50 years of Crossings of many “yes”, “no”, “maybe” of many developments, setbacks, failures and victories!
Today, as I stop to reread, review, THANK, praise, acknowledge and re-start, I feel that in fact these were the verbs that made me move up here!
On October 24, 1948, in Joaçaba, Santa Catarina, I was born, giving a man and a woman the most sublime names on earth: father and mother! After me, six more daughters and a son came to enjoy the blessing of a holy and beloved family.
At Baptism, my godmother and maternal grandmother gave me the name Dominga. A prophecy? A guess? For “Dominga” means “of the Lord, who belongs to the Lord.” And that was what happened on January 21, 1970, in Garibaldi, Rio Grande do Sul a state of Brazil. My parents, despite their poverty, decided to sacrifice and offer their eldest daughter to God and follow a religious way of life in the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambery, though she was ready to help them in their work and take care of the other siblings. My parents never regretted that they offered me for God and His people.
The mission
What captivated me in the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph (present in southern Brazil since 1896) was the missionary zeal and THE PURPOSE: to unite people with each other, with God, being at the service of the poorest, through the practice of works of mercy for spiritual and physical development: A huge and extensive mission.
God took this consecration seriously, because a month later, in February 1970, I started a great missionary journey, from the South to the Northeast of Brazil ... prefiguring many, many others. Long or short “crossings”, geographical, psychological, cultural, affective, theological, pastoral crossings. In Brazil (Maranhão, Bahia, Pará) and in other countries (France and Sweden)! My God, there were many crossings! And sometimes several at the same time! The geographic ones were not the most difficult!
The first mission was difficult but the youthful energies helped me to face the challenges of Municipality of Mirador, Southern State of Maranhão. I had to travel for a week in precarious buses to get there. Maranhão is more than 4 thousand kilometres away from the southern communities and my family. The only means of communication was the post office. It used to take 4 months for a letter to come and go. I used to sleep in a hammock and went for a family visit once in 3 years. (It is difficult to imagine this reality today, in 2020)
Lots of blessings
What blessings! Gradually I understood the meaning of people calling me "sister". In fact, that was how the people accepted and welcomed us. We make a big family. "Uniting people with each other and with God became concrete: groups of young people, families, women, children, hundreds of people in each group. People were thirsty for words of faith and hope, full of Christian enthusiasm, even in the precarious conditions of life.
With a focus on the Jesus Project, I collaborated in Christian, social, methodological formation and legal orientation of hundreds of groups, associations and cooperatives such as families, youth, women, landless, small farmers, fishermen, migrants, refugees and animators of the Basic Christian communities. I had the grace to contribute to the formation of young sisters, in the projects of Spirituality and Integration of the Brazilian Provinces.
Thanksgiving
It is difficult to list the hundreds and thousands of people who, thanks to my vocation in the Congregation, have been helped in the growth of their faith, in living the Word of God, in the awareness of their dignity and the rights and means to a dignified life.
Though it was my personal effort, the Congregation has always provided me with professional, technical, spiritual, Biblical and theological training to help people well. (Faculty of Social Work, specializations in Social and Pastoral Methodology, Social Doctrine of the Church, Spirituality and Bible).
Since April 2016, I am again in France responding to a new missionary call from the Congregation. My presence and support in the Albertvile community has helped in evangelizing and mission of communion of the neighbourhood, families, schools, migrants, in pastoral groups and movements. I collaborate in promoting the life in mission at all stages of life of the France-Belgium Province.
Many \�stones\� made me stumble, fall, almost deviate from the \�path\� due to activism, lack of a praying community, \�loneliness-in-the-void\�, psycho-affective-emotional fragility, passionate tempters, constant appeals to change jobs, city, community.
Everything is God\�s work!
In spite of everything ... I am celebrating 50 years of Consecrated life in the Congregation. In my journey of life, when I sat on a \�stone\� on the edge of the \�road of life\� without the courage to retreat and without hope to move forward, there was no shortage of “pilgrims” who made their way with me, taking me to their \�homes\�, sharing the Bread of the Word, of the Eucharist and of experience, helping me to resume my journey with a new zeal. The “Road to Emmaus”
