"That is why I can love the sea"
LettersThe year did not start well for Davide. Illness that shook him and his family. Then, Coronavirus and a foggy future, wrecking schemes and plans. "Yet, I did not drown”.
The year did not start well for Davide. Illness that shook him and his family. Then, Coronavirus and a foggy future, wrecking schemes and plans. "Yet, I did not drown”.
Work in a hospice in Florida, life at home, away from Italy. And the lockdown, between anxiety caused by the news and the discovery of a certainty without which everything is just "a burden in my heart".
He is a doctor who deals with cancer patients, fighting every day to protect them from the virus. And a smile towards the relatives who wait, "not out of politeness, but out of gratitude." Another letter from the "front line".
Faced with the fact that the virus has redefined every aspect of life, a question arises: how can the presence of Christ prevail so that it is Him who defines every moment?
Luca Salvi works at the Alzano Lombardo Hospital (Bergamo), one of the hotbeds of the epidemic. Where everything has changed. From the conception of work to relationships amongst colleagues. "What is happening makes us reflect on our consistency."
She has a rare disease that leads to severe immunodepression. The indications are clear: stay locked indoors. But precautions are not enough to overcome fear. And yet...
Gabriele, from Bergamo, managed to accompany his mother to the cemetery. Almost clandestinely. He thinks about her, about what she left him. But also about our elderly, and why we take care of them. They are our true richness.
A young doctor with his questions and fears. Amazement that tears you away from distraction. The desire to be silent. And the need to be "seized" every time...
She's a nurse at the Polyclinic of Milan. Within a few hours, young and inexperienced, she found herself working with intensive care patients. Fear and complaint dominate. Then, after her first shift, something changes...
A call, at this time of emergency, to the value of the Common Fund. An opportunity to re-ask ourselves what it is. And how it helps us to live faith.
They got married, privately, on February 29. Months of planning and preparations went up in smoke. A great sense of injustice. But also the question: "What does the Lord ask of us?"
The desire for something to overcome loneliness and thoughts. A message that gets you going again. The desire to be open to things that happen. And the discovery that even in a family, "walls" can fall.
The Holy Father prayed, united with Christians of all confessions, for the pandemic-torn world. On Friday 27th, a moment of prayer on the empty sagrata of Saint Peter’s Basilica with the Urbi et Orbi blessing.
Confined within the walls of our homes, we find "a time favourable to thought". And the opportunity to ask ourselves what matters. A psychiatrist re-reads Carrón's letter to Corriere della Sera.
To look at what is happening to us during this emergency within a broader horizon. Like Pope Francis does. A deacon, awaiting ordination, talks about what he is discovering in these days.
Elena, in the first few days after schools closed, was busy with a thousand things. Then she realized that in her never stopping, something did not sit right. So she starts a work…
He works in the E.R., in the infectious emergencies area. Sometimes it is tempting to scream and run away. Sometimes there is the surprise of being picked up by a simple message from a colleague.
A writer re-reads Carrón's letter on Coronavirus. "I have always thought that I was fearless, but I was wrong”. In those few lines he finds "my drama and everyone's drama intact."
He has been hospitalized for coronavirus. He is having trouble breathing, but he is keeping his eyes open. To discover the many signs of His presence. "I am not glad that I got sick, but I am grateful for what I am discovering."
The Cistercian Abbot General's letter to the Cistercian communities at the time of the pandemic. "To stop before God means to recognize that his presence fills the instant and thus fully satisfies our heart".
A dialogue with a sociologist from the Catholic University in Milan about Carrón's letter on Coronavirus. Fragility, the truth of our lives, the rediscovery of a "common good". And the meaning of an existence that is not self-referential.