"I am Brazilian and I was born in the city of Teófilo Otoni / Minas Gerais, southeastern region of Brazil. I am the youngest of three siblings. Our family is Catholic and my mother was largely responsible for our education in the faith. She, a teacher by profession, educated us in a very fair way, leading us to recognize the greatness of God in every event of our history and to maintain an intimate relationship with Him through Sunday masses, regular participation in catechesis and the community life of our parish church.
In my teenage years I reached a kind of opposition to God by the fact that my parents had divorced when I was only a month old. This fact, unfortunately present in many families today, made my adolescence a rather complicated phase.
At the age of 14, however, at the insistence of my mother and my two older brothers, all active in the church, I participated in a youth meeting that led me to a very personal and intimate encounter with God. This meeting would change my life completely.
Unexpectedly, I was able to realize of God's love for me and my family in spite of the trials we had gone through and then I was able to experience the deep care that the Lord has for each one of his children.
From that moment on, he began to a true love story with GodIt was a love that consumed me so much that I could not explain it to my unbelieving friends, but not even to myself! My life really changed, and every day I sought more and more to serve God: I was a catechist, coordinator of the parish youth group and a witness in couples' meetings sharing my difficult experience of having divorced parents.
However, everything I did in the Church did not quench my thirst to serve God, to proclaim Him to everyone I met. It was then that I met the community to which I belong today and through which I consecrated myself to God: the Catholic community "Palavra Viva", a private association of the faithful, of Brazilian origin, whose charisma is the proclamation of Jesus to the world, a proclamation especially directed to young people and families.
Young people from the Brazilian Catholic community "Palavra Viva".
When I got to know our community in one of the youth meetings that we organize every year, I saw that this could be my place. I recognized in this way of proclaiming Jesus, among so many others that I had already known in the Church, the answer to my thirst to evangelize. Truly, the joy of the members of the Living Word, their way of speaking about God, of proclaiming Christ to those who do not know him in depth and to those who do not know him in depth, and their way of proclaiming him to those who do not know him in depth. His witness of simplicity and fidelity to the Church attracted me as never before.
This is how, after some time of discernment, in February 2013, I decided to live a School of Evangelization, the project of our community for young people, which for a year is dedicated to personal formation, spirituality and a missionary experience of proclamation in various places in Brazil, under our tutelage. The school aims to promote young Christians through an integral formation that aims to enable a mature and active experience of faith. in reality and in the specific vocation to which each one is called.
During my year in the School of Evangelization, I identified even more with the charism of "Living Word" and asked to join the body of members of the community. In the first years as a member, I was able to know and love God and his Church more and to dedicate myself, even with my limits, to the evangelization of young people and families. This whole experience confirmed my vocation and I decided to consecrate my life to God.
In 2017, after two years of missionary experience in Spain, the community proposed to me to come to Rome for a missionary experience.studying philosophy and theology at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. I did not hesitate to answer yes, because I already knew a little about Opus Dei and I perceived in this charism a deep zeal for the Truth through fidelity to Catholic doctrine and the magisterium of the Church.
My studies at this university have opened my mind to a true and healthy dialogue between faith and reason, between the Church and contemporary society, beyond all preconceived ideas, without renouncing the truth and the long Catholic tradition. In this way I was able to deepen even more the richness of our faith, together with the rationality inherent in every man naturally prone to the search for the Divine.
Today I am studying the third year of philosophy and I identify more and more with this subject. I believe that this is due in large part to the teaching and witness of the professors of the Faculty of Philosophy who, besides being professionals dedicated to transmitting the content of their disciplines with zeal and efficiency, are authentic Christians, above all very wise and humane in their relationship with the students.
For this rich reality of intellectual and human deepening lived at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, I am very grateful to God and to all those who work hard for the maintenance of this university: We are grateful to the administrative and teaching staff of the university who, with their financial collaboration, allow us to grow in our personal formation and thus be able to collaborate with the universal Church in its mission of proclaiming and teaching all peoples.
I dream of being able to use my studies to evangelize the youth and families of the world through the charism to which God called me one day, some years ago, and I believe that this will be a simple but effective contribution to our community.
In fact, I admire very much the deep desire of our founder of our community, Alysson Norberto da Costa, of which we are members - mostly young people - to take the Name of Jesus to all corners of the world in a testimony of simplicity and missionary ardor.
With this intrepid attempt to proclaim Jesus to the world, our community today, andn its 24 years of existence, it is present in some 10 countries in the Americas, Europe and Oceania, with more than 30 mission houses in the Americas, Europe and Oceania.. The realities in which we find ourselves are marked above all by the great challenge of rescuing the Sacred in the heart of man, ever more distant from the Truth of Christ and poor in faith. The rescue of the Sacred, in this sense, is for us a clear objective of the proclamation of the Gospel and, therefore, of our charism.
In our missionary houses, whether men's or women's, we face the challenge of evangelization through the promotion of missionary weeks in parishes, with content kerygmaticWe also organize small gatherings for young people and families, prayer services and spiritual guidance, as well as pilgrimages and formative assistance to the different realities of the particular churches.
In all these activities, we look especially for those who do not come, ie, those who do not know the Catholic faith, or those who have abandoned it, always respecting the freedom of men and women, and in fidelity to Holy Doctrine, to the Holy Magisterium of the Church.
For all that I have said, I believe that this time of my university studies, together with the missionary activity of our community in Rome, I am becoming more fulfilled each day in the consecration I have made to God. Therefore, I really thank our Lord for all the spiritual heritage of St. Josemaría Escrivá, who, through Opus Dei, made it possible for so many charisms and particular realities in dioceses throughout the world to have access to a quality formation. I entrust to him my studies at this university and I ask him to help me to be faithful in my role as a consecrated person living in the world, so that I may give more and more to the work that the Lord himself chose as the center of my consecration: the Catholic community "Palavra viva.
Gerardo Ferrara
BA in History and Political Science, specializing in the Middle East.
Responsible for the student body
University of the Holy Cross in Rome
