The month of November brings ever shorter days and longer nights; it carries away those first reddish and golden hues of autumn that we love to enjoy and that help us more easily bid farewell to the sunnier days when we gladly spend time outdoors and retreat indoors only reluctantly. In November, the inside of our homes suddenly becomes more inviting, and it becomes hard to draw ourselves out into the open—into the darkness, dampness, and cold. To begin, to set out, to step outside. And yet, it is precisely there that encounters await us.

Therefore, above all, we can give thanks to God’s providence for allowing JRS to be founded precisely in November, so that its birthday may be the occasion for one of the regular, largest, and most joyful gatherings of the year.

At the same time, we are proud of another major initiative which, we believe for good reason, brought at least a little light, warmth, and togetherness into the chilly daily life that arrives so abruptly. We are speaking of the excursion to Hrvatsko Zagorje, through which we continued our series of trips dedicated to discovering Croatia’s natural and cultural heritage, and during which we visited the Veliki Tabor castle-museum and the Krapina Neanderthal Museum.

The very names of these two destinations make clear just how far into the past our journey took us. Veliki Tabor Castle in Desinić—with its walls, galleries, narrow stone passageways, cold walls and warm stoves, suits of armor, defensive cannons, and instruments of torture—brought to life the vividness of the period stretching from the late Middle Ages almost to the 19th century. The Museum of Early Man at the Hušnjakovo site in Krapina, with its rich exhibits and interactive and multimedia content, opened up a new perspective on the distant prehistory of humanity’s path to what it has become today. And in the time between, before, and after these visits — the Zagorje hills covered with a thin layer of snow that followed us throughout the day and brought joy to many, especially the youngest.

All of this, beautiful and rich as it was, served only as a framework for spending time together, away from the places where we move about daily. On the trip, old friends and acquaintances had the chance to talk and exchange news, while newly arrived members of our family could meet and connect with many new faces. As always, we are guided by the desire that wherever we go and wherever we pass, we create spaces of encounter. And there is no more direct path to an encounter with God than the one that passes through our neighbor.