LETTING OURSELVES TO BE MADE BY GOD

On the third day of our General Chapter, we started with the Eucharistic celebration presided by Fr. Miguel Ángel Llamazares, a Comboni missionary. In his homily, he reminded us that Jesus calls us to be good to one another and to love ourselves the way God does. A good person recognizes the goodness of others, makes mistakes, and seeks forgiveness to restart the journey toward integral growth. We are servants chosen by the Lord to carry on his work of redemption in the Church.

On this last day of our retreat, Sr. Jolanta invited us to contemplate the realities of our world in God’s way. How does God act in our human history? In our congregation? In our chapter community? In each one of us?

God acts with us; his actions are free and loving, merciful and compassionate, gratuitous and generous, disinterested and peaceful… Everything God does is for the good of every person. This is what Jesus, the beloved and Son of God, announced. Jesus’ entire life was a commitment to discerning how to extend God’s kingdom to the end of the earth? On this path of discernment, we will continue to follow him.

Sr. Jolanta encouraged us to prepare for our upcoming ecclesial and congregational journey. She emphasized the importance of listening to and conversing with the Holy Spirit. Each one must choose to step outside of their comfort zone and connect with others. Finally, she encouraged us to practice inner silence, create space, and welcome others. She wished we would make this prayer a daily part of our journey: “I am here, Lord, to welcome and be available.”

The last point of the retreat consisted in sharing in groups and in the assembly what we would like to experience in this congregational kairos so we might tell the others and the whole palautian family once finished. Conversion, mission, experience, union, unity, diversity, spirituality, recognize truth, reality, … were some of the key words that resounded in the aula.