Celebrating fifty years of history, how do you talk about? How do you try to make a summary of a half century of life? It isn’t an easy task, even if your heart wants to say many things. I chose to do it with five words. One for each decade. The first three Dream, History (which I would decline with the term Memory), Prophecy – are offered by the title of the commemorative book, edited by Sister Biancarosa Magliano.[i]  I might add the other two. They are: Design and Fertility. All this spinned with the thread of the "feminine genius", which characterizes the USMI.

The dream

"Those who dream with open eyes they know many things which escape those who dream only sleeping". [ii] This maxim of Edgar Allan Poe I think can be used for the experience of 50 years of life now we are celebrating.

50 years. A bet and a dream: the dream of a consecrated life with heart full of God and full of men and women who are living at next door. A consecrated life richer of the Word than complicated and repetitive words; a consecrated life  the most exposed to gratuity than to efficiency,  to the hope than to the fear, to the dialogue than to the closing; a consecrated life is able to dream; a  consecrated life, younger and less juvenile, is able to emphasize in authentic way the feminine genius; a consecrated life that has been and wants to keep being the life of communion and of prophecy.
If it is true that those who dream by day are cognizant of many things who dream only by night, full of hope are the dreams of those who retain the ability to dream even if it is night; to "remember" the eternal source, because although it is night the source is clear.

In recent decades the Church and consecrated life lived in a painful, dramatic and beautiful land, in an age drawn from a "dark night of the collective," as our beloved John Paul II said, quoting St. John of the Cross. [iii] Between the features of this night is the dominance of rationalism, so that humanity could become the victim of a mere positivism of doing and having.
The consecrated life, especially his female face, is called to be Love, because "only love is credible"; to remember where the source flows, although it is night; [iv] to continue to dream that  spring of water welling eternal life, despite the difficulties and trials.

In recent years, commitment  continued by USMI, led by women full of faith and hope, was to be born and reborn hope. Hope wakes up from the routine, apathy, mediocrity and indifference. It destroys the germs of resignation and combats spiritual atrophy of whom is satisfied. Hope and trust go hand in hand. Throughout history those who waits  trusts in life, in people, in God. He is able to dream and make concrete what he dreams. And the dream becomes "live", made for the reception of children and the poor, humility, fraternal correction, common prayer, mutual forgiveness, sharing of faith, brotherly affection and material goods (cf Acts 2 -4, 1 Pet 3.8 to 9).
And so the challenge today is to make this dream a reality for every continuous being a reality for al Institute, from largest to smallest, the one that has a long history of life on the new foundation, because it is the rediscovered the radical discipleship sequela Christi. We can realize this dream: to follow Jesus Christ with renewed enthusiasm, be consistent and not tolerate injustice and laziness, leave everything to him, crucified, died and rose for us, "the fairest of the sons of men."

Memory

"I beg you, brothers, - Symeon the New Theologian writes- by all means let us endeavor to look to ourselves and our history. [...] Otherwise we will never understand the true meaning of the divine words, understanding them in a spiritual way, worthy of the Spirit of wisdom."

Without memory we would not be what we are now. The memory is "not" a simple past, but "our" past, what we have built and shaped. Personal past, our history of individuals, but also the history of the people, history and common memory, history of an institution: the story of USMI. The man without "roots", ie without "memory",  feel lost, insecure, weak.

What is the happily married couple that does not keep carefully, and review with feelings of joy, the emotion of your wedding photo album, or the first steps of their young? Often the mothers are the "guardians of memory": they write down important dates, but also small events, but most important, of his family. That's what  Sister Biancarosa did with the cited volume and I have read in one breath with taste and emotion. I saw many faces of dear sisters still alive or already in the USMI Family of the sky. Sisters become - with what they've accomplished - the precious pearl of our memory, of the life of the Church, the saints are "the people of the memory." People who have managed to live their lives in such a way as to become "memory" for later generations.
To remember is discreetly to put to the others’ disposal the good that life has taught, so that - be it a person or a religious institute - can take advantage of it to live better, to believe more strongly, to love more, to know whether good and evil. Here then is the lesson that comes from fifty years of life: to be "living memory of the Gospel." We are called to be the good news’ story for future generations.
Jesu dulcis memoria. It is this beautiful hymn of the liturgy attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Our face of consecrated should show the sweet memory of Christ. Like Francis of Asís, when he pronounced the name of Jesus passed his lips, so our lives should be the memory of the sweetness of Christ.

Prophecy

If the memory is "recalled" (back to the heart), go back to the roots, on which lay the solid bases of life, the attention to the present  time is to take chances and opportunities to develop and to be used. Looking ahead is incentive not to stop, to go ahead with confidence and courage, to grasp new opportunities and higher and higher goals. It is the poets write about dreams, flattery and pleasantries of hearts in love, song of the sun and moon, the pain and torment of the soul.  It is of the prophets speak and let fall in love of the light that radiates hope, the infinite mystery of life, the infinite glory of God.

