2nd March: 22 Oratory Leaders, 2 drivers, Sr. Nieves and Sr. Netsanet… all of us ready at 7, 30 am to begin our journey toward Dilla. The Leaders and the sisters of the community of Dilla welcomed us warmly. After lunch we had a nice moment of reflection through a PowerPoint, “, prepared by Sr. Tsige. At 5, 00 pm we joined the parishioners for the way of the cross. After supper we a beautiful moment of recreation with the contribution of the two groups of Dilla and Zway Leaders. The good night was another meaningful moment: Sr. Nieves, Sr. Netsanet, Tr. Eyerus and Tr. Nigatua shared their experience in Spain for the World Youth Day. The day closed with the vision of a documentary film of Mother Teresa of Calcutta – “small things done with great love!! -”which helped us to reflect about the Love of Lord for all humanity. This same love God led Mother Teresa to Do God’s will, in her Life.
3rd` March: we went to Mary Help of Christian Shrine at Mike, Sidamo region. It was built by one of the first Combony missionary, Abba Giuseppe Calvi. Sr.Gio explained to us about the origin of the church and the miracle that Mary did in that place (Father Calvi’s mother was blind and her parents who knew don Bosco, prayed Mary as don Bosco recommended to do always. They prayed together the novena and, at the end, the grand-mother showed to her daughter the picture of Mary. Abba Giuseppe’s mother saw a beautiful face of Mary and from that moment she was able to see).
In front of Mary all the leaders of Dilla and Zway (40 young people in all) had a moment of prayer together asking our blessed Her for many Graces that we all are in need of. After that, we had lunch together in the compound of the Shrine, followed by the sharing of the experiences which was a very emotional moment. The Leader were asked to answer three questions:
1. What does “oratorio” mean?
These are the answers:
It is a place
- where we are away from sin.
- where we pray, play, and do good things.
- where we find friend.
- where we learn the Word of God.
- where we have good role models for life.
- where we share what we have with others.
2. Does “oratorio” play an important role in your life?
These are the asnwers:
- Yes, it plays a big role in the life of the girls and in my life too.
- My life has been changed in different ways.
- I exchange different kinds of knowledge/know how with the girls.
- I have more love in my life.
- It is a way to learn about life.
- It changes my behavior.
- It helps me to be closer to God.
- It teaches me to love God and the people
- I learn to give rather than to take.
- I learn that there is no discrimination (religious, racial, etc.) here.
- It teaches me how to read the Bible and to learn.
- It teaches me how to be tolerant toward others.
- It teaches me to be punctual, transparent, and honest.
- It gives me happiness in life.
3. As a leader, what should you do and be?
- As a leader, I should teach the girls how to do all of these things by my example and by playing with them and loving them.
At the end of the sharing we went to Awassa and had a short visit around the city. The sisters gave us all books about the life of Don Bosco and the life of Maria Mazzarello in Amharic. They will be very useful for our Salesian formation…