On July 13, 2025, we began an experience that deeply touched the hearts of those of us who participated: religious from different congregations and committed lay people ventured with the uncertainty of the unknown but with the hope and desire to each give the best of themselves. The Inter-congregational community of the De La Salle and Marist Brothers, and the nuns of the Divina Infantita welcomed us into their homes and opened their different mission places to us by inserting us into the activities they carry out, to support and be wherever we were needed. We have found ourselves at home, since they are open, welcoming, simple communities, with great hospitality, testifying to a significant presence, in such a particular reality marked by different cultures, religions, languages, traditions. 
A common feeling has accompanied us, that we feel like Church, walking in synodality with the richness of diversity.
For a few days we have experienced a fraternal community living daily life to the fullest, sharing the same faith through simple gestures, witnessing communion. Learning to be there, responding where we were asked at every moment: to support literacy with Moroccan women, participating in different workshops (yoga, dance, defense, crochet, painting, swimming pool)
At the Divina Infantita Children's Center with the girls, making bracelets, keychains, cards, taking them for walks around the city, to the beach... The experiences of these days are multiple, such as the meetings with various people.
The word ENCOUNTER captures what this experience meant to me, leaving a mark of good in each encounter..
I want to share the impact that encountering the fence had on me. We all know and have seen so many times in the media the border fence between the city of Melilla and Morocco. Where migration is controlled. This fence has a perimeter of approximately 12 kilometers in length, with a height that can reach 10 meters. For security reasons, they reinforced the fences with concertinas (wires with blades) leaving spaces between one fence and another with deep ditches making passage impossible. There are also surveillance cameras, motion sensors, infrared lights, and border patrols. The feelings upon seeing this reality were indignation, deep pain at seeing how borders are raised against other human beings who want to take the leap for different reasons, fleeing armed conflicts, political, religious or sexual persecution, extreme poverty and lack of opportunities, trafficking networks or slavery. 
Another significant meeting was with the sisters of the Divine Infantita and the Daughters of Charity in Nador. These sisters shared with us what they experienced with the migrants in periods of massive jumps on Mount Gurugú, they lacked food, drinking water, medical assistance, they had to go down to the city looking for what they needed to survive or to charge their cell phone, risking being detained by the police. In each jump there were injured or beaten people having to return to the mountain to be treated and wait for a new attempt to jump again. The nuns of Divina Infantita and those of Charity have lived many stories of specific people; They went to these places being “true Samaritans.”
The issue of migration hits me internally, I feel the pain like a call “God listens to the pain of his people.” What is this pain asking of me? Sometimes I simply approach them, try to know their stories, welcome them through simple gestures, listening to them, and above all, treating them with dignity. Certainly these jumps have decreased in this area, but in other parts of the world fences continue to be erected in many ways, there is the same resistance, lapidary phrases are heard from certain groups that denote racism: “migratory invasion” “No more payoffs for illegals” “Massive and uncontrolled immigration” “Closing of borders” “Immediate expulsion.”
“Do not forget to practice hospitality, since, thanks to it, some, without knowing it, hosted the Angels “(Hb13,2).
This dehumanization has to disappear, the hatred that is generated, the exclusion, the data and information we receive are sometimes false. We have to tell real stories, put a face and name to the suffering of these brothers. We must facilitate their integration, reception, and social justice. Today our society needs “Samaritans” who recognize the dignity of these people.
I thank God that my Congregation, which has made it easier for me to have this experience, is sensitive to the situation of these people, because it is involved, because it is Samaritan, because it makes it easier for us to seek to support these people by joining other congregations, structures that fight to destroy walls and create bridges. Let's all get involved and help be “Migrants, missionaries of hope” as Pope Leo XIV tells us in the message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees in 2025.
¡Gracias!
Sister Lorenza López Hidalgo HCR
