27 May the eucharist connects us on the feast day of saint raphaela/spain
We share the testimonies of a family and a teacher about the “virtual” celebration of the Feast of Saint Raphaela.
There are many more of us!
This year, as every 18th of May, we have celebrated a beautiful Eucharist, in which we have participated from different places in Spain, families, sisters, teachers, students from different schools… each one from our home, becoming a small Church and in each one of them, a small community.
We prepared everything in detail to live a unique Eucharist, all as a family as we always do, we lit a candle, we placed an image of Saint Raphaela and all together we sat nervously looking at the clock and wishing it would start. At home we lived it as a great event and very excited. The Eucharist began and from the first moment, with the entrance words and the songs, we moved to the school Eucharist that we had experienced in previous years, with the difference that now, as I said before, the Church has moved to the hall of our house.
When we look at the side of the screen, we see in the chat room that there are thousands of people connected and gathered around this celebration, we could never have imagined it, there are not four of us in my room, there are many people united in this Eucharist! This makes us feel part of a great family that Saint Raphaela began and that continues to grow thanks to the work of many people who are committed to her, her values, and her Pedagogy of the Heart. We see that we are not the only ones who love her, that there are many of us who joyfully waited for her day and we have united today to celebrate it.
Mateos Orozco Family from the School of Jerez de la Frontera
We are part of that universal heart, which Saint Raphaela dreamed of!
Today, May 18th, we are not here just for nothing, but because the example and the voice of the foundresses, especially Raphaela, sustains and pushes us. It gives us light and clarity.
In spite of not being able to move, there is a journey for which we do not need physical fuel, nor pay a ticket, nor take public or private transport. It is the invisible journey. A movement that cannot be seen, but which can be appreciated: that of affection, of commitment, of cosolation, of fraternity. The virtual community is precisely the reflection of this journey, supported by the hands of Saint Raphaela and her message.
Together we have been able to share colour, desires, and also sadness and pain for those who suffer and have suffered most from this illness. For some students it was their first celebration of Saint Raphaela’s day, for others it was their last, special and different one. Perhaps they longed for touch, for an embrace, for the closest contagion of emotion?
We have been able, in the small, to create something great. We have seen faces that we would never have seen, heard unknown voices, we have looked into eyes that we had never looked into before, but the most important thing is that we have learned that beyond the name itself or the place of origin, and even the date, we are part of that Universal Heart of the Institute that Saint Raphaela wanted to dream of.
Alberto Rodríguez de Ramos, teacher at the Martínez Campos School, Madrid
