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Who We Are - Interview with Mother Adela |
Interview
with Mother Adela Galindo
Foundress of the Servants of the
Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary
Mrs.
Maureen Flynn conducted this interview with
Mother Adela Galindo in Rome, Italy on May 31, 1998.
The community’s apostolic charism
consists in utilizing all the means of evangelization to promote a solid
devotion and the reign of the
Two Hearts in the hearts of all men. They desire that the fruit of their
apostolate will develop in all, a profound and authentic love for the
Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, for the Blessed Virgin Mary and for the
teachings of the Magisterium of the Church.
The “Servants of the Pierced
Hearts of Jesus and Mary” is a religious community in formation founded by
Mother Adela Galindo in 1986. In 1990 it was established as a public
association in the Archdiocese of Miami, Florida. It is a contemplative
community with an apostolic projection. The community is Eucharistic
centered, Marian, Charismatic and faithful to the Magisterium. Their
spiritual charism is to contemplate, know, love, console, imitate, repair
and serve the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
"All for the Heart of Jesus,
through the Heart of Mary"
Motto SCTJM
Mrs. Flynn: Today is May
31st, the wonderful feast of Pentecost, and I’m interviewing
Mother Adela Galindo, foundress of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of
Jesus and Mary. Mother is going to tell us a bit about her family background
and her call to religious vocation.
Mother Adela: I was born
on November 21st, the Marian feast day of the Presentation of Our
Lady, in León, Nicaragua into a very catholic family which consisted of my
parents, four sisters and a brother. Because of some difficulties at my
birth, my mother began to pray the Holy Rosary daily for me. I believe that
was part of Our Lady’s plan for my life. I also had the privilege of
attending a catholic school totally dedicated to the Blessed Mother under
the name of “Pureza de María” (Purity of Mary). I do not have many memories
of my childhood, except those which have to do with my strong devotion to
Our Lady and her evident maternal presence in my life.
The Early Years
Mrs. Flynn: Were both
your parents devoted to Our Lady?
Mother Adela: My father
was very devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe and my mother was very devoted to
the Blessed Sacrament and to the prayer of the Rosary. I had the grace to
receive from them a solid formation in the faith and morals.
When I was about 12 years old,
after a meditation on the passage of the Annunciation in our school, I
realized the Our Lady’s fiat was the fruit of her love for God. I asked Her
to help me to love God the way she did. A few days later, I became seriously
ill. During the time I was in bed, many things happened in my heart. I felt
a great desire to know God in a personal way. At that time, the Charismatic
Renewal came to Nicaragua. I wanted to attend the first “life in the Spirit
seminar” and prayed to Our Lady to help me go. I know my recovery was due to
the Virgin Mary’s intercession. She lead me to the Holy Spirit and to the
fruit of their union: Jesus Christ. From that moment on, I became very much
involved in the leadership of the Renewal.
When the political situation in
my country began to deteriorate, I was invited to go to a charismatic
community in New York to receive formation and then go back to Nicaragua to
continue my ministries. Due to the war in my country, my family decided to
move to Miami. That is when I came to join them.
Those few first years were very
difficult since I knew no one; the renewal was just beginning in Miami and I
had no prayer group of friendships in the Lord. I t was “the desert” for me
and I suffered very much. In the midst of all temptations and invitations of
the enemy and the world, I felt the company and protection of My Mother,
Mary. I knew she would lead me back into the service of the Lord that my
heart so desired.
Mrs. Flynn: How old were
you during this period in the desert?
Mother Adela: Ages 18 to
21, but providentially Our Lady lead me to her parish: “Immaculate
Conception”, where I met a newly ordained charismatic priest who was
beginning a prayer group in the parish and needed help. The name of the
priest is Fr. Jordi Rivero.
Mrs. Flynn: Now
this was what year?
Mother Adela: It
was at the beginning of 1983. Our Lady had again come to intervene in my
life. I became involved in the leadership and also in charge of the music
and praise ministry. It was a powerful prayer group, open to the Holy
Spirit and consecrated to Our Lady.
