Don Riccardo

I consider it a blessing that Don Riccardo is our community chaplain on Sundays. He has a way of communicating that leaves me always fascinated. One time after the Mass I approached him and told him "You know Don Riccardo your homily made me want to love Jesus all the more."
And I believe that he has this effect on many people.
And the beauty of it is that Don Riccardo is a coherent witness to what he communicates. I can call him goodness incarnate.
In his lectures and homilies he always focuses on Jesus, the merciful, the Good shepherd, the one who came to give us life to the full, the friend of the poor and the marginalized. And just looking at him and listening to Don Riccardo, you get to experience what this means.

He was my professor many years ago. One of the things that have struck me most about him was his capacity to see something positive out of any person or situation. And he wasn't doing it in an artificial or forced way. He just has that intuition, that open-mindedness that is able to see something good, despite the fact that it may have been so insignificant or "microscopic" that it has eluded the majority.
Don Riccardo reminded us this morning that we should not get lost in the "what" and the "how" of our mission; rather, we should always ask ourselves the "why" of our mission. And I believe that the why of our mission is always something personal. Of course the Church gives us beautiful and correct statements that express the "why" of our mission. But in the end, what really counts deep in our hearts is our personal experience that answers this "why": Jesus! I experience Him as the meaning of my life in a very deep and existential way. And I want to share it with others so that they, too, may have this wonderful gift: a life full of hope.