As every year, the last day of school before the Christmas holidays was very special for the pupils of the first-grade secondary school and the children of the primary school of the «istituto Margherita» as they awaited with excitement and joy the upcoming celebration. Covid restrictions did not allow the usual hugs, so we let ourselves to be embraced by the tenderness of a Child who is born for us, amidst the troubled waters of history.

In the morning the classes alternated for a prayer session in the chapel of the Institute, where they were welcomed by a big nativity scene placed on an ark. «As in the times of Noah», God wants to establish his covenant with us, to protect and preserve our lives from the general chaos. During the explanation to the primary school, the children were asked to write on a cardboard, cut in the shape of a drop of water, their greatest fear and, then, to throw it into the waters of the flood supporting the ark and to ask Jesus to help them to face these fears together. The most frequent fears were losing their loved ones and the fear of darkness. Later they discussed what is important for them to save on the ark: one pupil said the ‘dinosaur’ from which he cannot separate, another one his family and another his class along with the teacher… There were also some pupils who expressed their wish to save joy, happiness, hope and the vaccine for Covid.

Finally, with the prayer of the Our Father, everyone felt embraced by the Child who was born again this year to live with us this particular moment. With the secondary school pupils, the reflection was focused on the willingness to accept, with serenity, what God is asking them. Three large dice and some other smaller ones were placed in front of the altar. Each pupil had to take one and write, on one side, the field in which he/she wants to take a challenge (with study after a bad result, with a friend after a quarrel, with his parents after a moment of disappointment and anger…) in order to experience the birth of the Child Jesus as a new beginning.

Finally, their eyes were drawn towards the rainbow made of long draperies hanging from the tribune of the chapel. As the white light is the sum of all colours, so Jesus, the manifestation of the Father’s face, light of the world, reconciles heaven to earth allowing us all to live as children of God.