The Lord has been great with us and we are happy! Psalm 125, 3
Original-Spanish
"There is time for everything under the sun", today in Ecuador we are in time to be grateful. We are grateful for the life and presence of our congregation in this small country in the south of America.
We decided that these 25 years of presence in the Ecuadorian capital should be celebrated in our style. It is a family celebration, and we remember what life in shared mission has been for our Province, since we are also celebrating 25 years of configuring ourselves as an autonomous Province of the Congregation.
These were 3 days of virtual meeting where we perceived the joy of the encounter, of travelling and re-reading together these last 25 years of our journey as one big family, we were blessed to share with faces of the Assumption in different parts of the world. The feeling of the purple bond that unites us was deeply felt and with it the desire to remember our history together to strengthen and encourage us to continue.
The common thread during these days was "IN GRATEFUL MEMORY". In this way we began to go through the heart again what we had experienced during these 25 years...
Day 1: A little history, 12 September 1995: "Today the little sisters arrive"
It was the community of Guayaquil that was in charge of remembering the arrival of our Congregation in Quito. Ascensión González shared with emotion that September 12, 1995, when she, together with Lucía Laiz, Teresita Vélez (+) and Elvira Meza arrived sent by the Congregation to stay among the inhabitants of Oriente Quiteño in the Parish that today is known as "Santa María de la Argelia" and that at that time was called "San Antonio María Claret”, with the mission of starting a new foundation in Quito.
Arriving from Cuenca and with the protection of the Virgin of Rocio, they were introduced to the Oriente Quiteño, awaited and welcomed by the neighbourhood and received by Mrs. Eugenia Brito and her daughter Patricia Conrado together with all her family, who opened the doors of their house to them and lent it to them to live in.
"... we took refuge in the Parish "San Antonio María Claret" in Algeria, the affection and the joy was great on behalf of all. When we remember the first steps, what gives us consistency and sustains us is the fraternal atmosphere that linked us from the first moment with the priests, with this community of Claretians that received us. The first thing was to get to know each other, to make contact, to place ourselves in the middle... From the beginning, the Claretians entrusted us with the pastoral responsibility of the area above: Mirador, la Argelia Alta, Aida León, and Oriente Quiteño. They had the strictly sacramental, we complemented, we prepared the catechesis and the direct contact with the people" tells Ascensión González in his review (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOMWcNX-UeQ&pp=wgIECgIIAQ%3D%3D).
This first day was characterized by the recognition of the life generated both for the inhabitants of the barrio of Argelia and for the Congregation from the experience of this community. That day we closed the meeting with the testimonies of Nidia and Rocio, who had been blessed, they said, to have been able to be part of this history.
Day 2: What ray of the Assumption's Charism marked you?
Between psalms and songs, we continued on our way. The Assumption is a way of life that is transmitted, our charism is contagious and passes from one to another from the joy and contemplation that characterizes us.
In this second meeting we remember that "... we are called to honor the mystery of the Incarnation and the sacred person of Jesus Christ" day by day, in our daily action from the place where we are, always starting from the love and fidelity of God with a view to the transformation of society, the fundamental principle of our life.
We share the gesture of transmitting light together with the testimony of some lay men and women who walk in shared mission with our sisters in the different light communities that invite us to continue with joy, hope and gratitude.
Day 3: Restructuring - what has it been and what has it done to us?
Our third day of the meeting was shrouded in the joyful detachments that we have had throughout these 25 years of our journey as a Province. If the day before we had moved our hearts from our being Asunción and all that it implies, now it was our turn to give thanks for all those places where we have stayed and for others that we have had to leave: Calpi, Santiago de Chile, the third in Guayaquil. Spaces, families, loving memories that we carry in our souls and hearts.
This experience of restructuring is part of our history as a Congregation, and as a Province we have welcomed it with dedication, disposition and joy. We relive, remember, and bring to mind the events that have occurred and been lived, which give us the impulse to continue walking and making the Kingdom present.
It is this style of dedication: to the frontiers of humanity and driven by the Spirit, that mobilizes us to seek other places of encounter and to generate life from the fragility and the periphery. Thus, in January 2019, the community of Muisne was born, almost three years after being the epicenter of an earthquake.
It is a certainty that "The Lord has been great with us and so we are happy", our Province is on the move, our Province is active, our Province is deeply grateful for all that the Lord has been with us. And "how will we pay for all the good he has done for us? We continue on our way, we continue with hope from the fidelity of this God of Love and Goodness.
Communication Commission Ecuador