I've been teaching at my current high school for three years now. As the only person in my school who is in the Movement, I’ve learned what it means to live my belonging to the charism of Fr. Giussani, removed from the physical community. While I do often invite my students and coworkers to CL events, I’ve grown to accept my being a “one man CL island” in the school. I’ve discovered that I can live my belonging to the Movement in the way I talk to my coworkers about my students and aspirations for them. I live this belonging in the way I greet my students at the door, and in the way I teach my students about the Rule of St. Benedict, the five pillars of Islam, and the current events that are impacting both our local and global community.

One of the most beautiful things about Giussani’s proposal is that it is a fundamentally human one. It has to do with all human beings, whether or not they belong to the Movement, whether they are Catholic or another type of Christian, Muslim, Jewish, atheist, black, white, man, or woman. Because for Fr. Giussani, Christ corresponds to the needs of the human heart, that same objective need that constitutes the existence of everyone. So as much as I would like to have other ciellini working at my school with me, I’m convinced that my friends continue to accompany even when they are not physically present.

And yet, every once in awhile, a coworker or student will be curious about the way I teach or the way I relate to them. Something about my friendship with Giussani will sometimes strike someone, and I’ll invite them to “come and see” where this friendship comes from. After this past GS winter vacation, a group of students that I invited were left with a particularly lasting impression as we returned back to school the next week.

-How was the vacation for you guys? I asked them.
-We had fun...they said
-What does fun mean? What happened while you were there?

My students always respond with quick and general answers to my questions, thus the eye rolls I get when I provoke them to “go beneath the surface” and tell me what they actually mean by “fun” “good” and “alright.”

-It’s different being with them...I felt like I could be free.
-I could talk about life in a different way, like about stuff that actually matters.

It was proposed the we begin working on Is It Possible to Live this Way?, vol. 2. When I asked those same students to come after school to work on School of Community...more eye rolls.

-Do we have to?

Fast forward to the next week. I asked them: now that the experience of the vacation is over, how do we continue to understand what we met there while we are here at school now

-I guess this is why we need to be doing School of Community.

I eventually remembered later that morning that it was the anniversary of Giussani’s death. And as a gift for his feast day, we were given a new community. I recognized once again the beauty and constant novelty of following someone who has met the charism of Fr. Giussani.

From my student’s realization that morning began our new tradition of reading of the School of Community and praying the Angelus every day before school starts. Seeing the two of my kids waiting outside of the door has become a new sign of Giussani’s promise to me that I can count on being reminded of every day. The same promise I meet when I’m at my own School of Community, the same promise which changes the way I look at my work, coworkers, and students, is now physically present at my door every morning.

I now thank Fr. Giussani on my way to school every day for giving me this companionship through which I can delve deeper into my daily experiences at work in a renewed and more concrete way.

Stephen, New Jersey, USA