“IF WE ARE GOOD, GOD WILL MAKE US HOLY”
 
 
 
            “If we are good, God will make us holy.” M. Cándida said it with a lot of faith. Now we see that faith confirmed. 
 
            How she desired holiness! For herself, for the Daughters of Jesus, for her family and relatives, for the students, and for all those whom she knew and loved.   This desire is expressed in almost all her letters, and in those addressed to the Daughters of Jesus, M. Cándida almost always signed this way: “You know that your mother wants you to be very holy and blesses you. Humble servant in Christ, Cándida María de Jesús.”
 
            She refers to the same desire in speaking of the vocation of the Daughters of Jesus: “Truly, we can well be thankful for the great benefit that the Lord has granted to us, in calling us to this our beloved Congregation; so that we may be his beloved daughters and spouses, and that we may win many souls for heaven. Yes, my daughter, he called us for this; this is our goal: to set straight and to form these little hearts for God, teaching them to be very devoted to Mary Immaculate, our dear Mother, and to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. That they may love him deeply and commend themselves most earnestly to them. From these girls may emerge some great saints who will give great glory to God.   We are the instruments to bring these souls to the Lord, and it is well that we ask him to receive our life, works and sacrifices; for, although they are worth nothing, uniting them... with those of Jesus Christ, they are of infinite value.”
 
            And in the last year of her life, she writes to a sister, “Holiness ... is what we should always aspire to while we are in this life.”
 
            If she could speak with us today, she would say the same thing, to the Daughters of Jesus, to the students, to their parents and teachers, to our lay collaborators, to our friends and benefactors, to her relatives, to all. Someone may say, "But it is not easy." No doubt, it is not easy: no great undertaking is.  The Holy Father, talking about the Lenten season, says, “We could say that it is a time of spiritual ‘contest’ to live together with Jesus, not with pride and presumption, but using the weapons of faith, that is, prayer, listening to God's Word, and penance.”

            Certainly we are bound to fail sometimes. But M. Cándida encourages us, “if our frailty makes us err, humbling ourselves in the presence of God, we get up, and, encouraged, we take up our race once again, because our life is a continuous struggle; but, with God’s grace, we shall overcome.”
             
            Having M. Cándida accompany us along the way, we will realize better that is possible to welcome the call to holiness and to make it our own. We will be encouraged by her example and the certainty that neither are we called to a response beyond our strength, but to one that is in accord with the gifts that God has given each one of us. Let us walk and work together as a family, in her company. 
 
            In this joyful moment that we look forward eagerly to M. Cándida’s canonization, how significant are the words of a person who speaks with wisdom and experience! “The main fruit... of every beatification or canonization is the glory that is given to God through it, and at the same time, the great number of ‘moral miracles’ that go with it. They always bring with them a surge of grace that pushes to conversion, to faithfulness, to the earnest pursuit of holiness, to place oneself sincerely before God to know what He wants of us, knowing that He will never fail us, and that we can count as well on the intercession of the saints.”
 
            Let us open ourselves to that surge of grace!      
 
 
Anna María Cinco, F.I. 
Rome 
February 22, 2010