Elena Bartolomé

I am from Barcelona, Spain.  I am from a family of five children, and one of them is my twin.  I was born on April 29, 1975, and five minutes later my sister was born.  My father died 21 years ago.  It was a very painful event that we lived, but it united us much more as a family. My mother is a great gift and a great support in my life and vocation.

I was consecrated on September 29, 2001, and I currently am a member of the community in São Paulo, Brazil.  It is a community that has formed and grown over the almost three years that I have been in Brazil.  When I arrived there were three of us, and now we are eight consecrated women.  My community is the place where I find myself the most: in encounters with each one I discover myself more and more, and at the same time, it is the place where I can give myself the most, where I can listen and accompany.  I would say that we walk together, trying to offer what each one is and trying to receive the gift that the others are for the community.

In my apostolic experience, I was first in the formation center in Madrid, Spain for five years.  The first two years I was in formation.  The next two years I was an assistant.   The last year I was vice director.  Afterwards, I was a member of the community of Mirasierra.  I lived there three years.   I was the vice director of the community and worked apostolically as the assistant director in the Highlands School (Encinar).  I then went to my hometown.  I was there six years.  I worked in the youth section, where I wanted to support the pastoral work with youth of the diocese (it was a very beautiful experience of the Church).  I also worked in the Saint Isabel School as an instructor of formation for high school girls.  I was the director of the community for the last three years in Barcelona.  The last year I was named a territorial councilor.  For almost three years I have been in Brazil, where I am the territorial director and director of the community of São Paulo.

I have had many experiences that, thanks be to God, have enriched me, but perhaps the one I remember with more fondness and clarity is the apostolate convention that we had last year in Brazil.  All of the branches of Regnum Christ were present. It fills my heart to share with consecrated men, lay members and Legionaries what God has put in our hearts and to seek together how to evangelize this territory. It is beautiful to pray together, to discuss, to reach a consensus.   It is even beautiful to come to perceive a conflict between us and together talk about it and find solutions that were not made beforehand.

My expectation for this assembly is to be able to meet every consecrated woman who is going to have this experience with me.  I would ask all the consecrated women to sit down and be one with us, because what we are going to deal with belongs to everyone. Therefore, pray that the Holy Spirit gives us the gift of tongues to understand each other and the gift of communion.