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“Widen your tent.”
On Sunday, October 24, Fraternities and missions in northern Italy (Borbiago, Maguzzano, Milan, Piacenza,Turin and Treviso) met for a day of retreat at the “Villareggia Missionary Community” in Lonato (BS).
For all of us, this moment was particularly significant for two reasons: first because it was the first meeting where all the allies of the fraternities met again in presence after more than two years, and then because the Lord wanted to twist our intentions.
Before the pandemic, the beginning of the year retreat was a time that had become traditional for our fraternities because it had been present in our annual programming for almost two decades so not being able to experience it last year was a source of deep sadness for many.
Instead, Sunday’s day was a concrete sign of restarting, allowing many to meet again, while still strictly adhering to current regulations. The second reason, on the other hand, was entirely “God’s own flour.”
Traditionally, the retreat at the beginning of the year coincided with the presentation of the path and the first catechesis of the same for which the leaders of the fraternities, since last June, had met with the intention of preparing the event following the usual idea, but during a moment of prayer in which some of them were present, the Lord forcefully re-proposed the prophecy that had initiated, three years ago, what was called “Project Tent,” namely an initiative of cooperation and mutual aid among the fraternities that, in obedience to the word of Isaiah 54, 2 – “Widen your tent, strengthen your stakes” -we would have liked to pursue but which, because of the pandemic, had never been able to develop fully.
The Lord’s indication to take up this theme convinced us to change our plans and turn our attention to how to restart this project: this was the theme of the meeting of the fraternity leaders with the general leaders, almost all of whom were present at the meeting; this was the theme of the teaching given by Beppe Piegai on Sunday; this was the theme of the exhortation that Stefano Ragnacci offered to the assembly in the afternoon; and this, in part, was also the theme of the homily given by His Excellency Msgr. Zenti, bishop of the Verona diocese of which the municipality of Lonato is part, who presided over the Eucharistic celebration.
This day gave us a sense of how it is possible, indeed, necessary, to start again together, according to the word of Lk 5:1-4 that the Lord gave us in the opening prayer, networking in order to be able to give strength to the dreams and visions that the Lord will put in the heart of each fraternity so that, as Stephen told us, whenever Jesus calls a fraternity to perform a service or to experience a spiritually powerful moment and there is a feeling among those called that they are not able to respond fully to Jesus on their own or simply a desire to share Grace with their closest brothers and sisters, that there is ” a second boat” (cf. Luke 5:7) to come to our aid and enable us to reap all the fruits of Grace that the Lord has made available so that, according to another prophecy sent to us by the Lord on Sunday, “Let your soul delight in His mercy; do not be ashamed to praise Him. Accomplish your work in time, and He in due time will reward you “(Sirach 51:29-30).
Msgr. Giuseppe Zenti, Bishop of Verona 
