ITALY, by Pamela Fabiano •
The Roman family participated in the Covenant of Love of three girls from the Girls’ Youth on 18 December, at Cor Ecclesiae Shrine, Via Aurelia Antica, Rome.
It had been several years since a Covenant of Love had been celebrated within the Italian Girls’ Youth, and not because the Blessed Mother had not called the girls’ hearts to herself. The desire to entrust their lives to the Blessed Mother, will all that it entails, and to allow themselves to be educated by her, was very strong in Rossella, Chiara and Claudia, but several circumstances had delayed this great event.
Fr. Ludovico Tedeschi is in Rome again
The report about the evening is very simple and direct. The members of the Movement, friends and relatives the girls invited arrived at the Shrine from different parts of Rome, running breathlessly as always, in the midst of afternoon and Christmas traffic; the Sisters welcomed them. They joyfully and emotionally met Fr. Ludovico Tedeschi, who had returned from Argentina to stay with the priests for a few weeks. Fr. Ludovico, who left a year ago after being with us for more than ten years, joined the Mass and Fr. Alfredo Pereira celebrated, who is currently in charge of the Italian Movement and he is the Youth adviser. The moment of the Covenant of Love was touching for many, but especially for the author.
The Covenant sealed by ‘my’ girls also gave my life new brilliance and strength
Having prepared the girls for months, guided by Sr. M. Julia De Almeida and Sr. Vera Lucia Mangas was an experience that I can define as – without false rhetoric – as salvific. Yes, salvific! Imagine a task, a mission that has been entrusted to us, an unwanted situation and, for some mysterious reason, it appears precisely at the moment that you need it. Well, without going into the details of my life (that do not relate to this article) I can affirm with certainty that the Covenant of Love sealed by ‘my’ girls a month ago has also given a new brilliance and strength to my life. This brief report however, is not meant to be a sweet testimony of the only self-defined Christian, no. That would not correspond in any way to our Schoenstatt style!
A perfect balance of freedom, will and grace
It is rather a reflection based on an experience, on a human condition. And, in this case, it is a brief reflection about God’s salvific action, which is known by most people as grace.
Fr. Kentenich always invited us to listen to the signs of the times, to “place the hand on the pulse of time” to recognize what God wants to tell us and give us at this precise moment of our life, of our road. We can only learn to identify the works that God has prepared only for us and to accept them by listening attentively and profoundly. Of course, my salvation undoubtedly depends on my will and freedom to accept and recognize it; moreover it is first a conquest of grace. Through his pedagogical method and his original studies about being human and his relationship with the Divine, Fr. Kentenich helps us to untangle the jungle of uncertainties, indecisions. He shows us a road that is traveled by those, who look at Mary as a model and they entrust themselves to her, experiencing the maximum level of freedom in adhering to God’s salvific proposal.
It is a perfect balance of freedom, will and grace that makes the road of life fascinating and exciting, and makes common men and women true ‘sons and daughters of God’ worthy of this name! The Covenant of Love also carries this knowledge and makes three Roman girls from the youth, special women, aware of themselves and of God’s love for them and who are willing to say “Yes” to God’s salvific proposal.
Original: Italian. Translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, TX USA. Edited by: Melissa Peña-Janknegt, Elgin, TX USA
