2019-06-14 CUBA

Community Lavalla200> Holguín

For one week, at the beginning of June, those involved in the international community of Holguín, as part of the Project Lavalla200>, took part, in Havana, in a course of organized Inculturation for the Cuban Conference of Religious. The aim of the course was to strengthen the process of gradual Inculturation throughout the country and the Church, as well as offering a means of revisiting the experiences ofthe last number of years or months. Present also, besides the panellists and the directive group of the Conference of Religious, were 31 participants of 21 nationalities from the five continents and 22 different Charisms of the Spirit which collaborate with the mission of the Church in Cuba.  

The participants found a diverse and intercongregational space in which they had the opportunity to meditate and to discuss the history of Cuba with the economic, political, cultural, religious, ecclesiastic testimonies, recalling the memory of the outstanding documents and dates, as well as the threats and opportunities which the consecrated life and the ecclesiastic life can offer in their evangelizing action. 

The meeting coincides with the discernment process that the Marist community of Holguín is going through at this historical and sacred time. With this perspective, the four members of the community expressed in a shared way their experience and training:  

 

__________________________ 

Br. Jorge Gaio 

"God is ahead of us, he anticipates us. We are always surprised by him. From creation he is with us everywhere and he invites us to understand his presence which manifests itself in ways different from mine.  God travels with and in his people, from dawn until the end of the day. The pastoral action establishes itself through meeting with people: face to face; it encourages linking and proximity. We are called to give ourselves to others, to be able to value little things, to share, to serve and to learn on our journey through life. Today it is necessary to sow different seeds in diverse contexts, cultivating the garden where different species and colours appear, while remembering to contemplate the existing gardens. Therefore, we are encouraged to meet with Jesus and to testify to the joy and hope of the resurrected Christ. While many want to leave Cuba, why do you want to stay with us? I seek to be a brother in each daily encounter."  

 

Ricardo Miño 

"The diversity of people, countries, charism, ages, languages, motivations, histories, personal and community processes present in the course, have made me contemplate with happiness and joy the action of God in human beings. It doesn't matter where we were born, nor the language we speak, God is always present in our lives. This was what we all had in common: the love of Jesus and listening to his call "Come and follow me"; his missionary call: "Go out into the world", and his promise "I will be with you… ". This basic experience is the one that made us feel like brothers and sisters, members of the Church. Each one of the participants arrived in Cuba through different routes and for different reasons . The really important thing is to have discovered that God was waiting for us here and he invites us, as he did with Moses, to take off our shoes because "this is holy ground". The mission that the Lord gives us, in community, is to carry hope to his people and to accompany him to the promised land, so that we can announce, live, serve and celebrate the presence of the Kingdom of God amongst us. The Lord is present in Cuba and he has a mission. His Spirit " is making all  things new ". It is up to us to be cheerful partners of the action of his Spirit. Like Mary, we have said: Yes, "do with me according to your word."  

 

Sylvia Pérez 

"We lived through a beautiful experience of meeting in faith, in light, in fraternity, in happiness, in hope against all despair. We didn't know each other, but there was something special in the atmosphere, a very positive ´something´ that generated trust and hope for the life, for the service to the mission. The Lord of Life continues astonishing us by putting us with people and in situations that help us to grow once again as better missionary disciples of Jesus. The Course has revealed to us in theory a reality that we have been able to feel ´little by little´ in the streets, in visits to the allotments, the remote municipalities, in chats with many people, in books… it has taught us to read new signs of the presence of God who is faithful, merciful and has never stopped accompanying his people, who are fertile earth, where it will be enough to plant the seed and to see it grow and flourish.  We have the certainty that the Spirit takes us and carries us along in a more and more faithful pursuit of Jesus Christ and thus a closer communion with the Cuban people. ´You can only love what you know´ and in this knowledge of Cuba, the Lord goes before us".

 

Br. Jong Acosta 

The experience that I had in this workshop was very fraternal and community oriented. We are on foreign soil with a complex reality and a very different history. How good to know that we have brothers and sisters that are travelling as we are but in different ways. We are not alone. It is very important to learn and to know more about the Cuban way of life, to be able to continue our journey. Many things that we heard, in these months of learning, were confirmed and strengthened in this course. To learn about the Cuban way of life was a great gift and a great support for our community, because we are once again establishing the Marist presence in Holguín. 

How good it has been to know and to learn from the different experiences that we have brought with us and shared in the course. Personally, this has been very significant and I give thanks to God for it. I have learned to know more about the people and the reality in which they live. The diversity of people, cultures, experiences, histories, roads, sights, knowledge and reflections have made me feel the loving and tender presence of God as he walks with his people. We want to live today with spirit, with hope and happiness, we don't want to lose the opportunity to discover and to share the great love that God has for us. In community we opt for life in favour of the children and young people whom our Lord  puts in our care. May the Spirit of Jesus accompany us.  

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