Mangalore Province, India

 “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” (Is 6:8). These words of the Sacred Scripture once more takes flesh in the ‘yes’ of Sr. Therese Crasta. This year, following a request of the Superior General she has offered herself to serve in the Day Center for children with non-serious mental disabilities in Kabul, Afghanistan, opened in 2006 at the invitation of Pope John Paul II and managed by an inter-congregational community.

Her generosity to serve the most poor beyond the borders of her country in the name of God is a reminder of the exhortations of  Pope Paul VI given to our Institute. Speaking of the Charity that embraces all, he said in 1955 to the sisters of the Generalate house: “Have a heart as big as the world; do not spare yourselves and do not leave anyone outside”. Again in 1969, he continued to affirm that Charity urges us to go and therefore, “Go to those frontiers where there are less forces, less works; that is do not have fear if providence opens a way there to spread the love of Christ… Do not fear. What happens if they would cast you out? You have brought to them your witness…. If they would send you away? Do not have fear! Shake off the dust from your sandals as the Gospel says, but do not renounce doing good when it is possible! This the Church tells you: Have courage. A courage that is prudent, discerned, judicious, ….have the ardent spirit of your Foundresses, so open to all the anxieties of persons!

Her availability to the ‘Ad gentes’ mission is an eloquent sign of the vitality of the Institute and of that passion for Jesus and his people that characterize it from its origins.