Verbum Dei Missionary Family Symposium
18th-28th July 2009
The VDMFa Symposium was held in Siete Aguas (Valencia, Spain). The aim of the Symposium, which was an initiative from the Verbum Dei Congress in 2007, is to reflect on the Verbum Dei Missionary Family and to aid in the understanding and growth of this reality in the different continents. 72 members of the Verbum Dei Family have participated in this Symposium.
Day 1 - 18th July
If we had to choose an image to summarize the experience of our second day, a very good one would be one that we find in many of our communities: a great vine forming our world, in which each continent is a great bunch of grapes.
This is how we feel! We are full of excitement at the start of this Symposium, and aware that this is an event without precedents, which will profoundly mark our Verbum Dei Missionary Family.
And this has been manifested in each one of the activities of the retreat and in the official inauguration of the Symposium. In our chapel we have heard resound, the Hail Mary in Cebuano or Mandarin, to songs in Hungarian which we tried to follow in vain; half of the dining room of the Center has been converted into a sort of "global market" in which you may find dried fruit from Cameroon, beautiful Peruvian or Filipino craftwork and this afternoon in the Eucharist we enjoyed a parade of many typical dresses and the flags of the twenty-three countries that are present.
From the morning of prayer and the inaugural homily we were invited to construct Family in co-responsibility (Nm 11:24-25; 1Cor12:12-ff; Lk10:1-11). The good news that Jesus brings us is that your contribution as member of this Family is extremely valuable. From your concrete situation and place you continue being called to give shape with the Spirit to this charism that has been entrusted to our hands. We continue counting on your prayer and support that makes this marvelous Symposium possible.
