My name is Rosario Achondo. I am a member of the Manquehue Apostolic Movement in Chile, and today I want to share with you the joy that the love of Jesus Christ has brought into my life. I have believed in God since I was a child, but some years ago I had an experience that turned my life around and made me discover a greater love. A Chilean saint called Santa Teresa de los Andes, a Carmelite, once said: "This madman of love has driven me crazy." And I think my life has been turned upside down in the best sense of these words, because I have known the love of Christ.
10 years ago I lived an experience of community life and prayer for four months in Patagonia (in the very south of Chile) in a house that the Manquehue Movement has there. Growing in friendship, doing
lectio, praying the divine office (just like the monks of the abbey here) and through the Eucharist, I discovered a very different God from the one I had in my mind – a God who does not judge me or evaluate me, who rejoices in me, who loves me as I am because he sees me as perfect, who reconciles me with my past and my present, who heals me from the fears that threaten to paralyze me. Something in my heart was revolutionized when I discovered that I am living the feast of the Kingdom of God that also happens today, here and with you all.
This is my bible. It has many marks on its leather cover, especially from my hands. It looks very old because I have had it for a long time, but the truth is that here the Lord speaks to me about new things all the time. It wakes me up when I read it, even though many times I have had to persevere in it when I feel its message is incomprehensible and difficult. Still, every day I pick up my old bible again because I know from the experience that it has NEW words for me. Trini, Tere and Berni (my community here) are witnesses of how I get excited, how the verses of Scripture rejoice me. This is my experience of
lectio divina.
A reading from the book of Exodus struck me when I was in Chile just before traveling to the United States, amid the uncertainty of the trip and the coronavirus. And during this time at Portsmouth Abbey, it has been an important Word of God for me. It says: “See, I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared. Be attentive to him and heed his voice. My angel will go before you. The Lord, your God, you shall worship; then I will bless your food and drink, and I will remove all sickness from your midst.” Everything in this reading has been fulfilled. The Lord continues to open impressive paths for us, with concrete angels: we have received here everything we need, everything, and we are healthy from any disease.
I can recognize two great fruits of
lectio divina in me. On the one hand, it has encouraged me to build community. Through the Word of God I have discovered myself as a child in need of him, and therefore in need of the community. Today I am sure that I cannot live, advance or persevere alone. I need the community (who are my friends in Christ and my sisters) to encourage me, correct me and accompany me. A week before coming to Portsmouth, I made a life-long promise as a cenobitic oblate in Manquehue, because I have discovered that I am absolutely and deeply happy in Christ and that He has called me to follow Him in that particular lay and Benedictine community. It means also, that I want to continue doing
lectio every day of my life, cultivating the friendship in Christ to build the Church, sharing, with all my littleness and weakness, the joy of the Gospel. Another fruit of
lectio divina in me is that it has awakened me to a different reality, a reality that is more than what I can see and touch, more than what my bodily senses can perceive. There is a spiritual reality operating in us that is full of miracles, full of manifestations of love that overcome time and space.
Today I want to invite you to take part in this mystery wherever you are, whatever your story and your life. The Lord is manifesting himself in all his goodness. Although you and I fall asleep to His powerful love, he continues to act, the only difference is that when we are awake we are able to enjoy his love. He is here and now, acting in you with infinite care. We have so many concerns within us, with a deep sense of love and salvation. Stop for a moment and think. What are you looking for? What makes you happy? What gives you peace? We also have so many doubts and questions. Who am I? Who is God? What is life? Why is there pain?
Listen to the answer in you. The Lord is with you, within you. Jesus Christ is the answer to all your questions. You don’t have to go out to look outside, but inside. The Kingdom of God is in you, the Kingdom of peace, reconciliation, brotherhood, the Kingdom of Life and Love. There are many ways to pray: each one of you has your own way, but I want to finish these words by sharing with you some specific moments that Portsmouth has to help you to enter into your “inside,” as the Gospel says, to “enter, close the door and pray to your Father who is there.” Those moments have been, at least for me, a real place of encounter with Christ these past two weeks.
The first and most important is Sunday Mass, to which you come anyway. Maybe you feel it is too long or that you don't understand it at all. But I want to tell you one thing: the Eucharist has an effect on you and on the world even if you don't feel it. I invite you to take a step in faith, to enjoy every part of the Mass, to believe that you are in the Feast and that you are not the same when you leave the Church as when you enter. The second moment is the Eucharistic Adoration every Mondays at 7:45pm in the Church, as a moment of silence and prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Just you and Christ. The third is the prayer of Compline every Friday at 10:00 pm in the Church, which is an opportunity to end up praying together to God in thanksgiving and to rest in Him. It is a very short and beautiful prayer. The fourth moment of encounter with Christ is the
lectio groups that happen every week in the school. If you are in one, persevere; if you want to join one, ask for a group; if you want to start one, let’s do it! So, you will discover the gift of the Word of God, which brings you the Good News for your life.
The party has already started. I invite you to join in and celebrate that Jesus is alive in you and loves you infinitely. Wake up!