Catechesis and Liturgical Animation
In the thoughts of the Founders, the Maestra Pia is born as catechist.
Catechist is certainly the characterization most applicable to the personality and activity of Lucy Filippini, because in her, they find unity and meaning as well as her being teacher and foundress of schools, a lady of action and of prayer, administrator and organizer. All her actions and sufferings revolve around the foremost preoccupation of her life: carrying the message of salvation to others.
“I wish with my very own blood that all the truths of holy faith, all the Gospel of Jesus Christ, all the Sacred Scriptures and all the Councils of the Church might be written, so that they might be impressed in the minds of men!”
In the society in which we live with little consideration of religious values, the Maestre through catechesis help new generations to find the true meaning of existence in Christ and to live His Gospel with fidelity.
The School
The School is the privileged place of the Apostolic Charism inherited from the Founders. The Maestre exercise the educative ministry inspired by a pedagogy of love learned in the School of the Divine Teacher. They show particular understanding for the most troubled and disadvantaged studentes.
Not school for school’s sake but rather as an instrument for the integral formation of the person in the light of the Christian view of life.
We, the Maestre Pie, therefore feel impelled to help the young to find meaningful answers in order to escape the conditions of “poverty”, understood as “empty” of values, working with a greater effort and in a manner more personal in the areas of:
- formation of conscience;
- of prevention;
- of solidarity.
Pastoral Ministry to Families
Our Founders courageously undertook the work of reclaiming the morals of society of their times, confronting the problems affecting the family. It was their conviction that the institution of family could be on the forefront of the educative role only if the woman was adequately formed and at the highest level of the task. The outline of the work carried out by Lucy Filippini can be grouped along three progressive yet closely interdependent strands:
The promotion of women as a response to social and spiritual needs of the time.
The promotion of women closely connected to their Christian formation.
Christian formation of women through the institution of the Maestre Pie.
One of the principal objectives for pursuing our educational-apostolic activity is that of pointing out the formation of women, proposing alternative models to those presented by mass media and as a result, to restore the nature of “domestic church” to the family.
Our Apostolate in Mission Lands
In Mission lands, we work actively for evangelization of the poor and the building up of the Church, always respectful of their cultural patrimony and of the nature and local traditions of the people among whom we work.
Our educational programs promote the local communities which can be the evangelical “yeast” in society and can announce Christ with word and work (Const. Art. 72).
The Maestre Pie, who find themselves on the front line of evangelization and of human promotion, work with the apostolic ardor of Lucy on a land “seeded” by daily hardships and dangers. In imitation of the Good Samaritan, they bend down to assist their brothers and sisters who live in inhuman situations and sometimes even slavery.
Sharing the Charism with the Laity
Collaboration with the Laity in evangelization is a response to the demands of ecclesiology of communion recommended by Vatican Council II.
The Laity of St. Lucy Filippini are called to live charity on a universal level, inspired by Jesus the teacher. Like our saintly Founders, they recognize the Mystery of the Trinity living in every brother and sister. Through personal and communal prayer, they obtain the “filial piety” of Jesus toward the Father. With Him, they praise, bless, thank and abandon themselves to His Will.
Orienting their way of being and of working to the “sweetness and docility” of the Divine Teacher, they learn to love with His compassion, to the point of giving their lives for their brothers and sisters, in the concreteness and variety of personal experiences.
The mission of the Laity of St. Lucy Filippini is, above all, that of responding to the personal call to holiness, putting Jesus Christ at the center of life, and of bringing the joyful news of the Gospel to every place in the spirit of the Founders. The mission is explained through:
- witness of a life in synch with Gospel values;
- exemplary practice in personal profession;
- active presence in the parish, like efficacious “yeast” at the service of the Christian community, available for pastoral activities (catechesis in all its forms, formation of the young and of families) according to the directives of Parish and Bishop;
- collaboration with the works of the Institute (apostolic and missionary activity, spiritual-vocational work, volunteering, various initiatives) that assist the “little ones and the weak.”