Teaching responsibility

Due to the pandemic, like many of my colleagues, I started giving lessons online. In the beginning, it was a novelty, and there was a high level of participation among the children, but, over time, some of the craftier ones found ways to do something else and slowly lost interest in the lessons. Faced with such a variety of responses to my commitment to them, I tried not to show preference or approval, but highlighted the importance of taking personal responsibility that was certainly more difficult in those times of crisis. The real dilemma, however, was when I had to pass judgment, because it was clear to me that the written work they had sent me lacked originality and was probably copied. One day, I asked the pupils how they would act in my place. It was an opportunity for them to really reflect on their own participation or non-participation. And what moved me was that they made their own judgment. I don’t think I have ever experienced a life lesson like that before.

(G.P. – Slovenia)

Kindness, patience pays off

We were unable to have children, and this “defeat” meant that we both then focused on our careers. However, after 24 years, our marriage was in crisis. It was as if he had slipped away from me. When I understood that we were moving from young love to adult love, I decided I had to make the first move and asked my husband to come with me to see a counselor. When we got back home, he was visibly upset and confessed how he had no idea I had been suffering so much and apologized. I asked God for help, and I prayed. It felt right that I should leave the job that had led me to excel in my career and tried to be more present at home, as well as be more affectionate and understanding to my husband. For me, it took a lot of kindness and patience, but now our relationship has matured and is no longer tied to expressions that had seemed so important to us when we were young. Today I hear myself saying things that would have been unthinkable a few years ago, like: “I couldn’t live without you.” We are like two companions on a journey, each striving to realize God’s plan on both of us united.

(S.T. – Italy)

Being first to love, an opening to dialogue

When schools were closed due to the pandemic, my teenage nephew became more aggressive than ever. We live in the same house, and I would say that, as a grandmother, I had brought him up, sometimes replacing his parents; I had also accompanied him through difficult moments with his school friends and teachers. One day, his reaction to some food he didn’t like was quite offensive. My first thought was to judge him harshly but, instead, I decided to be the first to love by going into the kitchen to prepare a quick dessert that I knew he liked. When he recognized the smell coming from the oven, he came up to me, hugged me, and asked for forgiveness. I didn’t say anything to him and just acted as if nothing had happened. Then he started to open up, and we had the kind of dialogue we hadn’t had for a long time. When his parents came back, to my surprise, he said that, unlike his classmates, he felt privileged to have his grandmother living in the same house.

(P.B. – Slovakia)

A change in attitude

Often, instead of being grateful to God for what we have and sharing it with those who don’t have much in life, we complain about the food we don’t like, or how small our houses are, and certain clothes we don’t have, and so on. We forget what Jesus had said: that everything we do to our brother; we did it to Him. It was Hurricane Maria that made me and other friends change our attitude, giving us a strong impulse to look at the needs of others. That hurricane had caused a lot of suffering and destruction in our country. Among the many people who had been left homeless was the family of one of my classmates. He, with his parents, and five other siblings who had been living in a basement flat, had lost everything. Together with other classmates, I made a list of the things they needed, and we organized a collection with the much-appreciated help of the altar boys in my parish. Handing over the “providence” we had collected, we were moved to see with what joy and emotion our friend and his family received everything.

(Némesio – Puerto Rico)

Compiled by Stefania Tanesini

(taken from Il Vangelo del Giorno, Città Nuova, year VI, no.5, September-October 2020)