You already know who we are: we are a Community of “public sinners,” people who have publicly made mistakes in the past living in evil, but we are also a Community that announces the strength of God’s Mercy: we know that God’s love and Mercy surrounds us each day, rebuilding within us a new person.  I would like to embrace each one of you one by one, I would like that everyone is joyful, and in peace which only comes from an encounter with God.
I often tell our young people to learn to smile, to smile even if it rains.  A smile brings our hearts to our heads: it brings joy from our hearts into our tired minds.  We have one rule: in the morning, as soon as our eyes open, we have to smile.  The guys ask me: who do we smile at?  I answer them: you have to smile at yourself, at your life!  Good morning Holy Spirit, good morning my life!  Then get out of bed immediately and start to sing. 
Even if we have a wounded heart we must have the courage to overcome ourselves and smile.  During my meetings I always have a special attention when I see a child in a stroller or a wheelchair.  I look there and often they are sad. The mother and father push thier child’s wheelchair and they ignore him in silence or they fight in front of him.  They do not smile at him or at eachother, and even though the child is very young he already breathes “polluted” air that makes  him sad: this is a huge injustice!  Those children who already at a young age no longer smile, that do not see happy faces around them, tommorrow could become drug addicts.  So, I get close to the parents and I tell them these things, and I show them that children have a simple language and I start to babble “...ta ta ta...” and the child, after a little while of looking at me with amazement, smiles.  Making a child smile is the most beautiful joy in the world, because if he has learned to smile, to take life and its difficulties with serenity, he will not become a drug addict...
I would like to tell everyone: God’s love is within us, what the Lord has done for us is great and continuous!  We have seen the Lord!  We of the Community can tell everyone: we have seen the Lord!  We have seen the Risen!  Today we feel healed by that Crucified Jesus who gave everything. He gave His life for us.  Happiness exists, love exists!  Young people, guys, parents, elderly: love exists!  Love exists and is alive within us!  To love is to serve, to give life: Love is someone who first thinks of others before themselves, someone who sees the needs of their brothers with the eyes of their hearts.  The love that we give is the true smile of life!

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