The Servant of God Carmen Hernández Barrera in Barcelona, 1962–1964. A Brief Historical Study.
“Barcelona has been a pivotal place in the spiritual and personal growth of the protagonist of this book…” With these words begins the foreword to the book: “Light and Darkness, Bless the Lord: The Servant of God Carmen Hernández Barrera in Barcelona (1962–1964). A Brief Historical Study”, written by Cardinal Juan José Omella, Archbishop of Barcelona.
The book, written by Jorge Borrell Calonge and José Casas Canellas, both members of the Neocatechumenal Way, chronologically examines the events that unfolded in Carmen’s life during this period. In Barcelona, the stage of her life in the Congregation of the Missionaries of Jesus—an institute to which she had belonged since 1953—came to an end, and in Barcelona she began another stage lasting about ten months, grasping in the dark for God’s will. Carmen would then live in several poor neighborhoods of Barcelona, work in various factories, undertake with some companions the project of a new mission, and finally embrace the truly providential inspiration to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, return to Barcelona, and eventually move to Madrid.
However, the event that Carmen considered most significant during this period—and which the book provides a detailed chronological account of—was her meeting with the liturgist Fr. Pedro Farnés Scherer. She affirmed that the Lord, through Fr. Farnés, gave her a “preview” of the essential teachings of what would become the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965): above all, the Paschal Mystery, the center and source of Christian life, which Carmen experienced in a special way in the Cathedral of Barcelona during Holy Week in 1962.
May reading this brief historical account help us to get to know Carmen better, to understand how the Lord guided her to discover her vocation, and to learn of her desire to live according to His will and to love Him above all else.
Title:
Light and Darkness, Bless the Lord
Publisher:
Desclée De Brouwer
Authors:
Jorge Borrell Calonge y José Casas Canellas
Reference: RE01271
ISBN: 9788433039880
Pages: 120
Binding: Paperback
Format: 135 mm x 210 mm