“Don't let your hope be stolen”
He often repeats this Pope Francis and, in these days, we can experience how true and profound his wisdom is! Of course, but how can we not let our hope be stolen when the places of our hope, which generate it, which nourish it and which sustain it are closed?
Our Orators, “labs” of hope have been closed for weeks now, empty, silent, desolate. We miss not only the faces and experiences, but also the places themselves: our second homes. In these days of closure it is important that this desire that lives in us to be able to return to the Oratory becomes a prayer! This desire that speaks of an absence, a lack, becomes our dialogue (this too, but not only) with the Lord Jesus! He, who listens and knows what we need will thus allow the gates to reopen and the places to be repopulated! In the meantime?
Let's not let our hope be stolen! No, because the Oratory is not just a place, but much more! The Oratory is meetings, experiences, time spent together... And all this cannot remain closed behind a gate, closed for weeks. We bring the Oratory home, with our family, living there with the same enthusiasm and the same style with whom we live in the Oratory! It is possible to do so because our Oratories are not places, but times, Communities!
Let's not let our hope be stolen! The Oratory is there! Even in this time! We see it through the numerous ideas of many fathers, nuns, educators and educators who have thought of how “let out” the Oratory to bring it to your home! For the Oratory, everyone's journey is precious, important, not negligible and then imagination and originality are ignited because this situation becomes opportunity (cf. M. Delpini, The situation is an opportunity) in which to ensure that the Gospel continues to run (cf. FOM theme “Now run”) , may faith continue to help us read life and what happens to us through the eyes of Jesus!
Oratory and Hope
Let's not let our hope be stolen! The Oratory remains there! When all this is over, the Oratory will still be there to welcome back the footballs, the runs, the tears, the smiles, the games, the meetings... The Oratory will always be there, immobile, as its founder (who is not Don Bosco!) is always there.
Yes, because the dream of the Oratory, I think, was born from the heart of Jesus when, two thousand years ago, on the shores of that lake of Galilee he called his first disciples to be with him, to live with him, to listen to him, to live experiences (cf. John 1) . Jesus remains and will remain in our Oratories and it is precisely for this reason that we will find the Oratory there. These days are empty of presences, but in all the chapels of our Oratories His Presence has remained, there, immobile!
Let's not let our hope be stolen! These days we are asking ourselves what keeps us going, what sustains us, what our feet rest on so that the storm that is hitting us does not drown us. I know that many, thanks to our Oratories, can answer that hope has a face: Jesus. And behind that face are the faces of many (friends, girlfriends, adults, educators, priests, nuns...) who these days continue to repeat to us: “let's not let our hope be stolen” !
And they are men and women met in the Oratory, in Community! This is the beauty and strength that inhabits our Oratories and that allows our Oratories, closed, to continue to inhabit our hearts and our homes!
That one "Encounter" (with a capital “I”) that I was able to have in the Oratory have become encounters that today give me back a smile and hope.
The Oratory is there, waiting for us: we will return! But how will we return? Surely with a huge sense of gratitude for what the Oratory is for my life and in my life and, perhaps also for this reason, we can't wait to give all of this back so that our Oratory is even better!
A hug and “CIAO”! = We'll meet at the Oratory (acrostic!)
D on Andrea Damiani, Oratory of San Protaso, Milan
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