Unraveling Life’s Deepest Mysteries

Julián Carrón - conversation with the "little quadrats" (*) in a heartfelt dialogue, exploring life's profound mysteries and everyday challenges.

Thank you, Carrón, for this opportunity to meet with you. This is becoming something of an annual meeting. Before we begin, let's sing a Gloria because today, another one of our great friends has flown to his destiny.
Piergiorgio will finally be able to run to heaven with astronomical speed, something he has certainly not been able to do here lately. Please, those who have raised their hands, don't take too long. 

Question - I didn't raise my hand, but I'm speaking on behalf of Marco, Piergiorgio's son. He had a hard time speaking, but a little bit me too, because we are very close to Piergiorgio, so it's normal that we are a little bit sad. He wrote me this today: 'You know what hurts? To forget or at least idealize that it's a good way for him and for us and to put your own plans on a future that is missed. When I think about what I wanted to do, everything becomes more difficult. Pain, tears, and sadness take hold of me, but I am clear-headed enough to realize that this is where evil creeps in, suggesting that it would have been better to do what you had planned.

Dad taught us in those months to trust, to accept passively, sometimes inexplicably too passively, what reality dictated. He tried to rebel at first, but then every physical piece that was taken from him was let go as a due act towards a good destiny, a destiny he trusted, in which he saw the "after" as good for him. Never a complaint, never a curse, never a 'why me? Only in the beginning was he sad and depressed. Then something happened: the encounter with the “quadratini” (lirttle quadrats) and with Andrea, his high school friend. From there, he was reborn and became a testimony for everyone. This is the intervention of Marco, Piergiorgio's son. And then I would like to say something myself, but I don't know if you want to say something.

In my experience with the “little quadrats, I live this reality intensely. I am completely involved with all of them. They are like a family to me. When these things happen, they affect me deeply. Lately, it has been a difficult time since we returned from our vacation in Calambrone. So many things have happened: really special people, dear friends like Daniela, who went to heaven. Then, a dear friend of mine became very ill and was hospitalized. Then there is Alessandro, Franci's son, who is in America with his mother to experience a new therapy, not knowing what will happen. All these situations have put a weight on my heart, a knot that I cannot explain well. I talked about it with Don Eugenio because I felt it was almost a lack of faith. I thought that if I felt this great weight in the face of so much pain, maybe deep down, I didn't really believe in a good destiny. But he, I have to tell the truth, did not encourage me. He told me that this has nothing to do with faith, which is a sign of affectivity, the affection we have for each other, the love we have for each other. So this burden and this knot will not be taken away from me, but it has nothing to do with a lack of faith. 

I made a great discovery through a friend, Giovanna, who has ALS. She never writes to me, but just now she sent me a message asking, "How are you? She asked me how I was because she wrote, "Everyone asks you to pray for them; they ask you for prayer intentions, but no one asks you how you are. I want to know how you are. That was important because it made me think about myself. I didn't answer in a trivial way, I really wanted to tell her how I was. And I made an amazing discovery: the pain, the sadness that I sometimes feel, is part of the hundredfold that was given to me through my experience with the 'squares'. I realized that I can love 100 times more with it. It is not something that comes from me. So even the pain is 100 times more intense, and so is the sadness. I don't know if that's really the case, but that's what I felt.

Carrón - But if this burdens the heart, who makes you do it?

Answer: Precisely because there is an abundance of grace.

Carrón - That is the first thing we have to think about. You know, because someone might break off. Is it over? No, it's not over, it's just suspended for a while. Because in order to face this every day, as George's son says, we have to realize that each person has their own path, and each person that we are deeply attached to is not indifferent to us. These people become true companions in the search for the truth of life. Because if you were not confronted with it every day, you would be more tempted to forget what life really is: that life is a journey toward destiny.

