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Dolores Aleixandre rscj at the "Centro Residencial"
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Scenes from the "Centro Residencial Jubileo 2000
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At a meeting of RSCJ in my Province in November 2003, I heard someone ask: ?Have you seen the letter from Caritas
in ?INFORMA? (the Provincial Newsletter) asking for an RSCJ to live
with the homeless?? I felt something stir within me, and when I went
home to my community I read the project:
?Jubilee 2000 Residential Centre?: a
hostel for people in need of a home, on account of the circumstances of
their lives and of not being welcome in our society. They need
somewhere to start a new life, be born again and begin to form part of
this society.
There are 60 units for the
homeless where they can stay for anything between 6 months and two
years, cared for by professional staff (5 social workers and educators)
who will help them to integrate into society and into the workforce.
Besides the volunteers who come during the day, there will also be an
inter-congregational ?life group? (4 sisters) who will live and sleep
there as ?neighbours of our neighbours?, although they have their own
community within their Congregation.
An rscj is needed:
- With the right disposition and talents for living together;
- With initiative and skills in conflict resolution;
- With the ability to work in a team;
- With experience and/or sensitivity in the ?social? area;
- With flexibility and the capacity to adapt to various tasks and functions.
I felt that this project corresponded deeply with the best of my desires, namely:
- to follow Jesus more closely in his poverty, and be in tune with his preferences
- to
take early retirement from my work at the University of Comillas, since
I hardly have time to attend to anything else: I often feel that I have
already said and written a lot, and now here was a chance to do something,
to ?put the Bible into practice?. The project does not entail leaving
Comillas altogether, nor my other activities (courses, writing?) but
from another ?address? and with a different rhythm.
- to be able to take part in an inter-congregational
project, because I think Religious Life will be very much along these
lines in the future, and I feel I have what it takes to try.
I began a discernment with my
Provincial; we saw that it seemed to come from the Lord, so I lived
through Advent and Christmas with the secret joy of someone who has
found a treasure. It was hard to say goodbye to the community, which
was closing in July, but I had to go to my new abode on March 1st.
Since
then we four sisters: Pepa Garrido, a Crusader Missionary of the
Church; Elena Cerdeiras, IBVM; Ermina, Javeriana and I, have been
living in a unit forming part of a recently opened 7-storey block, in
which the 60 units open onto an inner courtyard, of the ?corrala? type.
We live and pray together, and are happy and united as we look at the
important mission that lies ahead of us.
The neighbours
have been arriving: in general migrant families, or Spanish people with
children, single mothers, three Romanians who have had limbs amputated
as a result of the attack on March 11th?
Our
part is to welcome, form a web of relationships, listen a great deal,
accompany?It is a special experience to be able to walk a stretch of
the road with people who live in precarious situations, yet fill us
with admiration at their energy, their resilience, their capacity for
hope? We know we can?t smooth their troubles away for them, but at
least we can be present to people in extreme situations so that they
don?t feel abandoned to their misfortune. As García Roca says, ?to act
on reality and change it, even in the smallest degree, is the only way
to bring home to ourselves that reality can be transformed??
If anyone is interested, we are at Cerro de la Plata 8, 1° AB. 28007 Madrid. (Metro station Pacifico).
Dolores Aleixandre rscj
Province of Spain Center South |
