Hi Gen!
I am writing to you from Trento, where mass was held last night for the 100 years since the birth of Chiara, presided over by the archbishop and another 100 priests. In the small church in front of Chiara’s birthplace we were together: some gen, popi, pope, families, adherents etc.
In that small group I somehow felt all of you, the gen of Italy, and of the whole world. The archbishop said two things that struck me I wanted to mention.
The first was this:
“To have one’s neighbor as the ultimate goal of one’s actions means: I empty myself to make the other exist and while I empty myself I become fullness.” The second one is this: “Turn your communities into a refuge of fraternity.”
Gen, I think here is all that is needed to live the ideal in the concreteness of everyday life. “Emptying ourselves for the other person, to help them and become fullness”, this is a powerful phrase, crazy. Put aside prejudices, difficulties, thoughts, to welcome others, whoever they are, to create bridges of unity. Because this is our strength in being gen, we are called to this!
And the second, “Transform your communities into a refuge of fraternity”, can only be our daily good morning.
Wherever you are, whatever your situation, whether you are sure of your path or you are wondering what is the right path for you, whether you are gen, super gen, confused gen, no longer gen, gen without knowing well what it means and so on, do not miss the opportunity to transform every single moment into a refuge of fraternity.
With parents, with brothers or sisters, with friends, employers, university professors, with the cashier at the supermarket, with the homeless outside the station, with the people you love and with those who you can’t stand.
Let yourselves be carried away by the desire to create a moment of fraternity with your neighbor. Be the first to want a change, to take the first step, to set an example.
BE INSPIRED.
A big hug gen, remember that the charism of the movement passes through us, because we are the second generation, the one that Chiara may not have known but who nevertheless feels the ideal as something that brings love and fraternity.
Davide Picassio
