Sr. M. Teresita Moyano
A dream, a prayer between her lips and a small bag was all that Angelica brought with her, leaving home to enter a new family: the religious one! The Disciples of the Divine Master had arrived in Argentina just a few years before she met them, and she had never been away from home before joining them. Angelica was a shy girl and did not even imagine what she was up against, but she had one certainty: “God calls me and this is enough for me“.
Maria Angelica entered the Congregation of the Sister Disciples of the Divine Master while still young, on 26 December 1945. She joined in Florida (Cordoba) at the Society of St. Paul. The sisters spoke only Italian, the girls only Spanish, but Teresita was very intelligent, alert, silent, hardworking, helpful and could understand and learnt very quickly. The work was hard, even the cold and the economic situation were not the best, but she was never discouraged: “I am here for God” she would repeat often.
On 10 September 1947 the Divine Master community was started in Cordoba and the following year, on 2 October 1948, Mother Scholastica Riva arrived in Argentina. She was sent by the Founder to assume the important and delicate task of Novice Mistress and to care for the development of the Mission.
So it was that on August 29, 1949, when the postulant Maria Angelica entered the novitiate, she was guided in her formative journey by the “Maestrina“, as they amiably called Mother Scholastica. The following year, on August 29, 1950, she made her religious profession in Florida and on August 29, 1955 her perpetual profession in Buenos Aires; she spent a good part of her religious life in the Pauline communities.
She was very small in height (only 140 cm) and very thin (31 kg), she appeared to be weak, but she was very strong and an admirable example in the way she worked in the apostolate. In the Society of St. Paul for many years, and then in the communities of the Disciples. It was a miracle that she was able to lift large heavy pots in the kitchen. She gave food to all: seminarians, priests, young aspirants, sisters, and to the hungry poor who knocked on the doors daily. She loved them as her brothers. Teresita lovingly carried out Jesus’ command every day, “give them something to eat” Lk 9:13.
The young Teresita did not have the opportunity to study but she was very attentive to the social, political reality and life of the Church … the Argentine sisters remember her with affection and testify of her:
“She is a pious disciple of the first hour. She was a novice of Mother Scholastica, and she was formed in the human, Christian and charismatic values that shaped her daily life and transformed her into a witness of a missionary disciple. Nothing slipped past her. Everything that happened gave her an opportunity to learn, according to the Pauline manner which she assimilated from the first steps of her formation steps. She always sought to be updated, she was deeply rooted, she always sought explanations, discussed details of everything with animation and interest. A disciple who grew up in the school of Mother Scholastica, who used to go to Eucharistic adoration with the daily Osservatore Romano, to bring the world to God.
A woman of prayer aware of belonging, in the Church, to the Pauline Family, a family of communication. For Sr. M. Teresita normality consisted in “walking with the times” in the spirit of Blessed Don Giacomo Alberione. During prayer she frequently showed a smiling, luminous face, absorbed in God: and it was beautiful to stop and observe her. Also, in liturgical and community prayer, in which she participated with such devotion, she spontaneously expressed intentions and prayers dictated by her keen interest in the events of the Congregation, of the Church, of the homeland and of humanity. We remember her for her great sensitivity towards the younger generations.
She was good with young people, and she was greatly loved and appreciated by them. She prayed and offered daily sacrifices for vocations and was always attentive to the young girls who attended the community. Present in the house of prayer for many years, she was a disciple who with her witness made an important contribution to formation in religious life. The Paulines also testify to this: in the seminary she was, both for priests and for young people in the initial formation, a wise and consistent presence, faithful to the charism received“.
Teresita listened to everyone, and spoke very little, only what was necessary, not a single word came out of her lips against a sister or against other people. She was never critical and negative, rather, she was close to the sisters and the young women in formation, congratulating them on a task well done, even for the simplest things, such as a song made with fervor or an initiative … She taught us, with the little things, to have Jesus as the center of everything, we had so much to learn from her …
Sr. M. Teresita was called to the Eternal Banquet on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on August 15, 2018, in the Mother Scholastica Community in Cordoba. Now we are convinced that Teresita is with her maestrina, Mother Scholastica Rivata. To them we entrust our Province and our entire Congregation!