Mrs. Flynn: The
Spirit and the Bride?
Mother Adela:
Exactly, the Spirit and the Bride bringing us to Jesus. I have been
and continue to be, a witness of the powerful union of the Spirit and the
Bride working not only in my life, but in the Church and in the whole world,
to give the fruit of their union: Jesus.
This is the reason why we cannot
separate the actions of the Holy Spirit from the actions of His Bride, Our
Blessed Mother.
I believe that the Charismatic
Renewal has to be very Marian, and the Marian movement has to be Charismatic,
in other words, very open to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
We can not separate the Spirit and the Bride whom together are saying in our
hearts: Come!
Just a few months after, I began
to experience a need for a deeper commitment with Christ. I had no idea
what that meant since I never once thought about the religious vocation. I
thought I was going to be a lay person totally dedicated to the service of
the Lord.
At the beginning of 1984,
proclaimed by the Holy Father as the year of Redemption, since that need had
not gone away, during a healing mass in our prayer group, I asked some of
the leaders, together with Father to pray for me, to have the Lord fill me
with His Spirit and allow me to see His will.
During the prayer I felt a
sharp pain piercing my heart. It was like if my heart had been torn in
two parts. Suddenly, Father said to me, “I had like a vision of a
pelican. The pelican had his heart pierced and little pelicans were
drinking from the blood that was coming out of the wound”. Father
explained that in the Church this has been an image used for the pierced
Heart of Jesus. I understood at that moment that Jesus has opened His Heart
for us to have life and drink of his Blood and Water. From them on wherever
I went there was an image of the pelican.
That summer we went on a two
week mission to the Dominican Republic to work with the poor. We began and
ended the mission visiting and entrusting our endeavors to Our Lady at the
Marian shrine, Our Lady of Shoenstatt. During the exposition of the Blessed
Sacrament at the Shrine, I heard in my heart our Lady saying: “I want you
to do an alliance of love with me”. I was troubled since I did not
know what that meant.
The sisters of the Order of
Shoenstatt, explained to us the vision of their founder for those Shrines,
consisting in leading those who come to make an alliance of love with Our
Blessed Mother. This alliance is an interchange of hearts. We
give our hearts to Our Lady and She will give us her heart. Since nobody
knew what I had experienced during the Exposition, I was shaken and
convinced that My Mother was revealing her Son’s Will for me: I had to
receive the pierced Heart of Mary as a way to then received the pierced
Heart of Jesus. I was afraid!.
This was confirmed to me when
later I went to pray and received the reading of Luke 2: 33-35.
The Pierced Hearts
That night, after the Mass ended,
we all consecrated ourselves to Our Lady and did the alliance. When I knelt
down in front of her image, I said to Her: “I am afraid of making the
alliance because you will give me your pierced heart.” At that moment, I
sensed she said to me: “I know you are afraid of taking my pierced heart
but you are going to need it to live out the pelican”. I knew things
were beginning to unfold. Then I made the alliance and told Her: “I
consecrate my whole life, my future and my heart. All I am and all I have.
Everything you want of me, you can have, Mother, because I have never said
no to you.”
At that same moment, I had a
conviction that the Lord was calling me to be totally consecrated to Him. I
experienced a painful peace. It was like a sword that was piercing my heart,
yet, at the same time that it was giving me pain, it was also giving me joy.
Mrs. Flynn: And
what day was this?
Mother Galindo: It
was July 11th, 1984, on the feast day of St. Benedict and just a
few months after the consecration of the world by the Holy Father. We were
receiving the fruits of that consecration.
Power of Redemptive Suffering
The contemplation of the pierced
Hearts of Jesus and Mary lead me to understand in a more profound way the
power of redemptive suffering. I have always believed it, but now I was
convinced that through suffering we have life.
Since then, my prayer was
dedicated to understanding what kind of consecrated life I should embraced.
