INTERNATIONALITY-INTERCULTURALITY PRAYER 2020

This story, this journey, this pilgrimage, is becoming our way of being, praying, living, doing, and sharing, always journeying, displacing, and moving (whatever way this may be). This is the identity kept as a heritage, part of our spiritual genetics of being women of Visitation-Pentecost.

For all the above, our internationality-interculturality celebration this November 16th, 2020 will be lived journeying, displacing, on the Road.

Prepare 4 spaces, inside or outside our house or room, corridor, or wherever possible to symbolize the journey: the Space of Origin, the Space of Renunciation, the Space of the Path, the Space of the Horizon.

We start the celebration invoking God who is FATHER/MOTHER, SON, and HOLY SPIRIT.

We sing a pilgrimage song (or a song of your choice). We suggest IGLESIA PEREGRINA (PILGRIM CHURCH) by Cesáreo Gabaráin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRg8ghOwJrQ

1. Todos unidos formando un solo cuerpo

Un pueblo que en la pascua nació
Miembros de Cristo en sangre redimidos
Iglesia peregrina de Dios.

Vive en nosotros la fuerza del Espíritu
Que el Hijo desde el Padre envió
Él nos empuja, nos guía y alimenta
Iglesia peregrina de Dios

SOMOS EN LA TIERRA
SEMILLA DE OTRO REINO
SOMOS TESTIMONIO DE AMOR
PAZ PARA LAS GUERRAS

Y LUZ ENTRE LAS SOMBRAS

IGLESIA PEREGRINA DE DIOS

PAZ PARA LAS GUERRAS
Y LUZ ENTRE LAS SOMBRAS
IGLESIA PEREGRINA DE DIOS.

2. Rugen tormentas

Y a veces nuestra barca
Parece que ha perdido el timón
Miras con miedo y no tienes confianza
Iglesia peregrina de Dios.

Una esperanza nos llena de alegría
Presencia que el Señor prometió
Vamos cantando el viene con nosotros

Iglesia Peregrina de Dios.

·    A lit candle

·    A Bible

·    A Cross, an emblem or the Writings of Marguerite Bourgeoys that identify the Congregation

·    Surrounded by meaningful objects symbolizing our origin, family, culture, or just our family names written on colored paper or something that represents our origin.

As we contemplate de diversity of our origins, a reader proclaims the biblical text of Deuteronomy 26:6-10.

Another reader reminds us of the thought that leads to the creation of the Congregation: “…This priest spoke to me of the plan to found a community which would honor the way of life of the Blessed Virgin…” (WMB p. 164) “the Blessed Virgin was never cloistered. She did indeed withdraw into an interior solitude, but she never excused herself from any journey on which there was good to be done or some work of charity to be performed… The Blessed Virgin sustained the Church from the death of her Son until the descent of the Holy Spirit At this time, she received a superabundance of grace…” (WMB p. 51-52)

Recalling (in silence) the origin of the people in the Bible and of the Congregation, we remember our personal-family origins and the origins of our people, the origin of our countries, the origin of the Province or Region, the origin of the groups and we thank God for this with spontaneous acts of gratitude.

At the end we sing the chorus of the initial song: SOMOS EN LA TIERRA SEMILLA DE OTRO REINO…

(WE ARE IN THE LAND A SEED OF ANOTHER KINGDOM…)

In the second space: THE SPACE OF RENUNCIATION, we place the following symbols:

·               Marguerite Bourgeoys’s baluchon, a backpack or bag

·               Sandals or tennis shoes

·               A cane

·               An empty basket or box

While contemplating the symbolism we listen to the Gospel of Mark 6:7-9 that invites us to take steps to go out on mission, we then take a moment silence to let ourselves be challenged by the Word.

Another reader reads what Marguerite said: “Consider, dear, that when you go on mission, you go to gather up the drops of the blood of Jesus Christ which are being lost. How happy a sister who is sent on mission will be if she thinks that she goes there at God's command and in His company, if she thinks that in this work she can and ought to witness her gratitude to Him from whom she has received all things.” (WMB, p. 78)

And as Pope Francis said in his homily on September 8, 2019, in Antananarivo, Madagascar, “For us as Christians, our sacrifices only make sense in the light of the joyful celebration of our encounter with Jesus Christ.” This means that the demands of the Master propose to build history in fraternity and solidarity, in free respect for the earth and its gifts over any form of exploitation; encouraging us to live in “dialogue as the path; cooperation as the code of conduct; reciprocal understanding as to the method and standard” (A Document on Human Fraternity, Abu Dhabi, February 4, 2019), and without yielding to the temptation of certain doctrines incapable of seeing the wheat and the darnel grow together waiting for the owner of the harvest. (Mt 13:24-30)

Now, in order to live this mission, these calls or invitations well, we must answer the following questions:

1.             What do I have to renounce today to live according to Jesus and Marguerite´s proposal?

2.             What stops me from living in solidarity with those who renounce to themselves, their possessions, their land, their family, etc. to set out on their way, to go on pilgrimage (for whatever reason)?

