Reading the text of the Beginning of Year Day made me think about everything the School of Community has given me over the past few years. I did not let myself be amazed easily by things, always being self-centered, closed in "my little world".

Indeed, it seemed to me that I was not growing up as a person, that I was getting stuck. School of Community forced me to work on this, to verify and compare myself to my experience, with what was happening in my life.

I had to confront myself and seek, in my life, a correspondence to the desires of my heart, to understand what I was looking for and what I was missing. So, I had to work on being more open to allow more signs to enter. I really began to see things that, before, would have gone unnoticed, which I would not have paid attention to and that I would have let slip away. These same things that, before, seemed normal and insignificant to me and that I would have now forgotten, are beginning to reveal themselves to me as signs.

Therefore, recently a lot has happened, some things more striking than others. I would like to give two examples of this.

The first: I saw my son Pietro get involved as an animator in our parish. After accepting this proposal, he began to doubt his ability to lead a group and wondered how he should proceed. However, despite his fears he accompanied Fr. Gionata on this journey. This showed me that things do not belong to me, do not come from me, but that the Mystery acts, and that Pietro may have recognized Fr. Gionata as an authority, in the sense of the word given by Fr. Giussani.

The second example is a little thing that made me reflect. I heard the phrase from a song my youngest son was listening to: "I drink rainwater to have a piece of heaven in me". This sentence reminded me of a desire and, therefore, of the expression of a lack that unites all men, and once again it reminded me of the School of Community.

I’ve really noticed the difference between my previous self and what I am now: a greater openness.

Roberta, Mauritius