Dearest Father Carrón:

I am writing to you from Australia, where I have been living for the past four years. I just came back with my husband and my daughter from a vacation in Italy, during which we shared very intense moments with our families and friends. When I got back to Melbourne, I once again asked myself (as I did when I first arrived): “What am I doing here?” This morning, I woke up early because of the jet lag. I opened Traces and, reading the wonderful witnesses of the Rimini Meeting, my eyes were opened once again. It is Christ who asks me to recognize Him in my new home in Australia. It is He who entrusted me with the task of sharing the gladness I met in Italy with my Australian friends. It is He who gave me the companionship of my husband and daughter and has led me here to live it to the fullest through the faces of my new friends. Then, with this gaze, raising Alessia and the little one whom I carry in my womb is no longer a daily struggle to set limits and rules, but becomes a true companionship, from which I can learn to look at the world with simplicity and wonder, so to accompany them on their journey toward Destiny. House chores, work, and the faces of the people we meet are the concrete reality through which Jesus loves me and asks me to love Him, here and now. Each event–like World Youth Day or School of Community–has the depth of a Love greater than us. These are not simply “events to be organized” that are now over. Australia is the circumstance through which I walk toward Destiny. With this new outlook on life, I want to thank you for the paternity with which you embrace each one of us, through the most diverse ways and despite the miles that separate us.

Raffaella, Melbourne (Australia)