To all Brothers and Sisters Hospitallers To the Hospitaller Family of Saint To the Hospitaller Community To friends, benefactors and volunteers To the guests for whom we care in our Centres

Dear Brothers, Sisters and Friends in Hospitality:

On April 24, 2014, the Congregation of the Sisters Hospitallers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Hospitaller Order of St John of God will begin the celebrations of the centenary year of the death of St Benedict Menni, a Hospitaller Brother, and the Restorer of the Hospitaller Order of St John of God in , and , and the Founder of the Congregation of the Sisters Hospitallers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. By celebrating the Centenary year we all have before our eyes the personality and the work of this saint of Hospitality who succeeded in welcoming in and embodying the Samaritan love of God, and making that love present in the lives of so many people stricken by sickness, suffering and poverty. The example of his life enlightens us and encourages us to continue along the pathways of reaching to welcome people in, and of practising hospitality,1 following the example of Jesus our Master who passed through the world doing good and healing the sick (cf. Acts 10,38). This year, under the motto “ST BENEDICT MENNI: A HEART WITHOUT BORDERS”, will provide us all with a very special opportunity to become more intimately familiar with this great Hospitaller, who, driven by “a love that knows no borders, was unable to say ‘enough!’“,2 and devoted himself tirelessly to lovingly serve the sick and needy, in whom he unveiled the presence of Jesus who considers all we do to our fellow men and women as being done to Him: “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Mt 25,40). It should also be a time for showing creativity and courage, responding prophetically to the needs of a radically changing global society, where the numbers of vulnerable people are rising all the time. Following the example of St Benedict Menni, we want our institutions to continue to be the presence of the merciful face of our Lord through the practice of Hospitality by renewing the ways and means we use to make a better response to the needs of contemporary men and women. Like him we also feel sent out to jointly perform the mission of a Samaritan Church which comes down on the side of the most vulnerable, the excluded and needy people.3

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In this letter, after a brief account of the main events in the life of this “prophet of Hospitality”, we shall be reflecting on certain aspects of his life based on the motto for the Centenary, which will help and challenge us to embody in our own hospitality the style of St Benedict Menni who, following the example of Saint John of God, considered that no sacrifice was too much to do good to the poor for the love of Jesus.4

1. Short biographical fact and events St Benedict Menni was born in 1841 in , , into a family imbued with profound human and Christian values. It was his experience of his voluntary service nursing the battlefield casualties in the Italian war of unification, and seeing the edifying example of self-sacrificing devotion to them by the Hospitaller Brothers, which revealed the Lord’s calling to devote his life to serving the suffering. In 1816 he entered the Order of St John of God and underwent his formation in the religious and Hospitaller life followed by his philosophical and theological studies in preparation for the priesthood. He was ordained in 1866 and the following year, with the blessing of Pope Pius IX, he was sent to restore the Hospitaller Order in Spain, Portugal and Mexico. He was an outstanding witness to hospitality and his distinguishing feature was his commitment to the reality of his age. Like the Good Samaritan, he did not pass by on the other side, but set about establishing asylums, general hospitals and psychiatric centres (22 large centres in all) to take in “the fallen by the wayside” who, in those days, were completely abandoned and were left without any proper care : children suffering from scrofula and poliomyelitis, the old and the mentally ill. He performed his restoration mission by providing formation to the renewed communities in the radical practice of religious consecration, with a spiritual life centred on the experience of God’s goodness and mercy, caring for community life and on providing a Hospitaller service to the sick and needy. Animated by Christ’s love and his own compassionate understanding of social demands, St Benedict Menni saw himself as a tool in the hands of God, not only for his mission as the Restorer of the Order, but also as the founder of a new Congregation of women dedicated specifically to serving mentally ill women. After many ups and downs and with the help of María Josefa Recio and María Angustias Giménez, a new fruit grew on the tree of Hospitality at Ciempozuelos (Spain) on May 31, 1881. As a pioneer of psychiatric care in late 19th-century Spain, St Benedict Menni stood out as a result of his comprehensive view of the human being and a method of care combining science and love; he ensured efficient management centring around the good of individuals, and he worked with the health care and welfare policy-makers of his age. With creative and innovative generosity, he fostered greater social justice, creating what we would call today a mental health care ‘network’.5 A man of outstanding human and spiritual qualities with a unique capacity to govern and manage, he served the Order with great humility and extreme devotion; he particularly identified with Jesus’ Paschal Mystery as the source of his understanding of human suffering and the path to resurrection,6 and he died at Dinan () on April 24, 1914. His remains lie in the Mother House of the Congregation at Ciempozuelos. He was

2 beatified on June 23, 1985 and canonised on November 21, 1999 by John Paul II, who is to be canonised by Pope Francis on May 27 this year, together with John XXIII.

