On the 18th of September, a day after the 2014 Provincials Assembly closed, the majority of provincials made a visit to the concentration camps of Auschwitz. The memories, the stories and the faces we saw and felt there focused our eyes, our hearts and our minds once more on the wound to humanity that is still opened: the wounds of the side, the feet and the hands of Jesus, still open in our world today.
Auschwitz filled us with silent screams, terrified faces, weary, pleading hands, resigned sobs, hunger, fatigue, the acrid ashes of women, children and men. We were made aware once more of the depth of the wound in humanity, of each person, of each people. The wound of suffering and the wound of evil.
After touching these wounds we are once again invited to believe, to believe more than ever that
Lord, You who seek out the poor, You who listen to the cry of those who suffer, You who reach out to the sick…. Look upon the suffering in our world, listen to your children who have no-one to help them, touch the wounds of Creation. Send us out to show your tenderness and compassion.
Here is a video of the Visit to Auschwitz. Thank you to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum (www.auschwitz.org) for permission to include in this video the photos of sites and memorabilia that we took during our visit.
Section |International News
Our Spirituality |Reflections from Around the World
Tags |Provincials Assembly
