Cochabamba

The community of Cochabamba has existed for 32 years in a poor area on the edge of town. It is populated by those people who have come in from the country in search of a better life.

This area stretches over several hills and our house sits on the side of the hill called « Alto (high) Cochabamba ».

Bit by bit, these different hills have been occupied by many people and naturally over the years electricity and water services have improved - but in the highest zones, in order to have water, families have to pay for it to be transported in tank lorries and often many of them go without water because the cost of transportation is too much.

In the areas close to Avenue Suecia are found many very comfortable houses and some indeed are real villas, but there also many more modest homes and poor ones as well.

All along this sector of town, the Community contributes to the parish pastoral care as well as social, education and health issues, responding to the needs of the people who live here.

In this reality, we, Jobanca Heredia, Mercedes Orellana, Teresa Salinas, Marisol Villafane, and Maria Eugenia Vivanco, wish to be faithful to the Spirituality of the Incarnation, living simply yet close to the people, and accompanying groups and others in their joys and sufferings.

This experience invites us to share our lives, search with and walk alongside these people who are full of hope, faith and dignity.

We are trying to discover that other different people can reveal to us the presence of God by their deep faith and trust in Him.

We are facing the following challenge : What is the meaning today of the Incarnation in this reality ? What would Fr. Louis Marie Baudoin tell us about our way of living the Spirituality of the Incarnation. How do we recreate, discover creatively, the consequences and demands of the Incarnation ?

Jesus is our teacher in His love and in His spirit of devotion towards His Father, in His love of men, in his meeting with Zacchaus, the Samaritan woman, the man born blind…

This spirituality, leads us to recognise the presence of God in everything and everyone, in the history of humanity which leads us along the road to His Kingdom .

You can see Desde Cochabamba-Bolivia y hace ya 35 años… « La Palabra es lugar de encuentro en cada rostro humano »

San Ignacio de Moxos

We arrived in San Ignacio de Moxos in Bolivia 33 years ago. We felt called to this place to be a witness to God’s love and a presence to the 70% of indigenous people.

The parish community was founded by the Jesuits 334 years ago and is made up of indigenous converts.

The people of the village adhere to their traditions of organisation, culture, language, folklore and the spirituality which was handed down to them by the first Jesuits. That is why to this day the place is called “Jesuit Spirituality Capital” and “Folkloric Capital of Beni.
Throughout the village, great importance is attached to religion, not as the popular religion but of something much deeper.

For example preparation for Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Christmas are given much time and great care. The divine is present in everything and inspires and guides our lives. Even the very least are imbued with great wisdom and are a tremendous witness to all by their way of life. The “Santos varones (Confraternity of honourable men) is chosen from among the ordinary citizens and they have a special role to play. In order to belong to this confraternity they have to be properly married, devoted to the service of others and of great personal goodness. If they do not show these virtues they are not deemed worthy to be Eucharistic Ministers in the parish.

This 70% of indigenous people are said to be the true followers of Jesus and all the others are known as whites..

When we arrived here, this village numbered 3,500 inhabitants, indigenous and “Carellana“. Today there are 18,000 inhabitants and this number tends to grow because it is a meeting point when travelling between La Paz, Santa Cruz and Pando. There is a great mix of cultures made up of : Quechona, Aymare, Oriental… With this growing population and mix of cultures we are called to change our outlook.

New sects have arrived and tried to integrate but have been obliged to depart because they could not fit in. Others have stayed and tried to water down the beliefs of the people in the village. We wonder how long San Ignacio will continue to be called the “Spiritual Capital”.

And as Ursulines, we are here as an Incarnational presence, living in simplicity, giving of ourselves to the service of love, knowing above all that the poor are aware that we are there for them, that they can count on us and that we are available for them. We too, know that we can count on them and that we are evangelised by them. We believe that is what the Incarnation is all about.

We do not as yet have a formal group of the Family of the Incarnation, but several groups exist with whom we have close links : Bible study groups, Base community groups with whom we share our Charism and our way of life. With some others we have different ways of sharing and communicating. For the 25th March we have a celebration of the Incarnation and it is here that the people get a deeper insight into the way we live.

We continue to discuss the topic of forming a group of the Family of the Incarnation. Why have we not done so ? Perhaps our preoccupation is to enter more fully into the spirituality of the people we live with. For us the Incarnation is the giving of ourselves for love and that is what we wish to live.