Avila (Spain). From 8 to 18 August 2024, 37 Temporary Professed Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, belonging to the Provinces of Italy, Europe, and the Preprovince Mary Mother of the Church (MRC), from ten Countries, lived the formative experience of the intensive Juniorate in Avila, Spain, the ‘holy land’ that gave birth to Saint Teresa, Doctor of the Church and patron saint of the Institute.
The experience was organized by the Union of Italian Provinces (UNISIT) and is part of a four-year formation project. Here is the testimony:
“In this monastery, I have a great friend,” writes Teresa of Jesus, and we find this same inscription on a wall of the old monastery of the Incarnation. That’s how, as a great friend, we have learned more and more about Saint Teresa, not only a great mystic and foundress, but also a writer and Doctor of the Church.
First of all, she is a woman passionate about God, a sociable and sunny person, a Teresa with a rich humanity, also inhabited by illness and difficulties. With this friend, we set out on days rich in the Word and fraternity, simplicity and joy. Our journey was marked by moments of formation and visits to places, interspersed with necessary moments of silence and sharing, to internalize what was offered to us and to be able to share the fruits of prayer and reflection with others.
The Lectio Divine were led by Sister María Dolores Ruiz Pérez, Spanish FMA resident in Jerusalem, who proposed six passages related to the themes chosen for this formation: reading life, joy, fraternity, prayer, apostolic passion, unity of life.
The visit to the places led us to retrace the same roads that Teresa also walked long ago, now going to the monastery of the Incarnation to begin her experience of religious life, now leaving to go to found monasteries according to the reform, now to return as Prioress to the same Incarnation. We placed ourselves on her footsteps, in her places, to try to understand her a little better, to put us at her school, to ask for her intercession.
In addition to the Word, we were guided by confronting the Constitutions, our way to holiness. With Sister Teresa Espinosa of Mary Help of Christians Province of Spain (SPA), we deepened the aspect of fraternity and we asked ourselves how to be an active part in building fraternal communities.
We also had the opportunity to meet Sister Marta Riccioli, General Councilor of the Institute, who presented the theme of the identity of the Daughter of Mary Help of Christians and shared these days with us in simplicity, fraternity, and daily life.
With her, we visited another great figure belonging to our Institute. On 14 August, we went to Cantalpino, to visit the places of Blessed Eusebia Palomino.
In addition to the contents and places, the distinctive feature of these days has certainly been fraternity: a simple and sincere fraternity, which allowed us to live this time in joy and sharing.
