Celebrated each October, World Mission Sunday is a special day for the Catholic Church to publicly renew its commitment to being missionary. Essentially this means that as Christians we need to be engaged in evangelization; bringing the love and redemptive news of Jesus Christ to the world. We are all called to do this in what- ever way we can. some religious orders dedicate their lives to bringing Christ to the World. This is true of the Mercedarian Missionaries of Berriz, who have missions all over the world.
You may be wondering how mother margarita decided to found missions half-way across the world. Well, it all began in 1919, when a monk wearing dusty brown sandals and a long snowy white beard made a visit to the nuns in the monastery at Berriz. At that time, the monk was on his way back to India. At the end of his visit he asked the school girls to say one “Hail Mary,” for him. The girls however, “riding on the wind of the holy spirit,” increased their prayers and began an era of offering help to missionaries all over the world. There was also another visit by a Jesuit priest during the same period. he was on his way to Wuhu, China and before leaving came to ask for spiritual donations: prayers for his future Apostolate. The encyclical letter Maximum Illud, by pope Benedict XV, also reached Berriz around the same time as these missionary visits. This encyclical regarding catholic missions after World War i was a source of great inspiration. it reminded Catholics of their role in evangelization, and the necessity of preparation for work in other cultures, along with a call to personal sanctity. A world torn apart by war and despair was exactly the soil on which the “Good News,” must be sown. It started a fire of love for the missions in both the students and the nuns. As Father Zameza writes in the life of mother margarita, “There is nothing like love, to discover an- other person’s love, if both of them are born and find themselves in the heart of Christ.”
Through all of these events, it is impressive to see the missionary zeal burning at the Vera Cruz school in Berriz and the Mercedarian monastery. mother margarita was, of course, the soul of this movement. Reading the letters of Mother Margarita at that time, it is amazing to realize that the person who writes is a cloistered nun; a person who is swamped with work and an educator of young girls, whom she follows closely, one by one, helping them to become committed christian women.
As you can see, everything was very simple. A seed was planted, but in the very depth of it all, the spirit of God was acting with gentleness and strength at the same time. God found in Mother Margarita, a great soul, already prepared to carry on his work, and he continued to guide her little by little, to the point of manifesting to her the secrets of his love for all humanity: Christ on the cross, the expression of the Father’s love and guarantee–through his Resurrection–that all of us are saved.
To speak of “mission,” in the life of mother margarita is very deep. it is outstanding in the richness of her writings, and touches us at the very core of our call to evangelization. “Mission” was a gift she received with great love. Above all, her missionary vocation was born from her love for God and humankind- -her brothers and sisters. it was particularly nurtured by her Mercedarian vocation centered in the Redemption of Christ.
In a letter to her Sister Leonor, she wrote: “i stopped to talk to the lord about my desires, especially of the one of saving souls, begging him to pour out his graces so that many people will know and love him. i feel sad that so few enjoy God.”
God chose a cloistered community of sisters to become a missionary institute that was alive, enthusiastic, without fear of change or risk. They had a great family spirit, with soaring zeal, simplicity and a tradition of the heroic acts of its Mercedarian Fourth Vow. So, when the time came for the community to vote on becoming a missionary institute, the approval of all 94 nuns was unanimous. The holy spirit worked well. All of them, from the last Postulant who ran up the stairs three at a time, to the most contemplative nun who spent endless hours in prayer, voted “yes!” to becoming missionary.
Now, with the whole world before her and the spirit prompting her, between 1926 and 1928 Mother Margarita directed her sisters to the first missions in China, the Mariana and the Caroline Islands and Japan. Today the Mercedarian Missionaries of Berriz have missions on five continents, serving in diverse missionary activities.
