Letter of June 2024

THE CELEBRATION OF THE END OF ANOTHER STAGE

Dear friends.

The most important events in our lives need to be celebrated. Each makes visible what we carry within, what we feel and what we want to share, so these feelings do not just remain within us. This innate sense of celebration in human beings takes us out of the routine of everyday life and makes us think about everything that truly matters in our lives. We reserve special dates to highlight them in different ways, so there is a sense they are truly special.

From this sense, we have become accustomed to celebrating successes and important moments. We celebrate personal moments, those of the people we love, and community moments. Also, in a deeper sense, we recognize and remember things that are marked and continue to mark our lives. In this spirit of “celebration,” there are also sad moments that have a space for gratitude and remembrance.

From a Christian perspective, all the above, have a connotation of transcendence that our faith provides. It gives us the certainty that, on each day of our life and in each celebration, Jesus is a source of eternal life. He is present, instilling strength in us and filling us with joy, admiration, and gratitude for the gifts we have received. The first of these miracles is life itself.

In a few days, starting on July 15th, we will experience a week of celebration in which many of these reasons for gratitude will converge.

We will hold the XIII International Meeting of our movement during which we will celebrate living the reality of the gift of TEAMS OF OUR LADY. It is the gift of spiritual heritage left to us by our founder, Father Henri Caffarel, whose prophetic and timeless thinking is alive among us as we mark 85 years since the first team meeting. We celebrate the universality achieved by his life’s work, evident in the nearly 8,000 people who will gather and who represent more than 160,000 team members, couples and spiritual counsellors from around the world. This event occurs every six years and it will also be a milestone in the journey, where we can renew our sense of identity, and discern the role we have today as Christian couples in the home, in the family, in the church, and in the world. We will have the privilege of listening to five presentations from first-rate speakers, accompanied by personal testimonies, Eucharistic celebrations, and the exchange of ideas that will take place at the end of the day. There will also be different recreational activities and spiritual tours of Turin, the city that hosts us, during the afternoons.

It will also be a special moment of celebration at the end of this meeting, when our term of responsibility concludes. We have carried out this work as international leaders of the movement, since the 2018 International Gathering in Fatima. We are grateful for the unconditional friendship of our spiritual counsellor, Father Ricardo Londoño, and for the entire international responsible team that has accompanied us. At that special moment, we will pass the baton of responsibility to a new team, led by our colleagues and soul mates, Mercedes Gómez-Ferrer and Alberto Pérez Bueno. They will lead the movement along a path that they will announce during the transition of service ceremony.

There are many emotions that this celebration evokes in us. The first is an immense sense of gratitude to the Lord for having been first-hand witnesses of the promise that came to life in us six years ago. It led us to accept this immeasurable service, despite our frailties, through a virtue of abandonment, in total union with God and in conformity with His will. We refer to the promise expressed in Isaiah 41:10, “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

Today before God, we can express to you from the depths of our being, that this period of service has been for us a continuous epiphany. During this time, the Lord has revealed Himself to us in every circumstance we experienced throughout these six years, even in the most dire moments that tested our faith, such as the pandemic.

We do not have sufficient words to express our gratitude to each of the companions of the responsible team, who in the transformation that shared service from faith elicits, went from circumstantial companions to spiritual brothers and sisters with whom we share an everlasting affection. Thank you, Father Ricardo or simply Ricardo, Paola and Giovanni, Mariola and Elizeu, Mercedes and Alberto, Bernadette and Sylvestre, Thérèse and Antoine, and Faye and Kevin, for being part of this journey and our life. In addition, we offer our thanks to Hermelinda and Arturo, Dora and João, and Marcia and Paulo, who were part of this journey at one point, but due to exceptional circumstances, could not continue by our side.

To the international college, to all the couples and priests who with benevolence welcomed our successes and downplayed our failures, we offer our unconditional affection.

There is not in us, we say from the heart, an ounce of nostalgia. We did not exercise our service clinging to a responsibility over those we serve. On the contrary, what we feel is an immense happiness to have come this far with the full awareness of having given everything and to be able to confirm that TEAMS OF OUR LADY is not merely a human work. It is a gift from God that uses us as humble instruments to nourish, preserve, and move forward to face the challenges and changing realities that each period of responsibility entails.

Forever from wherever we are and in the service to which the owner of life calls us,