This year I returned to Genoa to “Villa Sant ‘Ignazio”, on the occasion of the votes of the second-year novices, after having accompanied my son Pietro two years ago. The two days spent at the Novitiate were full of grace that was manifested to me through the important event, the meetings with the novices and their parents and with the formators of the community.

The biggest surprise was to rediscover me a new person, with a profoundly changed attitude compared to two years ago, when my husband and I accompanied our son and I was very anxious about the choice of life that Pietro was preparing to do. Father Agostino, who for nothing is the master of novices, immediately grasped my change as soon as he welcomed us.

Now, as soon as I arrived, I can appreciate all the beauty of the enchanting panorama that “Villa Sant’Ignazio” offers, positioned at an altitude above the gulf of Genoa, and I am pleased with the reception of the novices, for the attention and the grace they demonstrate towards us parents.

On the day of the vows, before the religious service, my son had a special light in his eyes that made his face particularly bright and relaxed. All the novices were united by the same joy that shone from their faces and made them all equally “beautiful”. It was a succession of moments of great emotions, lived in communion with the other relatives of the novices.

Seeing the six novices who gather together to talk, united in joy at the step they are about to take, and at the same time listening to the sister of one of them who, addressing to me and to my husband from the bench in front of ours in the church of Jesus says : “They are all beautiful”, it was like watching a beautiful symphony, where all the notes are perfectly in agreement with each other and give full value to each other.

Certainly it is not possible to describe the richness of such a moment of full and joyful sharing among the novices, all leaned out to the embrace of the Lord and of the Company that will welcome them fully after the vows, and with their relatives.

It is spontaneous to think with gratitude of all the important work carried out in these two years by the formators of the community, who have supported and reinvigorated the good intentions of these youths day after day by educating them in sharing. On the other hand, after the vows, on the evening of the festivities, we saw the novices, in complete harmony with each other, thank their formators affectionately and not without any moment of genteel humor, so as to remember that despite their own differences, unique it is the journey of life that the six novices intend to follow.

Of the two days spent in the novitiate, above all, I will not forget what I lived and shared with the other mothers: a soothing and joyful dialogue; a pleased and serene look, a kind and affectionate appreciation (“they are all equally good”), the vigour of generosity and love; and the firm affirmation “Well, it’s a beautiful thing!”.

Patrizia Coppa