A universal celebration with assistants from Uganda, Kerala, Colombia, Pamplona, …

On Saturday, November 23, the traditional Celebration of the Rose Encounter was celebrated in Pallerols de Rialb, organized by the Association of Friends of the Way from Pallerols de Rialb to Andorra.

The celebrations began at 11:45 with the projection of a new documentary on the adventure of St. Josemaría on its way to Andorra, due to religious persecution in Republican Spain during the civil war Spanish of 1936-39. The video highlights the difficulties and sufferings suffered by the members of the group in which St. Josemaría was going and especially describes the anguish that the saint experienced the night of November 21-22, 1937 due the doubt of whether he was or not doing the will of the Lord continuing his way to Andorra. The rose he found on the floor of the church, in the early morning of the 22nd, filled him with peace and confirmed him in his decision to continue on his way to Andorra, surely he was doing the will of God.

Then there was a guided tour of the rectory and the church, and then the procession was carried out with the image of the Mather of God del Roser around the church, singing the Goigs of the Virgin of the Rosary.

Once inside the church, the Mass was presided over by Mn. Rubèn Mestre, priest of Opus Dei, and concelebrated with seven other priests: Tadeo Ssemanda, from Uganda (Africa); Christudas Nesayyam, from Kerala (India); Edward Vélez, a Dominican priest from Colombia, and Constantine Anchel; all of them from the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarra, in Pamplona. Also concelebrated Mn. Jesús Mari Pons, from Barcelona, ​​and the two dear priests of Ponts: Mn. Bonifaci Fortuny, rector of Pallerols de Rialb, and Mn. Pere Morales, rector of Ponts.

In the homily, Mn. Ruben commented on the gospel of the Mass, reminding Mary that she decided to go to the mountain. We have also climbed to the mountain of Pallerols, where we have discovered – as she – the help of God to overcome the contradictions of the road, as was the case of St. Josemaría in very hard times of his life, which found in Pallerols comfort and the caresses of the Virgin. Like St. Josemaría, we too should ask the Virgin Mary for her sign of the rose, so that we can find and follow the “personal way” that God marks us.

At the end of the Eucharist, we went all to the cemetery where Mn. Bonifaci directed a prayer for the deceaseds of Pallerols and asked for the protection of Mary in our lives. The party was closed with the singing of the April Rose.
Some of the assistants ate in the school of Pallerols and others went to the villages and farmhouses around Pallerols.
At 4 in the afternoon, there was the prayer of the Rosary and the veneration of the relics of St. Josemaría.
As every year, it was a delightful celebration, with the attendance of some 80 people, on a foggy and cold day as it corresponds to the time of the year and that allowed us to relive those days of November 1937 when St. Josemaría passed through these places Catalan pre-Pyrenees