"I want to be buried among my beloved poor"


With these words from her will Mother Frances offers us  the key to understand her fundamental aspect with regards to that mystery which is the charism of the founder of every religious Institute. The Church helps us to understand this when she tells us how "the Spirit transmits such an experience to his disciples"; and that such an experience confers "a proper character to every religious institute"; and that such "a character brings a particular style of holiness and
apostolate" (Mutuae Relationis 11).


The singular experience of the Spirit as lived by Mother Frances
is on the same level with that lived by St Francis of Assisi:
"the conformation to Christ, poor, humble, crucified and risen"
(Cons 2003).


Though lived in different times, the tonality is the same. Like Francis, she was sucked into the mystery of Chirst's poverty, the Son of God, who came amongst us despoiled of human glory, lived in poverty so that He could bring to the poor the Good News of Salvation.

Like Francis of Assisi, even Mother Rubatto embraced poverty: her marriage to poverty which brings to the realization of her one being, in a crescendo on intimate reciprocity. It is the interior experience and joy of poverty that confers this proper characteristic, or rather the proper colouring of all the elements which form the consecrated life according to the particular design of the Spirit's project in the heart of Mother Frances.

Poverty is essential. It is lived first of all in relation to God who fills and satisfies totally the heart of the creature who consecrates herself to Him.


"My God and my all" is the cry of Francis of Assisi,
which Mother Rubatto made her own: it is the cry that channelled
into her life and into the life of her Institute.

She herself learned the radicality of poverty from Christ crucified. She used to pray and for her fellow sisters in this way:

"Lord , here I am in front of you. Like you and with you, today and in all the days of our lives  here on earth, we want to consign ourselves to you, we want to take up our cross, to come up to you on the calvary which to each one of us is the hill of our salvation, since it is through this way that we can come to the full communion with you in heaven. We want to carry our own cross without shedding it on others because of your love, so that we can feel its weight. You yourself said: my yoke is sweet and its burden light. Lord Jesus we want to be tied to your cross, which is the cross of Love! We are assured that in every trial we go through you are there with us"
(from the Letters of Blessed Mary Frances, 709,256,359).

Simplicity of life is the fruit of the essential poverty. It is the simplicity that generates joy;
simplicity in relations among the sisters that generates the fraternity.

Simplicity generates joy: a serene joy which allows cordiality in the relations with the destinataries of our mission. These people belong to the most humble level of society: the poor, the uneducated, the indios, all those who are speechless, but at the same time also those who belong to the intellectual class, the people in the communal administrations can find in us the joy that brings that cordiality in our relations with them. Joy consoles all the human miseries.

From the many qualities that the Seraphic Father had, Mother Rubatto first and foremost shared in the spirit of prayer. Like St Francis even she became a creature "engulfed in prayer". When the sisters used to wake in the morning, they would find her already praying in the chapel, with her gaze on the tabernacle where she never doubted the real presence of the Lord and to whom she used to pray with a vivid familiarity and hope especially in the times of extreme hardness. So:


Mother Frances " who had a living and ardent faith in Jesus present
in the Most Holy Sacrament,
made the Eucharist the very heart of her religious family" (Cons 2003).


These are the aspects of her spiritual and apostolic life which characterized the existence of Mother Frances, and these aspects which the Congregation wants to live in her members.

The formation of her first disciples, her spiritual daughters and sisters in the ministry, was one of the strangest thoughts and first worries of Mother Frances. She induced in them docility and humility, patience and love, a spirit of sacrifice and hope, cordiality and reciprocal esteem, happiness and perseverance in doing good.

She used to say to the sisters: "coming to know ourselves is a very difficult task because our self esteem hides from our sight our evil, and make us project it on others. However this is a necessary study as the lungs are necessary to help us intake fresh air. In as much we do not accept ourselves as weak and needy persons, we will never move ahead in doing good and will never have peace in our hearts" (Letter 205).


Thus one may not remain surprised by the jovial style of her sisters which irradiates an  open, expansive, interior joy.

Simplicity, besides being the foundation of spirituality, is also a style of life from which transpires a healthy grade of freedom which does not know any fear, because simplicity of life brings down any
barrier and brings joy to the hearts.

This spiritual experience that is a gift of the Holy Spirit, is the charism that her daughters want to live to be within the Church a credible sign of the Gospel lived 'sine glosa."


           THE CHARISM OF MOTHER RUBATTO

LOVE GOD AS THE "SUPREME GOOD" AND SERVE THE BROTHERS MOST IN NEED
LIKE APOSTLES OF LOVE AND SALVATION


-     united in one Heart we make up a real family in the Lord
-     in our familiarity with Jesus in the Eucharist we become broken bread for the brothers.
-     on the example of St Francis we live in poverty and humility.
-     we let ourselves be guided with faith in the Divine Providence.
-     as sisters of the people we spread everywhere the Gospel of Christ in simplicity and in minority




Love God as the "Supreme Good" and serving the most needy brothers: This expression synthesises the whole life and charism of Mother Frances who lived her ardent love for God the Supreme Good and which she transfused into the poorest of the brothers who are at heart toHim.

United in one heart we form a real family in the Lord:
Our mission moves us to become one family where we love each other as real sisters united in the love of Christ and united in one heart and soul.

In our familiarity with Jesus in the Eucharist we become broken bread for our brothers:
In the Eucharist, the very centre of our religious family, we find our food and strength. United to Him in the offering of our lives to the Father, like Mother Frances we become broken bread for the life of our brothers.

Like St Francis we live in poverty and humility: In becoming configured to Christ, poor and crucified, we discover in St Francis of Assisi a model of evangelical sanctity. The spirit of poverty and humility of the Poverello impressed in a fundamental way the heart of the Mother and which vivifies in our Community to make us within the Church a visible, credible sign.

We let ourselves be guided in the faith of Divine Providence: On the example of our Founders we let ourselves be guided by Divine Providence that is our mother and our food. Divine Providence helps us in all our difficulties, and offers us a way to do good and provides us with love in our all necessities.

As sisters of the people we spread everywhere the Gospel of Christ in simplicity and minority: the Love of Christ that moved our Mother to give herself to consolidate and spread the Kingdom of God makes of us apostles of love and salvation among the peoples.

Love for every human being and his dignity, evangelization,
human and religious promotion are the sentiments that guide
the sisters of Mother Rubatto wherever they are.


The fraternities and houses of the Capuchin Sisters, which are on the increase all the time, seem and in fact are small realities: they are like small drops in the sea or the mustard seed that begun over a
hundred years ago.

The fraternities are really drops in the sea: but at the same time they are living examples of a living charism that has never lost any of its raison d'etre, but rather goes on acquiring strength ever more
from day to day around the world.