Some 50 Canossian Sisters from all over the world met at an International Seminar in Rome from 24 June – 2 July 2001 to reflect on the personal care of vocations. Some youth from Italy, Poland and one young lady from Singapore took part in the Seminar….  It was a most enriching and valuable experience for me to re-discover the beauty and truth of the vocation  of Magdalene of Canossa as well as my own calling.

We had many interesting input sessions on the topic, as well as dialogue sessions with the youth. Among the speakers were lay missionaries, priests and religious women from various congregations.  The youth asked that Religious men and women be more close to them, more ready to listen to them to accompany them on their search, more spontaneous to share their vocation stories.

One thing stood out clear for me as I returned from the Seminar. The great gift we have in the person of Magdalene of Canossa. Not only did she leave us 3,000 letters to various persons-  her best friend, Carolina Durini,  officials of the Church and State to establish the houses and works of Charity, her Memoirs and Plans for Foundations, but also  the treasure of the 68 letters which her Spiritual Director, a Diocesan priest, named Don Luigi Libera had written to her. Some studies have been made on these letters and I believe it is really worthwhile discovering  how he had accompanied her into her growth as a woman and a Christian.

I feel that many young people today are searching for direction, meaning and purpose.  There is a dire need for sound and serious spiritual direction, holistic and integrated, in touch with life and the changing realities of today.  I believe that like Magdalene, we need to have our images of God, of our selves, of others, and of life changed and transformed.

Magdalene’s childhood was marked with the pain of the premature death of her father, the second marriage of her mother, unhappy experiences with her tutor, a near-death illness in her adolescence, two unsuccessful attempts to join the Carmelite Monastery and the trial of accompanying her whole family to take refuge in Venice during the Napoleonic wars.  Magdalene emerged from all this, a mature and actualised Woman of God for others. Her early years of Spiritual direction by the wise Don Libera laid the foundations for the integrated person she became and her courage to pioneer a new kind of religious life in her time, that could combine “contemplation with action” – that could allow her to be totally absorbed with God and totally concerned with people especially those most in need, a true Daughter of Charity and servant of the poor, humble and loving in her ways.

Her spirit lives on today in the many men and women, religious and lay who make up the Canossian family throughout the world – a spirituality that is focussed on the Crucified and Risen Lord, witnessing to the greatest Love ever known.

I hope every young person searching for a direction, for meaning and purpose in life will get to know Magdalene and read; A UNIQUE SPIRITUAL DIRECTION – THE IMPACT OF DON LUIGI LIBERA ON THE YOUNG MAGDALENE OF CANOSSA, Rome, 1999.

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