“In CLU, I discovered that faith in Jesus has to do with my whole life and to grow and blossom, it needs a community; I cannot live my faith alone.” These are the words of a girl who last September began to come to the group for university students in Communion and Liberation.
In the context of the Kenyan church, the presence of CL is something unusual because usually Catholic groups are organized and institutionalized within single parishes and then grouped together at a diocesan level. Since Communion and Liberation is not a group of this sort, it is little known.
It is for this reason that, last February 22nd, to celebrate the forty years of the presence of the Movement in Kenya and on the occasion of the anniversary of the death of the founder, the local community of CL wanted to organize a missionary gesture to allow others to know it better and to share its contribution to the life of the CHurch. An exhibit on Fr. Giussani was put together and all those who participate in the mass in the parish entrusted to our Fraternity were invited to visit it.
Faith is not only a personal fact but an experience of communion
Although the exhibit was not immediately comprehensible, since it was decided to not present the story of the life of Fr. Giussani but a synthesis of his three main works, the day was a beautiful occasion for encounter. In particular, two university students had grasped, beyond the presentation of the thought of Giussani, the presence of a community of friends desirous of living all of life in the light of the faith. And so they became involved with enthusiasm and conviction in the life of CLU, the university students of CL, participating in School of Community and in the charitable work with the poor children in the slum of Mathare.
Then, they decided to come to the Spiritual Exercises that were held just before Easter. For the around forty students that participated, they were very beautiful days, in which they were able to discover that life is vocation: a call from God to follow Him. The theme and the place that had been reserved to hold the meetings were a help to go deeper into relationships that with time are growing in this small community. They are relationships that go beyond even social division that generally characterizes the relationships between students who are enrolled in professional courses as opposed to university courses.
It was incredible to accompany these young people who, the more they walk, the more they desire that others come to know what they encountered. It is not in fact rare that they invite friends and classmates to participate in CLU. With this desire, they are also organizing the presentation of the exhibit on Fr. Giussani in their university and in the professional school so that, as it happened to a few of them recently, others too can encounter a community in which they may discover that faith is not only a personal fact but an experience of communion, in which Christ brings new light to every relationship and circumstance of life.
