On
World Volunteer Day, we dedicate our website's homepage to them, with the
"ten words" that are the driving forces of volunteerism today. It's
our "thank you" to the 4.7 million Italians who give freely for
others and for the common good: today, despite everything. The ten words are
taken from the November magazine, "Volunteer, why do you do it?": a
forceful issue that forcefully defends the rationale and meaning of "we
commit ourselves." Together, they represent a sort of modern-day rewriting
of the beautiful text written by Don Primo Mazzolari in 1949, which we
reproduce here in its original version.
Research
has been telling us for some years now that voluntary action is no longer
motivated by solidarity. In an age marked by impotence, "wanting to change
the world" mostly sounds like utopia. And if there are those who choose... Rage
-bite
as
"word of the year , " we say that
volunteering is the most powerful antidote to anger, cynicism, and resignation.
As Riccardo Guidi writes in VITA , "volunteering is one of the most
valuable collective strategies for responding to frustration through
care." And as Andrea Cardoni reminded us , quoting the poet Angelo
Maria Ripellino during the magazine presentation we held in Florence,
"we are all 'despites,' buffeted by the wind, trying to resist the
suffering of life."
The
issue of VITA dedicated to volunteers, "Volunteer,
why do you do it?" , is a stand-up issue: a
choice of sides and a huge "thank you" to the millions of volunteers
in Italy who, every day, dedicate themselves to others and the common good. On
World Volunteer Day, we dedicate our website's homepage to them, featuring the
"ten words" that today represent the driving forces of volunteering:
from "community" to "frustration," from "desire"
to "imagination."
Ten signatures
reflecting on the new drivers of volunteering
Together, they
represent a sort of modern-day rewriting of the beautiful and ever-timely text
that Don Primo Mazzolari wrote in 1949, "Our Commitment ,"
here in the original version shared by the Don Primo Mazzolari Foundation.
Let's start from here, let's start from ourselves.
Our commitment
We are committed
us and not the
others
only us and not
others
neither he who is
above nor he who is below
neither those who
believe nor those who do not believe.
We
are committed
without
expecting anyone else to make any commitment to us or on our behalf, like us or
otherwise.
without judging
those who don't make an effort
without accusing
those who don't commit themselves
without condemning
those who don't commit themselves
without trying
because he doesn't commit
without giving up
because others don't.
We
know that we can do nothing about anyone, nor do we want to force anyone's
hand, devoted as we are and as we intend to remain to the free movement of
every spirit rather than to the success of ourselves or our convictions.
The
world moves if we move it changes if we change it becomes new if someone
becomes a new creature it becomes barbaric if we unleash the beast that is in
each of us
We
can do nothing about our world, about this reality that is our outside world,
poor as we are and as we intend to remain, nameless. If we feel we have power
over something—and we firmly desire it—it is over ourselves, over ourselves
alone.
The world moves if
we move
it changes if we
change
it becomes new if
someone becomes a new creature
it becomes
barbaric if we unleash the beast that is in each of us.
The new order
begins if someone makes an effort to become a new man.
Spring begins with
the first flower
the night with the
first star
the river with the
first drop of water
love with the
first dream.
We are committed
Why…
We know exactly
why we are committed : but we don't want to know, at least at this first moment
, according to a reasoned procedure, the only one that satisfies many even when
they don't understand , precisely when they don't understand.
We know this and
we say it to ourselves more than to others:
We
are committed
because
we couldn't help but try.
There
is someone or something within us—an instinct, a reason, a calling, a
grace—stronger than ourselves.
In
the most dire moments, we orient ourselves by calls whose origin is unclear,
but which constitute the surest certainty, the only certainty amidst the
general disorientation. The spirit can also open a path through the resistance
of our selfishness in this way, preparing us for those new, continuous
obediences that can be imposed in each of us by conscience, reason, and faith.
We are
committed
To
find meaning in life, in this life, in our life, a reason that isn't one of the
many reasons we know well and that don't capture our hearts, a usefulness that
isn't one of the usual traps generously offered to young people by practical
people. We only live once, and we don't want to be "tricked" in
the name of any petty interest.
we are not
interested in career
we don't care
about money
We are not
interested in women if you present them to us as females only.
We are not
interested in the success of ourselves or our ideas
we are not
interested in going down in history.
marble scares
us.
We are not
interested in being heroes or traitors before men if it costs us our loyalty to
ourselves.
We are interested
to lose
ourselves for something or someone who will remain even after we have
passed and who constitutes the reason for our finding each other.
we are interested
to carry an
eternal destiny through time
to feel
responsible for everything and everyone
to set out, even
through long wanderings, towards Love, which has spread a smile of poetry over
every creature, from the flower to the child, from the star to the maiden,
which makes us pensive before a cradle and waiting before a coffin.
We are committed not
to rearrange the world, not to remake it to measure, but to love it.
We are committed
not to reorder the
world
not to remake it
to measure
but to love him
to love
even what we
cannot accept
even that which is
not lovable
even the one who
seems to refuse love
because behind
every face and under every heart there is, together with a great thirst for
love, the face and heart of Love .
We are committed
because we believe
in Love,
the only certainty
that fears no comparison,
the only one that
is enough to make us totally committed.
The source of the
quotation is P. Mazzolari, Impegno con Cristo ,
critical edition edited by G. Vecchio, EDB, Bologna, 2007
