Pilgrims from Portugal
26-27-28th of February 2022
Bernadette Mc Namara, Bon Pasteur, Béziers
The pilgrims came from the four corners of Portugal in the context of their formation as collaborators of RSCM in our schools and social works. Twenty-four people discovered for the first time the Mother House, which is already showing some signs of its future transformation.
But the place still speaks and offers the possibility of getting to know better Father Gailhac, Mother Saint Jean and the first community.
The pilgrims did not spare their steps as they followed in the steps of Jesus… As we approach the stage of a major transformation we have experienced once again the power of the foundation gift – a fountain that is still quite audible; we are witnesses that this gift still carries dynamism of life, an attraction capable of setting pilgrims on their way and launching them on a journey still to be travelled.
Of course, the Paschal message is closer on the horizon; what shall I say? That message is there at the heart of our days as the “stripping down” of the house becomes visible. But our pilgrims are inspired by the past in their reading of the present wherever they live, and they commit themselves to the future as God beckons them. Christ today continues his work as the Father who always works.
Our weekend pilgrims, seduced by the founding gift of Father Gailhac, gift recognised and received, commit themselves to carry the flame in their lives and to pass it on with zeal.
I love so much these words of Father Gailhac in his letter of 1881 “…and when God calls a priest to make him a founder he communicates his love to him, he floods his heart with it. This love in him is great because it embraces the whole work with which he entrusts him, and when his work has as its aim only to make God known and loved; God multiplies the communication in his love in his heart, because only love can bring about love in hearts. Now it is God’s order that this love should first and foremost embrace the souls which God gives him to help him in this work which must procure the glory of God by making him known and loved…»
