VIII Marist Family Day in Seville
In 1997 at Castilleja de la Cuesta in the Province of Mediterránea, a day was organised to commemorate the first anniversary of the murder of four Marist Brothers in Bugobe. This also instituted the Marist Family Day. Since then, on the Sunday closest to the 31st October ? the date that these brothers died ? successive meetings have been celebrated each year.
The VIII Marist Family Day took place on the 30th October 2004 at the Marist College of Seville. More than 150 people participated: brothers from all the communities, teachers, catechists, families and members of the Fraternities.
On this occasion the theme for reflection centred on the person of Brother Julio, one of the four martyrs of Bugobe. After the words of welcome of Brother Juan Ignacio Poyatos, Delegate of the Provincial in the Bética Zone, there was a moment of prayer. After this, Brother Jesús Saiz spoke about the character and spirituality of Brother Julio. Brother Pedro Arrondo, who had spent many years in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, continued by talking about his experience in community with this brother. A ?power point? presentation was shown on each of the four brothers, reproducing the video images shown by the different Spanish television channels at the time of their deaths on the 31st October 1996.
Afterwards, everyone shared the food that had been brought from the different houses and talked as a family very much at ease with each other. A round-the-table talk took place in the assembly hall, during which a doctor spoke about his experience in a hospital in Bolivia and two young people spoke about their experiences when they spent some time in this Andean country.
The day ended with the celebration of the Eucharist with a shared homily. At the sign of peace, as a symbol of sharing the light, each person gave his or her candle to the person with whom they shared this sign of peace.
It was certainly a day in which, apart from the emotional impact, the ambience experienced by all was simple, loving and joyous.