With the theme, "Caring, the Love and Pain of the Consecrated", the 5^th Congress of the Ancora Center was held September 6 and 7, 2019, in the parish hall of Santo Antônio de Orleans, in Curitiba, PR, bringing together 500 participants. The Ancora Center is a house of welcome, specially built to support priests and religious who come with spiritual suffering. Nineteen Sisters of St. Joseph were present in this productive time of ongoing formation. The speakers were, Father Ronaldo Zacarias, Dr. Tatiane M. Cunha, Father Amedeo Cencini and Father Matthias J. A. Ham.

“We are a little boat in the great sea that is God.”

What we have seen, heard and experienced in these two days has allowed us to say that we are grateful to God and our Province/Congregation for this opportunity and grace offered to us. As the director of the Ancora Center says, we are a boat in the great sea that is God. In this sea, we face storms and strong winds that threaten and damage our little boat. And sometimes, it is necessary to return to land for the repairs needed in order to continue advancing to the deepest waters and to examine our apostolic and missionary action.

Father Amedeo Cencini gradually helped us understand how, in relationships, we sometimes project ourselves into the center of things. The center belongs to God. We are not the center of the lives of the people, the community, and the people with whom we are on mission. Celibacy allows us to be free to accept the pain of the other and act with mercy, allowing the other to come out of the meeting with us relieved, a little more animated.

We are called to love God with a human heart and to love people with the divine heart.

Participating Sisters