From July 6th to 13th, around 40 high school and vocational students from the two Jesuit schools in Portugal — Colégio das Caldinhas and Colégio de S. João de Brito — accepted a bold invitation. It was a call to set out on a pilgrimage — above all, an inner one — that would take them not only to Loyola and Xavier, but wherever they allowed God to lead them.

This journey, already familiar within the schools, is called Caravana. Over the course of a week, students are invited to walk in the footsteps of St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis Xavier, getting to know the places where these great saints began to grow — and, more importantly, beginning to trace how God is already moving within their own lives.

As the days unfolded, the stories of these saints and God’s work in and through them became a mirror for the students’ own journey: a journey of self-discovery, and above all, an encounter with Jesus Christ — the One who leads them. Along the way, they discovered Christ as an inexhaustible source of love and freedom: fiery when He stirs the heart, and gentle when He offers peace amid suffering and challenge.

By the end of the week, a deep conviction had taken root: God is at work — silently, perhaps, but powerfully — in all those who let themselves be seen by Him and place their lives in His hands. And perhaps God did not do more in Ignatius or Xavier than He is ready to do in the life of anyone who truly trusts in Him.

In truth, He is already at work: 40 students accepted the invitation to discover — and indeed discovered — that Christ is alive, that He speaks, He loves, and He sets hearts free.