On Saturday 12th, feast of the Name of Mary, we were invited to celebrate with our sister Matilde Ballesteros, this happy anniversary of her first vows made on the 8th of this month, 50 years ago.
Before the scheduled time we arrived at Regina Pacis and we met the sisters who live there and also Pina who arrived from Caivano.
The greetings were the most varied: gestures, smiles, nudges, air kisses, looks, with a mask, without it (always keeping our distance), transgressive hugs … How much creativity is imposed on us! But as we wanted to express our joy and affection, we found many means for it.
While we relieved ourselves with fresh water, our friend Cipri Díaz-Marcos sj arrived to celebrate the Eucharist together. The truth is that the sisters had prepared everything with exquisite detail and this made us enjoy a lot from the first moment: facilitating, going out, restlessness … way of being, walking of your steps, the melody that you make sound, like the torch of the bagpipe… this is how Anna Maria Martin referred to Matilde in the entrance message.
Songs, petitions, offerings, renewal of vows, thanksgiving… so many moments participated by all throughout the celebration, with depth and familiarity, feeling with the heart in celebration, renewing our yes, rescuing the fundamental that sustains us in the time passes, always supported by the fidelity that the Lord gives us.
The texts of the Word chosen for this celebration also helped us a lot, especially the Gospel of the Wedding at Cana and Psalm 15. Cipri commented on them with profound simplicity and closeness: beginning of the public ministry of Jesus, new wine, sign, manifestation ; This wine is delivered, shared table, new mandate, permanence, service, delivery to the extreme… A manifestation that comes from the hand of a woman, decalogue with the human being from and in the everyday; Matilde was invited to all this and 50 years ago she said “Your gospel be done to me” and she continues to be God’s channel in the world, she came new and generous, wondering “how will I repay you, Lord, for all the good you have done to me…” .
We had the entire Congregation present, very united especially with the 13 sisters who this week also celebrated this anniversary in different places.
Afterwards, the party continued with Galician music and local dance, at the shared table where we tasted the rich meats that our sisters had prepared with such care; The lively talk went on with great pleasure and we were reluctant to finish, because the new wine of the gospel was flowing, but finally we said goodbye with a profusion of even more creative greetings than at the beginning.
It was a festive celebration that brought us back home, experiencing that our hearts were burning, that our desires to continue being that new wine of intimate encounter and at the same time open, of a table set for sharing, whose motive is Jesus, the Lord of our life, have grown. and the world around us.
And we also exclaimed: How will we pay you, Lord, for so much welcome? Thank you, Matilde, for your yes; contemplate the gaze of Jesus, let yourself be looked at by eyes that see deeper…
Thank you very much Regina Pacis sisters!
María Luisa Berzosa, FI – Roma
