Putting ourselves in the shoes of those we perceive as distant and different helps us to understand their story and their struggles, but also the richness they bring with them. At the same time, to welcome means to open our heart to infinite possibilities, including that of being the first to receive abundant gifts and, without realising it, to become a “home” for someone.

At the station

I was sitting in the car in front of the station, waiting for the train to arrive with my daughter, when a man approached me and showed me his documents: he was a Palestinian who had fled the war.

From his halting Italian, I gathered that he was staying at Caritas and had come here to look for work as a bricklayer. However, he first needed to regularise his situation and for this he needed a revenue stamp and four photos. I listened to him and struggled to interact with him, but I didn’t respond to his request, although I said goodbye to him politely.

Meanwhile, the train was delayed. My eyes turned towards the Palestinian who was also waiting at the entrance to the station … for whom? Someone more charitable than me? Something inside urged me to go back to him, this time with the money for the necessary paperwork to be completed at the police station. As the train arrived, he kept thanking me warmly.

Thinking that we must always be ready to meet God, I concluded: so, it was really He who met me in that Palestinian man.

(Barbara – Italy)

Marius, Franz, Elke

I was a paediatrician and Ursula was a nurse in the same paediatric department of the hospital. In the early years of our marriage, we hardly noticed that we were not having children of our own, as we were focused on the little ones entrusted to our care. Until one morning, a three-month-old baby was admitted to our care. He had been born to a teenage mother who was unable to look after him.

After considerable reflection we applied to adopt him. The best time of our lives began. We used to go to work together, with little Marius in our arms and once at the hospital, we would put him in a pushchair where we could keep an eye on him while we worked. Two years later, a similar situation occurred involving another newborn for whom an adoptive family was being sought. So Franz joined Marius: they were very different from each other, as can also be the case with biological children. Two more years passed, and, again under similar circumstances, Elke joined us. First and foremost, they are children of God, but to us they also seem to be the fruit of our love and our work for everyone’s children.

(J. e U. – Germany)

Edited by Maria Grazia Berretta
taken from Il Vangelo del Giorno, Città Nuova, anno XII – n.5 –settembre-ottobre 2026)
Photo: © Alexandros Kournoutis by Pexels