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February 2010
SHM Novitiate
CELMA's Apostolic Experience in São Paulo - SP
My Apostolic Experience, in the city of São Paulo, was profitable, with joys and challenges in the ‘paulista’ reality. I lived in the RSHM community of Nossa Senhora Aparecida in the company of three sisters: Antonietta Abreu, Maria de Lourdes Malheiro and Justina Pompermayer. |
With Ir. Justina I worked in the ARCA – an institution of support for the homeless people of the streets who are studying. I sensed the revitalisation of many lives with the education of so many youth who are without financial possibilities. I participated also in the parish life with Ir. Antonietta and there I felt the joy of proclaiming the gospel while participating in the different projects of the community. |
I worked with sister Lourdes in ‘Nossa Casa’ – a social work which welcomes the most needy children and adolescents in the hours after school. There I collaborated with a sister teaching the children embroidery - which was for me a way to give and receive life, and I learned that it is only when I know how to receive from the other that I will give in a better way.
Ending the four months of this Apostolic Experience I feel grateful for all I learned, in the community, in the society and pastoral situations where I visited, and the joys and challenges they confronted me with. The mission and charism of our institute which I have deepened and lived continue to enthuse me in my following of my journey as an RSHM novice. Maria Celma Bartolomeu
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São Paulo is a city which welcomes the whole world but is also a place of many challenges in life, in relationships, in politics. This makes everything about life there go to one extreme or the other – rich with a superfluous life and miserable poor, street people... In this I saw that the poor are poor in different forms all over the world. It is important to love them without limits, in truth, in the manner of receiving and giving life to the children of GOD.