South Dakota prairie. CC0

Following GS on the Prairie

On Saturday, I went to South Dakota, near Sioux Falls, to see a girl named Briege, who had come with us for the short GS [Student Youth] February vacation, for the first time...

On Saturday, I went to South Dakota, near Sioux Falls, to see a girl named Briege, who had come with us for the short GS [Student Youth] February vacation, for the first time. Struck by reading Is It Possible to Live This Way?, her mother decided to bring her along for the vacation. After that, I called her before Easter, and we spoke of everything that had interested her, of the Gospel (she comes from a strong Catholic family), and of the songs she couldn’t remember well. So I told her I would go to see her as soon I got time off from work (it takes four hours one way to get to her home). Once I got there, she had invited her far-spread neighbors from her homeschooling network to School of Community every Thursday, and now she meets with about six friends. On Saturday, I met one of them, who presented herself as “Susan from GS” (even though perhaps she doesn’t know what words “GS” stands for yet). When I had to leave, Breige burst into tears because she cannot convince her friends to come to the summer vacation. She told me, “How can they follow me, if I have no one to follow?” This reminded me of what Carrón had said, that the encounter with Christ has reawakened in us what was already given in Baptism, and so we lack nothing we need to live (imagine, if I was the one to bring about all that happened during those few February vacation days!). I understood that Briege can follow me only if I follow her, if I follow what the Spirit is bringing about in her and through her and through others. After all, I had gone there for no other reason but obedience to what is happening in her. I told her I would come back, God willing, next Thursday, for the School of Community, always attentive to the miracles that the Spirit is bringing about.

Sebastian, Rochester, USA