And so, to answer your question, if this is the fact, if this is the opportunity that the Mystery gives you to be at the side of every friend who suffers or who goes to the other shore, it is precisely because you are making a journey of faith. If the mystery answers your question, it answers the question that often plagues us. No? Why do I feel this weight? 

Why do I find this challenge so difficult? Is there a lack of faith in the face of all this? No, the mystery comes to us by confronting us with friends who, precisely because of the connection we have with them, force us to walk the whole way of faith. In this way, others become companions on our journey towards our destiny because they are not indifferent to us. In order to face the death of George, precisely because we are not insensitive, precisely because we are not stony, we have to ask ourselves: am I here because I believe in a good destiny, or because I am full of reasons that I have to renew each time to convince myself that there really is a good destiny? And so each time, it's a verification, and it's a work on oneself, as you say, because we can't stop at just the appearance, just the detachment. Still, we have to ask whether, beyond this detachment, there is something that he is already enjoying or not.

The sign that we can already experience as the first answer to this question is the hundredfold that we experience by living life with this awareness. It gives life, the journey, the moment, the hours, a density that those who live superficially cannot comprehend. I don't know how they live the moment without meaning, in emptiness. So many people live in emptiness, young or old, and basically think that this is an easier life. But I don't really know if it's easier to endure the emptiness or to face this challenge that is constantly presented to us by friends who are suffering or leaving us. And this is something that everyone has to find out for themselves. And why? Because Christianity, as Don Giussani always taught us, requires real people. 

Nothing is mechanical. Faced with this, everyone can get stuck or take the opportunity of this challenge that life gives us through the friends who leave us to go the whole way of faith. And this is how the mystery responds to your concern about the lack of faith. Stop worrying, as they would say in practice, stop worrying, and every time you are confronted with what is happening, ask yourself, can you deal with this without going the whole way of faith? Then, you will begin to give an answer that is not just theoretical. I tell you it is; if it is not in your experience, you will begin to realize that if you were not facing this every day, you might not be on this path. This is what we have told each other so many times: that circumstance is an opportunity to walk toward destiny.

Question - We wrote two lines to summarize it so as not to dwell on it too much. Well, we got married almost two years ago, and in February, Peter was born 23 weeks premature. He was born five months before his due date for reasons we don't know. That's extreme prematurity, under 23 weeks, they don't do resuscitation. So Peter was on the edge of survival. 

After he was born, a real ordeal began in the intensive care unit, with endless days spent in front of the incubator while the doctors told us to enjoy every minute with Peter because they didn't know if he would survive. So, we decided to baptize him the day after he was born. There is so much more to say. There was a lot of hurt and a lot of pain in all those months of agony, during which we often asked, "But if the Lord wants him with Him, why do we have to go through this agony? Why doesn't He take him now? And instead, the days passed. Peter also underwent life-saving heart surgery three eye surgeries, and had several episodes of bleeding, one cerebral and one pulmonary. During those months, there was definitely a lot of fatigue, a lot of pain, and a sense of a promise that seemed broken or otherwise different from what we had imagined.

In those moments when we struggled to make sense of it all, many miracles happened. One of them was how much we were loved, how much Peter was loved! A whole nation from all over the world prayed for him and for us. A beautiful family was born, with all the parents in intensive care, even those who lost their children, because almost all the children born like Peter went to heaven. And then there was the love of our families, our friends, and the friendship with everyone, with the "squares," with Don Eugenio and Rosa. Another prayer group was born, linked to another fragile child, Luca. In short, we experienced infinite good. Miraculously, Peter is home with us. It is a real miracle after almost six months of intensive care. 

We are home with oxygen, many medications, many check-ups, and the consequences of his prematurity, which we still don't know how much they will affect his level of disability in the future because of the brain injuries he suffered. The most incredible thing is that no matter his fate, he was immediately loved and cherished by everyone. And so were we, along with him. In all this chaos, in which we often fall, we try to carry this cross and face the circumstances, even though humanly, we often do not want them or could not have imagined them. Let us ask God to "win" even on this cross.

