ALBERTO

Hi Aldo,

I’m writing this in church. Today didn’t go very well, so I came here, to Him, to begin again.

I had many things to say to Him. Then I remembered that perhaps Jesus doesn’t like all the noise from the stores and streets....

So I’m silent....and I found peace, rest....

          Goodbye, Aldo,         

Alberto

[A note to Aldo Ravizzotti – dicember 1978]

I think I’ll betray a thousand times what I said to Jesus today; especially, consacrating myself to Him-Failure is such a hard thing for me. I seek success at school, in the things I do and also in my holy journey.

But I think that on this point – of Jesus Forsaken – either we all succeed or we all fall down. A beautiful thing about Unity is that there can’t be “the saints” and “the others that don’t fit in at the top of the mountain.” This is a decision that has to be made, because there’s also Antonio, Carlo, Giorgio....

Then, as for me, I fall precisely because I wasn’t faithful to a decision.

Today I chose Jesus the Unwilling One.

[Undated note]

CARLO

“My God, grant that every moment, every step, every mistake, every sin, every joy, every suffering – that everything, everything be because you and I love each other. Charlie.”

(Written in the Guest Book at the Shrine of Our Lady of Soviore, Liguria, Italy, 
July 12, 1980)

“Jesus taught us that the cross is the means of redemption for the whole human race. Suffering transformed into love is the culmination of the Christian life. So every time we try to offer each of our physical and moral sufferings to God, it’s one more small step towards a better society.
Today more than ever the Christian is called to collaborate with God not only by doing his part, and therefore embracing his own cross each day, but taking on the cross of the others, feeling as his own the sufferings of the others and the injustices of all, in order to collaborate in the salvation of all. Herein lies the need of greater involvement at an individual level for an interior growth in the relationship with God and neighbour, and in the structures of society, not as a search of power, but of service.”

[Text for a Way of the Cross, 1979]