Courage in the storm

The images on the TV showed the places in our country hit by the hurricane and left isolated. Our families lived there, and so you can imagine the anxiety that we seminarians felt. The Word of Life of that month seemed very apt because it urged us to have faith. United, we prayed for our loved ones, and we were given permission to leave the seminary the following day to go and find them. But that very night, the capital was also hit hard: flooded roads, collapsed bridges, no electricity… But our seminary was still standing. We set off anyway: during that journey on foot or in makeshift rafts or tied to ropes to overcome the resistance of the torrents, we were forced to deviate countless times. And finally, we came to our hometown… It was unrecognizable! Where there used to be countryside, there was now a lake. After embracing our loved ones (They had lost everything, but they were safe!), we offered our services to the parish priest to help with emergency services. The new Word of Life proposed for that month seemed to be addressed precisely to us, to give us courage and share it with others: “Blessed are the afflicted…” (Mt 5:4).

(Melvin, Honduras)

The umbrella

I believe that Christ is behind every poor and marginalized person. In them, He is asking to be loved, so I try not to miss opportunities to do so. For example, in the café near my house, I noticed a very poor person we had nicknamed “Pen”: he was soaking wet because it was raining that day. I knew that he had tuberculosis, and so, overcoming some resistance to being seen in his company, I invited him home to find him something dry to put on. My parents were amazed and incredulous. “Dad, we could use some clothes…” At first, Dad wasn’t very enthusiastic but, just the same, he procured a pair of trousers while I found a jacket. But the rain didn’t seem to be letting up… And I said, getting back into the swing of things: “Dad, what if we gave them an umbrella as well?” We found one too. The man was happy, but I was even happier, because we had worked together to help him. But it didn’t end there. A few days later, Pen came back to return the umbrella. Actually, it wasn’t the one we had given him, it was much nicer. Pen told us that our umbrella had been stolen, and that someone had given him another one. He wanted to give it back to us.

(Francesco, Italy)

Love goes beyond words

Shortly after her birth, Mariana was diagnosed with a severe malformation of the brain. She would never be able to speak or walk. But God asked us to love her just as she was, and, with trust, we threw ourselves, so to speak, into his Fatherly arms. This child lived with us for just four years; we never heard her say the words “Daddy” or “Mommy,” but in her silence, her eyes spoke with a shining light. We could not teach her to take her first steps, but she taught us to take our first steps in love, forgetting ourselves in order to love. Mariana was a gift from God for our entire family: we could sum it all up in one phrase: love goes beyond words.

(Alba, Brazil)

Compiled by Lorenzo Russo

(Taken from “Il Vangelo del Giorno,” Città Nuova, year VII, no. 3, May – June 2021)