Catalonia

After arriving in Perpignan, and making a stop in French Catalonia to meet some of the members of the Perpignan group, and to pray - with difficulty - in the cathedral, we made our way across to Andorra. On the way, the Canalettes caves, with a magnificent sound and light show followed by lunch in the walled town of Villefranche de Conflent, allowed us to begin this journey into our depths and to also enter our own inner fortified cities, and penetrate through our walls. The tone was set. 

Andorra, a tax haven with seven villages, with its government inherited from a distant past, its shops and valleys, allowed us, by the grace of the three keys, to unearth what can be dark and sordid when money reigns.  

This principality is under the protection of the Virgin of Meritxell. The prayers at the Virgin’s shrine, the encounter with the priest who looks after it, as well as prayers shared with a young priest who leads his parish with love and faith, managed to soothe the hardness felt on these lands.

Fortunately, the love between us, the discovery of all these pilgrims coming from all over the world to offer their time, to unite their forces, to participate in the safeguarding of a Europe that is so divided and in great danger, gave us the strength to bring a great deal of gentleness into  all these complexities of the human soul.

The beauty of the landscapes, the delicious meals, brought joy to what we were feeling.

Then it was Catalonia, Spain, the splendid cathedral of Tarragona, the discovery of this very ancient place, the sharing of prayers with the city' s inhabitants, and finally, our arrival in Barcelona, cheerful and festive, and the beautiful, turbulent, deep sea. All the prayers offered for these lands, the Vibrations at the foot of the Parliament, all the work at the Miro museum, around the city, these encounters with the Catalan soul were very powerful.

A morning at the monastery of Montserrat, with our intense prayers at the Black Virgin's feet, the torrential rains at the sanctuary, as well as the vibrations at the foot of a dolmen, made us believe in this liberation that we were also experiencing in our two buses.

Then came the beaches, like Palamos, and  the discovery of the beauty of Cadaquès. We continued to share testimonies on these magnificent roads, which led us to the heart of our souls, our sufferings, and our victories over ourselves.

The last meal in Collioure , with the very strong prayers in the church of St Mary of the Angels, which protects the part of South America that came to support us, was filled with shared joy. It was so beautiful.

For me, this inner pilgrimage, to little-known lands - for my part - will have been the discovery of how we can be worthy, loving, how we can manage to be fair, after all these struggles that I hope belong to the past, these wars built on lies, or misunderstandings, also madness, nourished  by exacerbations, exaggerations. 

All this is due to our pasts, which make us project false things onto each other,  these  shadows from our pasts, which make us believe or hear illusions about each other.

In order to calm down the fratricidal wars, to stop them, I set out  to decipher with honesty all the events that I experienced during this pilgrimage, this inner journey, everything that resonated with what each land crossed, each person I met, triggered in me. Letting go of our sufferings from the past, with honesty, naturally allows us to live the present better, and to develop a vigilance in ourselves, which will no longer be one of mistrust, for my part. It is mistrust that creates divisions between us, and then oppositions; vigilance, on the other hand, no longer prevents us from being in the joy of discovering the beauty of life lived in peace with ourselves and with others.

This land of Catalonia will also have been an opportunity for me to express myself, to live truthfully, often silently, with as much gentleness and delicacy as possible, my relationship with others and my dignity in God .

Life is so beautiful when the grace of forgiveness gradually leads to reconciliation, even if this reconciliation is only  silent at first. 

Thank you to the organisers of this event, and also for the example of love shared in the work we experienced with the house of Saint Mary Magdalene, which happens to be my patron saint, my first name being a diminutive of hers.

Maud (Blue group, France)