2023-10-31 16:31:44
Fabro Program benefits Acodesi – Fe y Alegría 2023
Every time we meet to talk regarding the foundations of our Educational Proposal we begin by expressing our fundamental budget: the source of inspiration for the mission of our schools is the experience of the Spiritual Exercises. For this reason, during Holy Week in Manizales and during the School Recess Week in Bucaramanga (October), 106 teachers from ACODESI and Fe y Alegría schools were delving deeper into their inner lives and experiencing the strength of God’s love that animates our life and our vocation.
Thanks to the support of the Fabro Project of the Conference of Provincials of Latin America, the contribution of the Colombian Province and the support of Acodesi and Fe y Alegría, we were able to once once more offer our teachers the possibility of living the 8-day experience of the Spiritual Exercises . Our purpose is re-create the culture and motivation in schools so that our apostolic companions can know in depth Spirituality and Ignatian pedagogy from its source.
Without a doubt it was a moment of grace for all the participants and for the educational apostolate of the Province. The experience included personalized support and the retreatants had the opportunity to live the process of the 4 weeks of the Exercises during the 8 days. We share the testimonies of some teachers and companions who participated in the experience:
“The experience of Spiritual Exercises in the house of Villa Asunción-Bucaramanga was a time of grace in which I was able to rest the body, feed the spirit, cultivate interiority, read God’s action in my own life, know Christ more, organize the affections, live the joy of the encounter, contemplate the beauty of creation, embrace the mission more consciously and plan the action better. It was an experience of integral growth. Thank you Proyecto Fabro of the CPAL, Province, ACODESI and Colegio San Ignacio for this opportunity” (Leonardo Marulanda – Colegio San Ignacio).
“My heart has been fascinated by this experience, thanks to it I was able to feel and taste God deeply, I was able to feel very strongly his love, his presence and his intention to constantly connect with me and with men. I felt that this experience It brought me out of a spiritual stagnation I had fallen into., learning contemplation allowed me to take a step forward and recognize the mystical connection of the great saints with God; In short, he quenched my thirst for the inexplicable and rekindled my thirst for transcendence. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the assertiveness and closeness of the support provided by the team prepared for it” (Diego Ortegón – Fe y Alegría).
“Letting ourselves be reached by love, allowing love to fill every space of our being and responding to its presence with the same action that inspires us in our lives, this is accept the gift of the God of love, which becomes visible in the silence that Saint Ignatius experienced and shares with us in each Spiritual Exercise to which we open ourselves. Thank you all, Jesuits and lay collaborators” (Luz Estella Díaz – Colegio San Bartolomé La Merced)
“Living the experience of being a companion in these exercises was walking hand in hand with Jesus, listening with the love that welcomes, that clothes, that is light, giving myself to listening to him. One of the most inviting motions in my life as an exercitant was fulfilled this week: And it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2, 20). Some generous people in their sharing invited me with their dedication to bring me as fruit the joy of serving and to continue demanding the grace of ‘greater internal knowledge of the Lord, who for me has become man, so that I may love him more and follow him’ [EE. 104]. Thank you, thank you, thank you” (Luz Piedad Rodríguez – Companion)
“I felt great consolation with the experience of the Holy Week Spiritual Exercises. Everything “conspired” to live these Spiritual Exercises with depth and harmony: the openness, availability, diversity and docility of the exercitants, the prayers of the four stages of the EE and their coordination with the Holy Week celebrations, the team of companions and the staff of the Exercise house. In addition to the opportunity to share with Acodesi and Fe y Alegría, from the source, Ignatian spirituality. I thank God for allowing me to live such a wonderful experience” (Sol Beatriz Bedoya – Companion).
We hope that the effects of the Risen Lord will be felt in our educational communities through the experience of these companions who opened themselves to the experience of God in the Spiritual Exercises. We reiterate our gratitude to everyone who made this experience possible.
P. Rodolfo Edward Abello R., SJ
Education Assistant and President of ACODESI
Province of Colombia
1698832614
#Acodesi #Spiritual #Exercises #Alegría
