As we said yesterday we met at Mass this morning at 7:30. The Gospel of St. Mark invited us to ask ourselves the question “What do you want of us Jesus of Nazareth?” which is in fact the aim of this Chapter.

At 8:30 we gathered in the chapter hall. Maria Carmen Vilardell (the moderator) invited Teresa McElhone to explain the procedure for the Opening Celebration.

We were welcomed into the hall by a dry desert, which after the celebration had been transformed into a beautiful garden full of flowers to which were added all types of birds, plants and water to quench our thirst. The whole atmosphere had been transformed and there was the smell of incense.

The celebration opened with a procession to the desert where the Word of God, the Constitutions, the Paschal candle, four ribbons of four differents colours representing the four communities and whatever each community had brought to transform the desert into a garden were presented. Standing in front of the desert certain questions were asked: What is the desert? What does it remind us of? Reference was made to the prophet Isaiah (see the attached celebration). Maria Dolores Sanzberro read the preface to the Contemplative Particular Rules and thus began the transformation of the symbol which will accompany us until the 25th: the desert.

Bernadette ended the Celebration with this prayer:

“God, our loving Father, as we begin our Vicariate Chapter, we ask you to open us to a new vision for the future.
Enlighten, guide and direct us where you want us to go. Give us a listening heart and a discerning spirit so that we can choose life for ourselves and for our world. In all that we do may our common mission inspire us. Together we desire to bring life, promote life, share life, care for life, preserve life, and protect life. In fidelity to our specific vocation in the Holy Family, and with the other members of our Family, we want to offer this life to all our brothers and sisters, to the whole of creation and to the reality around us. Make us agents of life, of love, of justice and peace, integrity and freedom through our life hidden with Christ in God at the heart of the cosmos.

May Jesus, Mary and Joseph journey with us during these days, and always. Amen”

Then Margaret was then invited to address the capitulants. Very simply she went through the different stories that are part of our lives: the story of the universe and of the earth, our Christian story and our Family story. She helped us to become aware of the extent to which these stories are interrelated. She stressed in a special way that this year marks the 150th year since the foundation of the Contemplative vocation in the Holy Family and gave a brief account of its history recalling how the Founder considered this foundation as the culmination of his work. She invited us to remain open, to abandon our personal desires so as to listen to what God desires of us. “Allowing God to challenge us means listening to the signs of the times” writes Albert NOLAN.

Sensitive to the atmosphere of silence and recollection, the facilitator invited the assembly spend the next hour entering deeply into Margaret’s words and contemplating their content. After a well deserved break the assembly was invited to return to the hall to share what they had experienced and how they had been challenged by what they had heard.

The next assembly would be at 15:30. See you later…!