• Short introduction by Luisa Alfarano and Michele Tridente
IFCA Youth Coordination Responsibles (Video IT)

• Meditation by H. E. Msgr. Eduardo Garcia
bishop of San Justo, Eccl. Assistant of CA  Argentina and IFCA

If we allow ourselves to be truly touched by Mary’s example, we will live out authentically that charity which urges us to love God above all else and above ourselves, to love those with whom we share our daily life. And we will also love those who may seem hardly lovable in themselves. It is a love that is service and dedication, above all towards the weakest and poorest, love that transforms our faces and fills us with joy (World Youth Day 2018, n. 4)

Mary is the great figure of Advent for the Church. Mary doesn’t stand still in front of the received grace, she cannot shout it with words, she must make silence, but this joy becomes an expressive gesture. Unable to contain so much joy, she set off quickly to the mountain, she goes to a village of Judah goes for meeting Elizabeth, who has also been the object of the merciful love of God who wanted to use the smallness and fragility of two women, both moved by the same Spirit and united in the saving action of God. In the Gospel of the Visitation it becomes clear that when we accept that grace works in us, it becomes availability, delivery and service for others.

Mary doesn’t measure risks or consequences, she travels distances and spends a few months with her. She is no selfish. She doesn’t enclose herself to selfishly chew its joy.

It is exactly the attitude that Christ will have, who comes to give himself for others. It is also the attitude that is expected of a Christian and of the entire community: growing in his faith facing Christ, and that this faith be translated into a surrender by those most in need of our help. Precisely because She and we have experienced the closeness and affection of God.

The Messiah is already in her womb and she is the “evangelizer”, the bearer of the good news of salvation, the bearer of the joy of God. Like her, our journey to Christmas will be to meet our brothers to share the joy of salvation brought by the Lord.

Each one of us is invited to live intensely this mission of service and announcement of Jesus Christ “accompanying and helping to live.” He who believes in the incarnation of a God who has wanted to share our life and accompany us in our poverty feels called to live differently.

It is not about doing “big things”. Maybe simply offer our friendship to that neighbour sunk in loneliness and distrust or depression, be close to that young man who suffers uncertainty about the future, be patient with that old man who seeks to be heard by someone, be with those parents who have to his son in prison, to brighten the face of that lonely child marked by the absence of his parents.

•  Let us pray the Holy Rosary, for the Pope Francis’ intentions