Our sister Maria Luisa Berzosa FI collaborates with Madrid’s Entreculturas Foundation, located in the “Casa San Ignacio”, a house that integrates all the social works of the Society of Jesus. Last week the Jesuits officially opened the house and our sister shared with us these words.
We have already inaugurated this house officially; the 21st was the day chosen for it.
But we have been in this house for more than a year now … I’m not going to talk about how beautifully we spent that day, but about the words we heard and the many gestures we witnessed, expressing the experience already lived, and translating into the concrete the life of this house and its occupants.
There was talk of open house: the neighborhood of Ventilla, the PAL Madrid, the world … of a house that welcomes not only the diversity of organizations that are in it, but everything that comes with being a social place of the Society of Jesus, in a particular space: Ventilla, whose inhabitants come from many parts of the world. Here we are: Radio ECCA, Espacio Geranios. Amoverse Menores , Hospitalidad Madrid, Casa de la Juventud, Empresa Amoverse Inserción, Programa Incorpora, Inserción Laboral and Entreculturas.
So the house has lots of windows, lots of light, lots of color, indicating plurality, broadening the horizon, looking closely and further, intuiting, scanning where there glimmer small or bigger lights of life that struggles to resist, to stay, to slip through the cracks… and finally blossoms everywhere.
Inside the house we, its occupants, experience that the warmth of home is felt – the kitchen is the place most appreciated, beloved and enjoyed – in the deepest sense of the word, place for the “flavors” and the “knowledge” because the freshest and most spontaneous exchanges take place, synergies easily sprout amid those coffee breaks… we are putting name, face and work on the identity of each person within his organization but we breathe a common air made of “heat” and “color”.
But from those intimate spaces we go forth… Therefore the analysis of reality is very important to us: from where we gaze at the world; developing skills through teamwork; training and volunteering; and why not, – it would be indispensable- the Ignatian spirituality that gives “mode and order” to our tasks.
We believe that this experience of meeting once more from diversity for the same purpose is a sign of hope: to help all persons to find their dignity as such, so that they may grow, mature, learn and unlearn and together, in brotherhood, walk toward the dream of a world loved by God.
The colors of the circular logo express what we want to live everyday:
Openness, Encounter, Commitment, Joy, Creativity.
We invite you to visit us, and if you cannot come to Geranios Street, 30, the website is Casa San Ignacio
