Looking to Jesus and looking with Jesus’ eyes

Yesterday, 1st February, the eve of the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, the sisters of the community of Calandrelli had the opportunity to participate in the “Vigil of Light”, organised by the Church of Santiago and Santa Maria de Montserrat de los Españoles in Rome, addressed to all consecrated Spanish-speaking (and not only) men and women who live in this beautiful city.

It was a moment of encounter and prayer, where Cardinal José Cobo Cano, Archbishop of Madrid, who will take possession of the title of Santa María de Montserrat de los Españoles, next Sunday 4th February, invited us to pray with the biblical text Lk 2, 21-40. The celebration also included a performance by the musical chapel of the Spanish National Church.

Don José Cobo reminded us that consecrated Life has the gift of teaching us another beauty and that we must not forget three words: offering, giving thanks and the offering of the poor. The look is the key, only a look with the eyes of the poor teaches us to look in a different way. Let’s remember that society needs us to teach it to look at God.

The examples, Simeon and Anna. Simeon gives the key, Jesus can be held in our arms and he allows himself to be held. We must embrace Jesus and not other things. To take the littleness of Jesus and embrace him. Our path of renewal is to embrace Jesus. Simeon adjusts his life to the rhythm of God and not vice versa. He is a man of faith, not of a faith where everything is already accomplished, but a man of the faith of the seeds,… of the little by little. He is able to see what many don’t see. What do your eyes see on a daily basis?

And the prophetess Anna, in her mourning, can only be near the temple, the place of God and where the people gather. Anna is always at the meeting place… How many Annas are there in the world? Always close to the Lord.

Facing the darkness of our world, let us risk and tell the beauty of our life. Announce what God is doing in us. The future is built by embracing what we have.

Embrace your life as a Claretian Missionary Sister and give thanks for it!

Beatriz Mª Pereiro