We Carmelites welcome 'Fratelli tutti' with all our hearts

Mother Marie Gemma, superior of an Indian Carmel, tells of the joy of sharing with the whole world. A Bible course for all the cloistered convents of the province.

Mumbai (AsiaNews) - “Let us welcome Fratelli tutti with all our hearts, a precious gift from Pope Francis. The pandemic has also given birth to good, for families and also for us, since yesterday the Carmelite fathers started a Bible course for all the cloistered convents of the province, so from 3 to 5 pm all the cloistered nuns pray and study and they welcome Jesus through the Word. This was born from Covid 19, before we have an online retreat, for the cloistered Carmelites this is also the result of Covid. The pandemic has brought out the milk of compassion in many who were good Samaritans for others”.

We cloistered Carmelites are particularly happy with the beautiful gift that Pope Francis has just made to the Church and to all men and women of good will, who will welcome the message of his new encyclical "Fratelli tutti", on Fraternity and Social Friendship.

One might wonder, how can we within the cloistered monastery, how can we share the Holy Father's dream of one humanity, as pilgrims in the same human flesh ... we have no ministry, we do not care for the sick, nor care for the poor, or teaching or educating, we have been living in seclusion for years ... and we are happy, in us there is Joy, which is another dimension of the enclosure. We want to be for the whole world, we don't want little, but we want to embrace the whole world, so our life is made up of little things.

There is a secret in the cloister, we want to be here for the whole world, so we are ready to suffer - even vicariously and in our proximity - for this we offer it for the whole world, and this is our fraternity. We can hug distant people, pray for the person, console people on the phone, make sacrifices for people ..

This is the kind of Pope the world needs, who understands and speaks to people. We welcome this powerful invitation to desire to be part of the Dream of God with great openness, prayer and joy and we pilgrims from our cloistered monastery to be in fraternity with the whole world, wholeheartedly embrace this FRATELLI TUTTI with the whole world.

* Superior of the cloistered monastery, Carmel Ashram, Baroda, Gujarat,

Nirmala Carvalho collaborated