RSCM GENERALATE

February 2010
SHM Novitiate

ROSA ARMANDA's Pastoral Experience
in Belo Horizonte- MG

And, having passed the first term...

Dear Sisters

It is with joy that I share with you my life in the International Novitiate since my reception as a Novice in the RSHM.

It has been a time of strong experiences in the sense of living more intensely a relationship with God in the silence of prayer. At the same time I encountered this experience not only in the silence but also in the apostolic experiences.

Concretely, in the month for vocations, where in conjunction with the sisters and aspirants of the Brazilian Province, we worked with a local community in Barreiro de Cima in a sharing of our own experience of discernment and vocational journey in the perspective of an internationality without borders, with children, adolescents and youth. It was very enriching to understand in these groups the desire to know what is a vocation, the call, their expectations and hopes for the future.

With the community of adults it was an experience which touched me intensely in that it made me feel the confidence they have put in us RSHM and this made me feel the responsibility of faithfulness, in leaving seeds of hope and life...

In the community of Lagoa, it was an opportunity in the meeting with the youth to see again the desire, the hunger for human words and testimonies, which gave them a new meaning in their lives, which called them to live in a harmony with Jesus and a daily learning of the values of the world versus christian values and their challenges.

Also, I want to speak to you of the experience of the Pastoral de Rua where weekly I met with a group of homeless people where all is ‘possible’ with nothing! A work to discover continuously another face of Christ and humanity.

The Pastoral da Criança in the Vila do Cafezal is an experience of ‘let the children come to me’ a time of welcome, embrace, weigh, play feed and ‘love as Jesus loved’! A basic work, done with deep pleasure, to bear fruit in future, in a promise of "more life".

Until the next time!

Rosa Armanda Gonçalves