3.             What am I willing to live to share an international or intercultural life with him or her?

Let us take a moment of silence and then write a phrase on colored papers. Then, with conviction, while we pray Our Father in another language (other than our own) we put our papers in a basket or empty box for that purpose. We finish by singing the second stanza of the Pilgrim Church song: Rugen tormentas, Y a veces nuestra barca… (or a song of your choice).

In the third space: THE SPACE OF THE PATH, let us walk this path to lay down the flags of the different countries where we are or where we are not on mission, footprints (trace our footprints), images of migrants, displaced people, refugees, people on the move. We can name people we know, people we have heard of, groups of people from different places, etc.

And in that place and atmosphere, we join all human beings on pilgrimage, of every language, race, colour, people, or nation praying in two voices the following prayer:

God the Father/Mother, we know that in your heart no one is unknown to you and everyone, especially the displaced, migrants, refugees and any pilgrim, has a special place in your womb.

We ask You, with your merciful heart, to care for and protect all these brothers and sisters who have to move every day searching for another horizon or fleeing, separating themselves from their love ones, seeking a place of refuge and asylum to protect their own lives and those of their loved ones.

You who experienced displacement, persecution, migration, be a companion on the way, and lead them to places of rest where they can feel safe or secure.

Touch the mind and hearts of those who govern, so that they can open the eyes of their heart to this painful and inhuman reality, recognizing their dignity and promoting just policies favouring their integration in a dignified way and open to hope.

Open the arms of the heart of each one of us to welcome and act in solidarity with those who are left in more fragile and vulnerable conditions due to this painful scourge. Let us discover your face in them and act accordingly.

We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was also persecuted, displaced, a refugee, and a migrant and through his journeying mother, our Mother and Teacher. Amen.

United in faith and love we sing Santa María Del Camino (Juan Antonio Espinoza):

tú nunca sola estás,

contigo por el camino

Santa María va.

VEN CON NOSOTROS Al CAMINAR

SANTA MARÍA, VEN. (2)

Si por el mundo la gente,

Sin conocerse van,

No niegues nunca tu mano,

A quien contigo está.

VEN CON NOSOTROS…

Aunque te digan algunos

que nada puede cambiar,

lucha por un mundo nuevo,

lucha por la verdad.

VEN CON NOSOTROS…

Aunque parezcan tus pasos

inútil caminar,

tú vas haciendo caminos

otros los seguirán.

A reader proclaims the Gospel of Mathew 25:31-32ª and 34b-36, “When the Son of man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory. All nations will be assembled before him… ‘Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take as your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome, lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me.’”

From another reader we listen to Marguerite Bourgeoys’s call, “We are obliged to love God above all things and [more] than ourselves, and our neighbor for love of Him.

I find that there are several kinds of love in human society: there is the love of strangers, of travelers, of the poor, of associates, of angels, of parents and of lovers. All these loves can be good or indifferent. It is only the love of the lover which penetrates the heart of God. Only to this love is nothing refused. When we learn that a foreign country is pillaged or oppressed, we have compassion for the people, but this touches us only when we know it.

We love those who are traveling through because they bring us some profit; we love the poor to whom we give what is superfluous; we love our associates because to lose them would harm us; we love friends because their conversation pleases and is agreeable to us; we love our parents because we receive good things from then or because we fear to be punished.

But true love is the love of a lover. It is rarely found, for nothing touches it, neither good nor evil. The lover gives his life gladly for the beloved. He does not know his own interests or even his needs. Sickness and health are alike to him; prosperity and adversity, life and death; consolation and desolation are the same to him.” (WMB, p. 58-59)

Called to love, like the space of horizon that Jesus invites us to live, that Mary and Marguerite lived, and to that synodal space that Pope Francis invites us to live, let us make our commitment of the day. We place the flower in the vase with water and ask for God’s strength and Mary’s intercession to live our commitment of love. In the meantime, we pray Hail Mary in a language we have not yet prayed.

Together we repeat this prayer:

O Christ, pilgrim, missionary on his way, migrant-refugee before birth, you made your life a journey to meet men and women, not knowing where to lay your head, you wanted that everyone has hope and thus be a pilgrim to never die.

We pray to you for those who are moving in life, for migrants, lead them to a land that feeds them without taking away the identity of their hearts.

Make him or her, people who live in justice, solidarity, and peace. Give them the grace of being welcomed as people made in your image and destined to form a community with their brothers and sisters in faith.

Let him or her not walk more than necessary, and when they stop, let them feel that they did not walk in vain. May the land you destined for them and their descendants be blessed. Even though, he was not welcomed at the lodge, found a portal where he could reveal himself to the poorest. Amen.

We finish this celebration with the song of 400th anniversary of the birth of Marguerite Bourgeoys – LET US HURRY ON THE WAY.