Twinning for the future!
We are the Mission Youth of the Diocese of Concordia-Pordenone, we are young people with a missionary spirit who have the desire to set out on the road to find, welcome and give. This year, our road took us to Cipro, where we saw a missionary experience made up of testimony, sharing and discovery. It wasn’t just a simple journey, but a good time to let we be surprised by the beauty of the faith seen within and by the richness of new places to explore.
We have been sent to Nicosia by the sweatshop of St. Joseph’s and by From the friars of the Custody of Holy Land, where we have been supported by Fr. Rogério and Sister Ramona, who have accompanied us with care and attention on this journey; their testimony of life and of doing Church has been precious, and has given us hope and sincere humanity: “before talking about God, we must be human”. Our hearts have been touched by a living faith and a sense of fraternity even in a nascent diocese in the making like the one in Cipro.
Our journey to Cipro began with an indirect step back in time. Before we even got lost in its countryside, we had the chance to learn about its history from the people who live and care for it. Josephine accompanied us to the Municipal Museum: through fabrics and repertoires, she showed us not only the memory of the island, but also her own. She told us that in the 1970s she had found work at the French Embassy, but that wasn’t her dream. Her true courage was to leave a secure post in order to take a more uncertain path, because she felt that her heart wasn’t bruising there; Josephine has shown with simplicity that freedom is won by taking action and that dreams come with the heart.
Then it was Naoni’s turn, who guided us through two parts of Cypriot spirituality: first in an Orthodox church and then in the Turkish area, near a mosque. Two different spaces that coexist, telling the story of the island’s complex and divided life. Josephine and Noni are not just guides, but people who have decided to share their lives and stories with us. Cipro, that day, we didn’t just visit it, we saw it and saw it.
We at Mission Youth of the Diocese of Concordia-Pordenone are passionate about asylum, travel and life on the move for migrants, and we are in Cipro to touch this reality and live it close to home. For this reason, we were tempted to enter the “First Reception Center” in Pournara, the first reception center for refugees, and what we found there silently stirred something inside us. We have encountered many, over 200 different stories, none of them in flight from anything – Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, Gaza – but most of all around a future. Monsignor Bruno Varriano urged us to remain within any boundaries: “Humanity goes beyond religion and there is no need to preserve it for a group of privileged people”, he said.
And Sister Ramona, being a missionary to Cipro, with her instantaneous work every day, embodies this message of love without bellyaching. It’s a moment rich in emotion, because stepping into the life of another person, respecting their dignity, is no longer easy, but it is possible; simply with ourselves, we’ve tried to bring briciole of peace and hope. Once again, we realize that we are people, we are all children of the same humanity and, in the same way, we can continue to have something great and true; to embrace with healing and humanity is important in order to continue living as family. A few things are enough, a straw, a ball, a piece of lego, a juice and a smile; in the end, humankind happens and that’s where God is.
For all our experience, we have walked the path of the Apostles’ Attestation School and I have accompanied the search for a heart that burns, that brushes with love. Let’s follow the fire, let’s love because the heart is not male, let’s dream of another world and, like Paul and Barnabas, let’s announce the Gospel to the ends of the earth because the world is not enough. In the midst of a living love, we felt ourselves whispering: “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'” (Acts 13:47).
A moment that is close to my heart was the Mass in the Catholic church of St. Barnabas, In the part occupied by Turkey. The reality for Catholics is different, for political and religious reasons it is not possible to build Catholic churches, and so the celebrations take place in alternative spaces, improvised but rich in meaning. The liturgy that day, for example, was turned into a simple garage, transformed for the occasion into a place of prayer. The atmosphere was filled with fire and human warmth, with lamps, songs and smiles that filled the space, making it lively and welcoming. In that garage, you could breathe Gesù to a greater extent and this makes me think of the power of His love that goes beyond distances, cultures and religions.
I have never felt such a strong sense of God as in this Mass, and this is incredible, because once again we realize that the greatest things are born in the smallest ones, that the truest humanity is found in poverty and that in that “nothing” in reality is “everything”; we have seen love grow even in a garage.
In the first reading, we read these words: “make yourselves beautiful and you will find grace before the Lord”, and in this Church that has become beautiful, we have truly found God’s grace. It doesn’t serve any purpose to open up humanity, to find the body of Christ, to make a strong faith shine, to love God; it doesn’t serve any purpose, “5 bread and 2 fish” are enough. In order to make and be the Church, we must start from small steps, little by little and then everything will be built.
“You yourselves will feed them,” and for us it was just like that because we don’t need anything, we just need ourselves and our Christ-filled hearts. In that garage, the missionary spirit of our group burned more and more because we know that we do not need big things to do Big Things, we simply suffice ourselves. We also started with 5 loaves and 2 fish, but it was enough for us to give a glimpse to a hungry humanity, to meet God in each other’s eyes, to give a voice to those who have no voice, to feed those who need love. Together, starting from the little, we can get to the much!
It was a gift to share this experience with all the people we met here, especially with Sister Ramona’s passion and Fr Rogerio’s sincere faith.
Their accompaniment was essential to live the mission with fraternal love and simplicity of heart, and we hope that the friendship born between Mission Youth of the Diocese of Concordia-Pordenone and the Latin Patriarchate Vicariate of Cyprus will bring new future paths together.