Walk of life 2022 – Summer Edition

Gressoney St Jean, 30 July – 6 August 2022

Change the World from Here

An ongoing conversation between the graduates and Junior Alumni of FGE Jesuit schools

An Ignatian Year initiative:

A pastoral proposal for high school/university students and/or young workers alumni of the FGE Jesuit schools.

An immersive week between knowledge of the mountains, high-peaks excursions and conversations, at Villa Monterosa, Gressoney St. Jean. We will take direct care of the house, cooking and any other useful thing for community life.

Villa Monterosa offers an essential and welcoming environment with spaces particularly suitable for conversation and fraternal sharing, without problems of timetables and conflicts of space with other groups that may be present in the other villa, Villa Belvedere.

CONTEXT

In presenting the previous editions of the “Walk of Life” experience, we wrote:

“After the experience of quarantine, we all feel the need to regain possession of spaces and relationships. In these months of forced confinement, our relationships have been put to the test. Certainly technology has come to our aid, but at the same time it has revealed how important the presence of the other is in our life and how much contact with nature and open spaces remains a constitutive dimension of the human being. “

Today the premise is the same and indeed the request to take some time to “enter into oneself” and to “go out into nature” is even more urgent, in the face of a very long, hard and unnerving period of social distancing.

On the basis of the success of last year’s summer experience, we propose a “Walk of life”, with the aim of creating a “continuous conversation” with appropriately extended spaces and times, and to initiate paths of knowledge of the Mountain: walking, listening the “silent sound” of immaculate nature at altitude.

The dimensions we intend to cultivate are the same already highlighted in the Summer proposal:

1. The ENVIRONMENTAL dimension: rediscovery of the beauty of nature as the principle of an integral ecology.

2. The SOCIAL dimension: walking together on the paths of sharing and personal and community research.

3. The SPIRITUAL dimension: opening up, through fraternal dialogue, to dialogue with God as an inspiration for growth and change.

This, and much more, is … Walk of Life.

The contents of our “ongoing conversation”: discussing our past school experience, new university contexts and different perspectives will be an opportunity to approach high-school graduation with greater awareness of the good received and the possibilities of making it available to others in order to change the world from here. For this reason, the title of the experience is “Change the World from Here”.

This experience is one of the proposals for the Ignatian Year, which the whole Society of Jesus is celebrating: to know the inspirational source of the Jesuit schools’ charism so as to draw new life into our lives and to become more and more men and women with and for others.

SAMPLE DAYS

Arrival day (30 July): start of the conversation, walk in the village or short walk in the mountains. First dinner and free evening (knowledge games in the villa or outing in the village).

“Average” days (31 July – 5 August): early wake up in the morning, breakfast, prayer with conversation input and hiking and / or snowshoeing to discover the mountain (including high peak excursions with overnight sleeping in a hut in the Monterosa area). In the afternoon, return, rest and start the conversation. Evening: dinner, continued conversation in the villa or outing to the village.

Departure day (6 August): wake up in the morning, prayer, breakfast and time to assess the experience. Conclusion by 12:00. Departures.

COORDINATORS

P. Eraldo Cacchione, SJ

P. Alessandro Viano, SJ

WHAT TO BRING WITH YOU

Mountain walking gear: layered jackets for temperatures down to -10 degrees. Suitable hiking shoes (must be above the ankle). Good backpack.

NB: the house does not provide sheets and towels.

WORKING MATERIAL

We will follow, as an outline for the spiritual journey, the Autobiography of Saint Ignatius and the book “Ignazio solo e a piedi ”, by Ignacio Tellechea. It is recommended that you bring a personal notebook in which to write down your reflections.

HEALTH SAFETY PROTOCOL

All the experience involves adherence to an operational health safety protocol. The protocol delivered upon arrival at Villa Belvedere must be accepted and countersigned. It contains all the provisions, required by law, on triage and tracking of movements, rules of distancing and sanitation of environments and of the person, the presence of a doctor available 24 hours for every need, and any other provision necessary for the carrying out of the experience in complete safety.

Participation fee (which includes the presence of one or two Jesuits, board and lodging, paper material and medical insurance also for mountain excursions): 300 euros.

NB: The participation fee DOES NOT include the return trip to Gressoney, to be organized on one’s own. It also does NOT include the payment of the guide for excursions, the amount of which may vary depending on the number of participants.

NBB: If you find it difficult to pay the full participation fee, do not hesitate to contact Father Eraldo Cacchione SJ: cacchione.e@gesuiti.it.

REGISTRATION

Registration by June 30, 2022.

Registration is considered completed at the time of payment of the participation fee.

REGISTER HERE: https://forms.gle/P6s8ouoGrFGEAGeJ8

PAYMENT

Participation fee must be paid by June 30 in a single solution by bank transfer using the following coordinates:

IBAN: IT 64 L 030 6909 6061 0000 0120 940

Beneficiario: “Cooperativa sociale amici di Villa Sant Ignazio”

Causale: Name and Surname, plus “Walk of Life Winter 2022”.

NB: the fee is NOT refundable, except for cancellation of the experience by the organization due to health reasons or force majeure.

REGISTER HERE: https://forms.gle/P6s8ouoGrFGEAGeJ8