The enemy

“Our youngest daughter has a very strong character and certain attitudes that are irritating. One evening, after repeated requests for her to go to sleep, I went to the room with the intention of giving her a good scolding. While I was walking towards her I was thinking that this child is becoming a threat to my nerves, because of the relationship with my wife who cannot stand to see me agitated and nervous. Well, she was my “enemy”. But when I was in front of her bed, I changed my attitude: I bend down towards her and I start to listen to what she wanted to tell me. Then I told her a story, I sang her a song: everything seems to have disappeared. The child fell asleep and I too found the peace that comes from love” F.S. – Switzerland

In prison

“Antonio, our young friend from Paraguay, ended up in prison for drug traficking; in reality it was a companion of his who during their trip together put the drugs into his knapsack where the police found it. So he found himslef together with delinquents considered to be dangerous, without any legal assistance. We contacted his mother, we went to visit her often and we got him a very good lawyer. Finally after many months, the judicial process took place which we were following with a group of our friends. Before the sentencing, we prayed together. Antonio was serene.When the judges declared him innocent, there was an explosion of joy in the chambers. One of the lawyers had tears in his eyes. The two prison guards who accompanied him were also moved. Now we want to help him start to live a normal life once again, after the experience lived”. A.F.-Argentina

Nadine do you mean me?

“After a year of being married we found out that we could not have children. And from here the problems with the parents and relatives of my husband started., who already considered me an outsider since I come from another village. We would have wanted to adopt a child but in the town no one would have understood our choice. One day a friend called m and said: there is a newly born gorls whose parents have died in an accident; her grandparents could not take care of her… We went to get her. All our relatives were against it, but we were happy to have Nadine with us. After awhile, they too started to love her and she group up peacefully. Often I would tell het the story of  Nadine with Amet and Haila: and she would say, “Nadine means me, right?” I would answer her yes. Now she is five years old  and she told me: “Mama I would like a little sister”. I answered her that, as she knows, I cannot have children. And so she made it clear: “I want a little sister who has lost her parents during the war, one who is like me”. My husband and I looked at one another: she understood very well in what way she was “our child”. Now in the village, other families, like us, have adopted a child”. A.H.K. – Syria

Taken from: Il Vangelo del giorno (The Gospel of the Day) , Città Nuova Publishing House