Mother of young people

The images of destruction and death that follow one another from Ukraine, the comments and forecasts on how the already critical situation will evolve make us participate in what is happening, but together they weigh us down. The war also enters us in this way and everyone reacts as he can. There are those who do not detach themselves from the news, those who no longer want to know anything about what is happening, the older ones relive fears of the past ... and how do children and young people live all this? The fear is that many, not helped, left alone, may fall into dangerous drifts, depression for example, or that they are so addicted to the brutality of war that they seek refuge in the violence of the herd ... two extremes of a fatigue that belongs to everyone. The invitation that Mother Teresa addressed to Ernesto in a letter found in 1997 but without date returns urgently: it is time to "take Our Lady with us and with her go in search of children and young people to take them home".

This time linked to war in the heart of Europe is to be lived with Mary Mother of the young, Mother of the Three Hands. At the very beginning of the war, a friend translated from Cyrillic the long declaration that accompanies this icon created in the mid-nineteenth century, which specifies its origin from the south-western areas of Russia, today's Ukraine and Belarus. This coincidence surprised and moved us and pushed us even more to entrust ourselves to her, to entrust her children and young people. You know the soul and the efforts of these new generations who find themselves experiencing epochal upheavals, without having their gaze fixed on God and the Beyond. This is why she wants to be among them, just as she was with the disciples on Holy Saturday: for everyone Jesus was dead and everything was over; she alone still awaited God's promise, the resurrection of that Son, announced by the Scriptures. Her heart told her that all was not lost, she knew that something would happen, she knew that Jesus would return and that there would be a new announcement: "Do not be afraid, Mary, nothing is impossible for God", and this time it would not be it was only for her, but also for the disciples and for the women who had followed Jesus. And she was among them disappointed and bewildered, she did not leave them alone. She did not doubt even for a moment and remained with the disciples waiting for her. "How will this happen?" she will have repeated herself, just like in the Annunciation, but with the heart certain that something would happen and everyone's faith would be rekindled. What humanly seemed to be a defeat would actually have been a new beginning: the Church was born with the Risen Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

On Holy Saturday of our time, when everything seems lost and even God no longer finds a place in the hearts of so many, Mary is with us to gather young people around her because what seems to be the loss of God, the loss of the prospect of life. , it is actually the possibility of a new start. We too ask ourselves how it is possible but, with Mary and like her, we are certain that it has already happened, because God never abandons those for whom his Son gave his life. It is the day in which we gather together, like the disciples closed in the Upper Room for fear of what is happening outside. It is the day when Jesus once again overcomes death and history restarts. Let us gather and gather the young people around Mary. Everything will start from her.

Rosanna Tabasso

NP Maggio 2022

Wednesday 4 May are three years since Mary's departure for Heaven. Her physical absence of her causes us so much nostalgia, but we feel her present in our life as always and even more strongly. We begin to understand that the Lord wanted her with him to push us to become even more familiar with the Beyond and learn to live in her Presence here and now. Knowing her at the head of the Arsenale in Cielo has helped us in recent years to face the constant trials of the difficult times we are experiencing. Mary is in the heart of all of us every day and we are sure to always be in her.