In short, we try to say that famous "yes" that we always hear about, and we try to say it all the way, with all the difficulties that come with it: the complaining, the sadness, the anger, and often even the envy. Humanly speaking, we sometimes compare ourselves with our peers. I, in particular, suffer from anxiety and panic attacks, so I struggle with that. We really want to rely more and more on what is not our own design. We would never want a life without Peter, we would never replace him, not even in the face of all the fatigue that comes with it. The fear is there, the fear of losing him again, but we know it is not in our hands, nor does it depend on our abilities as mothers or fathers. There is one point in the end that is not in our control. When I start to complain about what is missing, I look at Peter and think about how much he saves us every day. Thanks to him, my heart can say that I need God. Thanks to Peter, I always look for the Father who loves us. And nothing, in the end, even though he created us and makes us struggle and suffer, thanks to him, we can try more and more to say "yes" to Jesus, totally.

Question - No, nothing... How to say it? I, too, in these months of extreme effort, have experienced something that I never imagined before fighting for the life of a child. It is something I never thought about before it happened. Peter and the friends who helped us during this time taught us a lot. They taught us to live in the present moment because it was not even foreseeable to talk about tomorrow, and for Peter, tomorrow might not be there. That helped us understand how precious the present moment is, and secondly, it taught us to rely on it because it is something we would not have been able to sustain on our own. Facing the possibility of a child dying is an inhuman reality, and we could not have faced it alone. In fact, it forced us, or rather taught us, to rely on God through friends, relatives, and even acquaintances. In that moment, because the present was so precious, even people we had never considered, or parents we barely knew, turned out to be precious.

Carrón - The question that comes to mind as I listen to you is this: with all that you're going through, now that you can look back on it, wouldn't you have liked to have been spared all of it?

Answer - Absolutely not.

Carrón - Having said that, it seems to me that the only answer to your question is: why not? It is natural for you to ask this question in such a difficult situation. But how do we answer it? Do we make up reasons, or do we find them in experience? What you have said seems to me to show that all the reasons you have found by experiencing this situation are real.

For example, every moment of Peter's life was lived with an intensity that you probably could not have experienced with any other child, every moment was lived freely, as a gift. Every moment of Peter's life was so real that even the doctors had to acknowledge it: "Look at him because every moment is a gift. Imagine what it means to be aware of that, to look at each other.

Now, thanks to Peter's presence, you, Francis, and Cristina are so present for each other, freely, for the work of the other. This density in your being together, in your awareness of what the gift of life means, is something we all take for granted. How many of us woke up today with the same awareness that you had? It makes us realize how often we experience moments of emptiness, not realizing the immense gift that is life, especially that of such a special child. If we do not look at that and how it was perceived, with all the good that you have shared, we could not give a reasonable answer to your question. That's why I understand that every time you complain, you have to go back to this path: 'But if I don't do this every day, I'll miss out on the best of life.

Because what we dream of is that everything is so automatic that we don't have to do it consciously. But if you took your existence, or Peter's existence, or Francis' existence, for granted one morning, it would lose the density with which you are living it now. This is true for all of us because, thanks to you, we can become more aware of what this gift of life really is. 

It is not a gift just because we say so, but because it is another who gives life. Peter is sustained only by Him. What fear must you have of Peter's life? Only then can we see all that is there, not just the appearance of tiredness, but all that we often take for granted. It is another who, with anxiety and passion, supports and leads Peter to his destiny according to a plan that is not our own. Everything would be meaningless without this Father, to whom you must return to overcome all grievances. Imagine what this means for your life; such an experience leaves a deep mark. But even that can fade with time if you do not learn to make this journey continuously, as a way of life as an adult, in the face of the depth of reality. That's why I thank you for your testimony to the kind of work we are all called to do, whatever our situation. Thank you very much.

Answer - Thank you. We also hug you.

