It is worth spending a weekend in Pallerols

The weekend of 21 and 22 January, we spent a few days in Pallerols. Some of us had collaborated during some summers in the cleaning and restoration of the church and the rectory of Pallerols and, for that reason, we were so delighted to be there again.

We arrived on Saturday night and Mariano, from Organyà, welcomed us to show us all the historical part of the rectory that has been rebuilt. Some of us had never seen it before, and we all liked it very much. What struck us the most was to see the “oven”, where St. Josemaría spent the painful night of November 21-22, 1937, along with other expeditionaries accompanying him on his way to Andorra.

We also remember with great affection the last stay of Bishop Javier Echevarría, when he came to bless the rectory. In fact, along the way, we listened to his speech at Pallerols again, in September 2015.

We spent the night at the refuge. Before going to sleep, we read some fragments of the book “Entre la noche y la esperanza” (Between the night and the hope), the part where the historical documents that correspond to the night that happened in Pallerols are collected.

The next day, we got up early to watch the sunrise. Although it was cold and there were some clouds, the scenery and the silence there were breathtaking. Then, we entered the church to greet the Virgin of the Roser and we read more historical documents collected in the book “Entre la noche y la esperanza”.

We then went to the village of Ponts to attend the 10:00 mass. We were surprised that, in the homily, the priest asked for prayers for the Elective Congress that was taking place in Rome for the election of the new Prelate of Opus Dei. After the Mass, we thanked him.

At Ponts, we bought a giant chocolate croissant to take home. Then we returned to the refuge and there we had hot chocolate while we had a lively gathering.

Then, we went to the Saint Raphael Cabin. There, we were very excited to find an image of the Virgin of the Pillar with words of St. Josemaría saying that that image was the one they had in the cabin during the days when they resided there. We had a good time and then went back to the refuge to eat.

Before starting our journey home, we returned to the church to say goodbye to the Virgin of the Roser and asked for all kinds of things. On the occasion of this meeting, we wanted to create a reminder with a drawing of the Virgin of Pallerols, which can be seen in the photo that we enclose below.