Every year a journey called Step by step is offered for girls ages 18 and up by the SFPs working in Youth Ministry in the Italian area. It consists of meetings on the Word of God, creative labs, and getting to know oneself as part of discovering one’s own femininity.
The journey was articulated in 7 steps and took place in Padua from May 15 to 19. The next to last step was entitled “To generate life.” The Casa Nazareth community welcomed seven young women from all over Italy, sharing with them services for fragile people inspired by Mother Frances, along with moments of prayer and community life.
This step marks an important transition in their journey: after an initial part aimed at re-examining one’s own life experience, exploring the different faces of God’s love, and learning to know oneself, the girls experienced a space and time inspired by the evangelical experience of Martha and Mary (Luke 10), where they were invited to be in a relationship with God not only through listening and prayer but also through the substance and commitment of meeting others, people who are fragile and wounded.
In various contexts, they met with brothers and sisters, sharing their daily lives and tiptoeing gently into their lives. So, they worked with four, six, or eight hands in the Progetto Miriam workshop with the women guests, also sharing informal moments with them along with simple acts of affection and closeness. Some met the luminous gaze of a mother, an SFP Associate, who shared the experience of years of caring for her son affected by disease. Others were welcomed in a climate of celebration for a Moroccan tea by a family who found a point of reference in the St. Anthony Opera del pane dei poveri to face a difficult time. In these meetings, in each other’s gestures and words, personal questions and emotions resonated, were reread, and shared with a look of love upon their own lived experiences.
“I did not expect the step to be so liberating. I suggest having this experience regardless of one’s relationship with God, because I approached it in a moment when God was really missing in my life and now… I pray.” N.
“It surprised me to find such welcoming people. They made me feel like myself, without fear of disappointing someone, and open to putting myself out there without being afraid of making a mistake.” B.
The concrete experience went back and forth like a dance, with moments of community life in which to offer an act of care for the sisters by cooking and tidying the garden. We shared a guided visit to the Saint’s Basilica in the footsteps of St. Anthony to revisit with new eyes the history that is also made of failures and places that remember it. Lastly, we had a party in an atmosphere of friendship and closeness among sisters on a journey.
Moments of prayer together recalled evangelical acts of love, like the washing of feet, and left space for the creative expression of women immersed in a neat spring garden on a sunny day.
Here is some other feedback about their experience:
“During the creative lab, though not having a clear idea what the project was that would be realized, I did a good job with the material that represented me most, discovering that there are many times when we do not understand the project being realized in our life. It is just in hindsight, with a view of the whole thing, that we can interpret many new meanings.” R.
“I linked the reading from the Gospel when the woman breaks the alabaster vase while pouring spikenard on Jesus’s head to our lives, which must necessarily “break,” just like the vase, so that they can bear fruit.” D.
There was also time to reflect on “what love is not,” through a formation meeting with a look at boundary violations in relationships that become abuse and about how the Church is caring for these wounds.
A caring act was also to dedicate a heartfelt song to everyone, E resta il grano (“And the wheat remains”) by Erica Boschiero, which reminds us that Love is present and real even when life is wounded or not as we would like it to be.
“And the wheat remains swinging, the hurricane is over and now you can rest.
And the wheat remains swinging, the hurricane is over and now you can breathe.”
By Francesca Canturi and Elisabeth Agrillo
