Spanish and Portuguese speaking Manziana Course heads to the Hermitage

We wanted to make contact again with you all one day before departing for the Hermitage, in the footsteps of the Founder, ready to spend the ten days of our stay in a climate of prayer, reflection and sharing the experiences and responses that our long lives have found in so many key moments of our Marist journey.
We are fully engaged in the programme of our Spanish and Portuguese speaking Manziana Course.
Since the 10th August, week after week, the fraternal sharing and mature experiences, chosen in a climate of calm, of prayer and of dialogue have given our group of twenty-three participants the understanding and the simplicity that makes our days here an ideal transparent community. There is joy, work, service and availability, which express themselves in a multitude of details that we would be proud to find in our Provinces.
The years give weight and maturity in prayer, in shared liturgies, and in fraternal support which give the little virtues this radiance of violets hidden in the garden.
The presenters have been of a very high quality. They have broached themes that have renewed us totally and have opened for us gates to a promising future, even in our old age. The reflection on the elderly in the Bible, led by Brother Josep Mª Soteras, challenged us deeply, purifying a faith which from time to time faces God and opens our hands to him.
From Brother Luis G Sobrado Vicar General, to Brothers Emili Turú, Onorino Rota, Giovanni Biggotto, Pau Fornells, Ernesto Sánchez, Carlos Wielganczuk, and the laypeople Chema Pérez Soba from Spain and Dr. Martial de Logroño, all have left their personal imprint of the spirituality of the charism of Champagnat.
The visit of Brother Seán Sammon, Superior General, with a beautiful picture of the Good Mother for each of us, brought a few discreet tears. This was a precious gesture from a man who knows how to encourage ?Marvellous Companions?.
Two Marianists are sharing the course with us and are fully integrated into our community.
We continue to journey in good health, well fed and taking full advantage of this gift that the Marist and Marianist Institutes have prepared for us.
This report would lack authenticity if it did not leave you convinced that our prayer, sustained by the Good Mother, Champagnat and Guillaume Chaminade, is raised towards heaven to the Father with the fervour of a first love and renewed commitment.
Brother Innocencio Martínez