WEAVING PERSPECTIVES, BUILDING COMMUNITIES

It has been a true joy to experience and now to share what the second stage of the Ramón Zubieta y Les Province entailed, held from July 12th to 17th in Ecuador. These were intense days, woven with listening, prayer, and sisterhood, which left us with a profound certainty: we are sisters, builders of dreams, and these dreams, when shared, cease to be individual and become a common project that sustains and propels us forward.

The gathering was organized as a series of reflections, each inviting us to a different level of depth and meaning.

The first reflection focused on something so close and, at the same time, so often forgotten: our own bodies. We began by recognizing that the body is the greatest work God has created, and that learning to listen to it is the starting point for any process of personal and communal growth. If we are God’s creation, then we must honestly ask ourselves: how are we caring for this creation? How do we communicate with our bodies at this particular moment in our lives? What words do we address to them, and from where do those words arise: from the doing that demands constant productivity, from the duty that sometimes weighs us down, or from the being that simply allows us to exist with gratitude and generosity? These questions become a concrete and constant invitation to seek to inhabit our bodies with more tenderness and less demand.

From that first perspective, the second naturally arose: the perspective toward the community. We were reminded of something that should never be forgotten: our first field, our first center of preaching, is the community itself. Before any external mission, before any apostolate, there is the call to live one’s own vocation in sisterhood, sharing it with others who walk the same path. And in this lies a privilege that we don’t always appreciate: we are not alone in the search; we are and feel ourselves to be travelers, women in transit who accompany one another, who support each other in falls, and celebrate achievements together.

We were invited to develop a form of communication that seeks to create and build bridges, starting honestly from who we truly are: consecrated women, overflowing with life, with strengths and also with limitations. And something fundamental was emphasized: being at peace with ourselves is an indispensable necessity for building community with others. Healthy fraternity cannot be built from inner fragmentation; first, we must reconcile ourselves with our own history and our own being in order to then weave true bonds. We must not give up on this communal dimension; we must continue to build it day after day with patience and perseverance.

A third perspective leads us to the very DNA of consecrated life: prayer, that space which, as consecrated women, we are called to bear witness to both within and outside the community. Throughout the gathering, the various activities, the moments of silence, and the teamwork helped us to delve deeper into this essential dimension. From this entire experience arose a question that has resonated in each of our hearts: What is the “MORE” that the Lord asks of me today? Because authentic prayer is neither an escape nor a comfortable refuge, but rather that which confronts life with the Gospel, and precisely in that confrontation, transforms it.

As we conclude this meeting, it is clear that community and prayer are not separate compartments of our lives, but rather the two forces that must be constantly mobilized. They are what allow us to continue being witnesses of hope in a world that needs concrete signs of fraternity, and they are what make us credible in the mission entrusted to us. We return from Ecuador with renewed hearts, with questions that will continue to work within us, and with the shared certainty that, weaving together our sisterly gazes, we continue to build, stone by stone, the community we are called to be.

Sisters of the Second Stage

Gathered in Quito, Ecuador

Province of Monsignor Ramón Zubieta y Les