During the months of November and December 2023, the Hospitaller Sisters made family visits to the communities and hospital centers in Europe. The visit began in England, continued in Spain and culminated in Portugal, where we had the opportunity to celebrate the joyous Christmas festivities and inaugurate the year 2024.
Following the guidance of our Superior General, Sr. Anabela Carneiro, who said: “May this time be one of encounter and grace, of help and of searching together for what the Lord wants for our life and mission”, we approached each meeting with a spirit of openness and reflection. In this context, we recall the words of the Synodal Assembly in the “Synthesis Report” on consecrated life: “The charismatic dimension of the Church has a particular manifestation in the consecrated life, with the richness and variety of its forms. Its witness has always contributed to renewing the life of the ecclesial community, revealing itself as an antidote to the frequent temptation to worldliness […]. Consecrated life has more than once been the first to sense the changes of history and to welcome the calls of the Spirit: today too the Church needs their prophecy” (cf. XVI General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Synthesis Report, Rome 10/2023, 10b).
These visits not only strengthened our bonds as a hospitaller family, but also reminded us of the essence of our vocation: to be bearers of hope and love in a world that often needs both.
As we affirm in our Chapter motto, we seek to be, by our simple and dedicated lives, “prophetic signs of hope and of God’s closeness to suffering humanity.”
