On December 2nd at Loppiano the official inauguration of the new year took place at the Loreto School. An original experience for families from different geographical areas, families which want to learn the art of living in unity within the and among families.
This year the participants come from Russia, Argentina, Taiwan, Scotland, the Philippines, Slovakia, Vietnam, Brazil, Ecuador, England and Germany. They arrive with all the richness of their culture but also with some suffering, some anxiety for having left their relatives, their work, their comfort. Yet every obstacle is overcome thanks to the strong motivation: the objective is to discover and experience the secret for a harmonious couple and family life and to learn to live in communion, without barriers and prejudices, with people of different cultures in the light of evangelical spirituality.
This year, as in the last 34 years, the school repeats itself and like the miracle of spring, it always bear fruit and surprising results. When in 1982 Chiara Lubich gave birth to this fruitful experience, even in its name she wanted to emphasize its mission: An opportunity to get closer to the life model of the family of Nazareth, whose little house, as tradition says, was carried to Loreto, a
little town of the Marche region in Italy.
“May Jesus always live in your midst to bring joy to many” this is Chiara’s wish at the beginning of the school: today it is true more than ever!
The inauguration day is a special moment! The nine families participating (2 more will soon join them) have radiant expressions together with their children, and though they speak different languages they understand each other with the universal language of love; with them there are also the four tutor families.
From their looks, from their way of relating, from how they prepare the inaugural buffet sharing foods and traditions one immediately realizes how rich this experience is.
Those responsible for the citadel of Loppiano, present at this inaugural moment, underlined how the significance of this experience fits so well into Loppiano’s setting. Here all the inhabitants are committed to living the law of reciprocal Love and one breathes a climate of strong spirituality that families find themselves immersed in from the first day of their arrival.
Julia and Gregory from Russia, express themselves like this: “We are both psychologists and know many things, many theories about families but that is not enough for us; we came here in order to know God’s project for our family, to understand what He wants from us, what his priorities are. In our country there are many people who want to live the Gospel, after years of atheism. We have come here to learn the life of unity, to understand how to keep our hope even in difficult moments and then to take all this to our friends, to everyone who we meet in our homeland.
