Covid-19 pandemic that has upset many realities in our personal, social, and congregational life, prevented, for obvious reasons, also the realization, in the usual date, of JUNICON 2021 that, in its previous editions, was beginning in January.
After waiting for several months, the time finally came, for the Junior Sisters of the whole Congregation, to join this appointment, to arrive in the place and to begin an intense journey of formation, intercultural meeting and personal and fraternal experiences that, undoubtedly, mark the life of each sister who passes through this congregational structure, full of life.
Another change about the JUNICON of this year is its location: although still located in Medellín (Colombia), it is now in our house of Belén quarter; once completed the necessary restructuration work, the group of sisters of JUNICON 2021, settled, for the first time, into a part of the building prepared for them.
The date of arrival of the juniors to the JUNICON community was September the 1st but it was on the 8th, feast day of the Nativity of Mary and also of Our Lady of Montiel, that this formative stage began within the framework of a solemn Eucharist, attended by various sisters from the nearby communities. The preparation time will end in the first days of March 2022.
As we said, interculturality is the scene of this shared experience of the sisters that, on this occasion are nine and are coming from Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Tanzania and Benin; they are accompanied by Sr. Mª Anabelle Céspedes Morales, 3rd General Councilor from Costa Rica, whom the General Superior appointed “to walk”, during these six months, with this group of Juniors, together with Sr. Beatriz del Socorro Cortés Gómez, Colombian, who has carried out this mission with other previous groups.
The nine juniors and the two sisters that are accompanying them, form a true community of life, carrying out their project according to the course objective. Everything is programmed: seminars of study, visits and relations with the communities, encounters with different realities, pastoral activities, preparation and realization of the cultural day of each country, month of Spiritual Exercises … But the scheduling does not reduce the creativity, the personal contribution and the sharing experiences that are a source of knowledge and wealth for each one.
At the end of this time of grace, each of the sisters will make her Perpetual Profession in her respective country. But for now, step by step …