Fabrizio and Angela are my parents, and Maurizio is my uncle.
When my parents met God, I was six years old.
Several testimonies were given, and as I listened to them, it felt like watching a film I’d seen before, because I’d witnessed their changes myself. At one point, the house was full of people; there was a constant coming and going as they prayed, talked and ate… And I was there watching and listening; I was there too when the floor of that church split in two.
For me, Jesus was a given. I was there when we discovered that Emanuele had those malformations, and I was there to get through it all with them and with Jesus. It wasn’t easy going to school at a certain point, because in Siena, among the parishes, people talked a lot about them and the children (just to give an example); all I had to do was put on my headphones to listen to music and they’d make fun of me, saying I was listening to Radio Maria.
Adolescence was setting in and I wanted to rebel against my parents’ wishes. The problem was that I couldn’t do it; my conscience kept calling me back, and although my friends might have gone down the wrong path, I – apart from a few teenage slip-ups – couldn’t manage it because there was always something pulling me back by the scruff of the neck. In the eyes of my parents and others, I was far from Jesus, but inside me he was always there and I prayed to him, listened to him and asked him for help.
So my secret relationship with Jesus lasted until I met Jacopo at the age of 19, who one day said to me: ‘I’ve spoken to Fabrizio; this Jesus thing is powerful; I want to go to Cantonuovo.’ At that point, I had a reason to go too. And little by little, letting go of my pride, I was able to make my love for Jesus public, and it was like being able to embrace, after such a long time, the dearest person you could imagine right now. Jacopo and I were baptised in the Spirit, and a year later we were married in the Lord and formed a family in the Lord, proud and certain that we could leave our son the same legacy and experience of Jesus…
And I know that even if one day he tries to make me believe he is far from me and from Jesus, in reality He will be within him, guiding him, supporting him, giving him a gentle nudge, and He will be with him.