Diocesan pilgrimage in the footsteps of a great woman of the ‘500
Blessed with sunshine, optimal temperature and ventilation, the traditional diocesan pilgrimage took place again this year; what Ariminum organizes according to the Bishop’s instructions. It is an unmissable event for many of us, to discover new itineraries that combine spirituality, art and tourism. This year the proposal was an unusual tour in Spain between Toledo, Segovia, Medina del Campo, Valladolid, Alba de Tormes, Salamanca and Avila: the places where the Great Teresa of Jesus founded the new monasteries of the Discalced Carmelites with determination, organizational skills and innovative courage, unthinkable for a woman over the years around 1550. It was the time of the Council of Trent and the ferment of renewal of the entire ecclesial community in whose spirit Saint Teresa worked.
We discovered the figure of Saint Teresa of Avila retracing her journey as a tireless founder of nuclei of “reformed” Carmelite nuns, that is, returning to a rigorous cloistered life. Enough convents with 200-300 nuns, enough differences in wealth and privileges granted to a few, enough freedom to go out, to use luxurious clothes and perhaps jewels, enough to receive visitors, enough to have a more formal than interior spiritual life. Teresa meditated for decades on these ideas of Carmelite reform amidst torments (for fear they were suggestions that came from the devil) and decisional pressures that earned her years of isolation because under the Holy Inquisition. Her tenacity and patience and the use of holy and enlightened councilors, including Saint Joan of the Cross, allowed her to face a thousand difficulties and oppositions and in a few years succeed in founding as many as 17 convents of Discalced Carmelites: few nuns, at most 12- 15, who lived in fraternity and poverty, who had to learn to read and write in order to meditate on the scriptures and be able to recite the divine office in Latin in choir. And then the mental prayer that makes one feel the ineffable presence of God.
Many have realized that we know little about this saint and to feel it austere, distant in its wisdom: in short, one that inspires awe. Instead, we discovered a brilliant and witty Santa, passionate and engaging in friendships. She was able to fascinate and create sympathy wherever she was: as a child, among the many brothers, cousins and friends; as a young girl, among her companions and educators, even her severe ones; as an adult, among the authorities and the powerful of the time, admiring her cultured and brilliant conversation about her, fruit of the many readings made since she was a child: from chivalric poems to Saint Augustine, the Fathers of the Church and the Bible which was then forbidden to non-specialists. Rich in affection, in a surprising way for her time, she left us an incredible amount of writings: from the vivaciously written Biography, with anecdotes and stories, from the Letters (more than 500) to the Interior Castle spiritual masterpiece of a mystic whose life can be summed up in the dialogue with Jesus: “Who are you?” “I am Teresa of Jesus“ “And I am Jesus of Teresa!“ Faith in Jesus and Scripture were his great loves. Her portraits and her sculptures portray her in ecstasy or with pen in hand. She was beatified by Pope Paul V in 1614, in 1970 she was proclaimed Doctor of the Church by Paul VI: she was the first woman with this title subsequently granted to St. Catherine of Siena.
It was our Bishop Francis who helped us to taste the spiritual richness of this pilgrimage in the short but intense homilies of the daily Mass (always very accurate in the liturgy by all those present), in the discreet interventions that enriched the explanations of the guides, in the meeting with the Carmelites of the convent of St. Teresa of Valladolid. As well as in moments of cordiality and conviviality shared with all the participants or of personal dialogue for those who wished: pilgrim among pilgrims!
But don’t think that the pilgrimage is only spiritual! The moments of joy such as those of hilarity were frequent, often activated by the engaging Nunzia who, knowing how to grasp the comic sides of situations, promoted loud laughter: this year the various guides had in the different cities lent themselves to us. they seemed consummate actors rather than educated guides, for funny attitudes and high-sounding or inappropriate phrases; or the menus told before arriving in the various restaurants which then aroused hilarity, like certain quail that remained famous.
The Bishop of Rimini and the statue of Santa Teresa
It often happens that visiting many cities in a few days so rich in churches, monuments, palaces, sanctuaries, you go home with a bit of disorientation and wonder if the huge Roman aqueduct was just a Segovia, if the walls and towers that surrounded the city, crossed by a group of daredians in the high walkway, it was precisely to Avila. And that Plaza Major is from Salamanca? Don’t worry: the indefatigable Nunzia posted a summary of the entire itinerary on Facebook every evening with names and photos.
At the end of the journey you can then reorder memories, photos and notes. And for the traditional meeting of the “veterans” of the pilgrimage we will all be ready to remember and retrace the steps. Even if we await the now familiar calendar that Claudio dell’Ariminum will offer us: Claudio, a silent but constantly protective presence, who has made the journey safe even in complicated moments. The climate of cordiality and familiarity created among us pilgrims continues thanks to the technology that even the elderly now know how to use: the WhatsApp group “Spain St. Teresa of Avila“ in which greetings or news are exchanged every day. And in each one the beautiful intense prayer of St. Teresa of Jesus continues to resound, which has also become a song: “Nothing disturbs you nothing you dismay Everything passes God does not change With patience everything is acquired Whoever has God lacks nothing. God alone is enough“.
Silvia Tagliavini