Curicó, December 8, 2010
Dear brothers, family, missionary groups and friends of the mission as you are? I hope good! Top of my writing on the Immaculate Conception and I wish and pray that the Holy Virgin, at the time of arrival, accompany and protect each of you, your families and all the people in your hearts and help us all to accept the our hearts that the Child born for us and bring us peace, hope and light we need.
You should know that in Chile the devotion to the Mother of God is very strong and in every city in the country today are held processions, masses and celebrations dedicated to the Mother of the Lord Jesus A month ago, on Nov. 7 has started the so-called month of Mary, our month of May, the season also coincides: to us here in full effect at the beginning of November and primavera, il mese delle rose e tanto per capirci ora noi stiamo mangiamo le ciliegie, si vedono le prime albicocche e il caldo é tipicamente estivo. Come vi dicevo un mese fa é iniziato il mese dedicato alla Madonna e questa sera alle ore 18.00 ci sarà la conclusione solenne di questo mese di preghiera dedicato alla madonna, e tutte le parrocchie di Curicó si ritrovano ai piedi della piccola collina che si trova alla periferia della città, per salire in processione: una volta giunti in cima ci sarà la santa messa presieduta dal nostro Vescovo. Ieri pomeriggio il Vescovo ha presieduto una santa messa di chiusura del mese di Maria a Talca, altra città della diocesi (vi scrivo questo tanto perché possiate capire l’importanza della popular devotion and affection for our people to Mary). All of our parish will participate in the celebration and an opportunity for our three choirs will join with guitars, drums, flutes, cymbals, ... to animate the mass. We, too, brothers (Pedro, Joseph and I) will attend and pray for our people and certainly for all of you. Each pilgrim will participate in the procession have to bring a flower, to be left at the foot of the statue of the Madonna is on top of the hill as a sign of veneration and prayer and a Chilean flag on the occasion of the centenary (I hope to take some pictures and As always send them to the site www.viviamaspera.tk). Another fact that I wanted
share with you on the occasion of Christmas is that close with the group of Caritas of the parish (in reality, very few ladies, but with a great sense of solidarity and closeness to the suffering) we are planning a dinner on the occasion of love celebration of Christmas. The dinner is to offer love to the poorest families in our industry worthy of a dinner on Christmas Eve. To this Mrs. Bella is thinking of making a small registry of families in need, and then always generous with your help, we give these families a basket where there will be a chicken, a pound of rice, a kilo of beans, a fruit juice and dessert. This is certainly not the only activity charitable work we do throughout the year. Every Wednesday in the parish ladies are waiting to help the needy with food, coal, flour, clothing, nylon sheeting with rain: in a word, basic necessities. During the winter (and this year has been particularly hard to spend, because of the precariousness of the "houses" after the quake. Many live in "media agua", cabin for three six, also a wooden boards near the ' other) we gave the bottle of kerosene heaters also coal. The initiative stems from the diocese and then carried out by Caritas in the parish. You had to see the happy faces and surprised by the mothers who were brought to their home stove, I remember the eyes of many grandmothers filled with joy and tears on receiving their stove (something banal and rudimentary to the European mentality, but for these families actually useful and essential to keep warm).
Let me just a brief word, because later this month will return to Italy and I will have the opportunity to meet several of you, on the proposed houses CRATE "which is continuing. Many houses are built and most were also blessed by us or by their parish priests. You should know that the association has distributed some diocesan CRATE 'in the various dioceses throughout the houses and many families have benefited. The priorities and go to families had lost everything, many families with small children, households with elderly or sick. In my opinion, the association has done a good job: serious, responsible and paying particular attention to the less privileged. Nice to see the joy in receiving the house, nice to see how different families are also changing the small wooden building: those with the kitchen, who added an empty room and brick structure with aggregates the bathroom. Just beautiful and moves the heart to talk to these people who always thank and pray for the many and distant benefactors.
Before leaving only a brief testimony of what we experienced with the youth of the parish on Sunday 5 December. To close the year catechesis of youth, with various leaders, we decided to give young people spend a day in the middle of the beautiful nature of the VII region of Chile and went on the mountain range. We left early in the morning and after having arrived in a place surrounded by nature, we celebrated the mass. After a few games to fraternize we walked until we reach the waterfall called El Velo de la novia, "the veil of the bride." In the afternoon we continued with group games to grow as a fraternity parish youth and beauty of the mountains we have proposed to the young is also a time of prayer and meditation. After reading the Canticle of the Creatures of St. Francis had to try every boy in the woods something that represents it and praise the creator for the gift of life. All young people (we were just over sixty) were immersed in the silence of the mountain range and seriousness have experienced this moment of prayer and meditation. Everything ended with a swim in the Rio Claro that descends from the lush mountain range. Actually we wanted to stop at the campsite (a safe place and structures) and there along the way, but the cost was quite high (for entrance to the camp asking for 2.50 euro) and for young people in our industry was very dear and that is why we have chosen to live a day with simplicity and taking advantage of what mother nature gave us. For me it was a good and useful lesson of life, I discovered that you can pray, you can have fun and you can be together without the need of man-made structures, technology that sometimes seems indispensable and that without it you can not live. A day spent discovering and enjoying the greatness of the Creator, together we praised and thanked the Lord of his love for all of us, we thanked the many gifts that God gives us: the sun, water, green fields and of trees, the wind, the singing of many birds of many small companies we have met and rediscovered. In essence, several hours passed without the need for internet, mobile phones (not wax network, the mountains), structures that provide security and ensure that every comfort.
Dear friends I will not dwell much and send you a close and fraternal greetings, I am also my wish for a Christmas full of peace and serenity. The Child Jesus was born visit our poor hearts and give us hope and happiness to build a world where peace, justice and love can be real and tangible reality. As I leave you hope the words of this villancico - Carol - words which I like very much: where Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus are people like us, their real life is where you find it is like so many of our family, and how often encounter visiting the many poor families of our parish Curicó.
paz y bien fr. Tullio and community
EN EL TALLER DE NAZARETH (In the workshop of Nazareth)
In the workshop of Nazareth small and poor working shop
Joseph
and the child want to learn from Dad.
Work and sings the wife of the carpenter
and the world smiles and sings well with her. In the workshop of Nazareth
small and poor shop
silence and peace, love and faith,
Jesus, Mary and Joseph. In the workshop of Nazareth
small and poor shop
'll play God and grow, pray and obey.
