Open to change, invited to put the heart in the fundamentals

“Everything is given to us to live as an opportunity,

to join forces and put the heart in the fundamentals

trusting in the Spirit of God who is able to make all things new” (Rev 21: 5/NdN, 7).

As we do every year, the sisters of Peru met in Lima in January with the motto: “Today is today, it is time to make the future. “The day is today, it is time to make the future, it is time!guiding our reflections, work and decisions.

To start this time well, we began with spiritual retreats, guided by our Sr. Adelaida Moreno of the Province of Europe. They were days of silence, interiorization, contemplation, listening to the Word and to our deepest word. This experience helped us to sharpen our senses to perceive the living presence of God through the beautiful nature that surrounds us. In addition, it has strengthened us to become more aware and live in constant conversion, leaving traces of light with the testimony of our life in mission.

At the end, we enjoyed a trip to the valley of the Mala River called Azpitia, located south of Lima, where we traveled together to several places, enjoying the beautiful scenery and sharing anecdotes. All this has allowed us to recharge our batteries to start our annual assembly.

During the assembly we shared diverse topics in a sororal atmosphere, with spaces for dialogue, reflection, discernment, proposals and consensus agreements. We felt listened to, challenged and called to leave the familiar spaces that give us security and bet on the new and different.

The synthesis of the cards sent by the Provincial team to deepen the chapter document Born Again, have been an important input to motivate us to review the life in mission of our communities and as a group of sisters in Peru. Together with other reflections made previously in the communities, they helped us to elaborate our country project, projecting challenges and commitments that lead us to live in an authentic way our being Vedruna to share our life in mission, preferably from and with the most vulnerable.

This meeting of sisters invited us to live the challenge of evangelical minority: “toset our hearts on what is fundamental and to live deeply, open to change.

On January 19 and 20, a mixed formative meeting (face-to-face and online) was held with representatives of educators, Vedruna laity and sisters, with the themes “Global Educational Pact Approach, reason for hope” and “Charismatic Families”, guided by Sister Adelaida Moreno. It was a very rich time of enlightenment, dialogue and listening that allowed us to take the pulse of how much we knew about the “Global Education Pact”, a proposal of Pope Francis and its close relationship with the Vedruna Educational Project.

The internalization, reflection and mutual listening as a Vedruna family, helped us to commit ourselves to an integral education that, having the person and the surrounding context as its center, works with greater responsibility and networking with other organizations in the transformation of society.

Prof. Carmen Carrillo, LV, tells us that it was “Very interesting and meaningful because the reflection allowed us to stop and think about education and how we can influence our students and the people around us. The fact of knowing that we are not alone and we have allies to work in a network, and move forward to achieve that every day there are people who manage to transform society”.

The deepening on Charismatic Families was rich and very deep, leaving in us the call to change our mentality, not because others say ‘change’, but because I welcome it, I integrate it, I make it life, because only in this way it can transform and change us. Charismatic Families is a movement that helps us to be better people, it is a commitment to make the good become global and that we can all work together. This horizon is very positive, and as Pope Francis says, it is a horizon of Hope.

We take with us the invitation to ‘open the door’, as an exciting horizon; it is up to each one of us to be willing to open it and go through, a fact that counts on our acting in freedom, aware that this process of transformation is a path of no return.

We are challenged to continue to deepen our charismatic identity and the Global Education Pact.

We ended this time of reflection, prayer, celebration and sharing as Vedruna family, thanking the Ruah for making us feel her presence at every moment, Adelaide for the enlightenment, depth and availability in the reflections raised and shared, the laity and educators who accompanied us and the sisters of Peru for welcoming and living with breadth and depth this time of meeting and formation.

Sr. Inés Rojas Mori, CCV