Water from the Rock, life-giving spring!
From 17 to 23 of December, we have met, during the Advent season, in front of the Crib of Bethlehem, one of the inspiring places of our spirituality. We were 39 Brothers and 3 Lay Marist people from Venezuela for our annual retreat.
It was an extraordinary opportunity for us to be vigilant, as the liturgy of Advent reminds us very often. It was a great time to meet personally the Lord, and to remind again in a very special way the experience of the first love that lead Fr. Champagnat to found the Congregation. At the same time we have closely followed the vocational itinerary of Mary. The book Water from the Rock keeps being a challenge for both the Brothers and the Lay Marist people Venezuela. The book represents a call to move forward more and more and to unite our hearts and our efforts to be better apostles in our ministries and in our apostolic activities related to the education of children and poor young people.
Passion and compassion? to be or to become Eucharistic men and women? to be the visible image of a marina church, maternal and full of tenderness? to open up our centres and our provinces to new ministries taken by both brothers and lay marist people ? these are some of the echoes that resounded strongly in our hearts of brothers and sisters during these retreat days.
We thank God for the gift of our respective vocations and we want to continue to help each other mutually to grow in fidelity to them.
These days made us aware that everything we do, everything we pray, has should begin from now on, from the heart of what is fundamental for us: our spirituality. May the blessings of the Lord, of Mary and of Marcellin be always with us. And may their blessing help us an so many to welcome this living water that we all need to live worthily and with hope.
Our way to deepen our spirituality will continue far beyond this year, dedicated in a special way to her study. We want to continue walking, giving life to concrete projects helping us to deepen her and to consolidate her among all of us belonging to the Norandina Marist Province.
It is the right moment, to wish you all readers of our WEB page, a Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year 2009. Let us continue together having a dream of new horizons, for our ministries?
Brother JOSÉ MIGUEL CABALLERO