Team for the pastoral work with the young in Spain

It is time to be creative!

Do not say that hope makes dreamers of us! it makes a realist of the apostle,it has the same goal. It is a creative virtue, and expansive, it imposes the allure of victory and of optimism. Mother M. St Elizabeth (“Sing and walk”)

The team for the work with young, not working at full
capacity, find themselves scattered and the victim of the restrictions,
of lockdown, of moving around, of meetings, displacement… and in
spite of the distances, how to pursue the activities of vocation
promotion with the young ? What to suggest?
It is the time to prove our creativity, to continue to offer Jesus
and his plan, to continue to share our charism, to allow others to
discover their own vocation and to accompany them.
Thus going beyond the limitations and transforming them to
opportunities, the idea to have this first virtual international meeting
of the young people, was born.

We have called it “tracing the steps of Jesus”.
In this pandemic, we have often used the term “tracing” to refer to the activity of locating persons who have been affected by Covid 19 and tracing all their contacts, in order to stop the spreading of this disease. We have taken into account this word which supposes, searching and relating, which speaks to us of being attentive to life in order to be able to recognise in the thousands of details, the steps of Jesus, his imprints, his tracks.

Thanks to a virtual platform, we have been able to create a meeting to unite the young of different countries, in adapting the timetable. We have prepared, imagined, tried and utilised this process where each puts the best of herself/himself, their dreams, desires, and aptitudes in the service of the common good.

Then came the day of the encounter. We were about thirty participants, the young, the families, LSA, coming from Spain, Peru, Columbia, Brazil, Burkina Faso and France. After the time of presentations, a time of prayer and a video on the Congregation, the meeting proceeds by rotating the testimonies, songs, and the sharing of whatever resonated in us.
The testimonies were very touching: we discovered how Natxi, layman, father of a family, discovered God in his life as a teacher, in his role as father, as husband, as son, and as brother, in the prayer at evening with his family.
Hildete, LSA, how she discovered Him in all that is little and daily, in prayer, in the rhythms of nature and in friendship; M. Claire, also LSA, she explained to us how she discovered Jesus in community life, in prayer, in the Eucharist and in her mission as a nurse.

Fatima, a Muslim woman spoke to us of her experience of God in the immigration she had been through, and the thousand trials of life – a God always present and acting in so many good vigilant persons.
And Maria, a young student, told us how to search for Jesus in the request and the attention, in the memory and with a desiring heart.

At the end of the meeting, each one wrote what stayed with them of the session, what word resonated with them…Hope and confidence were the most often repeated words. Finally with the help of a video, we gave thanks for the many others who walk with Jesus…

When the meeting was over no one wanted to go, we were happy to be together, to meet again, to open spaces for listening, and for dialogue, to trace the steps of Jesus in this shared space. We envisaged the possibility of meeting again during the year for 45 minutes, on a specific theme: the next will be:

“Tracing the steps of Jesus…in waiting for him.”