One Saturday evening last December, together with Sr. Marilú and Sr. Mariagrazia, I went to dinner with a young Italian family who are friends of ours and live close to us. The year before, we began the tradition of going to dinner at their house, bringing our planners to plan the next meeting before saying leaving. Alessandro, the father, with his curious style, one of those who doesn’t let anything slip by, began the dinner with a question: “What beautiful things happened during 2024? What relationships?”. After a first moment of silence, a bit taken off guard by the question, each one of us began to recall faces and facts for which we certainly wanted to give thanks.
John is one of the sick persons we have been going to visit since we opened our house. An esteemed doctor, passionate about film, he has been confined to a wheelchair for many years now. From the very beginning we began to spend time with him by watching movies together. Little by little, he began to share his desire for Paradise and his desire to “work” to get there, asking us many questions. In the past two years, he discovered the prayer of the rosary, reciting it every day by himself, in particular, for the faith of his grandchildren and, waiting on our arrival, once a week, to pray it together. Even a friendship with Shelia, his wife, has flowered in these years, giving us the occasion to share life, their joys and difficulties, with their family.
Our heart was full of gratitude to God for all that He had given to us to live
Many other encounters then come to mind from when we visited homes with the Pilgrim Madonna, from October to May. This gesture gives us the opportunity to enter into the dwelling of our people and pray together with them. A Vietnamese couple welcomed us one evening in October together with the icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe, that we were carrying from house to house. We recited the rosary in a room that was set up for prayer, with lights and variously colored flowers, many images and religious statues. At the end of the rosary, Mirabel, the wife, had prepared spring rolls and other fried vegetables for us, sharing their story while we ate. A dive into another world! From that meeting, Mirabel and her husband came faithfully to pray with us every Sunday, during the hour of adoration in our chapel.
After various other stories, it is our friend’s turn: for Alessandro and Irene, the greatest gift of the past year is without a doubt the third child on the way, who is about to be born and whom they have much awaited. Our memory, in fact, goes to the visit we had in June at the Cathedral of Denver. Together with them, we entrusted this child to the intercession of the Servant of God, Julia Greely, whose tomb is there in the Cathedral: she is invoked by many families, especially those who desire to have families.
Returning home that evening, our heart was full of gratitude to God for all that He had given to us to live. It is beautiful to have friends who give us the occasion to relook at all of this!
