This year at the summer vacation, Olivetta asked Monica, Lorenzo and I to help organize a fundraiser for the NYE. We were hoping to involve Cardinal O’Malley to participate to the event. As the months passed, it became clear that it was impossible to have the Cardinal join. Then, Monica had the intuition that before organizing a big event, we needed to tell our community what the NYE was, and really share with them why it was beautiful to go, even if it is far away and a bit expensive. Therefore, we asked Fr. Stefano to have a moment after an Assembly (we have Assemblies on the work of SoC, with the whole community, on a monthly basis) to present the NYE. We asked four friends to speak of their experience at the NYE: two volunteers, Christianne and Roberto; a parent, Marco and a guest, Carolina.

This proposal really seemed to me a gesture of charity, not only toward those who did not know of, or had never been to the NYE, but even for me who I had gone annually since moving to the US.

In fact, I was moved to see how some of those “new” to the Encounter immediately decided to follow the proposal. For example, my two friends Olivia and Maura, who came with a group of young professionals, immediately asked me about going. And another couple, Sabrina’s friends, were ready to book their hotel right away.

It seemed to me that the movement that began was that "spark" that Fr. Carron spoke about at the Beginning Day: “your hearth is moved … that spark, the intuition that it is true for you.” I really felt I had to follow those “new” people who were as simple as children.

The great thing that I see in me is the new affection for this place. Therefore, it feels natural to give something of myself; the NYE is a place for me, and I already see it because of what happened at the presentation after the Assembly.