21 June, in 1880, the Venerable María Josefa Recio and Angustias Gimenez left Granada for Ciempozuelos (Madrid) to found the Congregation of the Sisters Hospitallers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus together with Saint Benito Menni.
‘We, Father, although poor and miserable, only want to abandon ourselves into your hands, so that God may do with us what he wills. We are determined to suffer whatever it takes’.
This was the answer given by our foundresses to Fr Menni’s invitation. A ‘Yes’ in the image of Mary, with full confidence in God’s will.
We can only imagine what a struggle must have been waged in their hearts, to turn away from their families and renounce everything for Christ, whom they found in the sick, especially in the women who suffered from mental illness and were abandoned.
María Angustias tells us in her letters ‘When at two o’clock in the morning my dear friend called me, I jumped out of bed with joy and agility, as if I had never suffered, so we left the house in advance and, in silence, we went to the station (…) We invoked divine help and boarded the train’.
This is how we live this hospitaller vocation today, abandoned to the will of the Lord, inspired by our foundresses, faces of mercy and hearts passionate to be generators of life and hope, where life and health touch the limits of weakness. A vocation that is an invitation to live an adventure with Jesus, to opt for Him and to allow ourselves to be challenged by the pain of the sick and to respond to them with closeness, listening, understanding, attention and service.
In this year, where we meet to live our 22nd General Chapter, we are filled with joy and gratitude, because thanks to the courage of our foundresses, we not only continue on the path of hospitality, but we are also encouraged to listen to the signs of the times, and to be a response to this world that seeks and needs accompaniment, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Today we renew that first Yes! We ask the intercession of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart to help us to renew our dedication and docility. Mary, first Hospitaller, may we never tire of wanting to be a response to the cry of our brothers and sisters, and for all those who feel this call in their hearts, that they may know how to respond generously to this proposal.
