On December 19, 1825, Joaquina wrote to Bishop Corcuera asking permission to found the Congregation.
Today, two centuries later, we ask ourselves if what she proposed still makes sense for us, the Carmelites of Charity Vedruna. We are becoming aware of being part of a wider Family. On this path, we need to take steps from ‘I’ to ‘we’, from self-referentiality to reciprocity that enriches and strengthens the diversity of groups around the charism: a gift that belongs to the whole Church and is for the world(NdN 26).
Some dreams today inhabit us and move us, born of a contemplative look at reality, with a heart pierced by the life of humanity, with its sufferings and joys, which are also ours. That is why we say today to Joaquina:
We follow your dream, Joaquina: to work for the glory of God and the good of our neighbor. Aware that God is glorified when every human being has life, we feel that our mission continues to be to make present the promised Kingdom to the poor, wherever we are, following Jesus in community of sisters.
You were a woman deeply attentive to reality. You knew that many
poor young women had no means or place in the convents of poverty , and you offered them an alternative path, centered on aheart on fire with love for God and the Good Jesus. Today you challenge us to live a humble and humanizing Religious Life, close, prophetic, inclusive, fraternal and sororal, born of a beating heart for God incarnate in Jesus.Woman of the Church, you asked permission to found and clearly proposed a sustainable project: To embrace in my house some young women who, with their work and some alms, will be able to support themselves and embrace poverty.. For you, Joaquina, sustainability had a taste of home, simplicity and shared responsibility. This is where we continue, moving towards an ecological conscience, weaving networks in favor of life, in evangelical and charismatic complicity. We want to continue embracing poverty – our own and that of our people – committing ourselves to the struggle against all forms of poverty that continue to destroy life.
It inspires us to see how you never acted alone: This I ask with permission of my father confessor and others of spirit.. Today we recognize you as a synodal woman, because in that expression – “others of spirit” – are the lay people who, together with us, form a unique and diverse “we”. With them we learn to discern where the Holy Ruah is leading us as a Family.
This is where we are, Joaquina, reviving your legacy for the good of humanity. And in these times of restructuring, with Pope Leo XIV we discover that charity – the root of our identity – is a force that transforms reality, an authentic historical power for change. May this force transform our congregational reality today and make us women bearers of change.
With you Joaquina, may God keep us in his Heart, in that love that never says enough nor calms down until it burns.
Thank you, Joaquina!
We make an exercise of imagination to approach Joaquina de Vedruna on December 19, 1825, at the moment when she wrote the letter to Bishop Corcuera asking permission to found the Congregation of the Carmelite Sisters of Charity Vedruna.
The words with which we travel to that moment are found in the CCV Notebook Joaquina embraces poverty and takes sides with the poor of her time, written by Yolanda Moreno, ccv.
