In the footsteps of the Blessed Maria Domenica Brun Barbantini – a Pilgrimage to Lucca and Viareggio by the postulants of the Province of Sicily and Naples

A pilgrimage means putting oneself on a journey to search for oneself, to live in a concrete way the compelling need for conversion, and to grow in the love of God looking at saints as a model, at those who before us experienced the hard work of this journey and who as searchers became instead discovered, looked for and found by Christ, so as to them be ready to demonstrate to their brethren the beauty of this encounter. The journey travelled by us postulants of the Province of Sicily and Naples in the footsteps of the Blessed Maria Domenica Brun Barbantini in the places where she was born, this year of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of her death, took place specifically within such a framework. From 4 April to 7 April, during a full week in Albis, we experienced the joy of Easter and met the shining light of the Risen Jesus, embodied in the life and the charism of this Blessed from Lucca, our older sister in following Christ according to the charism of St. Camillus.

For us young people in formation, these were days of immersion in the Camillian charism that were experienced completely with women. It was a very fine experience to breathe communion with the women Ministers of the Sick, with all of us together grafted onto the lineage of the Giant of Charity. A diversity of sensibilities and aptitudes but unity in the spirit of the Founders. The meeting with these sisters and their generous welcome in Lucca and Viareggio enabled us to rediscover not only the beauty of being one large family but also the gift that Maria Domenica herself is for our journey of formation, an example of what it is to be a Camillian. Even greater, however, was the joy of discovering that we are a gift for each other. Both in the Mother House in Lucca and in the Provincial House in Viareggio we experienced that female and maternal delicacy that does so much good to the heart.

The sisters were not only welcoming with us. They also gave us a limpid example of fraternal charity in being together and in taking care of each other. The place where we witnessed this to the utmost was the ‘Casa Betania’, the nursing home for elderly sisters, the pearl of our pilgrimage. To see how the youngest sisters take care of the elderly sisters demonstrated to us the beauty of a faithfulness to the charism lived not only ad extra but also, and above all else, in relation to the sisters of the Order, those who live next to us and whose presence we often take for granted. We witnesses lived that ‘heart of a mother who loves her sick only child’, the authentic and lasting joy of serving those who are in need, through the balsam of love. The elderly sisters themselves were for us ‘living sanctuaries’ whose doors are eyes full of a special light that demonstrates all the ardour of loving Christ notwithstanding the ailments and the infirmities. Their witness to faith, the fact that they are a living memorial of a life spent for the last, profoundly edified us. It was a great joy for us to experience together the celebration of the Eucharist in their house and to see each one of us adopted spiritually through the prayers of each one of them. Where with profound respect we venerated the relic of the brain of the Blessed Barbantini to draw upon the gift of the deep intelligence of charity, with the same love we drew near to those living temples of the Spirit from which to receive strength and perseverance to continue with our journey. Our youthful exuberance, our ‘unleashing of joy’ on hearing the music of guitars, was a great gift not only for the sisters but also for the elderly people of the ‘Sacred Heart of Jesus’ nursing home, where more than one enthusiastic grannie exclaimed: ‘This is real medicine indeed!’. Once again we witnessed the miracle of the ‘fire’ of Camillus which warms and awakens even the most dulled limbs!

     We carry in our hearts the joy of knowing more about the charism of Maria Domenica. We thank the Provincial Mother Sister Giuliana Fracasso and all of her sisters for giving us the possibility to enrich our human and spiritual formation. May the Blessed Founder fill her Institute with every blessing and intercede for all of us so that we can increasingly discover that, as she loved to say, ‘We are all of God and our purpose is only to love Him’!

The Postulants