We had met for an Advent Zoom meeting with former camp participants from nine European countries. ‘Where have I arrived and what have I learned for myself and my faith?’ were our guiding questions. A young woman from Albania, now married, spoke of the pain of not being able to say goodbye to her grandmother before she died. ‘And yet I learned so much from her. She taught me how to live, believe, pray and love. I am so grateful to her for all that. For a long time, I kept asking myself: Why wasn't I given the chance to say goodbye? But when I look back today, I feel how she is close to me in a whole new way. When I pray, she is there. She is not gone. She lived and she lives on today. This discovery touched me deeply and made me grateful. Now I understand that God has opened up a whole new dimension for me through pain. Yes, in the darkness, when we can no longer feel or see anything, I have learned that we are invited to believe blindly that God is creating something great, but we cannot yet feel it!"
