“Brother, if you are different from me, rather than offending me, you enrich me”, wrote the French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Differences and peculiarities of a person, place or culture, do enrich us if we know how to place ourselves in the right perspective: that of welcome and openness. In an encounter we can risk the self and discover that the other is gift.
This is why in this second issue of VitaPiù 2019, we continue to deepen the themes of interculturality. In our journey we arrive in Asia and Oceania, the first continents outside of Europe towards which the Canossian missionary passion set out – a melting pot of peoples and cultures where intercultural encounters are forged. Through interviews, we have gathered experiences and reflections from the Canossian communities spread throughout the East.
Meanwhile, the Canossian world has entered an important phase that will bring us to the next General Chapter of which we will tell you the theme and stages that the present General Council has chosen to propose for personal and communitarian discernment. It is a look to the world with a reflection on the intercultural dimension of a growing global movement of young people who are asking for a change of step towards a more respectful and sustainable globalization of the environment; a recall of our brothers and sisters who have lost their lives in the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka and a thought on the apostolic exhortation “Christus Vivit”.
For the first time, we will offer excerpts and suggestions for reflection also from the web, and finally, the commitment of the Canossian Foundation VOICA for the human promotion of the person in the world beginning from the weakest, and of the projects that need our support.
Enjoy your reading!