When I was living at Casa San Francesco in Rome, I met Sr. Joba, a Sister of the Poor of St. Francis who was taking a 3-month sabbatical at the Regina Mundi Center. We spoke many times about our being a single family, daughters of Mother Frances and sisters to one another. Jesus had asked his Father for unity, and we were called to be a sign of unity in the Church, in the world, and for the new generations. Every time the two of us spoke about this we had tears in our eyes. Sr. Joba was truly crying..
One day, shortly before she departed for Germany, Sr. Joba told me: “For everything that we have said to one another, for what we have lived and shared in terms of affection and true love, I feel that Jesus is asking us to exchange a sign.” I asked her: “What sign were you thinking of?” Sr. Joba took a chaplet from the rosary, which she had bought in Assisi, a decade made of wood, and said: “I thought about taking apart this rosary, and we could each take a bead so that it would remind us of what we experienced in this time together and what Jesus is asking of us, to be witnesses of communion and unity in the Church, in humanity, and above all in the family of Mother Frances.”
I was so moved listening to her that I embraced her tearfully and said: “Yes, I am ready to make this pact to remind us of what Jesus is asking of us and to testify to it in our family today and for the future generations.”
Thus Sr. Joba took apart the little rosary. She gave me a bead that I still treasure, kept one for herself, and buried the others in the garden of Casa San Francesco, as the root of one of God’s plans for the future. This was a very powerful experience for me because it was born of Sr. Joba’s union with Jesus: she proposed this pact to me from her heart.
I have kept this bead as a precious sign. Sr. Joba returned to Germany and a few years later she became sick with cancer and died. Perhaps the Lord took her at her word, since she said that she wanted to live the rest of her life giving it for the complete unity and communion of the family of Mother Frances.
Sr. Cristina Di Nocco, SFP
