Thomas Griffin 11/13/24
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Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917) changed people’s lives.
She originally grew up in Italy but she was fascinated by the stories of the missionaries to the New World that she heard about. When she was about 30 years old, with seven young women, Frances founded the Institute of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She had a desire to go to China but after visiting with Pope Leo XII he invited her to go to the West rather than to the East. She was to go to New York to aid the thousands of Italian immigrants.
Not long after her arrival in New York she and her sisters began to teach religious education classes and eventually established orphanages and schools. Despite facing large financial challenges she accomplished what so many thought was impossible. So many were aided by the love and practical aid of Frances and her sisters.
Despite her huge practical impact she was known to say, “We must pray without tiring, for the salvation of mankind does not depend upon material success…but on Jesus alone.”
All of the impact she had was the result of giving Jesus the permission to work in and through her. The practical influence she had on changing people’s lives was grounded in the fruit of her deep prayer. Since prayer is communication with the living God, the more we pray the more we are able to bring others into contact with Christ. Our own personal prayer is the avenue for others to encounter Christ because we will be changed the more we pray to mirror Jesus.
This daily intimate contact with Jesus empowered Mother Cabrini to say, “I will go anywhere and do anything in order to communicate the love of Jesus to those who do not know Him or have forgotten Him.”
Her face-to-face conversations with Jesus in prayer motivated her to make this a reality for others, whether they knew they needed it or not. Her deep commitment to evangelization could be seen in her willingness to adapt her plans to the wishes of Pope Leo XIII. Cabrini believed that she knew that China was the place for her to go. She believed this would be the best use of her gifts.
However, at the word of the pope she was willing to change her direction because the centrality of her mission was to proclaim who Jesus is and what he had done in her life. It did not matter to her where this brought her or what the details of her life were as long as she could proclaim his words and love.
Often, we can believe that we know exactly what the approach should be for how to renew the Church or the culture. We draw up our plans, with good intentions, and we are motivated to help bring revival. However, sometimes God might be calling us to pivot and work towards a slightly different calling. If the focus is on serving God and on doing our very best to make him the center of our lives then the precise circumstances will not matter.
We can see the purity of heart of Mother Cabrini to serve God in her words: “My good Jesus, give me the grace to love you with all my heart and to serve you with great fidelity in this life so that I can be a grain of sand to build up your glory for all eternity.”
She knew that Jesus was with her in the present moment, no matter where it brought her or what challenges it entailed. All of the work she performed was meant to bring about the possibility for more people to be able to have life to the full. The glory of Heaven is what she was working towards – for herself and for every soul that she encountered. At the same time, she knew that this was God’s work, not hers. All she desired was to be but a grain of sand that would help reinforce the power of God’s reign on earth.
We are called to have the same dedication and humility. To keep God at the center of everything we do because, as Mother Cabrini once said, “Let us keep close to Jesus because if we lose him, we have lost everything.”
May she aid us in keeping him close and serving him well so that we can life to the fullest like she did.
Thomas Griffin is the chairperson of the religion department at a Catholic high school on Long Island where he lives with his wife and two sons. He has a masters degree in theology and is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Empty Tomb Project: The Magazine. He is the author of Let Us Begin: Saint Francis’s Way of Becoming Like Christ and Renewing the World.
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