Rome (Italy). On 26 June 2024, the Novices of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of the International Novitiate, Sister Teresa Valsé Pantellini of Rome via Appia Nuova, lived a day of fraternity in contact with various charisms. Here is their story:
“We must not be afraid of the diversity of charisms in the Church. On the contrary, we must rejoice in living this diversity.”
These words of Pope Francis, at the beginning of the Video of the Pope of January 2024, that gather our experience today. During the Novitiate journey, we had the opportunity to meet and make friends with Novices of other Congregations with whom we shared a journey of growth, becoming travel companions for the stretch of road that the Lord has given us to share.
But our experience of the Church did not stop there. Our neighborhood is particularly rich in charismatic diversity and this has given us the opportunity to weave meaningful fraternal relationships, which hide a beauty that is the fruit of the Spirit.
We want to share what we lived on Wednesday 26 June 2024, when we went out in late morning, and reached the Canossian Sisters in their house not far from ours.
The desire was to have lunch together, in the simplicity of being together. Once again what we experienced in our encounter with Sister Eusebia Palomino. We discovered how “liquor in coffee“: the unique taste of life that comes from something not strictly necessary, but that offers good soil to live friendship, sharing, joy, the beauty of knowing Sisters of the same family that is the Church.
What filled our hearts the most, in addition to the abundant generosity of the sisters, was the simplicity with which we were together. We shared our moments of life and laughter that were born spontaneously, result of these years of prayer and mutual support that have built, thread after thread, a network of relationships that feel like home.
Back in the Community, we then prepared for the new encounter that was waiting for us: the arrival of the young Rogationists of the Studentate not far from us. We met them almost by chance, asking for the availability of priests for the morning Eucharistic celebration. Friendship then blossomed in recent years with singing rehearsals together, with moments of fraternity, and participation in important celebrations such as the diaconal ordination of one of them and the vocational vigil in the parish of Saints Anthony and Annibale Maria.
As soon as they arrived, we celebrated the Eucharist together, feeling strongly that, also in the diversity of the Charisms, the Bread and Wine unite us at the one table that is colored by the richness of diversity.
It was enough to see the gazes to understand the joy that everyone experienced. At the end of the Celebration, we then moved to the terrace for dinner. Laughter, stories, and sharing of experiences were the background ingredients for the beauty of being together.
We can really say that the Lord has granted us to live what we read in Sirach: “Faithful friends are a sturdy shelter; whoever finds one finds a treasure. Faithful friends are life-saving medicine.” (Sir 6: 14.16)
The invitation that we leave, then, is to go and seek the Consecrated Men and Women who live close to you in your own mission and to witness to the love of God. Just knock on the door, go and visit them, invite them home. We assure you that it is worth the joy you will find!
