Santiago (Chile), 05/28/2020, Sr. Licarayén Torres.- With regard to the quarantine in which we have been living for almost two months in the vice-provincial house in Santiago de Chile, together with Sister Berta Tapia we began to gather an idea that was born from the search to accompany and be with the people who live this shivering time in different ways.

So, from Monday to Friday we began to transmit live on the digital platform of Instagram a space for dialogue, meeting and reflection on what we are experiencing in our country, shaken by a social explosion and now scourged by the Covid-19 pandemic. We have experienced this as an open door for a pastoral ministry from the social networks, which are so important in our time.

For a week we were talking with various artists who helped us to reflect on beauty in the midst of the tragedy of death and illness. Between dance, music, acting and painting, we met our Dominican brother, fr Félix Hernández who shared his experience from Spain and reminded us how important it is to cultivate, especially in this time, the capacity to contemplate the beautiful in order not to fall into the fatality of despair. After an interesting dialogue we asked Brother Félix to give a drawing by Marie Poussepin for the Congregation, during this time of confinement and today we want to share it with you and it is he himself who tells us what he tried to express.

"In making Marie Poussepin's drawing, I wanted to express, above all, the constant newness of the person and of her way of life, in my opinion ahead of her time in many aspects, as well as the relevance of Jesus Christ and the good news she knew how to announce.

The line or the use of bright colors are a way of reflecting this aspect, but also the elements with which I represented her: The balance symbolizing the struggle for justice which, from the point of view of Dominican compassion, always made her sensitive to the needs and sufferings of people, leading her to find creatively the evangelical answers that would end up generating the birth of the Congregation.

The heart, an expression of the love of the Lord that she had within her and which Marie Poussepin announced and carried to others with words and deeds throughout her life.

The dove is peace, but God’s peace is fruit of justice and universal love.

These three elements are decorated with ethnic elements from different cultures and motifs from different artistic styles that aim to reflect the universality of the Congregation, the sending out to all peoples.

Behind it I have placed the Dominican cross, as a presence of Christ and Saint Dominic that is light (expressed with the little suns or stars) that illuminates all the paths that also appear on a green hopeful background.

Finally, in the decoration of the clothes, we can see little flowers on the apron that remind us of the evangelical fruitfulness of the service to the weakest, the mustard seed that blooms even from the simplest gesture. The habit, on the other hand, shows a design similar to that of a tile, since it consists of many different components which, only together, have harmony and meaning just like the life and mission of the sisters which is carried out in community. With all that has been exposed, I wanted to reflect, in short, with all the affection, that the figure of Marie Poussepin is updated in the life of each one of the sisters of the Congregation.” (Fr. Félix Hernández). 

This new space of preaching has been for us a possibility to re-signify the mission of Marie Poussepin, because in the midst of the health crisis in which we find ourselves, today it is time to find the new routes that will take us from Dourdan to Sainville and this image is a symbol of the new paths that we seek to take.

In the name of all the sisters we thank our brother Felix for his service and love. And we ask the Good Lord to help us respond with audacity and courage to what our world needs today.