Question - In the last four months, my health has gone through a very difficult period. While I was on vacation in Calambrone, I had to return a day early because of severe back pain, which turned out to be symptoms of ongoing pleurisy and pericarditis, which also caused severe cardiac arrhythmias. The treatment for these ailments was harsh: insomnia, fatigue, headaches, extreme weakness. Days spent motionless in bed or on the couch. I experienced a lot of loneliness. 

But what affected me the most was the realization that I could not even button my shirt, take off my socks, or do the simplest everyday things. I was very hurt. Sometimes, I would cry in front of a button. I also cried when someone buttoned it for me. What gratitude I felt when I realized that He was responding to my most concrete needs, so I lived each day with a kind of strange undercurrent of joy that I could not explain. In this undercurrent, the relationship with the Lord was always there, even when I struggled with Him, and I could see He humbled me. There were dark moments of discouragement, almost of skepticism, and at the same time, all of this pushed me to ask, "Lord, what do you want from me? What do you want from me? I just need to see your gaze on me.'"

During those months, He placed me in a beautiful place in Tuscany with incredible views and fabulous sunsets. But I have found that this is not enough for me; it does not satisfy my heart. I have found that my heart is made for infinity. Nothing is enough for me but to see you present in my day, even through the sunsets. And who fastens my buttons, takes off my socks, makes my milk in the morning, and all the little things that seem almost insignificant? Every moment is given to me to see you at work through the obvious and concrete signs of my reality.

Even when I have very strong pains, the nature of which no doctor has been able to explain but which fortunately last only a few tens of minutes, I am surprised to feel Nella's hand, silent, at my side. I offer these pains to you, Jesus, on the cross, as I relive them. Perhaps this is why our Christ is smiling. I realize that these mortifications help me purify my heart, obey with all my being what He has in mind for me, and love Him more each day. For now, I am infinitely grateful to have the certainty that He is there, and I enjoy it in the moment that He gives me, and I live. I am finished. Thank you.

Carrón - You see, you are made for the infinite. But how much effort have we had to go through in life to come to that realization, haven't we? Unfortunately, that's the way it is.

Sometimes, only under certain circumstances do we realize that even in the face of dreamy vistas like those of Tuscany, none of it is really enough for us. It reminds me of a time when I was in Tuscany with some friends. We admired the breathtaking views when one person said, "But even looking at such beautiful views, I get bored eventually.

You might think this person was being strange, but he was actually expressing a profound truth: The more breathtaking a view, the more we realize that it doesn't fully satisfy us. We become even more aware that we are made for something more, much more than breathtaking views.

This is the beauty of all circumstances: we walk through them to our destiny. If we don't stop at pain or suffering but go down this path of knowledge that you describe, we slowly understand who we are and what we were made for.

To go from repeating the right phrases, as we have done so many times in our lives, to live them as a real experience, with the awareness you now describe, with a certainty you never imagined before, is what makes all the difference in life. We are moving more and more towards our destiny, and everything that happens to us, and this mystery does not spare us, is to reach this certainty, deeper and deeper, rooted in our person, to be able to wait with joy for the encounter with the infinite that is already present. Thank you, Gigi, for this because this is the path to which we are called, each in our own circumstances.

Question - I have been working with the sick in hospitals for more than 40 years. My attitude has not always been the same. Very briefly, I would like to share what happened to me and how it changed the way I relate to people in these circumstances. It was not like that until about 12 years ago when the Lord gave me a significant health problem, but one that He eventually helped me to solve. I always wondered why it happened, and I finally realized that it was to make me change my attitude. Especially in my work, I have become more observant and understanding of all patient situations. Every day, I witness small miracles. I never see an arm grow back, but I see little things that I consider miracles.

For example, two days ago, before going on vacation, a lady was about to leave. I asked her son if he wanted a priest's blessing, and he said it was unnecessary for him, but he added that his mother always listened to Radio Maria. So they called the priest who came to give her the last rites. I saw this son crying like I had never seen anyone cry before. He looked desperate, but he wasn't. At the end of the ceremony, he thanked me and told me that he had never experienced such an intense moment with his mother as in those few minutes. To me, that is a miracle. I could tell many more, but this is just one example.

