In Caravaca de la Cruz (Murcia. Spain) there is a fragment of the Cross where Jesus died, for this reason St. John Paul II granted this town to celebrate every seven years, a jubilee year in perpetuity. This year 2024 we are living this year, in which many people and groups from all over Spain and abroad come on pilgrimage to win the jubilee, to meet the Lord through the Cross.
October 5th was the day chosen to convene the members of the consecrated life of the Diocese of Cartagena-Murcia. With many concerns, some religious began to prepare this meeting, with a first meeting in Mula (Murcia) on June 22, among them the President of the CONFER of Murcia Brother Martin Cuenca, of the Hospitaller Order of San Juan de Dios who was very excited that this jubilee would take place.
After a first motivation, we let the summer pass in order to convene and invite to participate in the jubilee in Caravaca and at the beginning of the school year, send the registration forms, when on July 24th we received the news that Brother Martin died. He from heaven has continued to help us, support us and intercede because the day was very nice.
The preparations continued and the expected Saturday has already arrived. Some came by bus, others in their cars. We gathered at the Parish of El Salvador to begin the pilgrimage with the Jubilee Season and together with other groups from other parishes and other places in Spain, as the Delegate for Consecrated Life of the Diocese of Cartagena-Murcia, Don Javier Crespo, said later in the homily: All the members of the People of God were represented: The, who represented the Lord Bishop, priests, deacon, religious, men and women religious and lay people. We walked up - those who could not walk up, they took them by car - to the Basilica of the True Cross, with songs and carrying the banners with the name of each religious Institute. There were about 15 religious families in total. We are glad to meet and to be able to share this day with the seven sisters of the Community of Espinardo (Murcia). At 12 o'clock the Eucharist began. The liturgy and the songs were prepared with care. In the offertory we were able to offer all the congregations with Christ to the Father, reflected in each of the banners we had prepared.
We had lunch together and after this, we had a time to share, through a dynamic, the name of our Institutes, the name of our founders, our charism and spirituality.
How beautiful it was to share the faith, the various communities of consecrated life of Cartagena-Murcia!
We have enjoyed and have been filled with joy this meeting. We have gotten to know each other more and we have remained with the desire for future meetings. We note that the Lord is always with us, he comforts us, he cares for us and we hope that he will call young people to follow him in the consecrated life as well.
We thank God and all the people who made this blessed day possible! The experience of this day, the meeting of the Lord through the Cross of Caravaca, was a gift!