(Italy) Two Calabrians (Angelo Curia and Francesco Di Lorenzo), a Sicilian (Massimo Greco), two Spaniards (Jesús Mula, Pablo Buetas), and a Venezuelan (José Antonio Urrea), the team of six young novices, who after a preliminary period of almost two years (as postulants), entered the life of the novitiate, with the celebration presided over by the Father General of the Redemptorists Michael Brehl, in the community of Ciorani (Sa).
A new year begins for them, a formative path in the footsteps of St. Alphonsus to better meet, know, love, and serve the Lord. As with many new adventures, the pleasure of discovery is one of the positive motives of this journey. The “Novitiate Team”, with their wholehearted dedication and availability, is the beginning of a journey that took shape before there was time to realize it.
The new regular hours marked by the sound of a bell followed by the time for reading, prayer, meditation, and above all regularly meeting with the Lord, are the focus of this new year with the “sons of Saint Alphonsus”. Moving from a life full of commitments and stimuli – in which the essential often slips into the background – to a rhythm of life, where the time dedicated to prayer and the encounter with the Lord is regularized.
It is the paradox of being able to savour the freedom with a capital L within the walls of the novitiate and the joy of prayer; it is having the time to taste the freshness of the Bible, a living and talking book still today, and to appreciate the intuition that to live deep down you don’t need many things and a fruitful relationship with the Lord and with your neighbour is one of them.
Fundamental in this context are close relationships and positive companionship with fellow travellers, the trust, support, and wise guidance of the Novice Master. But where will this adventure lead us to? Despite initial optimism, in the absence of a crystal ball, it is hard to know where this journey will take them. The only certainty is that of being able to say tomorrow “it was a good journey, in tandem with the Lord”
Basilica of Saint Alphonsus
