Our daily experience is never free from problems and challenges: health, family, work, unexpected difficulties, etc., not to mention the immense suffering experienced by so many of our brothers and sisters today due to war, the consequences of climate change, migration, violence... These are situations that often overwhelm us.

When faced with these challenges, it's normal to worry and feel the need for reassurance. The problem isn't always resolved, but the closeness of true friends comforts us and gives us strength. The difficulties we experience and face together remind us daily that we can continue to believe in those values of brotherhood, reciprocity, and solidarity that make this journey possible. In this fraternal relationship, we can feel the same security that children feel when they confide in loving parents, and thus live our lives differently and with greater drive.

For Chiara Lubich and for many who have followed and continue to follow her intuitions, this certainty is born from the faith of having a Father who loves us and to whom we can confidently abandon ourselves. Chiara said: "...the person knows he is loved and believes with all his being in this love. He trusts in it and wants to follow it. The circumstances of life, sad or happy, are illuminated." for a reason of love that has wanted or allowed them all. These words, can also be applied to all those who have experienced true love at least once in their life.

The mark of a good travel companion is being of service, in a personal dimension built on knowledge and mutual exchange carried out with respect. It's about living with transparency, with coherence, without ulterior motives, with a pure and unconditional love that brings peace, justice, and brotherhood.

In this way, a new leadership can emerge, so necessary in our time. A leadership that also fosters a community dynamic of reciprocity in which we recognize one another without losing our identity. On the contrary, we know that in solitude we experience disorientation and loss of horizons.

We can only be "guides" for those experiencing moments of difficulty if we, in turn, have experienced this trust in others. As the Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire says, "No one educates anyone; no one educates themselves; men educate each other through the mediation of the world."[1]In other words: in the educational community, no one teaches anyone anything; rather, everyone learns from everyone else in a context of dialogue and critical reflection on reality.

[1] Freire, Paulo (2012) "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" Ed. Siglo XXI