“May the birth of Jesus bring Hope for all” was one of the wishes addressed to our Pastoral Community by the priests and the Pastoral Council; and from the 2025 Calendar proposed by Avvenire, the following message from Speranza is highlighted:
” 24/12/2024 – One year of walking together.
Dear reader, kind reader.
Do you allow a personal question? Here it is: and you, what are you hoping for today? It is the question that opens together with the Holy Door on Christmas Night, thrown open by the Pope on a Jubilee that he wanted to dedicate to hope. Universal choice, as is the Church: because hope for Catholics is a theological virtue, one of the supporting walls of the believing life, but at the same time it is a very secular foundation of every personal and community perspective, of openness to tomorrow, just like the Holy Door Jubilee, opening onto the future, symbolically points to humanity and to each of us. The Holy Year that awaits us therefore touches our personal life, inviting us to refocus on the essential, but also society and the world, the Church as well as the civil community. A kind and clear proposal to change one's life for the better, and an appointment that would be a shame to waste by considering it only a “major ecclesial event”. It will be, of course, because the Pope invites us to become pilgrims in Rome and in the Jubilee churches of our lands. But every day of this year-long journey offers itself first and foremost both as an opportunity to “let our humanity rest”, regenerating it with what gives it fullness, and as a possibility to “forgive the debts” with which we have burdened others , creation and ourselves.
To help us all seize this opportunity for individual and interior, community and social life, Avvenire launches today with this newsletter of which you are reading the first issue a new tool which on a fortnightly basis (even more frequently, when necessary) will provide information on main events of the Jubilee, will talk about Rome which is its living heart, and will also offer simple, direct, cordial spiritual and cultural company. We are counting on your friendship to make people you know appreciate this Jubilee journey proposal too: just send the newsletter to anyone who may find it interesting or useful, inviting them to sign up (it's completely free, the link is at the bottom). We hope to meet your questions, which are also ours, and we hope to compose together during the Holy Year a “map of hopes”: those that we carry within us today, and those that we will discover along the way, as pilgrims, as he invites us to be Pope Francis, following his steps and words. Happy Holy Year of Hope!
Francesco Ognibene “
Also on the message of Hope is the content of this Avvenire article:
” With this article, Don Maurizio Patriciello begins for Avvenire.it a review of portraits of people who have left a trace of good in his life. Not necessarily illustrious faces, but all capable of giving him a reserve of hope.
He was asking for a ride on the street corner. Young, light-hearted, badly patched gray habit, long, sparse beard, full tonsure. Barefoot. From the crucifix attached to the cord that surrounds his waist, I understand that he could be a follower of Saint Francis. Intrigued, I stop:
«Come on, come on. Who are you? What is your name? Why do you go barefoot? Don't tell me you're trying to please God…”
«I am Riccardo, a Franciscan friar».
Then laughing: «Make God happy? But what are you saying? Do you think I'm so stupid? Our lifestyle is a way of trying to remind men, often distracted, that the poor are hungry. That we must care about them, demand their rights. We have chosen to be on their side, by example, but without railing against the rich.”
“And you? What are you up to?”.
«My name is Maurizio, I'm a nurse. I am going to the “San Gennaro” hospital for work. Do you know? I'm not Catholic, or, at least, I'm not anymore.”
We said a few more things to each other, then we parted ways. I didn't think – how could I? – that that meeting would turn my life upside down.
I wasn't even 30 yet. Born into a Catholic family, after the sudden death of my mother, disappointed, I distanced myself from the Church, slamming its doors behind me. What would have become of me if I hadn't found an evangelical community on my path that welcomed me, loved me, gave me a Bible, defended me from the thousand traps into which so many young people fall, I just can't imagine. For “my” evangelical community I have eternal gratitude. After the years of enthusiasm, however, I felt that that experience – beautiful, engaging, genuine – was coming to an end.
Like a child in the womb, at the end of my pregnancy, I felt I had to get out, go away, get back on the path. Not to die, not to let die.
It took courage, but I decided to be completely honest with myself. I didn't pretend to be understood. I remained alone, without friends, without church, without certainties, but with an open, friendly, benevolent gaze on the world and humanity.
A few weeks after meeting Fra Riccardo, I went to look for him. I obviously thought I would find him in an ancient brick convent, what was my surprise, however, when I realized that with his brotherhood he lived in some old disused railway carriages, near the Capodimonte woods, in Naples. Wagons in which it gets hot in the summer and freezes in the winter. Simple, poor, Spartan life. In some respects, heroic. We sat on two stones in the tiny garden talking.
«Listen, brother, I find myself in a strange situation. I'm looking but I don't know what. I know I have a date but I don't know who. I have an aversion towards Catholicism. I don't understand many of your things, I don't like them, I don't agree with them. If only they were all like you, the priests: poor, humble, welcoming. I have many doubts that torment me, I would like to discuss them with you. Do you agree to embark on this adventure?”.
The answer is obvious.
We met more and more often. After becoming friends, we took a step forward: he was a spiritual father, I was a disciple. In the summer, happy, hitchhiking, I went down to Sicily with them. In Corleone the friars live in an old prison perched on a rock, overlooking the valleys. Up there you can touch the sky with your hand. At night, lying on the hot rock, we stared at the stars and questioned God. In the town of Riina, Provenzano, Bagarella, San Leoluca and many honest people, I remained meditating for a couple of months. I was thirsty. Of truth, of freedom, of justice, of love. I needed to know.
Armed with stubborn patience, I enrolled in the theological faculty. As a layman. It was a tiring and beautiful year. From
day on the benches, at night, in the hospital, caring for Christ in his suffering brothers. I was now ready for the big leap. The hospital where I worked – first nurse, then head of department – was a few steps away from my house. I got there on foot. Leaving the little I had built didn't bother me. On the contrary, it set me free as I had never been before.
Dad – poor dad! – there was no peace. He seriously thought I had lost my mind. He wasn't entirely wrong. Great choices are always accompanied by a pinch of madness. The Lord will grant him the grace, before dying, to kiss, with emotion, the hands of his priest son.
While Riccardo, from Africa, where he had left as a missionary, sent me his blessing, which still accompanies me. “
Other help for Hope can also be found in this article of ours (click WHO).
