Poems for mother

With my mother, there had never been an easy relationship. She used to criticize my faith, calling me deluded. After leaving home, I maintained a relationship more with my father, who wisely knew how to balance the situation. One day, he called me: my mother was in the hospital because of a serious illness. On the way to the hospital, I thought of what could give her joy. I knew she loved the poems of Attila József, a famous Hungarian poet, so I got one of his audiobooks. As I entered my mother’s room, I couldn’t believe what I saw. She was no longer herself, transformed by her sorrow. But as soon as she began to listen to those poems, her eyes became as bright as if she was dreaming. My subsequent visits thus became a rediscovery of our national poet, but it was a great joy for me to see that she had involved other sick people in reading or listening to the poems. Because of this act of charity of hers toward them, I felt as if I was getting acquainted with another person: “You taught me that you have to love everyone,” she commented. And me? I was by her side until she breathed her last in an atmosphere of serenity and hope.
(L.M.L., Hungary)

Three meals a day

In the usual expenditures of our family budget, we had included a sum to be made available to those in need. It’s just that, on a particular day, we could not get it out because there were many expenses. It was a real disappointment for us. At this point, our two little sons came with their wallets and, in front of us, poured the entire contents, all their savings, onto the table. The episode was followed up when Grandma came to visit us, and the children told her what they had done. And she, looking at us puzzled, “But how, you help others when you are also in need?” Before we could react, clearing the air was the youngest who said, “But Grandma, we eat three times a day!” With that sentence, serenity returned, and a few days later, Grandma also returned with an envelope in her hand: “This is my contribution that I put together with yours… After all, I, too, eat three times a day!”
(L.R., Italy)

Compiled by Maria Grazia Berretta

(taken from “Il vangelo del giorno,” Città Nuova, Year IX – No. 1, September-October 2023)