Reading and listening to the recent painful events that involved some persons in the Movement in Italy, I felt the urge to write. Over the past few days, I thought about it all a lot and I discovered a new way to face these circumstances. When things like this happen, the majority of people react either by indulging in pure gossip or by searching frantically for more information in the attempt to understand what is right and what is wrong–mainly to defend something. On the contrary, I have been taken over by a painful silence, which has become a prayer. The first question that came to mind was: “How can what is happening have anything to do with me?” After all, I live in Bogotá; I have very good reasons to disregard the whole situation. But that was not the case. Therefore, I asked myself, “How is this situation impacting upon my life?” Lately, we have been busy working on our Christmas recital, an endeavor that requires a great commitment, before the deserved Christmas break. I said to myself, “What hope do I propose to these children? What do I celebrate on Christmas?” I realized that what is happening doesn’t take away even a smidge of my certainty, and of the truth of the encounter that I had, and that I still have every day. Then, just as Carrón wrote in his recent letter to the Fraternity, the real problem is the conversion of our hearts. All the painful events we are going through can be a positive opportunity for us, only if they allow the conversion of our hearts. The hope of the world, in fact, does not coincide with our events, our works, not even with our “teachers. ” The hope of the world coincides with our own conversion, and with the daily opportunity of a relationship with Christ. Even if there were just two of us left, it would still be true. I would like these few lines of mine to be the most sincere embrace of all of you, as well as an invitation to live and marvel at the encounter that we had; to bear witness to the Truth that is present and continues to fill us with wonder as we encounter it in the simple daily circumstances of our lives.

Irene, Bogotá (Colombia)