The 2024 XXVI General Chapter of our congregation recognized “forgiveness as an essential step in getting rid of past resentments and historical divisions, and as a key experience in religious life that affects our relationship with God and with each other in community, and encouraged each sister to open her heart to actively cooperate with God’s grace to make healing and forgiveness possible.” In response to this call, a workshop/retreat in this spirit was organized at the Generalate in Rome.
From July 7-21, 2025, 28 participants came from all over the world: 7 from the Krakow Province, 6 from the Warsaw Province, 4 from Belarus, 3 each from the Philippines and the Western European Province, 2 from Ukraine, and one each from Ghana, Australia and the USA. Two Dominican Fathers, Tomasz Gaj and Lukasz Kubiak, led a formation class on the topic: “Forgiveness, reconciliation, healing – the desire of every heart.” They explained the theme: “The retreat and workshop will be an introduction to the process of forgiveness, reconciliation and healing that everyone needs at some stage of life. It takes a lot of courage and trust to discover and expose to ourselves, God and others what is fragile and vulnerable in us. As humans, we are inevitably wounded and hurt others. Forgiveness, reconciliation and healing is the process by which we are to ‘touch our wounds’ so that we can enjoy our vocation anew and set out with greater freedom on the mission to which God is calling us.”
The meeting consisted of two parts: a four-day workshop and a seven-day retreat, along with the opportunity for individual conversation with the Fathers. The schedule included three days off, which the sisters used for pilgrimage, prayer, sightseeing and rest. They had the opportunity for the Jubilee Passage through the Holy Door, an organized trip to Loreto to the House of the Blessed Virgin Mary, visiting Roman basilicas, walking in the footsteps of our Mother Foundress, among others, visiting our Motherhouse in via Machiavelli. There was also the Angelus with Holy Father Leo XIV in Castel Gandolfo, experiencing Franciscan simplicity in Assisi and admiring the azure Tyrrhenian Sea.
We hope that the process initiated will be a good opportunity for the Sisters to continue their spiritual development.
