Camp ’14, grace touching

Camping, grace touching!

Every year is a surprise! The air speaks to you about God It is a city of God. You can’t describe it, you can only experience it,” this is how Jessica recounts her camp experience this year, and everyone can testify that each camp participation is a new stage, always rich in unique elements that make us richer in our journey toward the Lord and never leaves us indifferent.

It was a camp that saw us return to Paestum after 30 years, with an extraordinary participation of brothers: more than 650 participants, with daily peaks of more than 450 people and a notable participation also of brothers from other ecclesial movements: New Horizons Community, Neocatechumenal Way…

Natutally, there was no lack of discomfort and difficulties, as is the case every time something that has been tried and tested for years is changed, but we faced the problems with the sense that community camping has, and that is to have an experience of God, and these difficulties thus became useful again for us to exercise patience, in the exercise of a concrete building of love and real attention to the needs of our brothers and sisters, and also thanks to the services with which the community camping experience can live, we tried to lower that ever-present selfishness that lives a little in all of us.

This year there was also an abundant presence of priests, who made themselves available for talks and confessions, and an additional unexpected gift: the presence of Archbishop Giuseppe Casale, archbishop emeritus of the diocese of Foggia-Bovino, who celebrated the Eucharist and enriched all of us with his words that were always clear, strong and full of charismatic and ecclesial experience.

So many unforgettable moments, such as the Eucharistic celebration of the celebrated in the middle of the night to intercede for a particular intention, the exhilarating feast on the Day of the Assumption, which saw a very warm participation of all tribes, the visit of the local bishop H.E.Mons. Miniero, the prayer in tongues with hands outstretched to the four cardinal points, to fight in the Spirit a concert of satanic music, the evening of proclamation and evangelization in nearby Naples…who knows how many more we could add listening to the experience of all the campers, even the very young, from small gestures to big community moments.

Camp certainly is not an experience that prioritizes resting the body; instead, it is always an extraordinary experience of charismatic community life, “a city of God” as Jessica put it, where He is at the center with His tent and lives in the heart in everyone’s smile.