Mary's gaze

On foggy days over Turin, our fraternity in Superga sent us from the basilica beautiful images of light, sun, blue sky, white clouds, thick over our city

It is important to remember the gifts received: the entrance to the Arsenale on 2 August 39 years ago and that of 2 August one year ago, when we became guardians of the Basilica of Superga.

Then, on 21 September 2019, the Arsenale became Casa di Maria at the wish of Bishop Cesare Nosiglia and in the presence of Cardinal Bassetti.

Casa di Maria: place of weekdays, a place where every day we share with the poor, with the young, with the needs of our city. Casa di Maria: place of welcome, refuge, immersion in man's needs. As if, through Mary, a new incarnation should take place in our lives, to once again bring Jesus, the Christ into the heart of the world as she did.

Superga is also a house of Mary. However, it is a place located on the mountain, as if to tell us that sometimes, with Mary, we have to climb even a little higher, above all the daily toils. Go up the mountain with her to look at the things of God more closely. Let us be guided with her in the deep, authentic, living encounter with that Jesus who changes our lives, with those things of God with which she was so familiar and which are also for us: the heights, the depths of being with God.

A city on the mountain, our Superga, a small village that overlooks a large city, looks at the underlying life, suspended between the earth, the life of men, and the sky. On foggy days over Turin, our fraternity in Superga sent us from the basilica beautiful images of light, of sun, of blue sky, of white clouds, densely packed over our city. It is precisely the paradigm of our life with Mary.

Superga is also a place of beauty, a place of harmony, a place to raise the Spirit: we need this to get closer to God. Beauty, harmony speak to our heart, help us to look beyond fatigue, the pain, the limitation of our existence. They help us see where we are all headed, where life will be forever.

We arrived there a year ago, without precise programs and projects, but knowing well that we want to live with Mary the things of God and of men, to have a family with her and with her to have a family with God's gaze on us. Familiarize yourself with the reality of the Kingdom, with that beyond to which we all look for hope.

Especially in times like these which, after years of pandemic, see the tragedy of war so close to us. Everything is so difficult and tiring… How many times do we tell ourselves we need hope? How many times in a day do we experience the painful experience of touching our limits?

This is why it is decisive to look beyond, with Mary's gaze, towards the things of God.

In Superga, through the face of Mary, Mother of Grace. For centuries, on that hill, the highest in our city, we have been praying to the Mother of Graces, in memory of the vow made to ask for protection of the city during the French siege of 1706. We too, now, happen to look up there, towards that place to ask for the graces we need, to entrust ourselves to and live obedience to the Father.

At the Arsenale, through Mary Mother of the young, the Mother of the Three Hands, as if to tell us that she kneads with us in our daily service and serves with us, especially the young.

Rosanna Tabasso

NP Agosto-Settembre 2022