Dear Fr. Julián:

I study Architecture in Turin and in January I traveled to Troy, a small city three hours north of New York City, to work on my dissertation. Shortly after arriving in the U.S., I contacted my friends Pietro and Marta in New York to make arrangements to go visit them. They informed me that the New York Encounter was about to take place (see the article in this issue). I checked the website and noticed that you were scheduled to give a presentation on The Religious Sense that very Sunday, and I decided to come. As soon as I entered the midtown theater where the event was taking place, I was flabbergasted: I had crossed the ocean only to find myself in front of what I had left back in Italy. I immediately felt at home. When I had left Italy, I was uncertain if the experience and the friendships that I had started in Turin could possibly find some continuity overseas, but just a few days after my arrival I had been already abundantly reassured. It had become evident that I was going to be able to find in the U.S. everything that I had left in Italy. I think this is possible only in a companionship such as ours, where Christ is present. During my visit to the New York Encounter, I thought about many of my friends, and I couldn't wait to tell them what I had seen. That day, I often asked myself why I had decided to come to New York, since that had meant getting up at 5:30 the day after my taxing intercontinental flight. At the beginning, I thought it was just because I wanted to see my friends, which was true but it was not all. When I finally heard you speak about desire, I realized that what was moving me was indeed that desire for happiness and beauty present in each and every man, which you had already spoken about at the CLU Spiritual Exercises. The companionship that I came looking for even here in the U.S. is an answer to that desire. It is the same desire that makes me get up every day and that pushed me to travel thousands of miles far from home. I don't know what will happen in the next few months, and I don't even know how often I will manage to see Pietro and Marta or other CL people (New York City is the nearest community), but I am sure that everything I am looking for is already here, and that all I am asked for is to recognize the Presence of Christ in everything that happens–which is what I desire.

Stefano, Troy, NY (USA)