In 1985, we went back to the Dominican Republic on a mission. Many
confirmations were given to me through events and people of the Lord’s
calling in my life.
One of those events occurred
during Mass in a very little chapel. We were all kneeling right next to the
altar because of the lack of space. I said to the Lord: “ from your pierced
Heart gushed forth blood and water. Please wash me and let your blood
pour upon me”. At that moment, the priest who was celebrating mass,
while elevating the chalice, kind of slipped like if he was going to fall,
and a drop of consecrated wine fell upon me”.
The next day, a couple who have
the gift of knowledge and a very strong healing ministry were praying for
me. While praying one of them gave me a word from the Lord in which He was
calling me to embrace my cup as He had embraced His. And that He had chosen
me from my mother’s womb to lead many to his Heart. The couple told me they
also saw a big Heart with a big wound and a lot of women entering into
the wound. At that moment, I honestly, did not understand what all
this meant for me.
The following day, we went to
Our Lady of Shoenstatt Shrine where we had consecrated the year before. I
was feeling very sick. I knew this was a spiritual battle. I decided to go
regardless of my health since I knew that this battle could only be to block
something that the Lord was going to do with me. While at the Shrine, I was
feeling so sick. I prayed with all my heart, and had the clear conviction
that the day to do my private vows had arrived. I went to confession with
Father, who was in complete knowledge of all my process of discernment. I
shared with him what I was sensing and he confirmed. During the
Eucharistic celebration, at the feet of my Mother, on August 15th,
1985, the solemnity of the Assumption, I made my private vows. The only
object that I had with me to keep as a symbol of my total self giving to the
Lord, was my Rosary and a little card with the pelican, that sisters at the
Shrine without knowing anything gave to me that day.
A Religious Community
Back in Miami, I dedicated
myself to much prayer. During this time the Lord was developing in me a
clear vision of the spirituality of the Pierced Hearts and also a way of
life to be lived in community. In 1986, I understood what all of this was
for when three young women, who were part of a lay community that had
developed from the prayer group, approached me and explained to me that the
Lord had called them to the consecrated life and that He was putting in
their hearts to follow me. At that moment, I realized the Lord was
planning something beyond my imagination and a few months later we began to
live in community.
We were clear about the
characteristics and elements of our spirituality, but we had to wait for the
Lord to show us what kind of consecrated life we were to live in the Church.
Therefore, I asked the sisters, that we dedicate ourselves, during the first
three years, to pray for this discernment and for the development of all the
vision.
During these three years the
Lord confirmed our call to be Servants; and Servants of the Pierced
Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
He confirmed the fundamental
elements of our community: Eucharistic, Marian, Charismatic and totally
faithful to the Magisterium with a great love for the Holy Father John Paul
II to whom our Constitutions are dedicated. These were definitely three very
powerful years. We began out of nothing, we had nothing, but the Lord was
building little by little, between thorns and roses, this house. I knew
the Lord wanted this foundation because through great suffering and
rejection, He lifted it up.
Since the very beginning, we
submitted everything to the auxiliary bishop in charge of the Hispanics.
He told me that time will be the proof of authenticity. This is exactly what
my heart desired since I did not want to rush anything because I strongly
believe that the things of the Lord take time and need time to be developed.
We also were in contact with the vicar for religious life, a woman of the
Spirit, who was able to see that our foundation was truly the work of God.
After those three years, when I had a clear understanding that the Lord was
founding a religious community with us, I went to the vicar to present my
discernment and to hear hers, since I wanted to hear the voice of the
Church in a spirit of total submission and trust. She said to me: “I
believe that what the Lord is doing with you is the foundation of a
religious community. So, from now on, you need to move canonically towards
that direction”.
On March 1990, on the feast day
of St. Joseph, (guardian of our foundation) we were granted the permission
to have a chapel with the Blessed Sacrament in our convent. That same year,
on the feast day of the Sacred Heart, I received a letter from our
Archbishop giving us the approval to be a Public association of the Faithful.
