January 4th 2016 the Tertians began to arrive.  The first was Mary Kelly from Ireland followed by Marceline Obi from Nigeria.  Next were our Sisters from Pune Province: Crescence Lopes, Goretti Coutinho  and Smita Macwan from Vadodora Province. Who endured a bomb scare on the way and their plane was delayed by five hours. Very late that night the Sisters from Delhi Province came.  They are Shyma Jose, Anita Nollis and Susie Pereira.  These also were delayed because thieir connecting flight didn´t come and had to make other arrangements.   Katherine Mehnga from Pakistan was the last to arrive on Tuesday.  We received a very warm welcome in the Generalate from Sr. Marta and Community and Sr. Carmen Munoz and the Gereral Council.   Sr. Francoise our Tertian mistress has to wait many hours in the airport for us and thank God we all arrived safely.

Picture left to right: Shyma, Anita, Katherine, Cresence, Mary, Marcelline, Susi, Smita, Goretti.

The first week the timetable was flexible.  We had Mass in the evening in the church of St. Jude. The Mass was in Italian said by an American priest from New York, the Vicar General of the Marianists who co-incidentially founded the Br. Roman Centre in Ekpoma where our sisters work in Africa.

January 6^th was a special day and the Community really provided a lovely celebration for us.  We had Mass at 9 and then at 12;30 “La Bafana (the good witch) came to visit bearing gifts.  All assembled together and there was much laughter.  Some of us even got a new name!

At 4pm Sr. Francoise gave us a grand tour of the house and especially the Tertian area.  It is a bit of a maze at the moment but we will find our way eventually.

January 7^th was an introduction to Italian bureaucracy for most of the Tertians as they had to complete their “sojourno”, their residency permit.  Thankfully Sr. Marta had prepared them well and most of their documents were organized so that they hadn´t too much of a delay.  It was also possible to register in the local Post Office and not have to go into the city.

On January 8^th we did a walkabout of the local area and visited St. Agnes´s church.  It was like going back in time to the fourth century.  .

January 9^th a Saturday and we set off for the Vatican to see the Crib.  It was also an introduction to the city and its transport system.  There were not many at the Vatican so we had time and space to pray at the crib and to marvel at the beauty and architecture of the buildings.

Sunday January 10^th. Feast of the Baptism of the Lord was the opening Mass of our Tertianship prepared by a group of the Tertians.  It was a very prayerful and inspirational Mass in which we were invited to renew again our baptismal call and to realise more deeply that we are loved by God who delights in us.  After there were many photos to mark the occasion followed by a lovely lunch.