“Al aire de su Aire”
With this expression, “al aire de su aire” we were encouraged to tour Seville on the second day of the pilgrimage. Although the pilgrimage experience began earlier in Coria.
To go on pilgrimage is to visit a sacred place, to walk… This we have experienced on the 12th, 13th and 14th of July in Coria, Seville and Malaga. We wanted to walk wearing the shoes of our Founders. We wanted to put ourselves “al aire de su aire”.
On our first day in Coria we were invited to enter into our origins to discover, to be reborn: a return to the first house next to the well and the vine, praying in the Chapel of the Relics in the Cathedral – so beloved for being the place of the foundation – and finally after the opening words of Rosario addressed to us we had the Eucharist in the chapel of San Benito, the place of prayer of the first Handmaids. These are sacred places, charged with the sacred air… the breath of God. We wanted to put on the shoes of our Founders. We wanted to live these days “al aire de su aire”.
Coria took us to Seville spending the night in Sanlucar. Seville welcomed us and allowed us to explore its city following the places that referred to Marcelo and Celia. This is the city that saw them live and welcomed them in their deaths. We walked through places such as the Plaza del Triunfo with its monument dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, the Archbishop’s Palace, the tomb of Marcelo Spinola in the Cathedral and that of Celia Mendez in the school. We celebrated the Eucharist in the Church – so beloved for being the place that our founders stepped in and dreamed of. Again, these are places charged with the sacred air… “al aire de Dios”.
And Malaga. Malaga with its Archbishop’s Palace, with its Cathedral, with its corners dedicated to Spinola and of course, with the house in Beatas Street, the first house where the Congregation found a seat and continued dreaming “al aire de Dios”
These three days have invited us to enter into our roots, to go through reality, to walk and listen with our feet on the ground. We have stepped on sacred places to thank and take off our shoes. Sacred places to enter into a dynamic to be always “al aire de su Aire, al aire de Dios”.
Sandra Sánchez Montero, adc