Special spazio + spadoni Missionary October: Mercy Is Also Letting Yourself Be Loved
Dear friends and mission friends, this summer, I accompanied about 40 young people to Scampia and Albania for missionary camps
Each of them left their home or city to go and meet the poor where they live, in their homes or caravans, in slum neighborhoods or Roma camps. Once again “the miracle of encounter” was repeated and those who welcomed us said, “Thank you for coming!”
One girl recounts, “A child took me by the hand and showed me around the Roma camp on Via Carrafiello, I passed through the garbage and puddles, I greeted people in the shacks, I felt loved”.
To meet Jesus we go to the homes of the poor
Sometimes it is a punch in the stomach because they have no rights, hygiene, or are differently abled.
In the Cupa Perillo locality, in Scampia, there is a Roma camp. It is the first one in northern Naples. Braian, Riccardo and Cristina, ages 6, 9 and 12, respectively, live there. Their caravan stands under the median axis overpass in one of the most polluted places in Italy.
One day we went to clear an area of debris from a fire last April and by the end of the morning we felt a general sickness from what we had breathed in. Children have no papers, no home and not even a place to play, and yet they are full of dreams, passions and the will to live. Perhaps that is why for years our children have continued to come here.
In Albania we experienced a journey that goes beyond the geographical and cultural boundaries of our country.
There were 21 of us, and before arriving in Gur i Zi, a small village 6 km from Shkodra, we crossed four borders-Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro. The small community that formed was moved by mutual love.
For 20 days we shared table, chats and moments of joy. There was no lack of play, prayer and celebration. The friendship born among us, who did not know each other, had the flavor of fellowship.
The missionary service we were involved in was at the home of the Sisters of Mother Teresa in Shkodra. 8 nuns serving 57 psychiatric patients. Our help consisted of hanging out with the girls (so called by the nuns), washing clothes, mopping the floors or feeding them.
The nuns asked us to make a fuss, animate that community, live in joy: “you can do everything you want!” “You can do whatever you want, with joy and without constraint,” Sister Ian Miriam had suggested to us at the beginning.
What is not usual in Italy, namely assisting very severely disabled people, is possible in Albania. None of us had done this kind of service before, yet meeting the guests was the greatest joy, not only for the discovery that we could do it but especially for the love we received.
“Diana, Sultana and Ola cannot speak or walk but they have the power to change me,” says Benjamin.
Being with the sisters for us meant, “learning to love”
You could see it in their slippers, their recollection before the Blessed Sacrament, their smiles, their hands.
The boys put themselves on the line and knew how to stand beside the disabled by holding their hands. The sisters thought that as a group we had known each other for a long time….
The greatest gift we received during those days was the presence of Genta and Xohana, two Albanian girls, who allowed us to enter the heart of their people, bringing with them the sunny, deep and welcoming character of Albania.
How did the summer camp go?
“It is the poorest who give the most. What I experienced in this camp is the experience of feeling loved“.
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- Carlo Maria Salvadori