Dear friends,

Since I could not be there with you over the weekend, I am sending my greetings and an invitation: at the beginning of this vacation, be grateful to be together. Do not take it for granted. Your being there was not something you did, you just said yes to God’s initiative toward you. The fact it happened was not random, it is a grace, a gift that comes before any of your own initiatives or merits. This is what fills our lives with hope. Abraham, John and Andrew, Peter were all chosen. They were people like us, normal people touched by the preference of the Mystery.

This means the vacation is a precious opportunity to help you to acknowledge this fact: that we were chosen. If that first piece of evidence gets lost, our world begins to grow dark, both our lives and everything around us. The Lord had you encounter this “strange companionship.” Why? To teach you a method that will allow you not to lose your life in living. One of the greatest gifts that I received from Fr. Giussani was a method to be able to walk. This is why I told him, “I will always be grateful to you because, from the time I met you, I was able to make a journey, a human journey.” This is how I discovered how faith is relevant for life’s needs. I discover this every day, living those circumstances the Lord places in front of me.

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