It has been a year, and we’re still in pandemic time. The Covid 19 has done its way leaving behind a bit of perplexity in everyday life, so the meetings are done online, and it is a normal style at this time. However, we thank these digital and virtual means of communication because they help us to weave social relationships. We are especially grateful because we have had the grace to participate in a meeting of on going formation and thus to meet so many sisters of perpetual vows. The meeting was organised by the USMI on 15 and 16 May 2021, via the Zoom platform It was attended by the young sisters present in the community of Centocelle where gathered also the sisters from the community of Viale Saffi and Lido dei Pini. The sisters from the communities of Florence, Frosinone and Albania attended online. It was an important and very opportune moment because we sisters of the Province met and shared our journey.

The conference held in these two days highlighted the theme: ALWAYS ON MISSION: I AM FOR ANOTHER LIFESTYLE.

On the first day, the speaker Sister Lucia Antonioli carried out the theme: "A prophetic and contemplative gaze" and used three key words to enter the heart of the Word of God through the Lectio Divina from the passage of the Gospel of Luke 12:27ff - the gaze, the prophecy, contemplation, which are also the necessary conditions to take on another lifestyle.

Our contemplative gaze comes from outside us and must become the instrument with which we judge ourselves. We are called to taste Wisdom, to contemplate the history of our religious family where the essential pillars of the charism do not change, but we will be able to change the form to respond to the provocations of our time. Starting from our human reality, as baptized, with our consecration we share in the life of Christ-He who is Wisdom and dwells in us, makes us become bearers and witnesses of His word that is founded in love and in loving one another.

The second speaker of the day, Professor Tonino Solarino, deepened the spiritual and psychological aspects of the theme: "Ecology of daily life" and stressed the hygiene of the house that is our heart and the hygiene of the relationship.

Professor Solarino then, speaking of the pathologies of time - chewing and spitting; the panic attack; narcissism, and borderline style, stressed that we are called to the new paradigms of life and "not conform to the mentality of this world". The present psychological suffering calls for different organization, different culture, pathologies change and the psyche expresses the pathologies of the time. Suffering also has its own intelligence that we must welcome the wisdom of a new way of being with ourselves and with God. It is necessary to know how to distinguish the existential wounds from the spiritual ones because the wounds of life help to heal other wounds if they are addressed to God. Speaking of the hygiene of the heart, he highlighted that many of our actions are sincere, and many others are the result of unawareness and these hurt. The crisis that wounds produce we must take as an opportunity to allow the hygiene of the heart that transforms love into a gift, in fact every love is born of need, asks us to die to ourselves in order to love others.

To allow the hygiene of the fraternal relationship, it must be remembered that the first fraternal relationship begins by listening to oneself: this is a task, a gift to be exchanged with each other in order to generate life and love. The community, then, is the place where purification takes place.

The following day Fr. Antonio Marzano spoke on the subject: "Joy and Peace" which are the fruits of desire, in fact the achievement of desire is happiness. The limits, moreover, make our desire concrete. What makes us not reach desire is the block that does not help us to see beyond the limit. It is up to us to choose the means to achieve our desire and experience "an evangelical way of life that is able to rejoice deeply without being obsessed with consumption". It is up to us to choose the path that leads to true joy and peace, to distinguish what is illusion and deception. Fr. Marzano also stressed an alternative way to live life, that way that can truly lead to true joy and peace and is to remain in Christ, in fact joy is not the satisfaction of our desires, but being in Christ. Jesus is peace and joy and the only way to get them is to stay with Him!

The moment of sharing together with the group was the most beautiful moment, in fact in this time we feel a strong need to meet, confront and encourage each other and it was never lacking. After the conclusion of the conference, on the afternoon of May 16, we felt the need to share again together with all the sisters of the province who participated. And so, even if the time is never enough, we still had the joy of seeing each other, meeting and sharing together the desire for a new lifestyle.

We are grateful to the Lord and pray that we commit ourselves to live and witness together a lifestyle based on contemplative gaze, capable of "seeing the new in the same" in order to weave a relationship of faith and love and thus become authentic prophets in our time.

One of the participants interpreted the appreciation of all of us with the following words:

"Abide in My love, that your joy may be full" Jn 15,9-11. To remain is an invitation of intimacy, of a profound relationship with the Lord in prayer, adoration, in silent conversation with Him who alone is the source of all wisdom, who sheds light of love in the heart in order to live united to Him all the moments of my life. Only if I remain in his love, I let myself be transformed by Him and I become a gift of love for others. Only by remaining in Him can I see the Good News even in moments of crisis, of pain, in my fragility, in weakness and in my limits, in accepting all this to learn humility, open to accept the correction, the limits and the fragility of others. In fact, I believe that change can happen starting from ourselves with the help of God and so we will be "good" together, for the Lord. Only the gift of the Spirit is able to heal wounds, to make hygiene in my heart, and to make me capable of  care for "the house" that is my heart. Only by remaining in His love can we find "the new in the usual", learn and be expert in meeting God in our sisters, expert in being there, in forgiveness, in tenderness, in intimacy and in clarity. "Remain in my love...". Remaining in his love is the point of reference, a truth where I can verify myself daily: Where am I? How am I living my life? Do I live for God’s sake? It is not only an invitation to me but it is also a command of love, a gift is a promise because he knows that only in him can we live full joy and true peace, and with him all this reflection can bear fruit of witness in everyday life."

To the praise and glory of God!

By the sisters of the Province "Mary Immaculate"

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