La Grande Bretèche, Tours (France), 06/22/2023, Sr. Rosario Garcés del Castillo.- “Step by step is endless distance… step, step, step between Dourdan and Sainville”. This was the chorus of the communion song of the Eucharistic celebration yesterday, June 21, in the city of Saint Nazaire, the port from which the Sisters left for Bogotá. The mass was in the San Francisco Church, which is a beautiful building, discreet and at the same time majestic. It has recently been renovated inside so it is very clear, bright, and not far from the naval base and the port.
Coming from the communities of Paris and Tours, physically, there were only 12 Sisters in the Church, but in spirit we felt in communion with the entire Province of France, which had held a fraternal ceremony the night before in the Provincial House. Their thanksgiving for the 150 years of the arrival of the first Sisters in Colombia.
And of course this communion crossed the Atlantic Ocean and extended to each one of our Sisters in Colombia who we knew, that a few hours after ours, would be in the magnificent newly renovated chapel of the Casa Central, also in the celebration of a Mass to give thanks to God for His Mercy that is manifested in the courage, generosity and availability of our Sisters, particularly the first six who, without knowing exactly where they were going, accepted the invitation that God also made to Abraham: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” Gn 12, 1-2
To continue with the numbers, with the story, 12 years ago in 2011, I was on another shore of the Atlantic Ocean, also in a thanksgiving celebration for the arrival of Sr. Paulina and her community on Colombian lands. It was the port of Sabanilla in the Department of the Atlantic in Colombia. The same ocean but another shore, an evident representation of unity in diversity.
