Sharing of life stories

14 Dec 2020

#community, #listening, Novitiate

“Take, Lord, and receive all my freedom, my memory, my intelligence and all my will…”
– St Ignatius of Loyola

The end of November was a particularly interesting time in the novitiate. We began a session, which we call “Sharing of life stories”. This indicates a time dedicated to telling the story of our lives. It is not only a beautiful occasion, but I would say a festive one, which gives us the opportunity to participate in the most important moments of our lives, and thus lead us to be community.

Telling stories is a deeply human need, which gave birth to language. It seems that the need to tell and to listen are the attitudes that make us human. The stories and the encounters we have experienced always play in the background of our personalities, are part of our existences, and explain our ways of living. This is somewhat similar to the portraits of kings and nobles in ancient times, which contained not only the model, but also his most important attributes, i.e. the deepest elements of his personality. Telling the story of our life to someone means opening ourselves as much as possible to others, making others participants in our life. It enables us to live these values together, and to walk towards our common good. By sharing our lives we have in some way created and exposed our portrait to others.

On the other hand, telling and contemplating our life story gives a unique possibility to understand and reflect. And more. According to the insight we have inherited from St Ignatius, it is a real possibility to recognise the Lord as active and acting in one’s own life. In the life of St Ignatius, memory played an important role, as an opportunity to reread the past in order to find God through lived reality. Our past thus becomes an opportunity to meet the Lord and an opportunity to progress in the recognition of his presence. We, following in his footsteps, do this activity, to learn to reflect better, through prayers and thoughts of preparation. In this way our life becomes the story of the encounter with Him.

And what to tell? As I have experienced during the sharing of my life story, I have not always told what I had planned to tell. In fact, I do not believe that one can prepare oneself perfectly to tell one’s life story. During the first presentations of the others I had imagined how I would do it, in rich details. But then I realised, that I am not completely the director of my narrative. The director is someone else, and I am also a spectator.

2020-12-14. Peter Nemeth – first year novice

Sullo stesso argomento

All in the field…for a full life!

by Daniele Angiuli

Community life is like a big soccer game. That’s the image that flashed through my mind while playing on the field with my teammates, amidst the running and the shortness of breath, the falls and the sweat. Each in his own position and at the same time in close relationship with the others: those in attack, ready to run toward the goal and score for the team; those in midfield to retrieve balls and act as “bridges” between players; those in defense to prevent opponents from advancing; those in goal to catch the ball and avoid the net.

There is no one role more eminent than another but all are necessary for the success of the game, just as in the community everyone is important and everyone can contribute. It is essential that each person does his part without declining to others, knowing, however, that he can count on the help of teammates. All called, as Luciano Ligabue says in “Una vita da mediano,”” to cover certain areas, to play generous” to be “there in the middle” of life.

I believe that in the field the only valid personal pronoun subject is “We.” Even in community life it is necessary to move from the ‘individualism of the “I” to the communion of the “we,” to think and act in the plural as Pope Francis often reminds us. If every player on the field started to go it alone, to run like a loose cannon, he would fail in his goal and even if he managed to score a goal, he would not achieve the real “goal”: teamwork, full communion with his teammates. So too in community life in the novitiate: it is necessary to look beyond the tip of one’s nose, to notice who is beside us, his need, to have the courage to step back and pass the ball to the other, always for the true good of all.

Every team has its own coach: he is responsible for preparation and game strategies. He is the first one who cheers for his team, trusts each person and insists that they give their best, according to their abilities. I like to think of the figure of Jesus as the real coach, as Carlo Nesti had already guessed in his book “My Coach’s Name is Jesus.” He encourages, spurs, believes, hopes in each of us and in the work of the whole team; he wants our “joy to be full” (Jn. 15:11).

It is difficult at times to live according to the demanding proposal of this great Coach, but not impossible. We need to put ourselves in the school of the Gospel, which prepares us to be athletes as the apostle Paul tells us: “Do you not know that in the stadium races all run, but only one wins the prize? You also run so as to conquer it! However, every athlete is disciplined in everything; they do so in order to obtain a crown that withers away, we, on the other hand, one that lasts forever. ” (1 Corinthians 9:24-25).

By living on “Jesus’ team,” our community, like every Christian community, will truly experience, in the midst of difficulties, the taste of a full existence, the flavor of true communion.