LOOKING FOR THE “MAGIS”
My name is Daniele, I am 25 years old and I come from Sannicandro di Bari, a small town in the Bari hinterland inhabited by simple people who love agriculture. From a young age I have loved country walks and being with friends. I began to know the Lord thanks to the genuine faith and giving example of my mother and the warm welcome of my parish community “Maria S.S. del Carmine,” which has always represented a big family for me.
Here I have lived through various experiences over time that have contributed to my human and spiritual formation: service at the altar as a ministrant; the journey with Franciscan Youth during middle school and later service as educator of the very young and member of the choir.
Eager to deepen my friendship with Jesus, I attended the minor seminary and tackled humanistic studies at the Liceo Classico “Socrate” in Bari. I felt that the Lord was calling me to something great but at the same time I needed to know myself better and work on myself. I lived my senior year at home, having the chance to “go toward myself” and question myself about who I was and what I was really looking for.
Comparing myself with my parish priest, a desire to help others, especially younger people, emerged, and I saw teaching as a possible way forward for me. I decided to enroll at the University of Bari “Aldo Moro,” to attend the Faculty of Education and Training Sciences and then earn a master’s degree in Pedagogical Sciences.
I worked as a socio-pedagogical educator, working alongside differently abled children, in a high school in my province. While continuing to attend my parish, during these years I experienced moments of loss that confronted me with my frailties. However, I felt that the Lord continued to speak to me through the alternation of thoughts and feelings and nurtured in me the desire for a “magis.”
It was during this period of new relationships and challenges that I met the Jesuits in the person of Fr. Franco Annicchiarico, who was entrusted with the responsibility of the university chapel. He helped me to read my story in the light of the Word, making me discover a new face of God, who is a loving Father. His style of liberating accompaniment and love for Scripture so fascinated me that I asked him to have some experiences with the Society, to learn more about Ignatian spirituality.
These included the psychodrama with young people in Selva di Val Gardena and the spiritual exercises in Bologna, which helped me to gain clarity about my desires and put order within myself. I felt that the Lord was calling me to a life totally given, to “feed” myself to the brothers; therefore I asked to undertake a vocational journey to enter the Society.
Accompanied by the person in charge of vocations, Fr. Andrea Picciau, after having interviews with some Jesuits, I was admitted by the provincial to the novitiate in Genoa, where I am learning to enter into an increasingly intimate relationship with the Lord and, together with my companions, to discern God’s will for us every day.