Ten of Paola´s teenage RE students participated in a project entitled “Come and See”. They spent an intensive week together in the missionaries’ house, reflecting and studying. Here is what some of them said:
“It was an experience of being “kidnapped” because we were taken away from our normal life with no access to social networks and it allowed us to calmly reflect on various topics: our relationship with ourselves, with others, with nature and with God.
Concerning the relationship with ourselves, we felt that we were approaching a world unknown to us: a small planet where there is plenty of affection, sharing, acceptance, welcome and understanding. We strengthened our self-esteem, learned to accept ourselves with our flaws, and discovered qualities that we didn’t even know we had. Thanks to moments of introspection, paradoxically favoured by encounters with others, we realized that our strengths and our small imperfections make us unique and unrepeatable and that each one of us represents a small “prodigy”.
Others
We analysed our relationship with others and our friendships. Without realizing it we found ourselves relating in a completely different way, more authentically and with more empathy than we were used to feeling. Talking about our self, being able to open up, looking into the eyes of the other person and see them listening with emotion to our experiences, has made a wall come crumbling down. It was a wall that protected us from others and the world to a certain degree. It gave way to emotions. We were able to leave the fears aside of not feeling “up to the task” We understood that even small gestures, like a hug, can be the right key to open another person´s heart, to make them feel accepted, understood, and, above all, not alone.
Nature is the mirror of human beings, we are so interconnected, that we cannot live without it; therefore, we realized that we have to take care of it in the same way that we take care of our own life.
God
The final theme, our relationship with God, allowed us to enter a world where we could be alone and reflect on our spirituality. We felt the closeness of God. He is the one who reaches out to us. He helps us to find ourselves and makes us understand who we are and who we want to become. Being so close to the missionary sisters was of great help to us. Their testimony, even in simple gestures, allowed us to understand the true meaning of a vocation that we did not know.
And so, before we knew it, our adventure came to an end, leaving the space previously occupied by fear, free to be filled with the joy of discovering our neighbour, which we look at with different eyes now. Only a rich experience of faith can give us the light of this truth. We would like to encourage all our peers to have the courage to live magical moments like the one we have experienced. We assure you that you will not regret it!”
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