The word “mother” is non-temporal in character because it is a reality that goes beyond space and time. This is true of both physical and spiritual motherhood. A mother is a person who welcomes life in all its stages and expressions. A mother is a person who knows how to understand and love, even when […]
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Three Characteristics of Maestra Thecla
Like many Daughters of St. Paul of my generation, I got to know Maestra Thecla through her writings and the testimonies of FSPs of the “first hour.” A particularly precious moment for me in this journey of discovery occurred in 1994 when, among the initiatives organized to celebrate the centenary of her birth, an international […]
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My Experience with Maestra Thecla
April 1952: I was thirteen years old and had just entered the Congregation. The FSP community of Porto Alegre, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, was bursting with young girls, the majority of them from big Catholic families descended from Italian, German and Polish immigrants…. Everyone wanted to become a nun, even though […]
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Letter to Sr. Thecla
I was asked to write an article–actually, a testimony– about Venerable Thecla Merlo. I accepted the request because it is hard for me to say “no” to people. But when I started to think about what to write, I realized that I could not offer a testimony because I know Sr. Thecla only through the […]
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Maestra Thecla: A Fulfilled Woman
I think one of the greatest gifts I received from the Lord was the fact that the house in which I was born and raised was very close to the main houses of the Daughters of St. Paul and the Society of St. Paul in Rome. This had a deep impact on my life. In […]
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