On the weekend of January 16-18, the 11th edition of the Enrique de Ossó Chair took place at the University of Mysticism, in Avila, with the theme this year: "where hope is born...educational possibilities in the chinks of life".
The Enrique de Ossó Chair 2026 has been an invitation to look at reality in depth and to discover in it those small chinks where hope opens up. An invitation that is especially significant in the context of the end of the Jubilee Year of Hope.
The Chair was inaugurated with a conference given by the members of the Enrique de Ossó Research Seminar. A very complete and extensively documented journey through the experience of adversity in the life of Enrique de Ossó that invited us to discover how Our Father made it through the moments of night without losing hope.
Saturday morning was focused on education: Is a hopeful education possible? Rafael Díaz Salazar tried to answer this question by giving us a road map for the construction of an education based on hope. Virginia Cagigal, for her part, spoke of the importance of what we perhaps so often overlook: the look; the words; the smiles... accompanying adolescents and children is more about transmitting through the example of one's own life than through great speeches.
On Saturday afternoon, Margarita Saldaña reminded us that hope springs from the ordinary, from the small, from daily life. The real hope is the one that passes through personal options that each one, in freedom, chooses or rejects. Without this small hope chosen in the singular, we cannot dream of a great hope in the plural. After this presentation, the afternoon ended with the exhibition-workshop "Learning to look at, admire and encourage life" by the theologian Silvia Martínez Cano, a contemplative space in which to stop and look at poverty in a feminine key and allow oneself to be challenged by it.
Sunday morning began with a talk by Jose Maria Segura, SJ, who put in dialogue two open-eyed mystics: Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa of Jesus, a man and a woman seduced by a God who transforms himself into works, works.
The Chair concluded with a video summary in which many of the participants were able to express how they felt after what they had experienced, what they liked the most or what glimmer of hope would accompany them on their journey home. The finale of this beautiful meeting was the Eucharist of thanksgiving, a moment in which to give thanks for the time shared. All this took place in an atmosphere of fraternity, in company, and under the attentive gaze of the snow-capped mountains of Avila.
We would like to thank the organizing team that makes this Chair possible: Ana Elguero, Mª Asunción Álvarez, Carmen Gómez and Ana Fuentes, team coordinator. We will see you again next year!