2. A HEART WITHOUT BORDERS… IN PASSION FOR JESUS…

“Nothing fills my heart except love for my Jesus”.7 One of the ways in which the Congregation and the Order are revitalising themselves in order to respond creatively to the call to bear witness to God’s hospitality in the world today, is to look to St Benedict Menni, following in the footsteps of Saint John of God, as an unambiguous demonstration of the fact that the consecrated life filled with passion for Christ and for suffering humanity is a source of renewal, hope and happiness.8 It is a heart without borders … With passion for Jesus … It was his powerful experience of God’s goodness and mercy that underlay this passion. Recognising his unworthiness, he opened himself up to receive the embrace of the Father, with the certitude that He “preferred to favour those who experienced poverty and to seek out the wretched souls who acknowledged that they were sick”. There are no bounds to God’s mercy revealed to us in Jesus as the “physician, medicine, balsam and remedy” for [our] infidelities however great and manifold they may be.9 It was on the basis of this experience which so intensely marked his life that St Benedict Menni joyfully embraced the calling of Jesus who, in his loving compassion, “has favoured us, lovingly attracting us to His beloved home” to perform, with us, “wonders of mercy”. His realisation that this call was freely given, and of the need to respond to it with generosity, generating good works in the service of others, led him to live “thinking of Jesus, loving Jesus and making all sacrifices for Jesus, working for Jesus and with Jesus.”10 This is only possible if it is grounded on an intimate union with Jesus, as branches on the same trunk and united at the roots, from which we receive the sap of life. Following the example of Saint John of God, even in the midst of his busy life, “he continuously and gently turned to the Lord, invoking him and casting that interior glance towards his Divine Master Jesus, from whose Divine Heart he had received that spirit of self-denial and heroic charity which enabled him to bear all things in peace, tranquillity and remaining completely calm when facing all sufferings, and pain, working for the love of God and the good of his neighbour”.11 The example set by St Benedict Menni, a heart without borders… in his passion for Jesus, is a clear invitation to us today, to live our Hospitaller vocation as a pathway of joy, happiness and hope. The radical and bold way he dedicated himself totally to Christ and to the poor and the sick, urges us to renew our hearts and to root our lives in a profound and nurtured spiritual experience, in a fraternal and Samaritan community life and in an apostolic life in which we all feel that we are active players in hospitality. The difficulties we experience in our Institutions and even in our own communities can “rob us” of the joy of living “enamoured” of our vocation and of heightening our passion for Jesus. Following the example of St Benedict Menni we must constantly and continuously renew our personal encounter with Jesus Christ, in the certainty that “Jesus, full of love and goodness, finds his delight in being with us” and that without Him, we are “dry and arid ground”. He urges us on to love Jesus, “to serve him with all our strength and

3 to offer him our hearts more fervently as every day passes, so that he will purify it and fill it with his love.”12

3. A HEART WITHOUT BORDERS… IN COMPASSION FOR THOSE WHO SUFFER …

“We must yearn to sacrifice ourselves greatly for our neighbours, who represent the image of Jesus.”13 This passion for Jesus which St Benedict Menni experienced so intensely is transformed into a deep compassion for suffering humanity. Like Saint John of God, the experience of mercy “touched” his life and transformed his heart into a heart of mercy, compassion, a sensitive and welcoming heart, particularly towards those who suffer the most. His life was an example to all those of us who wish to listen and respond to the many human needs that are clamouring for our hospitality. His was a heart without borders … full of compassion for those who suffer … from the time of his youth he sensed the way that God “knocked at his door” in the person of the war wounded, and he then joined the Hospitaller Order, “an institution which, in those years never ceased to reach out, in every place, to the cry of the suffering”, consecrating himself to relieving the suffering of the “poor, the paralysed and the old, sick suffering from contagious diseases, those living in mental asylums, and those wounded on the fields of war.”14 St Benedict Menni experienced his service to alleviating so many needs as an experience of mercy and as an undeserved grace: “Praise be to God, who deigns to use us to do a little good to so many needy people! Where have we deserved the grace whereby our Lord deigns to use us in His service and to soothe the sufferings of his living images?”15 It was this that underpinned the compassion that moved his heart: his conviction, that he experienced through his faith, that by serving the sick and the needy he was serving the Lord Himself, who had called him to follow Him along the pathways of hospitality. As a true Brother of St John of God, by the vow of hospitality, he set no bounds on his compassion, knowing that what is important is to do good to the sick and needy without any limits, providing a comprehensive service with no discrimination and fostering the rehabilitation of those who served;16 even performing this mission he had to “put up with some issues”, sacrificing himself to alleviate the plight of the poor for the love of Jesus who “sees and is pleased by all the sacrifices made and the hard work and toil suffered for his neighbour.”17 His heart without borders … in compassion, was manifested in particular not only in the way he restored the Hospitaller Order but also in his determination to found a Congregation dedicated to serving women suffering from mental problems, because “there was no one to devote themselves specifically to these sick women.”18 The example of St Benedict Menni, a heart without borders… in his compassion for the suffering, is a source of encouragement and a goad to us to respond in the way that God expects of us to help sick and needy people. Our Hospitaller mission is necessary and of topical relevance today, and drawing on our human and Gospel-based sensitivities, out of compassion for suffering humanity, we wish to be present, boldly and courageously in those situations of marginalisation where human life is most seriously under threat.

