We began with a time of sharing about our experiences of the vow of obedience and the challenges we face. We shared the wonderful surprises we have had, when we let ourselves be sent on a mission or to a place we would never have imagined.
Then we had the chance to hear the testimonies of two of our sisters: Sr Espérance, who experienced obedience in an existential way during the genocide in Rwanda, and Sr Laurence, who, as Provincial Superior of France, also experienced the other side of the vows for a few years.
We talked about our individualistic society and the benefits we can gain from experiencing something greater than ourselves together with others.
On Sunday, we looked at Tiziano Ferraroni’s approach to vulnerability (La brèche intérieure: La vulnérabilité du sujet devant dieu: Une lecture d’Ignace de Loyola) and at the one of Hildegard Keul (Être vulnérable: Vulnérabilité et préciosité de la vie). We asked ourselves to what extent true obedience and true communion are only possible where we can show ourselves to be vulnerable and fragile; welcoming our vulnerabilities creates trust between us.
We were delighted to come together again all of us. We had the joy of sharing good fraternal meals, including a very nice crêpe party on Saturday evening!
At the end of the weekend, each of us returned to our daily lives in Cosenza in southern Italy, in Lille, in Munich, in Marseille and in Paris – to listen more and more to the voice of God in us, in our vulnerability and in our reality.
