Medellín (Colombia), 03/04/2023, Sr. Ángela María Vélez Restrepo.- We are celebrating 50 years of missionary presence of the sisters in the Community of Riosucio. A foundation that was born of the missionary spirit and daring of many of our sisters who were able to go beyond the frontiers to answer the call of the Church through Monsignor Pedro Grau and Father Jesús Botero.

The most significant day was that 7th February 1973 when our first sisters Romelia Castrillón, María Berchmans, Bernarda Margarita, sent by Sœur Marie Bernard du Rosaire, arrived in Riosucio, celebrated the Eucharist and reserved in the tabernacle the sacramental presence of the One who would always be there to accompany the sisters' journey. He made His tent in our midst, and He remains because His fidelity is eternal. On this date the house was canonically established and with it the certainty of “We will be present wherever the Church calls us, wherever our brothers and sisters need us”. C.84

The Province of Medellin joins in this celebration where the brightness of the mission is the simplicity and humility of those who with a missionary spirit have given their soul, life and heart in these lands, because they are moved by the passion for the Kingdom and the conviction of being here because the Church has called them and the brothers and sisters need them.

To celebrate the Golden Jubilee is to encounter a history that has shone with its own light.

It shines because there has been abnegation, mysticism, commitment, following the example of the Social Apostle of Charity, they have known how to give and give themselves fully to children, young people, adults, women heads of families, the elderly, the sick, with a marked vocation of commitment to the Parish and to all the social programmes and projects that qualify and strengthen human dignity.

It shines because the dedication of each day has had a motivation, an essence, a raison d'être: To receive with love whoever arrives, which turns this sacred place into an enclosure of fraternity and communion, where all can express "How pleasant O Lord are your dwellings", how pleasing to find that you have built on the Rock and have maintained the joy of Consecrated life.

It shines because every day you have risen early for the mission to meet with the different recipients and to accompany them on their journey, giving them every day your support, your service, your closeness, your friendship, your unconditional generosity.

The commitment of life is to maintain the shine of this "gold" in their daily mission. To be a testimonial point of reference, to show the God who dwells in them and to give an account of the hope that mobilises all their actions.

It is the Lord "who builds the house" on this beautiful piece of land of their inheritance, in this Riosucio, the land of Chocó department, which has opened its doors to them and allows them to spread the charism of the humble, pious and charitable Marie Poussepin.

To each of the sisters that we all carry in our souls. Lives that have been given and continue to be given, with the certainty of keeping the flame of the Service of Charity burning, always in openness, making evident the embrace that makes us sisters, the time that is given freely and the joy of being in a place of Providence. With the psalmist we say: "we have been given a beautiful lot and we love this inheritance".

May our Mother Foundress, Marie Poussepin, always be a point of reference for our spiritual life that motivates us in the mission that we have received by gift and grace. "She saw what was right in the eyes of God and she did it", may each one of you, Sisters Elizabeth, Florelia and Luz Inelda, the local community at this moment, be able to do it, so that you will know how to do every day "what is good, what is just, what pleases God" and makes others happy.