The point is to be able to see these miracles because sometimes it is difficult. Another miracle is that I am still working because it was not a given with my health condition. Another thing is that when I get distracted and realize that I don't have the right attitude, I immediately get a reminder. A recent example: I was assisting a lady, and everything went well. I told her that everything went well, and she said, "But look, it's not you, it's someone else who made it go well. That was a good reminder for me.

Now, when I tell these things to my colleagues in the hospital, they think I am an intruder, a lunatic, a fanatic. But when I told them about the “little quadrats,” no one was shocked. I will also pray for them. I'm not good at talking or convincing people; I don't even think that's my job. I have finished. Thank you.

Carrón - Thank you, Gabriel. Learning to see as you told us is a desire we all have: to be able to see with this truth. Otherwise, we run the risk of being trapped in the appearance of things. On the contrary, being called by your work to look more and more consciously at all the factors, even to the point of bringing a person to meet a priest and experience such a meaningful moment, really shows us what life can become in the last moment. This is the answer to the inevitable distraction that so often hits us. It is the same reality that keeps calling us back to the truth of the gaze. If we take advantage of the way the mystery pulls us out of distraction, not through miracles or angels, but through the reminders that reality itself offers us to lead us to a true gaze, then all of life is given to us precisely because of this truth, because of our relationship to everything, up to the mystery. Thank you.

Question - The other day, a friend asked me how my relationship with my husband had changed in the last few months. I hadn't thought about it, I was just living it. I complained about it a lot. But our relationship is becoming more and more pure, almost virginal. You are mine, you were given to me, and you are essential to my fulfillment. Yet I do not possess you. I have no desire to bind you to me. Given the short time I have left, it would make no sense to even think of it. This method of God is wonderful. It is wonderful because He uses everything, even the simplest things, like going to the grocery store. Every time my husband asks me, 'Do you really need this? It is a constant reminder of the essentials, of what is really important.

The moments we spend together, which the disease forces us to share, have become opportunities for growth and wonder. Sharing has become a journey, a work for both of us, like the pilgrimage from Macerata to Loreto, which he made with me for the first time this year, or the vacation in Calambrone. So many encounters, so many friendships that are no longer just my personal experience, but a reality that involves both of us.

Recently, my husband used the word "consort" in his testimony. In these last few months, I have grown aware that each day of life is a gift, a time given to me for a purpose. And that purpose is to grow in the assurance of His love for me and my husband and to see my husband being won over by Him, beginning to attach himself to Him and, as a result, to our friends.

At first, I thought I had a lot of things to do to prepare my husband and son for the day I would leave, and I lived this time with some anxiety, thinking I had to organize everything. However, it is becoming clearer to me that I am only being asked to live my relationship with Him with a capital "L. There is no better way than to accompany it with my life.

Carrón - Beautiful! This is the purpose of life for everyone, starting with ourselves: to live. To live fully. This is the greatest contribution we can make to our husband, our children, or our fellow travelers. The truth of life is communicated by living, not by talking. And this, as you can see, has become essential for you. So you are telling us something crucial. So often, we get confused thinking about how many things we have to prepare, and how we have to prepare them, and we get distracted by a thousand details. But we only need to live in front of them because that's what life is given to us until the end.

Who would have imagined that the moment when you met for the first time, without even touching, and when you said yes, or she agreed to share life with you, could lead to this summit? That first moment was just a promise. Now, you are forced to talk about virginity with a depth and density of experience that was already there, but not as conscious as now. But the relationship is not diminished. Just as the relationship was true then, even without physical contact, it now has a density and depth that makes you imagine what it will be like forever.

