Letters
EDITED BY PAOLA BERGAMINI
pberga@tracce.it

Israel
Dear CL Friends
We have carried you here with us in our hearts. It is as though you were here with us in Israel, because an experience like the one that was given us to live together with you at the Meeting is something that will stay with us forever! While we were leaving the seaside in Rimini, then the green Umbrian countryside, while our eyes bade farewell to Rome as it grew smaller and more distant the higher we climbed, while we were touching down in Tel Aviv with a thousand thoughts and long-standing anxieties coming back into our hearts, you were before our eyes; you silently accompanied us with a thousand unforgettable images. And now, here at home in Galilee, we feel you still, intensely alive in our memory, here with us. We have your faces before our eyes, faces it seemed we had known forever; we have here inside us certain bright eyes, and the clear gaze, full of profound, sincere interest, of so many of your wonderful children who came up to us, enthusiastically questioned us, and quietly listened to us. It seems we can still feel on our skins the warmth of the affection that hovered among you. We keep in our minds, like a caress, like a great embrace, the words of encouragement, solidarity, and understanding that you chose to express to us. Thank you, friends, thank you, CL people, thank you for realizing that we are truly friends. Thanks to the Holy Father, your noble Guide, who helped you to recognize us. Thanks to your matchless Fr Gius who has opened to you a thousand doors full of love, who fills your spirits with light. Thank you for having made us a part of your wonders: the atmosphere of friendship and empathy that you spread all around you; the outstanding and very moving exhibitions, so perfect in their message and their aesthetic form; the volunteers, the hostesses, the balloons, the colors, the evenings spent listening and telling, and your sincere smiles which give hope. Thank you for having filled us with energy and positivity. Being among you was like being on an island protected from the evils of the world; it was like being at home. The Star of David that I always wear around my neck, and that I had taken off when I arrived in Italy, was serenely put back on after a few hours in your company. May God bless you and be with you always, may He continue to whisper this love for the world in your heart–this simple and pure feeling for all things–so that mankind may continue to enjoy His beauty and contemplate it with joy.
Angelica and Yehuda Calò Livné, Kibbutz Sasa, Upper Galilee

New York
Spiritual-Jews
I was honored to receive from my student and friend, Andrea Pin, the recently published article by Msgr Giussani about the end of divisions between Jews and Christians. I share, enthusiastically, Msgr Giussani’s view that within 60 to 70 years (and perhaps less), these divisions will be a part of the past. However, I would lovingly like to add that the end to divisions between us should not be misconstrued as an end to distinctions, or even formal separations based upon different senses of covenantal purpose or eschatological expectations. There are, and remain, core religious and spiritual differences between Christians, of all varieties, and Jews, of all varieties. To my mind, each of these works out a different thought process in the great economy of human thought, ever seeking the perfect finalization of Truth, which is the great promise of the Messianic Age. However, until that Blessed Day, we should never, ever, permit our distinctiveness and separations, however sanctified by tradition, to be considered ontological divisions between Jews, Christians, or any other non–Jews, including Muslims, Hindus, or atheists-lest we, through our pronouncements, sow a split in humanity that God Himself did not, when He created all human beings as one Adam, Hebrew for one “humanity.” Thanks to CL for your clarity! You are, for me, “spiritual-Jews,” even if I remain blessedly distinct.
Rabbi Michael Shevack, New York

Lagos
The Sailor’s Hope
Martin and Alex, who attend a school of nautical science in Lagos, went to Ghana for a few weeks for courses related to their studies. In their desire to make memory of the richness encountered in the companionship, they sent me e-mail messages:
“At the beach in Ghana, I met with Mathilda and her two friends. We got talking and looking at the beauty of the moment, with the sun sinking into the sea and the people scattered on the beach enjoying themselves. I asked her if she would like me to sing for them and she said, ‘Yes.’ So I sang The Design for them. They got curious and wanted to know what the song meant in relation to the moment we were sharing together. I told them that everything in life is a gift: the sun that is sinking into the sea, the golden sea itself, and all our friends we had been playing with at the beach all day long, were all given to us. Man is that level of nature where nature becomes conscious of its existence and we understand that the sea is not aware that it exists. They asked me what Martin was doing alone sitting on the beach. I answered that it is we here who give this sea the meaning of its existence. With this awareness I see the Beauty present now and we join my friend Martin in the song he was singing, ‘Oh Lord, how great thou art!’ Alex.”
“It was beautiful to read your mail and to hear that the plan for the vacation is going well–not the technical aspects, but the desire to live the presence of the mystery in these days. Today, Alex and I somehow got into a discussion with some much older seamen. They were talking about women, marriage, and sailors. They were of the opinion that for a sailor the wife can never be faithful to the vow, nor can the sailor himself; he should not even dream of a faithful relationship. It was not easy for them to see the beauty in the relationship in which fidelity is forever. For them there is no hope for a seaman, but for me I have been called for something great and He who has started this good work will finish it. Even if they failed to admit it, I know they were provoked, because of the soberness they later showed. May the ‘Veni Sancte Spiritus, veni per Mariam’ be our courage in times of trials. Martin”
Chiara

