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January in Andean America and Brazil-Caribbean

February 4, 2021

There is a time when it is convenient to rest and when that opportunity occurs, we take advantage of it. This has been the experience of many sisters and communities during the first month of the year in America Andina and Brazil-Caribbean.

In America, January is a month of encounters of sisters, family visits, spiritual exercises, personal and community rest, and for some also an experience of mission from the pastoral care of spiritual exercises or related.

“Stopping to regain joy” is one of the central points of the book “Keys to living fully” (Víctor Manuel Fernández, 2003). What is our way of stopping and regaining joy? We have stopped on vacations and retreats to regain joy, and we have done it in different ways.

Ruminating among the letters from Mother Candida we find two mentions of rest. The first in the letter [128] where Mother writes:… I feel that they have so few days off; but whoever they are, go to Peñaranda … and have a good time taking good care of themselves and walking every day. The second mention appears in the letter [224] The Sisters, may they rest when they see fit.

The convenient and well-used rest disposes us to stop to contemplate in another way what surrounds us and the internal experiences that we keep from the year that we have left behind. Joy connects us with that phrase typical of Ignatian spirituality about feeling and internally liking everything we experience. And thus, life does not pass us by, because we are feeling with it and enjoying the journey.

We enjoy it because we are learning to live and we ask for it as grace, the Lord in due time shows us the way, consoles us, encourages, and strengthens us. Together with Jesus who stops with us, he helps us to have a look of faith. Thus, now, in this month of February that we begin today we will return to the “usual” but renewed in confidence and in the joy of life.

Thank you Lord for giving us a break, it has been convenient and we have taken advantage of it.

 

Celina García – Juniora FI (Córdoba, Argentina)

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