YEAR 2020, A BEFORE AND AFTER

In 2019, a Regional Assembly of the MOVEMENT Vida Ascendente was held in the city of Rio Cuarto, Argentina, where the communities of Córdoba, Buenos Aires, Zarate, Campana, Monte Caseros and also ours, which was the organizer and host, participated. On this occasion we had the presence of Monsignor, Father Osvaldo Montferrand, and our National Coordinator, Mrs. María Teresa Schiro. Everything took place in a calm and orderly manner, except for one professional, all the other representatives were members of the Movement. This event was a great success.

At one point, Father Osvaldo brought Teresita and me together to invite us and propose to participate in the first meeting of the elderly that was going to be held in Rome, in January 2020. Thanks to this financial assistance, both immediately very enthusiastic, we accepted this offer. From there, we started planning our trip with great enthusiasm. Thanks to Father Ricardo Enrique Facci, founder of the Movement of New Houses, to which we both belonged, we obtained accommodation in the city of Rome in the house of the Poor Sisters of San José, founded in Buenos Aires and whose Mother Superior was Mother Gregoria, an Argentine like us.  

The Congress "The Wealth of many Years" was something wonderful, with the participation of people from all over the world, where every priest or layman who gave a presentation, left us a new teaching. I tried to keep in mind and through notes, as many new things that we could bring to our communities. We ended our stay in Rome, with a meeting with the International Executive Committee of Vida Ascendente, which lasted 3 days. We returned home on February 9, full of enthusiasm and happiness, to put into practice all that we had learned.

Already in Rome, during our stay in this city, we were talking about a virus, which hit China, but it was so far from our homeland................

However, in April 2020, this pandemic began and lasted so long that it radically changed our lives, especially those of the elderly, around the world.   And here it is with us too!!!! , and we were subjected to a terrible lockdown, where for months we stopped seeing our relatives, companions and friends of Vida Ascendante. And little by little, everything collapsed.

Our weekly meetings, which have kept us alive and active, and whose day we have been waiting for with great joy, to share with our brothers, are over. However, for this opportunity to arise, we had to wait a long time. We could celebrate Holy Mass only through television, without being able to receive the Living Christ in the Eucharist. These were very difficult times for everyone, and everyone lived it in different ways, but always placed their hope in the Lord, so that it would end soon. AND FINALLY, IT HAPPENED!!!!

After almost 2 years, we saw each other again and met again with a lot of hope. Great was our disappointment, when we discovered that, of the 13 groups that were in our diocese Villa de la Concepción del Rio Cuarto, only three of them remained standing, we could not believe it. Many of their members were taken to nursing homes and , for others, their children did not let them out for fear of contagion. And here we are today, trying to survive this scourge that has done so much harm to humanity, especially our elders.

Today, when, by the grace of God, we are alive, we want to continue to spread our apostolic zeal to all those elderly people, who want to be part of our groups, and thus, at the end of the journey travelled, they meet Christ again, return to the Church, so that in the last years of their lives, they may find in the Lord all the love that He gives us, that we prepare for ourselves with peace and serenity, so that we can reach our final resting place.

But for now, the Lord asks us to continue to proclaim his Gospel, through this wonderful Movement, which we love so much.

I encourage you not to give up, and I ask all those who are still standing, to continue our MISSION, the one entrusted to us, when the Lord called us. I want to send you all my affection and may the Lord shower you with blessings. And with our age and limitations, we can say like St. Paul: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

Susana Zonni from Echenique