We were on vacation with a small group of families. Long before, we had thought of "bringing" the Meeting to our town and we prepared everything to do so. The idea arose after participating in a meeting with the president, Bernhard Scholz, who described what motivated them to propose the Meeting a new form. After listening to him, three of us, without saying anything to each other, signed up as "Ambassador" volunteers. We went for it. And then we also proposed it to others. In particular, our desire became even more inflamed when a friend, who has never been able to go to Rimini because of health problems, told us: "What joy! This year I will also be at the Meeting!"

Our initial "yes" became total: the preparatory meetings with an increasing number of friends, the willingness of our parish priest to offer us a place... everything indicated a path that was being outlined. But "man proposes and God disposes.”

When we returned from our vacation in Croatia, we had to be tested and quarantine. We could not leave the house and be with our friends...Hugely painful. But they allowed us to participate, every day, with photos, stories, recordings. We have experienced, once again, that the limit is not an objection: we felt united. I felt part of the construction of the "cathedral", where and how I was called to live. It has not been something less, but an opportunity for me. So I began sending videos and messages to those I had personally invited, even a Russian friend who lives in Moscow, and who wrote to me: "As always, every year, the Meeting comes to life from your account. While I watch the videos and exhibitions, your enthusiastic face reappears telling me a story that is yours! And that today is more mine.” My Meeting from home has had all the wonder of my I, which does not stop even if enclosed within four walls.

Read also - An opportunity for conversion

This is the message I wrote to my friends who were there: "Dear friends, I am still reading the messages and looking at the photos you sent us this week. How not to be grateful for all the work you have done. Last night we "Croatian exiles" watched the exhibition on K2 together. The sentence that sums up the exhibition says: "We left together, we have returned together!" How could we not feel it for ourselves, so corresponding, in thinking about the fact that each of us was there from the beginning, we never failed, even though the situation prevented us from being there physically and forced us to stay at home. But it is the awareness of purpose that moves the action, wherever you are. Just like this morning: we went to Fr. Giussani at the Monumental Cemetery and in front of a father we gave everything and everyone, even this Meeting, to him who showed us a path. The road! We have given him our being, our doing, our being together. Wherever the circumstances call us, we are together, because the objective is clear, as we saw yesterday at the exhibition: together to reach the summit! One of the climbers said that, at a certain point, he was forced to go back because he was not feeling well, and reaching the base camp he found a friend in serious condition, so he saved his life. We are a bit like that climber: we had to stop but we are certain that, somehow, our initial yes to "climbing" has contributed to you reaching the top. The last stretch is for you! We are with you!"

Monica, Cassano Magnago, Italy#Meeting20