The word of God that comes to you from the adorable mouth of Jesus Christ and from his Divine Heart contains the secret of the salvation of people's souls and the wellbeing of nations: Pray the Lord of the harvest to send workers to his harvest.
That word of God, recorded by two evangelists, was there in the book of the Holy Gospel.
Thousands of religious Orders and Congregations have piously pillaged that divine book. They took as a norm for their Institute a verse here, a verse there... But it was as if the Lord Jesus had placed his divine hand over that book to hide those sublime words that divine command. No one noticed it. Then the adorable Redeemer unveiled it and pointed it out to the most wretched of his creatures. He had your ears hear it, he engraved it on your hearts, he made it burst forth on your lips, and he placed it on your breast together with his pierced and blazing Heart.
Take advantage of such ineffable predilection!
Make use of this means unceasingly. Raise your hands to heaven in supplication and entreat the clouds to rain down the just, and the earth to bring forth saviours.
Therefore hold aloft this sacred standard. The more this prayer commanded by Our Lord Jesus Christ - kept for our times and entrusted to you - is raised to the great Lord of the mystical harvest, so many more good Gospel workers will there be in this world and the mystical harvest of souls will be saved.
This is thus a sublime, divine mission that the bountiful Distributor of gifts has given to you.
If you are faithful to your mission, it will attract the blessings of God and of humans.
You are called the Daughters of Divine Zeal and you bear on your breast the emblem of the Divine Heart with those Gospel words: "Rogate ergo Dominum messis, ut mittat operarios in messem suam".
Both your name and your sacred evangelical motto oblige you to work with all your strength for the interests of the adorable Heart of Jesus, and for all that concerns his glory and the good of souls, even to the sacrifice of your life.
You are called to the roles of Martha and Mary, since you have made a profession of that divine zeal which made Our Lord Jesus Christ exclaim "Zelus domus tuae comedit me" (Ps 68:10): Zeal for your house has devoured me.
That said, your concern is not just with your salvation alone. The world is full of souls that are being lost; snatch as many as you can from eternal ruin, as many as possible. Gather up the orphans who are abandoned, instruct them, educate them and nurture them.
The soul of every one of these that you save will be a shoot of eternal salvation for many other souls, and all of them will enlarge the crown of your glory in heaven.
Have a passionate desire for all the souls that you are unable to save with your work, an ongoing hunger and thirst for their salvation.
Do not be indifferent to the loss of a single soul, because a single soul costs all the blood of Jesus Christ, and that soul is as precious to him as all souls put together.
(Fr Annibale, Speech, Saint Joseph, 1908)