17/02/2023
Before starting these lines, I would like to explain a little about how I got here since, to be honest, I did not go to the first God Stop of my life (and first retreat as well) precisely because I felt attracted to Hakuna’s “spirituality”.
I was invited and accepted to go almost immediately for two reasons: the first is that I was just on vacation; a great reason to start since I am one of those who never have time for anything… Although it seems that I always have time for the world, but well, that is for another letter.
The second thing that motivated me is silence. Yes, silence. When listening to the experiences of my brothers, most said that silence had been the hardest thing for them and at that moment I felt even stranger. However, the most curious thing was that for me, who am so quiet, so much into solemn Masses, so much into everything having to be in its place, it was precisely in this God Stop, so far from my “spirituality,” that I found that God who showed me what it was to be Church, what it was to share even in silence, what it was to contemplate Christ much more than I usually do. To see so many people worry about the food, about our health, about our encounter with Christ. Although I still cannot let myself go so much when dancing or singing, since that is more typical of my personality, there are beautiful things I learned that I could summarize like this: to die in order to live. God showed me through the priests and these wonderful brothers whom the Lord brought to me that what I thought I had so clear in my Christian life was incomplete. I needed to live it, to make it flesh! And that is precisely what I was able to do in these 3 days. To have to die to myself, to my sins, to my prejudices, to everything that distances me from God in order to be able to rise with Christ.
I never thought I would live this in Hakuna, in a God Stop.
Let yourselves be guided, do not let your mind act before your heart (Says someone who usually does the opposite). I am not saying that reason is not important, not at all.
The Mother Church always teaches us that faith and reason, religion and science are not opposed, quite the contrary. But just for these days try to live it from your heart and you will see how the mind will accompany and assimilate everything you have experienced.
Thank you very much for listening. I have a thousand more things to write but I did not want to extend myself too much.
