Here are some of the testimonies of the participants of the Easter Triduum 2024:
“My experience of the Triduum was beautiful and very profound.
I was a bit worried before leaving because of all I was going to face: entering prison for the first time and living in community with other people I didn’t know. It was beautiful when all this happened naturally, giving me the answer that this was part of my Plan.
Honestly, I was a bit nervous before entering prison, you hear a lot of news from the outside… but the Sisters were very empathetic and helped me to live the experience as best I could, without prejudices; in fact, I got a bit attached to the inmates I met and with whom I exchanged a few chats”.
Giulia G.
“This is a Triduum that I would call “authentic”, as Holy Week is called here in Milan. During those days you feel the fatigue, of course, the few hours of sleep, the discomfort of the always busy bathroom or of many people sleeping in the same room, but it is also these aspects that make it such a strong experience. As one of the girls who participated with me this year pointed out, this very close cohabitation does not allow you to ‘shut yourself up in your own little corner’, on the contrary, it forces you to show yourself for what you are and meet the other for what he or she is, with truth, with welcome, with love.
I called this Triduum ‘Authentic’ because for me, personally, it was ‘real’ and concrete, it had a body: the bodies of my roommates who moved close to me during the night, the same bodies that I embraced tightly during a very beautiful moment of prayer that we experienced together; the bodies of the prisoners, who sought contact, affection, who lived the celebrations with transport and love. The body of Jesus, whom I felt for the first time in every wound, His body that I found in my own wounds and in those of all the fellow travellers I met, inside and outside prison. This Triduum had a body made up of many bodies, those of all brothers and sisters in Christ, brought together for the same reason, healed by the same light”.
Chiara A.
“When I think of the triduum days we have experienced this year, two words resonate in me: sharing and welcoming.
The spirit with which we approach these days of life and common prayer is that of full sharing: of spaces, of moments, of profound reflections but also of silences. And it is thanks to this that, at the end of the three days, you almost seem to have known the people in front of you forever. One of the most repeated phrases in this triduum is that ‘you live three days that seem like three months’ and it is really true. Thanks to the sharing you enter into a deep contact with the other, you get to know him, you welcome him and the days become ‘full’ to the point of seeming like months.
The beautiful consequence of this sharing is openness, which has brought with it acceptance of the other, full and free of prejudice. I always felt welcomed, by the community of the Sisters of Charity, who opened their home to us with warmth and affection, by the other fellow travellers, with whom I felt free to share even my limitations and frailties, and finally by the community of prisoners. The warmth and joy with which the inmates welcome us strikes me every year and is not taken for granted: we are led to think of prison as a dark, cold place, devoid of any kind of human warmth, but this is not the case at all. It is, instead, the place of the most unexpected welcome, where one can find beauty and humanity, in looks, smiles and even tears”.
Myriam
“This Triduum was for me the definition of “the right thing at the right time”. I found myself surrounded by people (those who lived this experience with me, nuns and prisoners) who turned out to be exactly what I needed and showed me this with a word of comfort, a laugh, a hug, the sharing of a fragility or by listening. It is an experience that opens your heart, fills it with questions but also with many answers that you find in the lives of others or in the Word of the Gospel. I saw God’s love in the eyes and in the gaze of those I met and they showed me that there is always light after our -nights-“.
Chiara Maria
