Last June, Michele, a young man from our parish community in Conselve, Padova, was ordained a priest—a great blessing and joy, a sign of God's presence in this priestly year.
For the ordination celebration, our Faith and Light community was asked to create a theatrical performance. At first it seemed impossible. "Can we do this? Are we capable? Maybe it's too hard, too demanding." These sound like existential questions—but we were only asking them about putting on a play! We'd been daunted by the obstacles; yet who doesn't face them? Our spiritual director encouraged us, and several of us took the leap, drawing much of the community in. Three of us worked carefully on the script: the life of Father Angelo Pasa, a Canossian priest who lived at the end of the nineteenth century and is now on the path to beatification. They divided the story into five parts, narrating the key moments of his life. He was born into poverty, one of many children, with a father who emigrated to America. As a small boy, for his birthday, his brother gave him seeds. He planted them, and from one tiny sprout grew a large, beautiful plant with strong branches and leaves. The plant grew just as the Lord would make his life grow—sustained by his uncle the priest and by the nourishment of prayer—until he became a gift to those in need, especially to students and young priests. The result was a delightful show about this remarkable man, performed for an engaged and generous audience.
Looking back, those initial doubts of ours—a priest might feel them too along his own journey. And that helps us feel we're all "on the road," walking together. It's comforting. We can understand and support one another. Some are stronger, some weaker; some more skilled, some less so. But together, with that awareness, we can make it.
In a community, it matters to recognize each person's gift. And the priest's gift is essential. He is called by the Lord to be, in the Church and in the world, a sign of Jesus the good shepherd. He guides so the flock does not scatter, so the community stays united. He proclaims God's Word and watches over the community as it grows through the sacraments he presides over. He knows fatigue, but also the joy of seeing God's action at work in him and in the people the Lord entrusts to him. His heart is open to all—he is a missionary.
The spiritual director in Faith and Light is the glue that makes sense of our conflicts, our doubts, our joys, all the ideas each person brings to the community. It's something precious that many of us experience—and when it's absent, it leaves a real emptiness, a kind of being lost.
And so we, small "rays of sunshine," have learned that life is a grand stage.
Monica Mazzucco, 2010
