Dearest Fr. Julián,

I have just read your letter on the occasion of your re-election as president of the Fraternity. I am writing to you, first and foremost, to thank you for the tenderness with which you called us back to the Common Fund. Nothing more corresponding. In the past few days, my wife and I have asked ourselves several times about making a small donation for this particular moment we are living. We were a little stuck in identifying who the recipient should be, because all the contributions we could have made seemed to be partial, not so much in a material sense – it is clear that ours is a drop in the ocean - but rather with respect to the ultimate purpose of such a donation. The question was: "What do we want to contribute to with this money?”

We were not able to answer this question and, therefore, we could not decide. I think that we would have asked a few friends to suggest which entity needed more help, and we would have moved accordingly – we have not ruled out doing this as it does not seem wrong. But that was not enough for me. Then I read your letter and I immediately "adhered". There were two consequences. The first is that I talked about it with my wife and together we decided to make a little "extraordinary payment" to the movement. It was also an opportunity to reflect again about how much we give each month to the common fund, an amount which has remained unchanged since we were students. For some months now, both my wife and I have had, by the grace of God, a more stable job and, therefore, a different availability. What is happening has had such a disruptive force that I can concretely answer my question: "What do we contribute to?".

Read also - "Our step of self-awareness".

The answer is obvious, and it is that the use of this money also contributes to increasing our - more urgent than ever - self-awareness. It helps us understand who we are, what we are made for and what hope we have been called to. A few days ago, I was reading School of Community and I did not understand when it says: "When an encounter is all-embracing, it becomes the shape, not only the sphere, of relationships. It not only establishes a companionship as the place where relationships exist but it is the form by which they are conceived of and lived out”. And so, through this gesture, we had the opportunity to go deeper into the flesh of this "form".

Vincenzo#Coronavirus