Letters - 2021 - Page 3

Endri's baptism

"Children of the same Father"

Letters

The Baptism of a friend met at university. A yes that becomes the sign of a preference for each of his friends, of "Christ working in us".

Following the Exercises in Cantù

Fraternity 2021: "Those who love do not need to be summoned”

Letters

A small group of friends from Cantù follow the Spiritual Exercises in a parish. At the end of the three-day event, the priest who hosted them wrote to say thank you: "I pray that you may bring a hope that does not disappoint to every person you meet..."

Way of the Cross, Dublin

Dublin: living asking Christ to reveal himself

Letters

Churches in Ireland are still closed due to the pandemic. Organizing the Good Friday gesture was a bit of an odyssey, but also an opportunity for new encounters and to enjoy the wonder of the latest arrival to our community.

(Photo: Molly Belle/Unplash)

It takes courage to seek happiness

Letters

Bice attended the GS Easter Triduum. The appeal of what she heard and the questions and desires that have arisen. "And if I find myself at the mercy of fear and pain, I will think back to how I have been reborn during these days."

(Photo: Rajesh Kavasseri/Unsplash)

Life happens now

Letters

When Covid hit, Matt found himself working under one roof with his six kids and his pregnant wife, desperately seeking "projects" that provided an escape. Then, an invitation came.

Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, "St. John and St. Peter at Christ's Tomb" (detail), 1640. © Los Angeles County Museum of Art

A mother at the Easter Triduum

Letters

Eight years after graduating, Anna was able to follow the Good Friday gesture for CL university students. "Even as a wife and mother, I need a Father to follow."

Tilburg University chaplaincy (Photo: Luca Fiore)

The voice of the movement in Dutch

Letters

The pandemic has been an opportunity to translate some of the texts proposed by CL to be able to read them in their mother tongue and to make new encounters: "from the last to arrive, we learn what the charism we have received is”.

Photo: Kari Shea/Unsplash

When plans fall through

Letters

In isolation, worried about "filling her time," Emanuela felt that the more she did, the greater her discomfort at not being able to go out. Then, in such an unwanted situation, a question opened wide…

Photo: Unsplash/Mihály Köles

"A smile in the eyes that is not mine"

Letters

Helping the homeless with the Sisters of Mother Teresa has changed shape because of Covid and the restrictions. Pietro, a university student, is also forced to change by discovering something new, as he recounts in this letter.

I Want to Stay Awake to See Him

Letters

Struggling after the deaths of both of her parents, Melissa discovers unexpected joy in a "painfully beautiful" encounter.

Photo: Unsplash/S&B Vonlanthen

"Mom, I am a happy child"

Letters

Amidst a mother's struggles and suffering in the face of her son's disability, until she realizes that he "lives each day responding to a love"...

Photo: Unsplash/Ben Mullins

"That girl’s big heart"

Letters

"Thrown" from her high school teaching job to middle school and support teaching. A huge struggle, so much so that she was even angry at God. A teacher recounts what then changed everything.

Photo: Unsplash/Bethany Legg

"Good morning Prof, what time are you going to mass?”

Letters

Months of teaching that are tiring, yet very rich, where it is possible to see the humanity of young people flourish. Like that of a boy who talks about his grandmother and his faith, or that of the student who recommends a film about Chiara Lubich...

Photo: Unsplash/Jeswin Thomas

Teachers and students. A single path

Letters

It is possible to bet everything on each of our hearts, as was said during the meeting on January 30. What happens when a student struggling with online learning is asked the big question about the meaning of life?

CL Spiritual Exercises in Rimini, 2018 (Photo: Roberto Masi)

"I began to ask myself: Who am I?"

Letters

Dissatisfied, tired and challenged. Mara asks herself, "What does God want from me?" Then came her encounter with CL. During the lockdown, an unexpected gladness and decision.

Andressa

Brazil: Beauty and pain go together

Letters

The story of eight friends, a young Fraternity group in São Paulo Fraternity, and what they are experiencing thanks to Andressa's testimony... If "the finiteness of life is not the end".

Chile: "Nothing stops us from living intensely”

Letters

No community vacations due to the pandemic. Thus the CL community in Chile moved its days of living together online. Four days of meetings, testimonies, games, art and cooking workshops... An experiment that tries to embrace everything.

Photo: Unplash/Basil Samuel Lade

Basel: "What allows me to walk?"

Letters

During the pandemic, the discovery of the true root of friendship, and the possibility that everything becomes an opportunity for the discovery of the self and of the world. Like an encounter with a Nigerian doctoral student…

Some friends of Bocatas in Barcelona

When there is no proper place for sadness

Letters

An evening with the homeless in Barcelona at the end of December. An encounter “with the last among the last” and a novelty, through charitable work, that can change lives. This is what happened to Peter.

Photo: Pexels-Rodnae Productions

My new (temporary) dwelling place

Letters

The virus strikes Nando and forces him into a hospital room, but his roommate and the comfort of those outside do not leave him alone. A companionship that gives no respite. It is a bit like when you are young at an amusement park…