Still feeling the taste of the celebration of 75 years of Vedruna presence in Puerto Rico, and the thanksgiving to God for the passage of the Vedruna Charism in the small and charming Caribbean island, we arrived at another celebration, the missionary sending of the three sisters who until then formed the community: Maria del Carmen Robles, Virgenmina and Ada Myriam Rivera. These sisters set out on a new experience of religious life, with their advanced age, like Abraham, leaving their previous life and beginning a pilgrimage in tune with the Jubilee motto, with hope in the One who called them and who is faithful.
In the process of searching, dialogue and discernment, with the provincial team and continuous reflection with the general team, the two Rivera sisters decided to initiate an inter-congregational experience with the community of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, in St. Louise House, located a few minutes away from the Vedruna community.
After a process of dialogue and agreement between the two congregations, it was deemed favorable that the sisters begin a time of adaptation in the Community that welcomes them before the visit of the General Team and our departure from Puerto Rico as Provincial Team. On March 19, Sisters Marita Garcés and Marisol Páez accompanied Sisters Ada Miriam and Virgenmina in their transfer to the Santa Luisa Community, with the collaboration of friends and neighbors of the Alejandrino Residence as a token of affection for the sisters. The reception of the Vincentian Sisters was very warm, taking care of the details so that our sisters could feel at home. This opens a door of hope to the religious life of Puerto Rico as a sign of unity and solidarity. Sister Marita spent some nights with them accompanying this process.
Sister Maria del Carmen will join the community of the Vedruna house in Lima, Peru. After almost 60 years of missionary work in the land of Puerto Rico, where she gave the best of herself and enjoyed the affection and admiration of all, at 91 years of age, she opens herself to a new experience, making a new option for her congregation, open to whatever God wants to give her at this stage of her life.
Eusebio Ramos Morales, Bishop of the Creole diocese of Caguas, with whom the sisters have cultivated a close fraternal relationship born in the years when they lived in the community of Aibonito, of which Maria del Carmen was a part for 30 years.
The Eucharist was attended by the president and secretary of the Conference of Religious of Puerto Rico (COR), several fellow religious congregations on the island, the associated laity of Aibonito, alumnae of the sisters, neighbors of Alejandrino, friends, parishioners of the parish to which the sisters belong, collaborators and acquaintances, generating a family atmosphere full of simplicity, expressions of affection, gestures of friendship and gratitude.
For this special moment, the General Team was present in our sisters Maria Teresa Cuervo and Maggie D’Costa, who were visiting the community; also the three sisters of the Provincial Team, who were already in the community accompanying the sisters and preparing this special moment.
On April 1, Sisters Marita Garcés and Marisol Páez returned to Lima, leaving Sisters María Teresa Cuervo, Maggie D’Costa and Alicia Zanichelli in Puerto Rico to take the necessary ecclesiastical and legal steps to guarantee the well-being of the sisters and the security of the patrimony.
Thus begins a new form of presence of the Vedruna Sisters in Puerto Rico, making an inter-congregational journey with the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, a new way of making a journey as religious life at this stage of life.
The Vedruna charism will live on in so many people we have accompanied, formed and worked with, as well as in the Vedruna Laity Community of Aibonito!
VedrunAmerica Provincial Team
