27 Mar WELCOME AND PEACE FOR UKRAINE/BURGOS
On Sunday, March 20, the Campolara School welcomed a group of 54 refugees from Ukraine and 25 volunteers whose goal was to accompany these persons to Portugal.
The school asked us if we could collaborate with them. The decision of the Sisters was unanimous: yes, we want to contribute our “bread” and “fish” to that basket of love and welcome.
We prepared every available room and even put mattresses into some reception rooms so that they would all have beds to rest and replenish their strength to continue on.
They arrived after many stops along the way and after having undergone many hardships. In their faces we could see exhaustion, fear, suspicion… but through smiles, tender gestures and the language of kindness, translated into a hug, in most cases these women’s faces began to change and they started to smile and say timidly “dykuyu” (thank you), and the children who had been clinging to their mothers’ hands let go and began to to run and play with the other children. We were witnesses of this miracle, the fruit of the generosity of many with whom we felt so completely united, forming part of this chain of human solidarity.
On Monday before they started out again on the journey, we celebrated the daily Eucharist, the bread of Life that strengthens and humanizes. It was the confirmation that the life that springs from the Heart of God continues to generate encounter, communion, life of the Church and paths of solidarity that approach us and make us more fraternal.
We have given many thanks for this gift; now when we pray for peace, that peace is engraved with faces, experiences and the great desire that life will go well for these persons, and that they will be able to recover as soon as possible, everything that they lost along the way.
Elvira Santamaria, aci
We attach HERE the testimony of one of the volunteers from the school, published in the local newspaper.
