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14 June 2024

ITALY: RETREAT FOR DISCALCED CARMELITES

From 8 to 13 April, some 50 OCD Religious from the Provinces of Venice, Liguria and Central Italy and the Commissariats of Lombardy and Sicily, spent a week on Retreat at the “Santa Croce” Monastery of Bocca di Magra.

The theme chosen for the Retreat was “The Dark Night”. Fr. Giuseppe Pozzobon, the Venetian Provincial, gave two introductory meditations.  From the second day on, Fr. Gabriel Morra from the Central Italy Province was the official Retreat Master, giving all the lectures.

OCD theology students from the Northern Italy and Central Italy Circum-scriptions were also in attendance.  To facilitate them, a special concluding period of sharing and reflection on what they had heard and what the week’s experience had meant for them, was included in the Retreat programme.

There was unanimous agreement among the participants, that, despite our differences and varied distances of location, we shared a remarkable and spontaneous fraternity. One of the first things a Discalced Carmelite asks for at his profession of vows is the society of the brethren.  We are all companions in our journey!