Cleveland
What We Received
Dear friends: We cannot describe the joy and contentment we received from your kindnesses at Rimini. Our hostess Simona is a treasure. She is such a vibrant, loving person. We loved the way she would pray in the front seat of the car and then open the window to swear at traffic. Wherever we went, there were Communion and Liberation people to give of their precious time to host us. No millionaire could have bought the love we received. The best part of all, of course, are the friends we made. They will be forever.
David Forte

In the Human Desert
The following is a letter recently sent to a friend who is working on an AVSI project in Latin America:
Dearest: The decidedly arid relationship I am living with the ones in my new Fraternity makes me think very often of the situation you are living, the problems you encounter with the others in your house, and the various matters concerning your work. Finding oneself inevitably immersed in the multitude of daily problems sometimes keeps us from seeing the positive that really is there all around us. But we have a richness, which is the more or less clear awareness of being sons: we do not have the problem of having to show we are different from what we are, we do not fear our mistakes, we are not afraid to say to ourselves that we have erred or to talk about the toil we are living, and, above all, we do not make a pretext either of our limitation, or of distance, or of contingent difficulties as a way of hiding ourselves. And in the time we manage to find, we get in touch with each other, we remind each other of our origin (you, with your positive and infinitely patient character; I, with my frenzy to understand everything immediately and my “skill” at enhancing the drama of daily life). Someone has spoken often of the “human desert” and how men need to be mothers and fathers to each other. Therefore, while I ask of the Mystery to understand what the difficult situation that I am living here is asking of me, I thank Him because on the other side of the world, you are there to watch me and sustain me on my journey.
A reader

Six Months with Andri
Dearest Fr Gius: We are three sisters, Sara, 17, Anna, 12, and Elisa, 9. On December 12, a “gift” arrived, a little fat and smelly but stupendous boy, named Andrea. He stayed with us for six months, until a nice family adopted him. When Andrea arrived, it was not all “immediately easy,” since feeling the change that a new person brings about when he becomes a part of your family is inevitable. It was the hardest but the happiest winter we have ever lived. We really loved Andrea, and it is incredible how much you can love a person who was a stranger to you before. Thus, he immediately became “our Andri”! It was beautiful to see how, through the love we transmitted to him, Andrea changed and learned to have faith in others and also in himself. To be sure, at times he suffered and consequently our hearts were pained at thinking of all the suffering he had been through, and we spontaneously wondered, “Will this child ever be happy?” The only person who can fully answer his happiness is the good Jesus, otherwise our being moved would remain just a sentimental thought. Through Andrea, the desire arose in our hearts to give all our lives, “bending ourselves to man’s need,” solely and exclusively to please Jesus and to learn to love Him more and more. For with Andrea, it was a daily bending to his need. When we were with our little brother Andrea, looking at him, picking him up, playing with him, washing him, feeding him, and cuddling him, all this was a continuous prayer: the entreaty to treat Andrea as Jesus would have treated him, look at him with Jesus’ own gaze, caress him with the same goodness as His hands. This must be the attitude toward everything and everyone now. We have to live like the Pope, for example, who has “worn himself out” for the love of Christ, as we have seen on television in these days. What beautiful humanity! Dear Fr Gius, we ask you too to pray for him. Thank you for everything!
Sara, Anna, Elisa,Casalpusterlengo, Italy

