Free to meet God

Since last month, Rosanna Tabasso has been answering questions that arise in the hearts of many young people and adults.

Filippo. How and when did you understand who you really are, who Rosanna is? And mainly how did you manage to understand your vocation?

I began to understand who I was when I felt loved by God, when I felt that his words spoken over the centuries and written in the Book were also spoken for me: a daughter loved by her Father, a creature made in the image of her Creator, full of gifts to share. Thus I found the synthesis of my existence. But understanding that your life, the person you are is a gift from God does not yet mean being able to recognize and value yourself. I felt recognized by Him before I felt recognized by myself, then I learned to value my gifts through the people he put close to me and it is in fraternity that the Word became flesh for me too.

I began to question myself about the meaning of life quite early. I was about fourteen years old, I was starting to think about how I could fulfill myself, so many thoughts were flashing through my mind. The thought that kept recurring was not so much something to do, it was rather a deep desire to be close to those who were in greatest difficulty, to make someone happy, to be of service to people. I didn't know poverty directly, but the stories of missionaries in poor countries around the world that I met resonated within me. I was just a young girl but I felt that I would do something like that.
I continued to question myself and this drive towards the poorest also took on the face of God, the God who was close to the poorest and walks with them, the God who is moved and is on their side. This call made its way inside me: to be with God for these people, to be with him close to the poorest.
Around the age of twenty I had made my decision. I had my emotional experiences, but nothing responded deeply to the desire I felt, everything was too little compared to that All for which I wanted to spend myself.
I searched until I found where I could express everything I had: I found the Sermig and I stopped. But before stopping at the Sermig I chose God.

It was in those years that I understood that he does not expropriate our life to force us to live his. God builds with me, just as I am; he builds through my dreams, my desires, my abilities, my aspirations.
God builds my story with me and inserts it into the great story of salvation that is his. When I understood this I felt truly loved just as I am and unified. I understood that God gives you back the best part of you, he does not limit you but amplifies you. Accepting his will is no longer submitting, accepting it is a need of love because loving is wanting the good of the other and God, more than anyone else, wants the good. My yes brings him into my life and makes us walk together, him and I.
God does this with those who seek him. I have never felt dispossessed of my personality, of my life: I felt completed.

We have a somewhat distorted mentality, and we think that God takes something away from us, makes us do things that we don't want, and takes us where we don't want. But that's not the case, what you are, the good that you are and that you have, he completes it, amplifies it, expands it, and you become a better person. You are no longer poor, you are richer. This is an experience that I hope you have, I hope you feel God in this different way, because for too long we have all defended ourselves from God, for fear that he will take away what we have and what we are.
God brings out the best in you, what you don't even know you have! Now that a few years have passed I can fully confirm what I say: what I have been able to do is much more than I could even imagine, and therefore I am increasingly grateful to him.

Rosanna Tabasso
NP November 2025