Dear friends
In these very days everyone on the Magdala team is buzzing with excitement. In the air there is a sensation similar to that one gets the eve prior to a big event. There is joy, nervousness, anticipation and lots of work and final preparations…
We are now completing the latest legal technicalities, final revisions and approvals from the authorities before opening the guesthouse.
A part of the team is focused on constantly praying so that all is approved and moves ahead with our schedule. Another part of our team continues to serve the constant and growing flux of pilgrims arriving on site.
Our team has grown and been enriched with the addition of some new members. Fr. Guillermo Garcia Quiñones, LC, joins us from Rome, and three new Consecrated women, Miriam Orejas, Kathleen Nichols and Paula Madero, join our team from the US, and Mexico. Not to say the new volunteers from all around the world that have arrived this semester to help us the visitors and pilgrims that walk through Magdala on a daily basis.
In the midst of all this activity, movement, and technicalities, there lies no doubt in everyone´s heart that it is God who is completing this project. We are completing Magdala according to His timeline.
As we prepare to open our guesthouse, we also embark on a new chapter of Magdala, the one where its programs and ministry will be able to further grow and flourish. It is a new phase, where people will be able to experience the presence of Jesus, of his apostles, of St. Mary Magdalene, as they walk along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, pray and meditate on site, and where they are able to rest for a few days and grow in their faith.
I want you to stay tuned in the next coming days as we begin to welcome our first visitors and also as we announce a new and exciting project, I am personally very excited about. It will help us safeguard our future, increase our impact on site and everyone will be able to participate to create their personal connection in the Holy Land.
Stay tuned and keep us in your prayers!
Fraternally yours,
Fr. Juan María Solana, LC