As consecrated we have in the Church the task of poetry and prophecy. Paul VI said: "The Church has need of fire in the heart, words on the lips, in the eyes of prophecy '.[v] He sang his father David Maria Turoldo sang: "Send, o Lord, even the prophets. Men sure of God, men from the heart on fire, to tell to the men to always hope."

As prophets, we are called to be women of shock, trouble, of restlessness. As prophets, we are not who that better than others know exactly what to do in the Church and the world. Rather we are confronted with our own helplessness, smallness and poverty. We do not have the trump card to say how today is the Christian life and how it will in the future. However, as the prophets, we want to hear what God has to say to us today, the Church and the world.

We need humility and honesty, openness and sensitivity, of listening to God and the signs of the times, an increased perception of what happens in history today, and you need the gift of the Spirit in order to perform in a credible and effective our prophetic mission. For this we must hope, as single consecrated and as a community, to be willing to open our hearts to the voice of God and to proclaim by word and life.

"Belonging to the Lord - Pope Benedict told us - it means to be on fire with his incandescent love, be transformed into the splendor of her beauty [...]. Being in Christ means to keep alive the flame burning in our heart of love ".[vi]6 This is the meaning embodied in the mystical and prophetic experience of the consecrated life. It is the joyous discovery of the sources of salvation, the discovery of hidden treasure, the encounter with Christ and the prophetic announcement of his Kingdom.

Project

The etymology of the word 'project' is derived from the Latin word "proiectus”, past participle of "proicere" which means "to throw". It is closely related to "proiectare" pro+iectare  (= throw forward). This term refers to openness to change, to change, to transformation. However, the project is not, as we are often tempted to think, to project into the future what we are, we own and govern. Rather it is the ability to make change from history that happens and from the encounter with the Other and with others, to rethink the future as possible as children of the new that is given to us. In other words, it is converted to 360 degrees.

As believers and consecrated women we know that God and His love draw us, and therefore we should not be afraid. The dialogue with our Spouse converts us  to him, the dialogue with our brothers convert us to the common truth of the image and likeness of God, that everyone has placed in the center since its creation; the "New in the Spirit" is the common way that leads us to the Father.

As part of the plan, however, you must retrieve the memory, dreams, prophecy, which have made us who we are, so no experience will go unnoticed, leaving no sign; no experience will be filed without the proper checks and without recording of what it has been achieved. The commitment of the verification and recognition of what has been learned should spur us to seek the cause and purpose of the events that happen and affect our lives and give them a sense, a global sense, a sense over time.

Fertility

There is still a step to reach, to get to a wider measure, that of the heart of God, which always has a larger size of our normal human experience, as reflected, wise and rational. It is not just to dream God's dream, to the memory of the other to see him with the eyes of our history, to live the prophecy of the "already and not yet", to engage in a project to make room to another. Without all this, God does more, generates, creates abundant, fruitful, loves and cares for our life for what it is and smiles for every piece of life that more flourishes in hands.

Benedict XVI, when still a cardinal,  wrote: "The Church is Mujer. It's Mother. It's alive." The Church, and in it the consecrated life is called to be fruitful, to participate - in her unique way – to the creative work of a God who loves life, to create life. And who better than a woman and a  consecrated woman, can be a visible sign of the fruitfulness of the Church, his generosity, openness to infinity?

Generating is asking great capacity of hope and expectation: with in the heart the fruitful memory of the past we must stake a future date on which you can not do insurance; we bet on people who are not ourselves and grow in different ways by us, on institutions that are not those of today and that will be born from the collaboration, by communion, by mutual aid between Institutions on various mission fields. This is the fecundity made to measure of the Trinity, of her abundant life that continuously generates and loves and keeps alive the whole world.

This infinite measure is not abstract, or generic, is made of concrete and small things, everyday gestures and words, an attitude that continually invites to bless the lives we encounter, even to sow width of life and beauty where it arrives; it is made of humble and hidden gestures, but courageous as those who sows and waits patiently for the seed is growing.

"There is no greater love than he who gives his life for his friends”: it is not about heroic and occasional gestures, but rather a life that seeks God's measure, and this gives birth and takes care of life's another, of all others, without discrimination. A life like that of our sisters who have traced a furrow before us, throwing it in the small seed of their existence.

Yes, we can dream, you must. But only the ability to dream of hope, with the sweet remembrance of Christ in the heart, with the prophecy in the look, with plans of love, will be the seed of new life in the fruitfulness of the Spirit.

Therefore, together, we pray:

"Stay with us, Lord,
and enlighten us with your light.
Fill us with sweetness.
And if your heart will visit us
then the truth will shine in our hearts
and inside will burn charity."
For another fifty years ... another hundred years ... I do not know, we do not know.
We know that it will as you want ... and that's enough.