That is why, as you say, life is a constant gift that generates this certainty in us, but it is not a mere repetition of certainty; it is something that comes from the bowels of lived experience. Are you telling me that it is so crucial that it is enough to live for it? Thank you for reminding us so succinctly what the purpose of living is: to be present to others in the moment we are given to live because that is the best we can share with the people we care about most.

Question - I have to disconnect because I have to go to therapy. I went back to the hospital because of a bacterium that may have gone to my heart. With you, my scaffolding has slowly fallen, as Fr. Eugenio says, in the face of the beauty and truth of which we are made. The truth will set us free, but evil lurks, and sometimes we feel inadequate and weak. After expressing all the questions that each of us has in our hearts and holds with clenched fists, we are always on this invisible and unbreakable thread of time, and all that is essential to our hearts rests on the palms of our hands. I ask unceasingly that I may always entrust my heart to all those who will say to me, "You shall not die," and that they may also welcome my weaknesses and frailties, not as a sign of little faith but as a sign that my nature has an unceasing need for Him.

Carrón—Thank you. We thank Pina for her testimony and contribution to our journey. We hope that we can follow the path she has indicated.

Question - I will try to be brief and share a small fact that exemplifies what allows my life to grow in the certainty that we lack nothing, to the point of feeling favored because of Alfredo's presence, such as it is. I have already told this story to our friends from the "squares": on our anniversary, Alfredo did not sleep, he had a lot of mucus and I had to suck it up constantly, with great effort. But I had a surprising clarity when I woke up in the morning. I experienced two or three things that are beginning to become a part of me. These reflections, which I may have heard before, are now becoming mine because I realized that I have changed.

The first relates to the idea we often hear: you must go through the cluster of your own expectations. That night, I could have conditioned myself to be conditioned by the common idea that to celebrate an anniversary, you must repeat what you did in the past. Instead, in intimate dialog with the mystery, I discovered the gratitude of having Alfred beside me, who needed to be cared for. I felt in a palpable way the carnality of being loved, of being next to Alfredo: he is in need, but I am also in need of him, with a capital "L."

The second reflection is about what it means to remember what one experiences in certain moments. I think of dialog with friends, correspondence with a song, landscape, or Don Eugenio's tireless fatherhood. That night, all this became clear to me. I had it before my eyes and in my heart. When you are faced with an urgency or a need, you find yourself alone or with all that you have experienced.

Finally, and I will end here, I have always wondered what it means for a presence to become conscious in us to the point of freeing us from fear. That night, I felt generated by that presence, and it became clear to me what it meant. I did not need to be physically attached to anyone. I remember Dorian once telling me about an adopted little girl who played happily because she no longer needed to be attached to her mother, and she had achieved the certainty that her mother loved her. In that little episode, I experienced that free dependence: I don't feel the anxiety of having to wait for or experience something special, but of accepting every day as it is.

Carrón - I thank you because the summary you have made seems to me to be of great help to everyone. Thanks to it, we can face a circumstance like the one you experienced that night, on the day of your anniversary, going through a whole range of emotions precisely because you had in your memory everything you needed to face that present moment. As Don Giussani says in chapter 8 of The Religious Sense, we face the present with all the past. Everything you had experienced that night emerged in your memory, allowing you to go through these difficulties.

The most obvious sign that this is not just a mental thought is that it frees you from fear. We see the truth of faith in the change that occurs in us. Without this change, one might think that everything is just imagination or self-belief. But when this path succeeds in transforming reality, in transforming fear into certainty, and in giving you the ability to sleep peacefully, it is a sign that Christ is so real and present that he changes how we live the present moment.

Question - Good evening, everyone. A few days ago, I had a flash. At the moment, I'm in the province of Treviso, where many farms sell without going through the big retailers. Visually, the produce is not perfect: the apricots have some brown spots, the cucumbers are small, and the tomatoes are often only available in one variety. Despite their appearance, when you eat them, the taste is incredible. They are exceptional, almost like a gourmet dish: firm, tasty, with just the right texture, in short, simply extraordinary. As a Milanese who has been used to shopping in supermarkets and markets for almost forty years, I can say this is completely different.

