“It is not enough to do good…it is necessary to do it well”
I would like to start by introducing myself, my name is Antonia Avalos and I am in 3rd grade, I have been part of the Ascension Nicol School for almost 10 years, and I was part of the pilgrims who traveled to the World Youth Meeting with Pope Francis in Lisbon.
I can relate my experience as one of the most wonderful I have lived, since I was 6 years old and until now, I have never stopped hearing stories of the great Dominican Family of all that have been or are their representatives, among them, the great Blessed Ascension Nicol and St. Dominic of Guzman. Meeting with this great family on our trip, and with all the sacred places where the stories told since my childhood took place, was an embrace to my faith and my connection with the Dominican family. Every sister, every friar and every lay Dominican we met was a shining light that illuminated our way as pilgrims, for that I am grateful to each one of them and to the experiences we lived.
Believe me when I tell you that seeing Blessed Ascension Nicol and how she is an important part of Dominican history in Caleruega, a place where St. Dominic de Guzman also told us his beautiful story, made me realize that we Dominicans, were breaking frontiers, and that there were many more of us willing to do things well. Because, in our journey, in every moment that I had the opportunity to meet, to talk with each one of the Dominican sisters in Spain, when I laughed and enjoyed the stories of Bro Felix, when I was able to talk and reflect together with young people like me, part of the Dominican family, I could see in it as reflected in the beautiful phrase that I heard for the first time when I was just a child, because for all of us, for me and for them “it is not enough to do good, it is necessary to do it well”.
WYD Pilgrim, a student Antonia Ábalos.
August 2023
