We were together at the parish center when Father Pietro, our community's spiritual director, first proposed it to us. Marco explored faith with the curiosity and stubbornness that define him, while I navigated my usual restless waters. We said yes, not without some hesitation, holding each other's hand.
We walked together through the confirmation preparation meetings. I searched the complexity for answers to my questions; Marco asked remarkably concrete questions, rooted in the reality of lived experience, surprising me with his capacity to read the world clearly. Sometimes I think our doubts and crises spring entirely from our systematic inability to root faith in our lives—or rather, to root our lives in faith.
We all learned together, Pietro included, discovering day by day the lightness and strength of a catechesis built on simple things. We shared our growth with other people making the same preparation journey, but who hadn't come through the Fede e Luce community. I believe Pietro's decision to make this catechesis "normal" rather than "special" was a stroke of real wisdom and skill.
Confirmation must be a mature choice that calls us to the responsibility of being Christians: it is the consecration of our life to Life itself.
Then Bishop Riva, our bishop, told us to go forth.
Marco helped me understand that being confirmed means taking on the awareness that we are in communion with God, beyond all schemes and cultures and complications. God is simple, and he waits for us at the crossroads of our lives to chat while we cross the street.
Confirmation is a Sacrament—a sacred sign of God's presence. But it's hard to find sacramental meaning in a rite we haven't truly chosen. Confirmation must be a mature choice that calls us to the responsibility of being Christians. It cannot be merely a ritual: it is far more than that. It is the consecration of our life to Life itself.
Though Fede e Luce is a privileged place to express our Christianity, we cannot settle for a generic commitment to the movement's "Christian Inspiration." We must do more—be prophets, witnesses, and teachers, with simplicity and resolve. We must draw the energy of love that is given to us through our life alongside these young people and pour it outward. We are called to be Living Sacraments.
Marco and I like to think we were chosen to be that together.
Luca Dominici, Community S. Melania, 1995