These days I took a walk to Genoa. I looked, I observed, I thought, and then I immediately said: “Yes, Christmas has come and gone.” Colorful lights, Christmas trees, Santa Claus, markets full of winter stuff, people walking, nativity scenes in the churches, poinsettias … everything speaks of a great party.

In this period after Christmas, most of the times we find ourselves facing a question that awakens memories of nostalgia: what did I do at Christmas? How did I lived it?

And how did the novices spend the Christmas day? We played!!!

Yes, we used the game to go deep in the feast of the Child Jesus. At the announcement of the great joy that a child is born to us, playing we walked toward the stall. In the deep silence of the night, around midnight, while the stars were shining with a unique beauty and the moon was reigning over all the earth, we found him in a manger. We saw the Baby sleeping confident in his mother’s arms. We heard her warm breath, slowly warming every place in the world. Immediately we were struck by it, and in the silence of our hearts, getting closer to his table (Mass), we all sang the Gloria.

On the day of the birthday of Jesus, we saw him awake, full of joy, with a radiant smile and a desire to play. What is the greatest wish of a child, if not exactly to play and laugh together? Yes, we embraced him gently, letting us be caressed by his warmth. At that moment a deep desire to be children, to have a child’s eyes was born in us.

With Him we begun to take the first steps, to give color to our life, starting to play. We played the old monkey, to “interior struggle” (lupus in fabula), etc. After this time of fun, we exchanged our Christmas presents. Each of us took a gift facing a challenge. We gave the Baby Jesus his favorite toy: our heart, our being.

the wonder was great when we began the second part of Christmas with a course, opening ourselves with the same key that opens every heart of a child, whether large or small: the play of a game. This key has been present every day of the course, to make us enjoy the flavors of the depths of the Scriptures, rewriting them with our daily lives and within it.

This course of “Rewrite the scriptures” has made us aware that only one who is like a child, can write with ink the fifth Gospel, that is his life. In our lives, through the tenderness and youth of the Child Jesus, we can be in solidarity with Peter and John while running to the empty tomb, or chatting with Martha and Mary after the departure of Jesus, or to give our thoughts to the well of Jacob.

Walking with the steps of the Baby, leaving lit every step with his cheerful smile, we approached the last day of 2016. Full of thanks for all we have received in this year, we praised and worshiped the baby Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. 2017 has already begun. The game is not finished because the Christmas party is not over yet. It may be Christmas every time you allow the Lord to be born again to give yourself to others.

To see the Christmas photos and more photos of the Novitiate life CLICK HERE