This is the state in which most religious foundations must be for a long
time before receiving any other steps of approval.
When I speak of the foundation
my heart experiences many different sentiments. Why? Because it involves
the Cross and the disposition to renounce to one’s life so others may have
it. One day, very much at the beginning I heard the Lord saying to me:
“Allow me to pierce your heart so that those who will follow you may have
life....”. This is a reality in the heart of any foundress. As every new
religious foundation, we had to go through many tribulations, persecutions
and sufferings. I believe there no other way to give birth to a foundation
than through the Cross. The sign of authenticity for any religious
foundation is to experience death with Christ on the Cross to then have a
purified life for Him.
Our vision has often been
misunderstood and ridiculed. Many laugh at our name, at our spirituality
and mission. They do not understand that contemplating the pierced
Hearts is more than anything else, a call to love. Some are surprised
at the joy with which we live our vocation. It is because joy is the fruit
of love. Some would like us to change elements of our spirituality, but I
cannot change anything, because I am not the creator of the vision, I am
simply to transmit what I have received. We are to be faithful to what the
Lord has done in us and through us.
By 1996, we were 7 professed
sisters with a group of postulants. This same year we began the preaching
ministry outside of the country. I believe our Lady was very
determined to take us to different countries to teach the truth of our
Catholic faith and the devotion to the Two Hearts.
Evangelize - The Two Hearts
We truly believe that we have
a very specific and urgent mission to fulfill. That is to evangelize in
season and out of season, in words and deeds, with all our capacities and
resources, to promote the reign and triumph of the Two Hearts.
We are convinced that
devotion, love, and obedience to the Two Hearts is the hope of humanity. We
base our evangelization on the two pillars of our faith: The Eucharistic
Heart of Jesus and strong devotion to Our Blessed Mother, in total communion
with the Holy Father, John Paul II.
We embrace four vows: Chastity,
Poverty, Obedience and Fidelity to the Magisterium of the Church. As a
contemplative community with an apostolic projection, prayer is at
the center of our lives and our mission flows from it. The Blessed
Sacrament is exposed for perpetual adoration in our Chapel which is
dedicated to the Two Hearts. Each hour a sister is in prayer and
adoration. We also have a strong prayer life as a community, every day we
participate in Holy Mass and in the Liturgy of the Hours which we chant. We
also pray the Holy Rosary and other devotions proper to our charism, and
have special times of intercession and reparation. Praising and community
prayer meetings are part of our life in which we freely express our
charismatic dimension.
The essence of our vocation
is to offer ourselves with profound love and joy, as a living sacrifice of
reparation and consolation to the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
Our patron saints are an
inspiration for our spiritual and apostolic charism . They are: St. John
the Apostle, St. Margaret Mary of Alacoque, St. Francis of Sales and St.
Jane of Chantal; St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe; St. Louis of Montfort and
Blessed Faustina Kowalska. Venerables Jacinta and Francisco Marto (visionaries
of Our Lady in Fatima) are our special models of reparation and consolation
to the two Hearts.
We have a strong devotion to St.
Joseph, the Guardian of the Two Hearts and to St. Michael the Archangel, the
protector and defender of the Apostles of the Two Hearts.
We know that the Lord will be
opening many doors for us as He has done through the years. We are still in
the foundational years and this means we are still to grow and develop many
things. One thing very important for us, is to receive permission to wear
the full habit, which we are hoping, praying and fasting will be soon.
Update: Just a month after
this interview, the Archbishop of Miami, granted the sisters permission to
begin wearing the veil on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, June 1998.
We are witnesses of the power of
our contemplative life. The Lord in a few short years has expanded our
apostolates in ways we could neverv have imagined. Most of our apostolates
are in Spanish although in many of our activities we have seen the need to
include simultaneous translation in English. One example is our weekly
Eucharistic Cenacle which is attended by 300 people. We begin by praying
Vespers, then we have Holy Mass and immediately after, the Exposition of
the Blessed Sacrament with total openness to the power and gifts of the Holy
Spirit. We have seen many conversions, many hard hearts melted and healed
when the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus passes by them.
