Letters - 2022 - Page 2

Photo: Unsplash/Victor Malyushev

"My roses are blooming"

Letters

Rachelle recounts community life in North Carolina. In 2011 there were seven people, but at their last gathering there were more than 40 people. "What are You doing, Lord, that You have created this community out of practically nothing?"

Photo: Giorgio Grani/Unsplash

The People of God

Letters

Participating in the Synodal process, Luca witnesses the presence of Christ that transforms everything: "Who are you, Christ, who can change our heart of stone and transform it into a heart of flesh?"

Allegra in Taiwan

Taiwan: A father, the question, the path

Letters

A letter from Allegra, who received Baptism at Easter, faced with the sudden news of the departure of Fr. Donato, who has been a missionary on the island for many years.

Pope Francis at the World Meeting of Families (Photo: Catholic Press Photo)

Wonder that moves the heart

Letters

Ugo was invited with his wife and children to the World Meeting of Families with Pope Francis. "Reality far exceeded my expectations." Here is his story

Monsignor Jules Boutros on the day of his consecration as bishop

"It is I who received from you"

Letters

The Spiritual Exercises of the Fraternity of CL were also held in Lebanon, with the participation of Monsignor Jules Boutros, the new bishop of the Church of Antioch. He is a friend who recently started spending time with the small Lebanese community.

Ari and Cindy in Rome

"I want to be like them"

Letters

Ari was born in Indonesia and moved to the Netherlands with his wife Cindy for a master's degree. He got to know about CL in his parish. His defensive heart, the invitations, that couple at the Rimini Meeting, and the words that became experience...

Havana (Photo: Daniel Sessler Zoe/Unsplash)

Caribbean: returning to the essential

Letters

The Fraternity Exercises took place from May 20-22 for the Caribbean communities. They are experiencing real difficulties, but Presence continues to change lives. Here are the letters of two friends who lived those days with them...

Bloomington, Indiana (Photo: Aaron Shafer/Unsplash)

Sharing life

Letters

After a period when many friends began to leave, new faces came to join Chevy and the community in Bloomington. She shares how she discovered the joy of sharing with others what she has met.

The church in Owo that was attacked on June 5 (Photo: Ansa)

Nigeria: "The greatest help I receive”

Letters

After the attack in the church in Owo on June 5, the temptation was to say: “Nothing will ever change.” Barbara recounts what allowed her not to be discouraged, and what made her say “yes” again.

(Photo: Eduardo Garcia/Unsplash)

Peru: Do you need more?

Letters

University students from Peru participated in the CLU Spiritual Exercises in Latin America. Here are some testimonies that recount what those days provoked...

Smoky Mountains (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

The Master is here and He is waiting for you

Letters

Friends from Indiana, Tennessee, Minnesota, and New Jersey gathered in the Smokey Mountains to follow the Fraternity Exercises. Amid hikes and children, "we left filled with the certainty that the cabin was—and our friendship is—a place of belonging."

Women from Meeting Point International in Kampala dancing

Uganda: Moved by an experience that gives gusto to everything

Letters

A problematic pregnancy, and other difficulties that “make everything gray.” Then she received an invitation to meet the women of the Meeting Point. Francesca speaks of "the greatest novelty that happens in me by simply looking at them."

Photo: Unsplash/Connor Misset

"Called by name, like Zacchaeus by Jesus”

Letters

Antonio, a detainee, is serving an alternative sentence in a facility near Rimini. He recounts how meeting new friends broke down the walls that "I had built around myself since I was a child."

Vincent van Gogh, 'Houses at Auvers' (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

What makes a house a home

Letters

Rossella experiences a newness in opening her home to friends, and thanks to this experience is learning that "how I can discover my own heart and that my life is important for what happens in the world."

The Little "Tenda"

Letters

Together with friends, Lucia organized a "Tenda" to help fundraise for #helpUkraine. She recounts how she rediscovered the meaning of charitable work.

Liao Xinci

Taiwan: "To let God love me"

Letters

Liao Xinci received Baptism in Taipei during the Easter vigil. A story that began eight years ago when she met some friends from CL in college, and that she recounts today in this letter…

Photo: Unsplash/Calwaen Liew

Ukraine: "Tonight I encountered the stars"

Letters

A professor from Naples forwarded us a message he received from one of his former Ukrainian students, who returned to his country a few years ago. His years at school and that moment during the curfew looking up to the sky…

Ukrainian refugees in Poland (© Gabriel Pietka)

Poland: "How to have God in our home"

Letters

Celina has just retired and has now come to understand why she studied Russian so many years ago. Anna and her husband have also opened their home to five strangers thanks to whom she has rediscovered the value of her time and savings....

© Unsplash/Jeswin Thomas

Rimini: “The indelible mark”

Letters

Morning prayer, the news of the war and all the fears that assail her. Then that gaze on her own life… A letter from a 17-year-old student

Caracas (Photo: Jorge Campos/Unsplash)

Venezuela-Florida: A boundless friendship

Letters

In 2019, Enrico from Gainesville responded to the request for help from Venezuelan friends. The entire American community was mobilized. Since then, that gesture has never ceased, which is a mutual testimony...