Vacations

Discovering the Noblest Time of the Year
Vacation? It’s a privileged moment, Fr. Giussani said: “because it is the moment when you commit yourself as you want to the value that you recognize as prevailing in your life; otherwise, you don’t commit yourself to anything and then you are foolish.” Drawing on the Cometa “gang,” two groups of Schools of Community, and a Madrid family, we offer here four simple testimonies about the most beautiful way to live the summer, and freedom

by Paola Bergamini

Vacation time. Finally, free from work, studies, the routine of commitments that mark everyday life… There’s no obligation to do anything, unless it’s what you desire. And this is where the rubber meets the road. You can let vacation time “pass by,” filling it with experiences and emotions that you don’t normally have, and in the end your vacation becomes merely an escape from reality that at best makes you say, “What a pity, over so soon.” Or... Or it’s a full, dense, charged time, the preferential occasion to discover and deepen the awareness in your relationships with friends and in reality of what you live for, what’s motivated you all year to move, to get up in the morning, to go to work, to study, etc. Either you empty the day in a harried rush after things to do, however motivated it may be by good intentions, or you let each instant be filled by what your heart desires and which reveals itself. So then, what’s the difference with the rest of your time? Deep down, nothing, except that your freedom enters into play even more strongly; it comes out into the open. You can’t cheat. The choice of the place, the friends with whom you go, how you organize your day, even prayer and repose shine with this choice of freedom of faith. Unexpected encounters and facts happen. We asked some friends to describe their vacations, from their preparations to their unfolding. Emerging in their simple witnesses is this desire to leave space for what the heart desires.

The Search
for the Beautiful
It’s nine o’clock on a gorgeous July morning in the little square of Letojanni, a small town near Taormina, Italy. Erasmo Figini, seated at the coffee bar, calls the kids: “Kids, breakfast is ready: hot croissants and slushies. Now look around you: the blue sky, the palm trees, the sea on the horizon... Let’s thank the Lord for these gifts, made for us, for each of us. For you, Giovanni. When you’ve finished, we’ll go back to the house, to the others, and then today we’re going to the beach.” The “others” are the other three families of the Cometa (see the Volume 9, No. 8 [September] 2007 issue of Traces). So, what’s it like to be on vacation with about 40 children–those born to them and foster children, ranging from a few months old to adolescence? Erasmo explains that he always has in mind a sentence Fr. Giussani told them, “Rest is the certain belonging of your heart to He who creates all.” “So” he continues, “vacation is the time of physical rest within the consciousness that time is given to you to stay more with your family, letting yourself be amazed by the beauty of creation. Outside the routine of daily life, the assault of the telephone, and your work, you have more time to dedicate to the Lord. You have time for reading, reflection, conversations with your own children; it’s the chance to educate through simple gestures. It’s a special moment for re-educating yourself and others.” What criteria do you keep in mind when preparing for vacation? “First of all, we choose a beautiful place that lets us relax and gives us the chance to see beautiful things to learn about. We’ve been to Sicily, to Ponza, and to Puglia. If it’s possible, we all live in the same structure, and where not, in houses close by–places that let us transport the reality of Cometa.” Why? Wouldn’t it be easier to divide up? “You don’t vacation away from an experience like Cometa. What sense would there be in saying, ‘I’ll go away with my wife Serena so I can rest, sleep, and finally we can be alone...’ No! Certainly, on vacation you sleep more, but with your children; you go to the square with them to read the newspaper, something you can’t do during the year, etc. Finally, the place has to have spaces suitable for studying, because every day we adults do School of Community. It can be a terrace or a garden.” How are your days organized? “We get up–at a good time for everyone!–recite the Angelus, have breakfast, and decide what to do. Since boredom and habit can settle in easily, it’s necessary to organize the day so there’s the right newness without slipping into the frenetic stress of things to do. We alternate days at the beach with days of outings. It’s an educative organization, where there’s rental of a boat, as we did in Ponza to discover some stupendous beaches for swimming, or a tour of the white city of Ostuni in Puglia. Every day, if possible, we go to Mass, then have dinner, pray a decade of the Rosary, and then the little ones play and the older ones go out for a walk, or see a film. Normal things, but there’s an intensity of life you don’t always have during the year. It’s a regenerating chance to stay together.”