The Wonders He Has Done
Our
apostolic mission includes:
National/International
Conferences Eucharistic, Marian and Charismatic Weekly
Eucharistic Cenacles of
adoration and formation.
Eucharistic Vigils according to
the First Friday and First Saturday devotion.
Marian Groups of prayer and
formation.
Retreats in preparation for the
Consecration to the Virgin Mary according to Saint Louis de Montfort.
Home visits to consecrate
families to the Two Hearts, establishing the prayer of the Holy Rosary in
the family.
Formation Courses on Catholic
doctrine.
Retreats for spiritual
enrichment and growth.
Parish Missions.
Ministry to young adults and
children.
We utilize all Communication
means:
Catholic Radio programs
dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Charismatic Renewal.
Teachings on cassettes and
videos.
Web Page on the Internet: a
center of information and formation.
Television: Series in spanish on
EWTN
Pilgrimages to deepen the love
and understanding of the riches of the Church, and in a special way the
devotion and spirituality of the Two Hearts.
Music Ministry.
Sale of all types of Catholic
material.
Free distribution of
Evangelization Packets and Pamphlets.
Ministry of visiting and praying
for the sick at home and in hospitals. Material Assistance to support the
needy and foreign missions
We desire, through our
evangelization, preaching and formation courses, to teach in simple and
clear ways the full truth of our Catholic Faith.
We are witnesses of the power of
our contemplative life. The Lord in a few short years has expanded our
apostolates in a way we could never have imagined.
Each day
my hearts rejoices at contemplating the wonders He has done in our lives
with so little. We started from nothing and He
has taken us so far. Even though our resources are limited and we support
ourselves and our ministries with great effort, we have seen the providence
of the Lord manifested in powerful ways.
He has always provided us with
work to be able to raise this foundation, but also He has also been moving
people’s hearts to recognize the need to support our community. Our
greatest desire is to be able to open “centers of prayer and
evangelization”. We hope that the Lord will one day provide with the
means to do so..
Mrs. Flynn: How many are
you now?
Mother Adela: We
are 12 sisters and expecting, in prayer, new vocations. I understand that
vocations to a new foundation are to be very clearly discerned, since it
requires a lot of sacrifice and great generosity.
We pray for more vocations not
just to grow in numbers, but because we are convinced of the need to bring
this spirituality to all parts of the world.
Update: We have been
blessed to have many lay people locally and throughout the world associating
to our spirituality and mission. They are called Apostles of the Two Hearts.
These brothers and sisters are committed to love and serve the
Two Hearts, especially through a life of prayer, virtue, sacrifice,
adoration, reparation and holiness in their state in life. They support
our community in prayer and also unite themselves to our mission to make the
Two Hearts known and loved and to promote their triumph and reign.
Last year, these “Apostles of
the Two Hearts, began a beautiful ministry called “Links of hearts”
which consists of having many people join in a prayer chain of one
decade of the Rosary for the growth, intentions, needs and protection of our
community, for the Triumph of the Two Hears in humanity. As of today, by
the grace of God and the generosity of many hearts, we have more than 3000
Hail Mary’s prayed daily.
Our greatest joy to know that,
in spite of our lowliness, we have been chosen and called to love,
contemplate, repair, console, imitate and serve the Pierced Hearts of Jesus
and Mary. It is also, our great desire to be instruments so that the Two
Hearts may be known, loved and obeyed and thus their reign be established in
the Church and in the whole world.
For more information on the
Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, please contact: Sister Ana
M. Lanzas.
See also
“Who we are”
Servants of the Pierced
Hearts of Jesus and Mary
P.O. Box
347423
Coral
Gables, Florida, 33234
Telephone (305) 444-7437
Fax: (305) 447-0341
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
Copyright © 2010 SCTJM
