On March 27th, we are celebrating the feast of Fr. Cestac, a most joyful occasion for all of us. In preparation of the feast, in each week of March, small reflections will be uploaded. We wish you a fruitful preparation!
Father Cestac's experience has led him to the conviction that, in order to be successful, any education must be inspired by family life.
He wants to provide a home for girls who are deprived of their parents: "It was obviously necessary to create a family for them, replacing corrupted or wicked parents with a father and a mother who, through charity, would respond to all their spiritual and physical needs…" (Marial Itinerary, p.24)
He will not accept that the Orphanage be placed under the authority of the municipality, even with remuneration of the educators. In his response to the Mayor's order, he strongly argued in favor of a family-based care: "Of all the ties that hold young people in their duty, the strongest and most powerful are those of the family. But for the neglected child, these ties are void; the child does not know them... It is necessary to create a family for her, to form bonds in this young soul that do not exist and which must surround her... This child must have a real father, a real mother, real sisters and these feelings must have become naturalized in her, they must have become like a part of her; this protection wall must protect and guard her..." (Letter, 1847)
Father Cestac also wants to offer a home and family life to the prostitutes of yesterday, eager to change their lives: "The penitents would not be cloistered; they had to live with those who would lead them, in a house whose doors would be open..” (I.M., p.44)
He also recalled: "To these poor unfortunate women, the Congregation of the Servants of Mary extended a friendly hand, it opened a maternal heart to them and they understood that someone could still love them, that there was a home, a family for them and that all these bonds of the heart, which had been violently broken, were going to be renewed..." (1852)
From 1850 onwards, Father Cestac engaged the Congregation in "Work in the classroom" with a view to educating rural girls, the future mothers of families. He explains: "In the countryside, the Servants of Mary prepare these children to one day become pious and intelligent farmers and by these means reconstitute the Christian family..." (Letter, 1862)
His recommended educational model is based on the family: "For the boarders, you must be extra careful and vigilant. The nurturing of their minds by solid instruction, of their hearts by the good and holy impressions that must be given to them, the care of their health, their clothes, etc., in a word with all the care of a vigilant and enlightened mother..." (Letter, 1859)
Doesn’t this integral training programme remain relevant in our 21st century?
"And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning." (Jn15, 27) Reflection by Father Hermann Rodríguez Osorio, SJ"...As the Father has sent me, so I send you. The Risen Lor...