The Desire to Spend
More Time Together
In Cusano Milanino, a town on the periphery of Milan, Pippo Angelico, the man of the house, says unexpectedly to his friends, “This year, let’s go on vacation together.” Silence. Then Ugo says, “What are you talking about?” “I know. For at least ten years now I haven’t gone on vacation with more than five people, and you know well that five is already a lot for me, but what I’m experiencing with you makes me want to spend more time with you. Let’s propose it to Carrón.” “And so our vacation was born,” explains Ugo. “About three years before, we had begun School of Community with Julián, and our friendship became increasingly closer. So, one evening at dinner with Carrón, we threw out the idea to him, saying, “If you can manage to come, we’ll be happy, but if you can’t, we want to do it anyway.” Looking at him, something was born among us that launched us into reality in a surprising way. We proposed it to the entire School of Community, and others as well, because when you see a beautiful thing it’s normal to communicate it to everyone. The first year there were about two hundred of us, including children, and Fr. Eugenio Nembrini came. A strong friendship formed with him right off the bat, and we never let him “off the hook” afterwards. During the year, we continued to see each other, and the “beer group” was born (see the Vol. 10 No. 2 [February] 2008 issue of Traces). He always challenged us to never take anything for granted. And we organize the vacation, too,  always with a willingness to modify our plans if reality asks for something different.” The second year, the number increased to five hundred, but the intention was the same. This time, a week before departure, Pippo proposes, “Let’s invite our friends from the Sanità neighborhood in Naples to tell their story; something has changed their gaze on life.” And so one of the three evenings was animated by their witness. An attentive gaze on reality makes you aware of many particulars and straightens your course. “Even on the first vacation,” recounts Alessandra, “I was fascinated by the way these friends lived their life, by how they loved each other. I understood that this was generated by a work: the School of Community. I thought, ‘This is possible for me, too. From now on, I’m not leaving them.’ This year in La Thuile, there were 850 of us. The first evening, we saw the video of Cleuza and Marcos. The second, Fr. Eugenio provoked us: ‘This evening I’m calling a few friends–a few I’ve told, others I haven’t–so they can tell us why they have that expression on their faces what changed them. Because, watching the video of the Zerbinis, one is tempted to say, ‘Well, Cleuza is Cleuza.’ No! It also happens among us. The One who does it is always an Other, but He asks you to be there. He asks you to look; He asks you to embrace this experience. So now I’ll call these seven people, but already many other beautiful faces are coming to mind.’”

An Invitation
for Everyone
St. Moritz, Switzerland, August 2007. “Here, this is for you.” Santo, stunned, looks at the three young people offering him a flyer. He has been a street sweeper for thirty-five years in this famous tourist spot. “Come this evening to our hotel. There will be a video on Fr. Luigi Giussani, and then a party. Here, we’d like to give you this copy of Traces. We’ll be expecting you.” Santo looks around, and sees other little groups stopping passers-by. There are even two mothers with children. That evening at the showing of the Channel 4 special on Fr. Giussani, Extraordinary Lives, Santo finds himself together with the mayor of St. Moritz and another fifteen people. Claudio Bottini recounts, “For me, the vacation is an opportunity for a missionary gesture. For this reason, in all the vacation spots we’ve been to, we’ve always organized public gestures. It’s the overflowing of everything that we’ve experienced in Milan. This year, we want to show the video of Cleuza and Marcos and we want to offer it as a proposal for the whole town, through an invitation flyer that briefly explains what CL is. For many years, together with the School of Community group, I’ve been organizing the vacation, and each time for me it’s been a moment in which my humanity learns, because you let yourself be surprised by reality. It’s no coincidence that in the middle of things we change plans. There will be 500 of us in St. Moritz, about 60% of whom are young people ages 20–25, many of whom have met our experience only a short time ago and others who know little or nothing about it. We’ve invited Fr. Fabio to explain Miguel Mañara, then an evening of singing and then the hikes and, on the last day, an assembly to look at how this experience opens us to the life awaiting us, underlining the three criteria of the Movement: culture–the School of Community; charity–a precise gesture; mission–communicating what you’ve encountered.”

Two Months
of Adventure
Madrid 2008. What happens when the vacation to be organized is with your family? We’re told about it by Ramón Rodríguez Pons, university professor and father of four. “It’s been a very intense year, not only because of my work as university professor and because the rhythm of family life is getting more intense as the children grow, but also because of the consciousness that has matured in me. My story, family, and friends wouldn’t be the same today if not for the faithfulness to the friendship begun when I was 14 years old, with a teacher at my school. The professor was Carras. This friendship brings a continual proposal and an untiring call. For this reason, it marks a story of freedom, and makes us protagonists of life and also of our free time. Deep down, acknowledging the truth and loving it when it proposes itself to me is the only thing that truly brings rest, be it on vacation or at work. And this summer? This summer there’s the exact opposite of the typical demand for ‘tranquility.’ The fact is that now we have more time to care for the relationships that are most important during the year. The same happens to me, to my wife Gloria, and our four children. Each one of us has some relationships we want to give top priority because they are the ones that help us to live. First, my oldest daughter Marina will attend two CL vacations with some new friends in the USA, an unforeseen and happy gift that is taking place through an exchange with their American  daughter Madeleine, who will stay in Spain with us for the month.
Then, Marina and Leticia (the second oldest) will go to different CL vacations here. My wife will go as a kitchen helper at another CL vacation where neither of my daughters are going. I’ll go with my youngest on the vacation of the community of Andalusia in Málaga. Four days for sharing life with about eighty friends. Then, at the end of July, we’ll go on the CLU vacation in the Pyrenees, and, in August, after the International Assembly in La Thuile, the whole family will travel by camper to visit some friends in Italy and go to the Meeting together with another two hundred Spaniards. Two months of adventure!
“This adventure is played out in the big decisions, but above all in the small gestures of each day, in the questions that arise afresh every morning–where will the Mystery bring me today?–and in the affectionate acknowledgment of He who is at work among us, untiringly. It’s beautiful to learn what it means to truly be together. Summer is a special time to do it and thus to be able to rest. What a paradox and what gratitude: there’s no rest without this labor, without continually putting into play our own freedom.”