로마 (이탈리아) - 2016년 2-3월
자비의 성년인 2016년 사순절 동안, 샤오샤 (중국), 요한나 (독일), 프란치스카 (독일)와 도미니카 (폴란드)가 로마의 카노시아 수녀회에서 임시 소공동체를 이루어 살고 있습니다. 이들은 산 조반티 바티스타 데 피오렌티니 성당에서 매일 두 차례씩, 떼제 공동체의 몇몇 수사들과 함께 떼제의 묵상기도를 이끌고 있습니다. 다른 시간에는 난민들과 홈리스, 실직자에게 식사를 제공하는 까리타스의 식당에서 일합니다.
깔레 (프랑스) - 2016년 2-3월
Petr and Tomasz, two volunteers from Taizé, are in Calais for a few weeks. Here is their first message, giving some news from their life there and the work with the refugees in the “jungle”.
Tuesday creates a great anxiety, because of the eviction ultimatum and destruction of half of the camp. This is also where “our” orthodox church of Saint Michael Angel is. This ultimatum has been used few times in the past and although nothing happened, people are naturally scared. Please pray for this.
Some time ago a few caravans belonging to the camp volunteers were attacked and some of them burnt. Fortunately nobody was sleeping in them at the time.
For us the first impression is very strong. The worse was to see children in the camp.… and families with small babies… is this a sign of hope? And the parents are exhausted.
We enjoy all the opportunities to stay and talk with people in the camp for many reasons. someone wants a small cross, another one needs some material; but mostly people want to simply talk about their day, about what will happen on Tuesday etc.
When we were leaving the Jungle today, one car stopped in the middle of the avenue and some Muslim girls in hidjab told us that they left a box of English Bibles in church for us...”
포르토 (포르투갈) - 2016년 1월
Au mois de janvier, Rita (Irlande), Cecilia (Italie) et Ina (Allemagne) ont vécu en petite fraternité provisoire de jeunes à Bonfim/Porto. En voici quelques échos:
Why am I here? I can’t speak the language, no one understands when I speak English "because I speak too fast, and have a funny accent", I can’t sing, I have no idea what’s going on?! Why am I here? Then the words of Br Leo came back full steam - just be there, be with the people and have three daily prayers ... that’s all you have to do. Okay.There is a strange intensity to interactions with people when you cannot speak the same language, that is not to say you do not understand each other. Without language, without the misunderstandings that sometimes come with words, without the ability to lable each and every moment, there comes a strange but beautiful moment of just being present with the other person.We feel like part of the family, despite the language barrier. The Portuguese people in general as we have experienced don’t let the language be an issue in getting closer and caring, and they take the time to communicate in whatever way possible. (…)The community of Bonfim: in its latin character very welcoming, warm, careful.. It was visible that Padre Nuno and the people living at his house were very happy that we were there, which was also manifested through so many hugs and smiles. This open, welcoming, familiar and simple environment helped us to be spontaneous and ourselves, and it was essential to build our small community. We manage to create a balance between our space, physical or not, and the sharing time with the people of the parish. We lived in a small house next to Padre Nuno`s, but still separate from it.During the four weeks we helped in the morning with whatever the people in the secretariat asked us to do (wrapping statues in paper, taking pictures of icons ... ), we spent a few hours a day in a "daily centre" for old people and we worked in a project aiming at saving food from restaurants and re-distributing it to families in need.The work in the daily centre was not aiming at a practical result, which made it a very powerful and a real "servizio" (service); in fact, there weren’t any expectations from their side. I would say that from our side, we had some at the beginning, such as doing more activities together so that we could get to know them better; but we soon understood that it was, very simply, just about being there and sharing our time with a group of old people that sits on couches for a long part of its day. We had a wonderful nice prayer in the "centro de dia" with the old people! It was a moment of pure harmony and peace and they asked us to do it again! We are so grateful for this sharing!The food bank project was great and interesting in how it worked. The best part was the people, the group dynamics with such a broad mix of social backgrounds. They worked together in little teams, a different one each evening, each with their own system and their own personalities shining through.On Friday 29th, we organized an all night prayer, from 9pm to 9am. At this point there were many people coming and the chapel was full for many hours. we had a prayer every hour and the rest was silence ... never thought I would have said that, but it was great.It was not always easy; as we spent so much time together. I think it s normal that sometimes there were some tensions and misunderstandings. We were able to deal with that, even though sometimes our diversities stood out and we had to think together how to merge them once more. (…)The common life in Porto had with it some challenges, but I think that in any common life that is just part and parcel of what you are doing. It is inevitable that there are some days where it is a little more difficult, but then the beautiful and fun times outweigh every one of those days.
Father Nuno writes:
A month seems to be a short time, not enough time for fighting and making up again, understanding that it is possible. My house and my parish are always open to welcome a provisional fraternity. I think that the evangelization of the cities will come through prayer and work, with the sole desire to serve Jesus. And if the community family ever live less by the gospel it is very good to "force" the existence of small communities living in the radical gospel effort. They do not replace the family, but go beyond the family.