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He was one of these many men and women who, following Christ, have given their lives to others and passed through the world “doing good and healing the sick”. Like him, we want to be strong and courageous in practising hospitality,19 standing by the side of those who are suffering and placing all the human and technical means at our disposal at their service, to treat them and to attend to their needs and dimensions. Our commitment to hospitality drives us on to undertake a renewed mission incorporating science and Christian charity taking a holistic view of the human person.

4. A HEART WITHOUT BORDERS... FOR OUR OWN AGE..

“We feel driven by a powerful yearning to bring comfort wherever there is someone suffering from a disability.”20

The age in which St Benedict Menni had to live was embroiled in great turmoil and crisis, with riots in the streets, against the background of great political, social and religious upheavals and change, which seriously affected the Church and the Religious Life at the institutional level. Indeed, the Hospitaller Order of St John of God like the other Orders and Congregations, ended up by practically disappearing from Spain and from other countries as a consequence of this situation, and for other domestic causes stemming from it. A heart without borders... that is what our Saint had, when he reached Spain, acting on the orders of the Superior General, Brother Giovanni Maria Alfieri at the age of 26, with a mission to restore the Order there.21 Like Saint John of God several centuries earlier, he reached where he began his mission: with great faith and trust in God, filled with enthusiasm and determination. He arrived there on his own, knowing virtually no one, and found himself caught up in a what was virtually religious persecution and anticlericalism. It was there he had been sent, and it was there he had to begin his mission. And it was there that he started his work, putting everything he had into it, with an enormous heart without borders, with the courage that comes from God, and which makes it possible to overcome all fears, with the wisdom and the prudence that are natural to a prodigious intellect, which is always receptive to the light of the Holy Spirit.22 With these ingredients, his plan was guaranteed success. Like his Founder, Saint John of God, he started out alone, but no one could hold him back, and in a comparatively short time, thanks to his persistence, his creativity and his confidence that everything was willed by God, Saint Benedict Menni not only restored the Order in Spain, Portugal and Mexico but he also founded the Congregation of the Sisters Hospitallers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The work of Hospitality once again began to shine in all its splendour where it had practically disappeared. His secret, in addition to his staunch trust in God, was that he knew how to read the signs of the times and how to make the right response to the needs of that moment, as well as his gifts as a founder, organiser, administrator and tireless struggler to make the project of hospitality grow increasingly at the service of the sick, needy and poor. A heart without borders... for our own age... which differs from his age, but still suffers from crises and huge upheavals in every area, particularly in the religious sphere where we are experiencing a powerful process of secularisation, in which the Church is losing its presence, influence and significance. Religious apathy and the lack of vocations to the

5 consecrated life on the one hand, and the complexity of so many of our apostolic structures, on the other hand, are just a few of the difficulties that face the Religious Life today, and specifically our two Institutes. All this poses huge challenges to the future, one of which is to supersede a certain pessimism and a loss of enthusiasm which sometimes seem to be powerfully permeating our own environment. St Benedict Menni stands as a living example to all of us, to enable us to face up to the present moment and the future of our consecrated life and our Hospitaller mission. He started alone. His witness is a call to us to place all our trust in the Lord, with a heart without borders, that is to say, placing everything we are and all we have at the service of our vocation and our mission, for which we need an unyielding faith in the project of Hospitality which Our Lord and the Church has entrusted to us. If that is so, there is no time and no place for complaints, disenchantment ,and certainly not for pessimism. That will certainly be the best form of Vocations Promotion/Pastoral Care that we can offer: the example of a consecrated life lived with enthusiasm, with joy and with courage, with a heart without borders. The responses that he made in his age are a source of wisdom and of light on which we can draw. He knew how to read and see the needs of his age, he knew how to seek out and surround himself with the right people to help him, and to find practical ways to enable a large number of apostolic works to operate at the service of the sick and needy. We are faced with many difficulties today with the management and maintenance of our structures. In St Benedict Menni, we find a stimulus and an example to enable us to respond to the needs of the present time in every one of the places in which our Institutes are present, seeking the most appropriate ways of managing them and cooperating with other entities, in order to keep alive the charism and mission of Hospitality. The courage of Saint Benedict Menni, one of Saint John of God’s most outstanding disciples, knew no geographical or human bounds. The fact that he was supported by God’s mercy is the only way to explain his great work. He knocked at every possible door, driven only by his prophetic desire to show hospitality and to serve the most vulnerable. This made him capable of enabling others to become enthusiastic and committed to the mission, as Brothers/Sisters and Co-workers. In our own age, our two Hospitaller Families need this boldness and creativity to continue enthusing many other people about our project, and to commit themselves to it, to continue being faithful to Hospitality, overcoming fear and excuses that only hamper, with the hope of those who are conscious of the fact that they are being supported by the Lord.