Overabundance
When we exist, the world is changed, not because we are capable of doing great things, but because of our awareness of the task, of the fact of having been called. My children began to smile when I began to realize I had been called, ie, to become aware of my vocation, when Fr Gius said to me that my work is saved when I return home, in the “Yes” said to the three people who live with me in the house. I have been called to save the world through those three women who live with me. My work with the sick and with children is the blossoming of my relationship with Jesus through the house. My work is who I am, concretely, and is initiated by the precise faces of friends. For whom do I work? For those three faces in the house with me, for a thousand faces that have been called, with me, into the Memores. Our father Gius has shown us the road and we cannot look any longer for other satisfactions than this. Let it be clear for us where we draw the energy for our work and also what the secret of the mission is: knowing to whom you belong. I belong to those faces whose first and last names I know. All the rest is the overabundance of what has happened to me.
Rose, Kampala

Thesis
Dear Fr Giussani,
I have just graduated in biomedical engineering, and I spent seven months in Glasgow, Scotland, to write my thesis. I went up there with a fellow student and we arrived completely “organized”–we read School of Community once a week, go to Mass every day, etc. However, there was always something not right; we were not serene or content, as there was something eating at us but we could not understand what it was. The only thing that held up in those days was prayer. Opening Day in London was at the beginning of November, and we went. I did not expect anything; in fact, maybe I was a bit put out by the fact that we had to travel so far just to be in London for a day and a half. Just that day and a half changed my life. The assembly of testimonies was incredible. I returned to Scotland glad for what I had lived in those days and certain that what had struck me so much was not relegated only to the place where it had manifested itself so evidently. Many other things have sprung up from this event. We asked Fr John, the chaplain of the university’s Catholic Church, if we could use one of the rooms in the parish hall to do School of Community and he immediately said, “Yes.” Every once in a while he would come too. When we did our study vacation in Wales we invited him, and he came down, even though he had to drive ten hours to get there and ten hours back just to be there for one evening. When I told him I was sorry he had made such a tiring trip, he said it was worth it because he wanted to meet our friends. Then, when I left for Italy, he asked me to leave him the School of Community book. Our friends that we met there at the university have now begun to come to the weekly meeting. Now that I am back in Italy, I am still in touch with some of them. A beautiful friendship has grown up also with the Movement family that lives in Glasgow. The greatness that I have lived in these months marked my life so deeply that I decided to remain in Glasgow for the next three years to get my doctorate.
Chiara, Milan

Every Tuesday
This morning, a good friend of mine died. Bette is the woman I have been visiting every Tuesday for the past three years. She has been on an oxygen machine and she has known she has been dying for the past five years. It was beautiful to see the way her husband Joe took care of her. When she called me about coming to do spiritual direction, I immediatly thought of doing School of Community, and I suggested that she and her husband and I begin to do it together. A couple of years ago she wrote a letter to Giussani telling him that she wanted him to know she was suffering in union with him. She died a miraculously peaceful death this morning. Yesterday, I celebrated Mass at her house. I would do that when I didn’t have a parish Mass on Tuesdays, but with the summer and all, it has been months since I have done that. After the Mass, she and Joe and I chose all the readings for her funeral. She had asked me to bring the book to do that. It is amazing how God works. One of the things she said to me three years ago was, “I am dying. It is very important for me to know that Christ is real, and that He is really with me.”
Fr Rich, New York

A Little Finger
This is a letter sent to a CL friend in Tampa
Dear Joe: I remember last year we met for lunch. We had a great conversation and you posed to me a question: “What is it that YOU want?”… a very simple yet perplexing question. But it was not one I truly allowed myself to take into consideration. That began a process which has lead me to where I am now and was made more evident with my recent trip to Italy. I am very good at hiding in the nothings of the day-to-day blah, keeping myself busy enough not to have to deal with that question you had posed to me so long ago. What I want is something more than the day-to-day blah–something greater, which is to be immersed in Christ with every breath of my being in everything that I do. That is my desire… for it is the only way I can find happiness. But… He is always there… if only I take the time to notice. I think this is where your friendship and CL has helped me immensely. My deepest thanks for your insistence that I seek and recognize Christ in everything that I do. Thanks for being the little finger that taps me on my shoulder every now and then and asks, “What is it that you want?” Thanks for being a friend.
Peter, Florida