His path from the Charismatic Renewal to his studies at the University of the Pontifical University of the Holy Crossz in Rome, shows how God's grace transforms life and opens horizons of mission for the Church today, giving impetus to the lay training for the new communities that emerge in it.
Fabiana was born on March 23, 1980 in Recife, in the Northeast region of Brazil, and is currently in her last year of her degree in Canon Law, thanks to the CARF Foundation, which granted her a scholarship during her studies.
I am Brazilian, I was born in the city of Recife, in the state of Pernambuco, in the northeastern region of Brazil. I am the youngest daughter of four siblings. My family has always been Catholic: my mother, a deeply committed and practicing woman of the Catholic faith and the sacraments; my father, although not practicing, encouraged my siblings and me to participate and follow my mother. I grew up in an environment where Christian values were presented to us and witnessed by my parents as a reality of daily life.
But it was around the age of 13 when I had a personal experience with the living Jesus, through the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. From that experience, Jesus became someone close to me, who lived with me, who accompanied me in my moments of study and also in my leisure time, when I was with my friends. Jesus was with me in my daily life. He was not only a God who gave me rules (the ten commandments) to follow, but a God who wanted me to be happy and joyful in my daily life.
Through this experience, participation in the Holy Eucharist took on a new meaning: I began to attend daily, not just as an obligation on Sundays.
Born in me the desire to read the Bible, I began to learn more about the Catholic faith, to participate more fervently in the sacrament of Confession. I began to join a prayer group of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, to take an interest in activities and social works, wishing that other people could also have that same personal encounter with Jesus that gave a new meaning to my life.
Everything good became even better, and what I had previously considered negative I learned to see in a different way, even discovering the meaning of difficulties.
This personal encounter with Jesus was a turning point in my life. I am very grateful to God because it happened at the beginning of my adolescence, giving me a fundamental foundation. A desire for holiness was born in me: to do everything well and to do it for God., giving meaning to the values that my parents taught me, to the attitudes that I saw in them and that now found a deeper meaning in God's love for me, for my family and for each person.
However, as the years went by, I began to feel that God was asking more of me, and that I also wanted to give more to the Lord. It was then that, for the first time, I thought of living in a new community. After a few months of prayer and discernment, I had the courage to seek out the Founder and those in charge of the community. Behold your Mother-Work of Mary to share what I was feeling and express my desire to make a community experience.
Years later I met the Community Behold your Mother-Work of Mary, a new community born in the neighborhood of Várzea, where I was living in Recife. When I came into contact with the first members of the community, I experienced mixed feelings: on the one hand, I was impressed by their courage in leaving everything - their father's house, their city - to live in community with the aim of evangelizing; on the other hand, it seemed to me an enormous challenge. My first thought was: «What about my projects, my dreams, am I going to give up everything? It is not necessary... I am already following Jesus, I am already fulfilling my part».
This is how I assumed, as a way of life, the charism of the community: to evangelize in every way, with joy, helping the local Church in its various needs, inviting everyone to take the Virgin Mary home, both in a physical and spiritual dimension. To evangelize and serve the Church like the Virgin Mary, guided by the grace of the Holy Spirit. To carry out the mission of the community I was sent to our mission house in Rome, where we developed our apostolate in a parish in the periphery.
After a few years in Rome, a friend of the community told us about the course. Ecclesial Movements and New Communities, organized by the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. He told us that he had already done it and that it would be very good for me and another missionary to participate as well, to help in the needs of the community. I spoke with our founder and after sharing it with the General Council, we received the proposal to do the course. That was our first contact with the PUSC.
From that course onwards we better understood the need for some members to enter the world of Canon Law, in order to help the Community in a special way and, at the same time, to prevent future errors. At the beginning we thought it was something intended for the formation of priests. However, in sharing it with the organizers of the course, we were encouraged to recognize the importance of also having the laywomen of a new community dedicate themselves to the study of Canon Law, given that this reality is still new and requires the preparation of lay people.
With some fear, but also with enthusiasm, I started my first steps in the ISSRA and then in the course of Canon Law. In time, I recognized as divine providence the opportunity to study Canon Law, especially at the PUSC, where it is always presented to us with its true purpose: the contribution to the salus animarum. Without this objective, the study would become cold and distant from the mission for which the Church exists with all its structure.
The financing of study grants managed by the CARF Foundation, thanks to the generosity of thousands of benefactors and friends, is key to the formation of seminarians and diocesan priests, but also for religious men and women of new and consolidated movements in the Church.
«Given this opportunity to receive a solid formation, my desire with the Degree in Canon Law is to help my community, but also other communities and movements in Brazil and in the world. I wish to serve better and be faithful to the call that the Lord has given me, and for this I am enormously grateful to the benefactors of the CARF Foundation for giving me this great opportunity to receive concrete help in my formation», thanks Fabiana Valdevino de Souza.
Gerardo Ferrara, Degree in History and Political Science, specializing in the Middle East. Head of the student body at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.
Table of Contents
