testimony

That Unexpected Gift
A Memores Domini friend who lives and works in Novosibirsk tells of an episode from her friendship with Fr. Giussani, a sign of his boundless heart. One day, she received an envelope with money to buy the beautiful things she desired…

When I began to work in Novosibirsk, I met many street children, children with histories of abandonment, histories without color, or children whose home was an institution. Every time I saw them, some of them had only one question: “Will you give me a toy car? Will you give me a present?” I didn’t always have gifts with me, even though I understood that if I brought a little present, they would be happier. Telling this to Fr. Giussani, I also told him that I was sorry that I couldn’t cash my salary and buy toys (in Memores Domini, following the evangelical counsel of poverty, we have everything in common), because when I could buy myself a blouse or a pair of shoes I’d seen in a shop window and that I liked very much, I was happier afterwards. So I understood their need, that they would truly be happier with the toy car. A few months later, I had already returned to Novosibirsk, and a friend who came to visit us brought me a packet from Fr. Giussani, with an envelope and a book inside. I opened the envelope, and found money inside “so you can buy yourself the beautiful things you desire,” and the book Si può vivere così? [Can You Live Like This? by Fr. Giussani], with a dedication: “Wishing you a beautiful journey in the love of Christ and of men, Fr. Giuss”
This gift, thought of and sent just for me, for my desire for beauty and happiness, completely and only mine, opened my work to a new element: the idea, the dimension, the color of beauty! A short time later, I supervised the building of a house for young single mothers, and I wanted it to be beautiful, not because we’d received funds from America, but simply because I was certain that something beautiful to look at, beautiful to live, and beautiful to tell about would enable desire to “enter,” and that when a woman would later leave the center, she could think about how to build herself a “place” all her own that is more open, cleaner, and with an attention to the details, to the colors, that correspond to her personal need.
So now, there are already two homes in Novosibirsk, “Golubka” and “Saint Sophia,” two homes in low-income neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city that respond to a woman’s desire to be able to have her child and to be able to take care of the little one, creating a place for herself that is as sunny as possible, capable of responding to her need for beauty, happiness, and expectation.
Rosalba, Novosibirsk