PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY

  On 15 July the Camillian inter-parish mission in Acireale on the occasion of the celebrations in honour of St Camillus, and the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the Blessed Domenica Brun Barbantini, came to end.

This mission, which witnessed the involvement of the whole of the Camillian family, began on Sunday 8 July with a solemn celebration of the Eucharist presided over by His Eminence Cardinal Paolo Romeo, during which the mandate was entrusted to the missionaries with the handing over of the red cross of St. Camillus.

For a week a numerous group made up of priests, men and women religious and lay faithful reached out to the sick and the poor of Acireale, trying to bring them relief in their suffering.

The sick were able to encounter Christ in their own personal suffering, directly receiving in their homes the sacraments of healing, with the possibility of having their confessions heard and receiving the anointing of the sick and the holy Eucharist.

In addition, the mission enabled sick people who have been forced to stay in their homes for a long time to take part in the celebration of the Eucharist in their own homes where they were offered the possibility of taking part in the mystery of the Body and the Blood of Christ, in its communal dimension as well, thanks to the participation of family relatives and friends.

But this week of Camillian celebration and fraternity was also an important opportunity to be able to bring the good news to the streets of Acireale through evening catechesis and evangelisation in the street in Corso Umberto.

Indeed, the evening catechesis in front of the churchyard of the Church of St. Rocco, begun with songs, dance and an especially joyous atmosphere, led, through the reading out of a number of pieces from the Gospel, to the happy proclaiming of the Mercy of the Father. On the other hand, thanks to evangelisation in the street the citizens of Acireale, and in particular the shopkeepers, were able to enter come into contact with the Word of God and were able to receive witness to nearness to Christ in their daily labours.

The priests, men and women religious and lay faithful who took part in the mission ended their week by thanking the Lord for the Grace that had been received in the encounter with the sick and for the good received through every embrace, every word and every look exchanged with the people who had been visited and encountered during this inter-parish mission.

The emotion of the missionaries accompanied this blessed time and became even stronger during the course of the celebration of the Eucharist that took place in the cathedral and ended the mission, during which the young postulant Gianluca Spalice received the red little cross of St. Camillus, thereby officially beginning his postulate in the Order of the Ministers of the Sick.

     This week of mission, thanks to the strength of the Camillian charism, was a source of Grace for everybody that took part in it, in any capacity, in the charitable exchange between suffering people and the missionaries.

The spirit of Camillus breathed strongly on Acireale, bringing strong witness to Jesus amongst the population of the town who wanted to receive this presence of Christ into their own lives.