Getting together after years, decades, for many of us was an attractive aspect of the session. It aroused surprise, wonder, questioning, joy and humour. Brothers found brothers, sisters found sisters, sisters found brothers and vice versa. Our memories were very excited and we had enough to place beacons on the roads of our lives.
Bernard and Helga had prepared the session with know-how, with meticulousness to facilitate and enrich the journey they proposed, taking into account the limits of our ages.
To go on pilgrimage is to seek a goal. What are we targeting at our ages but the ultimate transition from life to Life? But this passage is of the order of mystery… we must only strive to achieve it by walking – together – and each one at his own pace.
A pilgrimage involves a step-by-step movement. Our steps were to discover, to rediscover the face of Jesus, which He has shown us throughout our lives and still today.
Marvelling at the progress of this revelation: Jesus, Son of the Father, elder brother, who gives us his Spirit to teach us to love, to let us be loved by God, by ourselves and by others… A stage of wonder also for the Missionary Family in which we have long been engaged. A journey nourished by prayer, sustained throughout the days and facilitated by artistic contributions, careful preparation and enriching sharing, guided by the theme of each stage of the pilgrimage. Benefit of common prayer, of the Eucharist lived peacefully, and therefore more deeply, and undoubtedly of times of personal contemplation.
We experienced all this all the more intensely because we were supported by a very valuable family life environment: guaranteed interculturality, an important presence of Africa, an atmosphere of youth alongside the different ages…. But also comfort, cleanliness and order of the house, quality gastronomy, organisation of the many services… and above all the availability, friendliness, openness and humour that each offered to each other. We leave as rejuvenated, “refreshed” and always carrying the Good News.
Thank you to our two Institutes who have thus obtained for us the grace of rejuvenation in Christ and a renewed openness to the life of our missionary family.
Wish of conclusion: “May the old apple trees we have become still produce good apples!
The sessionists