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© Secular Scalabrinian Missionaries - 2022
Who are we?
A community
in exodus
We are Secular Scalabrinian Missionaries, a Secular Institute in the Catholic Church. In our diversity of origins and cultures, we are united by a vocation to follow Jesus along the paths of the exoduses of our time and by a story that began in Solothurn, Switzerland, in 1961 in a migratory and Scalabrinian context.
We live in small communities in the International Centers "G.B. Scalabrini", where, together with young people and friends of various nationalities, cultures, and religions, we wish to make room for that communion in diversity that we dream of for the whole world.
A gift to share
At the beginning of our story there was not only a response to a social need, but above all the wonder at a great and all-encompassing experience of love – a wonder that has never faded, indeed it is more alive than ever.
In our missionary life, above all stands the gratitude for the gift of God who calls us to live consecration in following Jesus in the world of migrants; and to experience, in welcoming the crucified-risen Jesus, recognized in every migrant and in all that is foreign, unexpected, hostile, the ever-surprising newness of his love: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me. Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me” (cf. Mt 25:35,40).
Thebeginning
of a story
Our community began in 1961 in Solothurn with Adelia Firetti, a young teacher from Piacenza, who arrived in Switzerland at the invitation of the Scalabrinian Missionaries to teach the children of emigrants, but also driven by a deep search for faith. The school, in fact, was not opened due to difficulties with the institutions.
Faced with a future that was closing off to her expectations, Adelia realized, however, that the deepest choice she had to make was to root herself in a vertical relationship of faith with God, from whom she would await that future for which she wished to spend her life. In that experience, she could perceive the full presence of love of Jesus Christ crucified and risen, who was calling her to follow him, in an unconditional surrender of her life.
"It was July 25th. A mixture of feelings, between
fear and trust, ran through me. That God who had brought me that far allowed me to perceive in my own experience the presence, full of love, of His Son crucified and risen. In that moment of prayer, I said my yes to Him, totally entrusting my life to Him.
This secret vow became my point of reference and my hope: whatever happens, anything could happen to me, I was entrusted to God and forever. I had placed myself in His hands and having entrusted myself to Him was my strength and my joy.”
Adelia Firetti
The HEART
of our life
This yes to the love of God, which is combined with the liberating experience of a profound joy that nothing and no one can take away from us, this ever-renewed surrender to Him of our smallness and disproportion is to this day the heart of our life, of our various professional engagements.
In fact, contemplation and prayer become for us “the most alive, strongest, and most powerful part” of our life and mission. They ignite in our life the joy of collaborating with God in His project of communion between person and person, between peoples.
The vows become the space of reference to the filial life of Jesus which is “the salt and the yeast” that from within can transform the world; the only one who can respond to the deepest thirst of every person, the thirst for authentic relationships, for a full life.
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© Secular Scalabrinian Missionaries - 2022