Between February and April 2025, Sisters María José Meira (Dedé) and Fatima Borges will travel on behalf of the General Team to a part of the Province of Europe.
Below we share the first chronicle of their trip, between February 10 and 24, 2025, during which they visited the communities of Rome, Fushe-Mamurras (Albania) and Madrid, Spain.
Rome, Italy
Giardinetti
The visit began in Rome, with the community of Giardinetti, located on the outskirts of Rome, where our sisters accompany the pastoral work of the Parish of the Resurrection, especially catechesis, Caritas, youth, visits to the sick.
During the visit, we were accompanied by Sr. Inma Eibe, from the Provincial Team of the Vedruna Province of Europe.
Santa Joaquina Community, Prati
The mission of this community is to welcome and accompany the elderly and sick sisters. There we had the opportunity to participate in the celebration of the Eucharist with Father Pablo Perez, from the Parish of the Patron Saints of Italy, where our house is located. He is a religious of the Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement. They have a very good relationship of friendship with our sisters.
We spent time with the sisters, with rich moments of sharing life and also praying together.
Albania
Fushë-Mamurras Community
This community of three sisters has as its mission to be a presence in the region, especially in the pastoral care of three Christian communities. Until a few years ago it had a small school.
We were impressed by the landscapes, the majesty of the Balkans, which surround the city of Fushë-Mamurras. For this reason, it is a very cold region: they use wood stoves to heat the dining room. We were able to visit the center of the city of Tirana, especially the Cathedral of the Catholic Church, a religion professed by 8% of the Albanian population, the Cathedral of the Orthodox Church, which has 7% of the population, and the Muslim Mosque, since 46% of the population practices this religion. In this area there is very good coexistence between Catholics and Muslims, since they participate in each other’s festivities.
We saw several tributes to Mother Teresa of Calcutta, very popular in Albania, as she was a native of this country. For example, the airport is named after her, and we found numerous sculptures.
What caught our attention in Albania was:
- Tasting Albanian food in a restaurant with the name and flag of Brazil. We saw that this people highly value their cuisine, which is rich and tasty.
- The word “faleminderit shumë”, meaning “thank you very much”.
Madrid, Spain
Santa Joaquina de Carabanchel House
This community, formed by 30 sisters, is a Casa Santa Joaquina, of welcome and accompaniment to the elderly and/or sick sisters. In addition to that, they support the service in the porter’s lodge and other services of the headquarters of the Vedruna Province of Europe. In addition, some sisters provide volunteer service in social organizations.
From the St. Joaquina houses of the older sisters, both the one in Carabanchel and the one in Prati, we discovered a lot of wisdom that comes from years of experience and a very up to date accompaniment of the progress of the Congregation: they are very connected, with a deep sense of belonging.
Colegio Mayor Vedruna
First, we participated in the ceremony of the Second Renewal of Vows of Rita Aragón, held at the Colegio Mayor Church on Sunday, February 16.
We are interested in the project of the Colegio Mayor, which accompanies the young women with closeness, offering them an integral accompaniment, which includes an approach to life, thus promoting a climate conducive to vocational discernment. Here, the community accompanies the management service of the Colegio Mayor in different services, coordinates the Vedruna Youth Pastoral Center, and two sisters participate in the musical group Ain Karem.
Afterwards we were able to share with the six sisters of the community, and we also spent time with the rest of the Colegio Mayor Educational Team.
Here we had the opportunity to try the “Cocido Madrileño” which is one of the most representative dishes of the cuisine of Madrid, with chickpeas, vegetables, meat and bacon. We liked it very much! And in all the communities we are tasting the variety of sausages; we have not missed the delicious churros with chocolate either!
Antonio Machado
This community is a Family House. It was created 4 years ago and has as its mission to welcome young African migrants who are sent by SERCADE, a social organization of the Capuchin Franciscans that assists African migrants. In our house, the young people are fraternally welcomed and accompanied.
It is a space where the proposal of Pope Francis to “welcome, protect, promote and integrate migrants” is carried out within the framework of a Vedruna community. In these 4 years of existence more than 300 young people have passed through the house. The time spent in our house can vary from weeks to months, depending on the situation of the young person.
Here there are two sisters on a permanent basis, one of whom works in the Gypsy Association and is a member of Ain Karem. They have an intense and organized presence of other Vedruna sisters and other Congregations and volunteers, who assume, in mutual collaboration, the mission of the same, working in a network. Working with them is Karin, a volunteer of the project, who is a sister of the Congregation of the Daughters of Jesus, and the young people who are currently in the house are Abdul, Khadim, Blaise, Madi, Tidiani, Cissé and Mody.
It was a great opportunity to discover how significant is the presence of Antonio Machado as a space of welcome for young African migrants, who feel the house as their own, as a space that is home where they are welcomed and relate to the sisters as their family and on the part of the sisters the confidence in these young people and to provide them with a human, familiar and close accompaniment.
Villaverde (Graphite)
This community of five sisters, located on the outskirts of Madrid, has a diverse range of activities: one has pastoral work in La Cañada and serves in the porter’s lodge of Casa Santa Joaquina de Carabanchel; another gives support classes at the Vedruna School in Carabanchel and as a volunteer in a Good Samaritan center; a third works as a nurse at Casa Santa Joaquina de Carabanchel; then another sister is director of the Vedruna School in Villaverde; and the last coordinates the Pastoral Department of the Catholic Schools of Spain; all are active in the neighborhood parish.
We had the opportunity to visit the Vedruna School in Villaverde, where they have around 300 students, and we were able to meet some of the teachers and students.
Virgen de Gracia Community of San Lorenzo de El Escorial
Here we had the Colegio Nuestra Señora del Patrocinio, which was closed a few years ago. Today we have the community of the Elderly with 23 sisters. This community has the mission of welcoming and accompanying elderly and/or sick sisters.
We enjoyed the murals done by 93 year old Sr. Ana Maria Delgado, which are very helpful to the community in keeping up with the journey of the Church and the Congregation; and the views of the surrounding countryside, which are beautiful!
Here we learned two new Spanish words: “bayeta” – cloth used to clean surfaces; “barreño” – earthenware, metal, plastic vessel, usually wider at the mouth than at the base.
Blessed Bread
In this community we were with four sisters, who take care of various tasks: the secretariat of the Province, volunteering in the community of Antonio Machado, or the reception of migrants in an apartment that is attached to the floor of the community.
Meeting of communities
On February 23, we met in the hall of the Provincial Headquarters in Carabanchel with sisters from all the communities of Madrid and also some lay people from the Sígueme group, the Educational Team of the Colegio Mayor and Eni, a religious volunteer of the Antonio Machado community project.
The dynamics consisted of sharing a moment of prayer and deepening with the theme “Synodality and Shared Leadership”, with the presentation of a powerpoint, with moments of prayerful silence and resonance.
The experience was very positive and had good resonances: the dynamics followed and the proposed theme were highly valued, giving rise to a very rich dialogue.
