“Our Lady, it is you who give certainty to our hope!”

Dear friends,
this phrase, which today greets those approaching the tomb where our Father Giussani is buried, was so dear to him that on the very occasion of a pilgrimage to Loreto, years ago, he said, “This is the most important phrase in the whole history of the Church; the whole of Christianity is expressed in it. […] Without Our Lady we would be unable to be sure of the future, because the certainty of the future comes to us from Christ: the Mystery of God who becomes man. This could never have happened, it would even have been impossible to retell it, if we had not had Our Lady" (Message for the pilgrimage to Loreto, on the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of Communion and Liberation, 2004).

At this moment of your life, so full of questioning toward the future, on your way to the house of Mary have your gaze fixed on her, look at her “yes” from which everything began (and it began in the very house where you will arrive today!), so that through her your heart may be opened to the Mystery of God who becomes man. Please ask Our Lady–for yourself and for your friends, for all of us and for the whole Movement–this openness of heart, the openness to say “yes” to God’s mysterious initiative on our lives so that we may become again, at all times, new men and women.

All this in the beauty of sharing our road: in fact, “the primary characteristic of the new man is that it becomes evident to him that he does nothing on his own, it is not him who empowers himself, not him who has the courage, not him who has the energy, not him who has the clear head: all of this is given to him. How is it given to him? By the companion close to him sharing his road. This companion sharing the road is the same one whom John and Andrew contemplated and who becomes clear throughout the passage of time […] in the companionship of others who recognize him as I do, to whom he makes himself recognizable as he made himself recognizable to me. Therefore, this companion becomes companionship” (Luigi Giussani, L’autocoscienza del cosmo [The self-awareness of the cosmos], Bur, Milan, 2000, pp. 23-24).

May the invocation to Our Lady become a regular prayer for you when, today or sometimes in your life, you feel lacking energy, courage, lucidity: O Lord, “don’t stop at my threshold: enter me; take possession of my home up to its walls, up to its foundations. Our life, the life of those who live our companionship with this desire and supplication, with this daily prayer through Mary, looking at Mary, is the source of a possibility and capacity for joy and satisfaction as nowhere else around the world can be found” (Luigi Giussani, Pilgrimage to Lourdes celebrating 10 years of the Fraternity of CL, 1992; video).

All our people today are walking together with you, accompanying you in a companionship to your life that is definitive, whatever road the Mystery that makes all things will call you to take. If you are willing to accept it, this companionship will never leave you alone, and this makes your road safe.

I ask you to pray for Pope Francis and for the whole Church and, as the Holy Father himself asks us every day, pray every step you will take for the gift of peace.

Thank you for your testimony!