Annamaria Mazzarotto
Balance, the capacity to always question oneself, knowing how to say the right word at the right moment. These are the traits of Annamaria Mazzarotto de Rino that friends and relatives wished to remember at her final farewell, which took place on December 4th in the church of San Gaetano in Milan.
Annamaria was born in Treviso 93 years ago. When life led her to meet the Triestine Sergio de Rino and she married him in 1956, she moved to Milan and their four daughters were born there: Elisabetta, Laura, Francesca and Marta.
With Annamaria and Sergio, Fede e Luce arrived in Milan: the community of San Giuseppe della Pace, to which they always belonged, was born in June 1976. Sister of Mariangela Mazzarotto Bertolini, Annamaria had drawn from the source of the movement in Italy. In her husband Sergio she found a man who knew how to give impetus to new communities in Lombardy and accompanied them for a long time as regional coordinator. Their home was always open to families and friends of Fede e Luce, from wherever they came. Meeting them, being with them, allowed one to clarify one's ideas, because their style spoke clearly: not many words, but a way of approaching disability with gentleness, with profound respect for the mystery that every life contains. Particularly memorable were the encounters with Father Joseph Larsen, international spiritual assistant of the movement, who was welcomed several times with simplicity and was the protagonist of enriching exchanges for all those present.
Annamaria and Sergio were part of the community of San Giuseppe della Pace, but they were the mother and father of Fede e Luce in Milan and in Lombardy. They embodied a way of living the spirituality of the movement faithful to its origins. All the Lombard communities owe them much: they were always present, as long as their health permitted, and they were a living, active, stimulating presence. Without too many speeches, but with small pieces of advice that left their mark. Sergio was part of the National Council and, when in 2009 the three Italian provinces were founded and the province "A River of Peace" came to life, together with Annamaria he accompanied these developments with wisdom and particular care.
The final farewell to Annamaria, in the church of San Gaetano, was a very rich moment: many people, starting with sisters Tea and Lucia and relatives who came from Rome, remembered the traits of her character. Her daughters read messages that arrived from many parts of Italy and also at the supraprovincial level, thanks to the presence of don Marco Bove, international spiritual assistant of the movement, it was remembered who had known how to spread so many seeds of hope.
Annamaria had also activated, with other friends of Fede e Luce, a small sewing workshop that made it possible to create handcrafted items to sell to support the communities: the work was an opportunity for exchanges and stories, many remember it as a precious moment of friendship and sharing. Continuing in the path she traced will be a way to keep alive the light that this woman, so calm but so resolute, kindled in all the people who had the good fortune to meet her.
Angela Grassi (Milan)
Not just "mothers of"...
In December we made a beautiful little Christmas house with the community that gave life to ours, we remembered the mother of Isa and we prayed for her. The priest asked if anyone wanted to remember Anna with a few words. Two of her nephews went forward and then I went. In that church, which awakens so many emotions in me, I remembered that it was right there, about forty years before, that I had begun my Fede e Luce journey. And in that journey I had met yes Isa, Mario, Elena, Nanda, but I had also met their mothers and they were not the mothers of… they were and are Anna, Nicoletta, Luisa, Simona just as later I met others and they were always not just the mothers of..., but Maria Grazia, Nicolina, Teresa and so on. The beautiful thing is that for them I was not just the friend of…, but I was Stefano, spoiled, charming, a student, a graduate (while I was at a Fede e Luce gathering), a lawyer, a husband, a father, separated, but always a Roma supporter (the only consistency I can claim). Yes, because they have always been there in my life journey, it is I who sometimes have been absent and continue to be absent, but always certain of their faithfulness in the relationship.
So, Fede e Luce is a beautiful instrument: a generator, an incubator and an amplifier of relationships, of relationships that are not superficial or banal. But radical relationships, lived fully, bringing out what is inside, beautiful and ugly, sweet and bitter. An interior always so suffering and not always lived as "everything is grace" of Thérèse of Lisieux (but she, besides being a doctor of the Church, is also a saint). Fede e Luce is this instrument that I am grateful to have received (thank you Silvia), delicate and precious like the people who make it what it is. A privilege for those who live it and a responsibility for the gift of awareness received. Relationship and connection that, for those who believe, are at the foundation of our faith.
Stefano Artero (Rome)