All over the world,
our Arsenals are places
in which each traveller
is welcomed with their burdens,
their pains and projects.
Our Arsenals are places in which who “comes from the past”,
hurt by their own personal story,
can find relief in silence, in faces,
in the words of brothers and sisters
who live in the presence of God
and learnt not to judge,
not to bear resentment.
Our Arsenals are places in which people witness
that the grace of God is unreserved.
Our Arsenals are places in which whoever is lost
can find a brother or a sister
who accompanies them
in their meeting with the grace of God.
Our Arsenals are places in which everyone is welcome
and no-one is judged.
Goodness spreads when those who search for a sign
find, within the people around them,
a reflection of the goodness
and the mercy of God.
«At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”» (John 8, 2-11)