MADRID, Spain.
The XVII General Assembly of the TA is being celebrated in Spain, in the city of Los Negrales, at the Santa Maria House of Spirituality, located about a 30 mile distance from the city of Madrid. This is the place where the remains of the founder St. Pedro Poveda are venerated and whose commemoration feast is precisely July 28.
Ninety assembly members represent thirty countries and four continents. They have started their work on July 25 and will continue working until August 16. At the inauguration address the President affirmed “We recognize ourselves here as Church, as a people inhabited by God”
Then the President proceeded to name this XVII General Assembly as the “Assembly of Hope” under the motto … “so that you go and bear fruit” (Jn15, 16).
The general objective of the Assembly is “to receive and launch the Teresian Association, with dynamic fidelity, in the one-hundred year of its foundation, assuming with new responsibility and enthusiasm the entrusted charism, with a diversity of associative modalities and commitments, and the specific function of the Primary Association for the entire Association”.
During her inaugural address, Loreto Ballester, President of the Assembly, read the message that his Holiness Benedict XVI sent through the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, in which he sends cordial greetings to the members of the Teresian Association at their General Assembly, and invokes the Holy Spirit to pour forth his grace to sustain and enlighten you so that, following the footprints and example of St Pedro Poveda you may find the most appropriate ways to live with untiring self-giving your generous service to the building of the Kingdom of God”.
The Vice-president, Maria Luz Renuncio read a cordial letter from Cardinal Estanislaw Rylko, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, in which he expresses his appreciation for the figure of St Pedro Poveda, priest and martyr, who knew how to respond to the challenges of his time with great commitment and radicalism, living his faith to its last consequences”. Cardinal Rylko recognizes the actuality of his charism and acknowledges that “Poveda envisioned what years later the Vatica II Council would declare on the mission of the laity and the universal call to holiness”
Cardinal Rylko invites the members of the Teresian Association to “live the Year of Faith with an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the only savior of the world, a conversion necessary so that salt does not lose its taste.
Loreto Ballester, in her inaugural speech, called to mind key moments in the history of the Teresian Association that had as its singular protagonists St. Pedro Poveda, the Servant of God Josefa Segovia and so many persons that contributed to giving an identity to the Teresian Work that today is already centenary.
“We recognize ourselves here as Church, as a people God inhabits” expressed Loreto Balester. “We bring here our world, and within it, the Teresian Association” she said, “recalling the lives of the elderly of the entire Association. Also the persons that are in far away countries, in small groups or in big cities, the younger ones of the Association and the youth in difficult circumstances...the persons whose suffering embitters their spirits…and finally, all persons that within their living surroundings we wish o bring here today”.
The President values the deep meaning of the celebrations of the first centenary of the TA that have taken place in so many parts of the world, trusting in the “renewal we hope for” She also announces that …the closure of the centenary is planned for August 15.
On another part of her address she defined and explained some aspects of the objectives of the Assembly and dedicated a few words to the members of the nucleus of the Association encouraging them to live the Happy Project, (in the words of St Pedro Poveda) and to renew their energies in pursuit of the aims of the Teresian Association.
During the remaining days the members of the Assembly will be working, in different commissions, on the work documents and the Memory of the six year period of this Assembly, and will hold plenary sessions where they will evaluate and project the life of the TA in the different parts of the world for the next six years. One of the objectives of this General Assembly is the election a new President and a new Governing Council for the entire Teresian Association.
On July 28, the members of the Assembly will participate in the celebration of the feast of St. Pedro Poveda, commemorating his life surrendered through his faith. The Eucharist will be presided by the Rev. Martinez Sistach, Cardinal Archbishop of Barcelona and also President of the Episcopal Commission on Liturgy.
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