31st of May

The narrative of Mary´s visit to her cousin Elizabeth, presented before us in today´s Gospel, on the Feast of the Visitation of Mary, invited us to contemplate on the meeting of two women who were overjoyed for God´s love has opted for the humble. He made of this meeting, a manifestation of service, a song of gratitude and the care for life.

In today´s Eucharist, we join in prayers and are one with the sisters from Portugal for the eternal rest of our sister Maria Beatriz Saraiva who died on this very day. We seek her intercession for the roads to fraternal meeting for which we long to revitalize, may probably be a response to the love of a God who loves the simple.

In the morning, we were guided by Agustin Maria Gonzalez Ibanez, a lawyer and consultant in various fields who presented us the documents on: Rights to Data Protection; Protocol for Prevention, How to Act and Eradicate in situations of Sexual Abuse of Minors and Vulnerable Adults; and the Agreed Contract towards incorporation of Volunteers. All of which corresponds to the norms provided by civil rights, and which provides us the possibility to a major transparency and security in the mission, this, is for our protection as well as those whom we work with. The lecture that was realized on the protocols has given way to queries which will be presented tomorrow before the speaker.

We wrapped up the day with a prayer this afternoon, a meditation on the icon of the Visitation of Mary expressed in different languages of the sisters in this Chapter.