Chaired by Eleonora Brandi and directed by Loredana Rocchi, the family home sees the operators of Salesiani per il Sociale, people who fully live the spirituality of Don Bosco and his educational method, operating within, refined by years and years of continuous and specific formation.
To enhance this community as an evangelical sign on the coast and respond to the large influx of vacationers, Father Stefano Fumagalli, parish priest of the local Sant'Angela Merici parish within whose boundaries the centre is based, in agreement with Bishop Gianrico Ruzza, bishop of Civitavecchia-Tarquinia and Porto-Santa Rufina, accepted the proposal of the home's leaders to offer a Mass every Sunday at 7 pm in the reception centre garden.
Sunday, 2 July saw the bishop as main celebrant at the first Mass there, for a celebration in which a construction was blessed in the garden: a small chapel designed by Gianluigi Saddi with a cross on the outside combining a heart and a nativity scene inside with the star, exposed throughout the year, to represent the continuous rebirth offered by this centre.
“All of life is a journey, a journey towards the realisation of the Kingdom of God,” said the parish priest during Mass, in a homily that wisely re-interpreted the Word of the day in the light of the situation experienced in the “Star of the Way” reception centre.
From the analysis of the First Reading, which recounts the welcome received by the Prophet Elisha from a woman and her husband, it was possible to understand that openness and accepting others are central in the relationship: the same attitudes exercised by community workers with young people in difficulty.
The “evangelical logic of the gift” was then examined in the light of the full and total love of God of which St Paul speaks in the Letter to the Romans, where he explains that this love is expressed by the intimate union of the disciples with Christ: “He died, and died for sin once for all; but now he lives, and lives for God. In the same way, you also consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive for God in Christ Jesus.
Adherence to this love is possible for all people, but, Bishop Ruzza emphasised, the Gospel of Matthew warns that love is truly such if it is lived as a radical act of service to one's neighbour. And the house at Santa Severa, which offers a chance to young people through Salesian spirituality, is there to remind us of the words of Jesus: "And whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward."
Sources: Avvenire, Stella del Cammino Family House