5. OPENING AND CLOSURE OF THE CENTENARY The Centenary will open, as we have already announced, on April 24, 2014 at Dinan (France), the hospitable land which welcomed in St Benedict Menni to spend the final days of his life. It will close in 2015, on the same date, at the “Villa Hospitalaria” at Ciempozuelos (Spain), the birthplace of the Foundation of the Congregation and one of the first places in which he restored the Order. Throughout the Centenary year, wherever we are present with our Hospitaller centres worldwide, many different events are planned, at which the Brothers and Sisters, Co- workers and Volunteers of our institutions will be working together: scientific and Hospitaller conferences, retreats, meetings, pilgrimages, religious celebrations,

6 publications, and so forth. We would like all these events to help us to become better and more intimately familiar with the life and the work of St Benedict Menni, to share the experiences of our Hospitaller life and mission and, above all, to set out along the path of renewed hospitality,23 responding as he did, creatively and boldly, to the needs of sick and suffering people. In the celebration of our Lord’s Easter, our wish is that all of us who practise Hospitality in the manner of Saint Benedict Menni, will be blessed with his capacity to reach out and to hand on the new life given to us by the One who has overcome death.

Alleluia! The Lord has risen: a Happy Easter and a happy Centenary.

Sr. Anabela Carneiro Bro. Jesús Etayo Superior General Superior General

Rome, April 20, 2014 Solemnity of the Resurrection of the Lord

1 Cf. JOHN PAUL II, Homily during the Mass for the canonisation of Benedict Menni, , 21/11/1999. 2 MENNI BENITO, Cartas del Siervo de Dios, Roma 1975, C. 587, 3 Cf. ETAYO JESUS, Letter presenting the programme for the Sexennium, Rome 2013, 2; SISTERS HOSPITALLERS, Recreating hospitality. Pathways of revitalisation, Rome 2012, p. 52. 4 Cf. MENNI BENITO, Cartas del Siervo de Dios, C. 346. 5 Cf. HERMANAS HOSPITALARIAS, Marco de Identidad de la Institución, Roma 2010, 3. 6 Cf. JOHN PAUL II, Homily during the Mass for the canonisation of Benedict Menni. 7 MENNI BENITO, Cartas del Siervo de Dios, C. 589. 8 Cf. ETAYO JESUS, Closing address at the 68th General Chapter, 5. 9 Cf. MENNI BENITO, Cartas del Siervo de Dios, C. 232, 452. 10 Cf. MENNI BENITO, Cartas del Siervo de Dios, C. 447, C. 434, C. 452; MENNI BENITO, Perfil juandediano, Granada 1985, P004. 11 MENNI BENITO, Perfil Juandediano, P027-1 12 MENNI BENITO, Cartas del Siervo de Dios, C. 452, C. 209. 13 MENNI BENITO, Perfil… P026-2 14 Cf. MENNI BENITO, Perfil juandediano, C. 348. 15 MENNI BENITO, Cartas del Siervo de Dios, C. 406. 16 Cf. MENNI BENITO, Perfil… C. 42. 17 Cf. MENNI BENITO, Cartas del Siervo de Dios, C. 346, Perfil Juandediano, C. P026-2 18 Cf. MENNI BENITO, Constitutions of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Prologue, 1882. 19 Cf. MENNI BENITO, Cartas del Siervo de Dios, C. 660. 20 Cf. MENNI BENITO, Perfil Juandediano, P349. 21 Cf. MENNI BENITO, Perfil juandediano, P336. 22 Cf. MENNI BENITO, Perfil Juandediano del Beato Benito Menni, P039. 23 Cf. SISTERS HOSPITALLERS, Recreating hospitality. Pathways of revitalisation, Presentation.

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