Carrón - Perfect.

Question (cont.) - When I looked at them, I said to myself, "Gee, they are like the 'squares'! Many of them have great problems, oncological diseases, disabilities, or other difficulties. Yet their parents or family members have a taste, a joy, and an outlook on life, an ability to bounce back that is truly incredible. It's like those fruits and vegetables that are not aesthetically perfect, but because they come straight from the earth, they have an incomparable goodness.

Carrón - Thank you. I'm very touched by this because I understand it very well: being the son of farmers, I know the difference between fruits and vegetables that ripen directly on the plant and those that you buy in the supermarket, which don't taste the same. You have captured this difference perfectly, allowing you to make a very meaningful comparison. Despite some imperfections, like the "squares," life is not measured by its apparent beauty but by the taste it has. It is a life that, when lived with density and gusto, offers an irreplaceable companionship that is incomparable to any other form of existence that is seemingly perfect but lacking in flavor. Thank you.

Question - I recently met the "little quadrats," and I consider this a miracle in my life because it allows me to look into their faces and experience all they express. In short, through their eyes, I have the opportunity to see Jesus, and I am deeply grateful for that.

Carrón - Thank you.

Question - In the last two years, I have had a significant experience that I wanted to share with you, remembering the title of your book, The Unarmed Beauty. I experienced this beauty when I met Ada personally for a quarter of an hour while she was in bed. Looking at her and listening to her words, I had the same experience with Catherine, who opened her arms wide like Jesus on the cross. In those moments, I really understood the meaning of the title of your book.

As Rosa also said, another important thing is the intimacy that comes from these meetings. It is a great intimacy, a unity that comes precisely from this unarmed beauty. It cannot be otherwise: the unity comes from it. Moreover, it is crucial to note how the doctors, through the stories of the "squares," observe how these people experience illness. This generates a cultural judgment that comes from this very beauty. Thank you.

Carrón - Perfect, Maurizio, concise and clear. This is the judgment that Baffo was talking about, a judgment that you carry with you, visible on your faces. It is a disarmed but powerful cultural judgment that shines in the transformation that Christ brings about in us, even in the face of difficult situations such as illness or suffering. This intimacy that unites us is given to everyone, beginning with those closest to us, such as doctors, relatives, or whoever the mystery brings together. It is true that we carry this judgment in our faces. Continue well, friends!

Intervention - I just wanted to say hello and thank you, and that's it!

Carrón - Thank you, dearest, a big hug!

Closing - We thank Julian. Always remember what he once told us, which has become a real milestone for us: "I seriously keep you company by living what the Mystery makes me live. Period. Everything else is fantasy. Everything else is less. This is an important lesson, and even today, it seems to me that we have continued to live it. We are a company. We are friends because each of us, with all our mistakes, takes this vocation, mission, and presence seriously. We accept it because we know it is our contribution to the Church, the Movement, and the world. You told us about it again today, so thank you very much. We will see you again in Rimini on the 23rd.

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In 2020, the experience of the "Little Quadrats," an online prayer group for the sick and caregivers, was born. It became a fraternity in solidarity, culminating in the founding of the Squares & Charity Association in 2023 to morally and materially support those in need.

Translated and edited by the editorial team of Epochal Change without revision by the author.

In this dialogue, we have explored the lived experiences of a group of people who, despite the difficulties associated with illness and caregiving, have found mutual support and a source of hope in sharing and prayer. Starting with Rosa Barile's initiative in 2020, which gave birth to the "little quadrats," an online prayer group, we will discover how this community has become a true fraternity, able to face pain and illness with a look toward Good and Beauty. Through their stories, we will see how solidarity and faith can transform even the most difficult situations, offering concrete and spiritual support that goes beyond physical and geographical barriers.
https://www.quadratiniecarita.org