NOTIZIE INTORNO ALLA VITA QUOTIDIANA DELLA NOSTRA CHIESA

24 Dicembre 2020 From Antioch – Turkey MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY NEW YEAR 2021! Dear friends", I begin with this word used by Jesus in addressing his apostles, wishing you a happy Christmas. It will be very different from those we have experienced up to now both in Italy and in Turkey and in the whole world. Covid19 reminds us of our fragility. Christmas comes to remind us that we are not abandoned. Someone is among us and tells us courage ... I am "the Way, the Truth and the Life!" In the past years, I sent the Chronicle of Antioch, which reached its 23rd edition in 2019. This year I did not do it because since March as a "recluse" I have dedicated myself to writing MEMORIES as friar and priest in Turkey. I have been living in this country for 54 years. For me they have been very beautiful years and I am happy about it. Now I am enriching the writing with photographs. I have the hope, one day, of being able to share it with you all because you too have contributed to it in an important way with meetings, friendships, financial aid, but above all with closeness, encouragement and prayer. I repeat, they are MEMORIES. There would have been many other events to be shared, but my aim is to make a summary of the life of a friar on mission in Turkey. If I have succeeded you will judge it! On my part, there was good will and hope that this could be useful. I offer you a preview of the Preface. “Life is not the one lived, but the one you remember. And how it is remembered to tell it ”G. Marquez MEMORIES Fr. Domenico Valentino Bertogli Capuchin friar for 54 years in Turkey. “For some time now I have been thinking about how to write down my long experience as a friar and as a missionary in Turkey. I couldn't make up my mind to start. This morning, finally, March 18, 2020 here in Antioch, forced "to the borders", due to the coronavirus, I begin to write the first lines. I would really like to share with those who will read my long adventure, which is also very beautiful for me, which today I start to retrace with surprise to see where I started from and where I arrived ... It seems something impossible and unimaginable. Yet it is all true and it has been experienced! It is not meant to be self-praise, but simply a testimony to praise God for what he has done in my life - I'm 84 today - and to encourage others to follow this path by trusting Him a little. It wasn't just a good adventure, but a journey in which God had a discreet but decisive role. I start from this phrase: "trust in God". It is not obvious and it is not obvious. Faith is a journey with many experiences that lead you where you do not expect with many surprises and those that come from the Lord are always wonderful. During the years of theology, I read the Confessions of St. Augustine who writes: that the heart of man is restless until it rests in God. (“You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests into you") Who can say that he has not felt this mysterious restlessness? It is the confession of Saint Augustine who, after an adolescence and a youth tormented by a passion for the truth, finally finds God. Many men, driven by the desire for truth, have encountered God, while others, apparently, are indifferent to this thirst for God in their hearts. All my testimony would like to start from this because only in this way will it be possible to understand decisions, actions with their precise dynamics. Faith is not evident that you have it even if you have been baptized, if you have received the sacraments, if you have chosen to be a friar and then a priest-missionary. At least for me it was like that. Faith is a long journey in which you meet HIM, then you are taught, guided, corrected and ... supported. For the writing of these memories, yes memories, I have relied on memory. However, I have some important sources that I want to mention in this beginning. Arriving in Antioch I began to write a daily diary of the day with many details. Moreover, having a mania for photographs and "historical memory", I started and continued to this day with photo albums that have immortalized the most important events. When I have any doubts I can consult them. In 2007 I had a website of the Catholic Church of Antioch made in which I report the monthly events under the heading "Flash News of Antioch". And they are kept in the archive of the Site itself. Since 1997 I have been publishing the ANTIOCHIA CHRONICLE that I send at Christmas to acquaintances, visitors and benefactors, which reached its 23rd edition in 2019. They are important documents of the activities of the Catholic Church of Antioch. I believe that history is also made by sharing one's activities, leaving traces to those who will come later and it will help them. In the account of my time in Smyrna, I have a collection of all the mimeographed Timetables and Initiatives that I sent to the parishioners and several photo albums of which I left a duplicate in the archive of the Parish of St. Helen in Karsiyaka (Smyrna). Today I can appreciate its importance by drawing on it to recall events from far away”. Again best wishes and greetings to all! Father Domenico Bertogli Antakya Katolİk Kİlİsesİ e.mail: domenicobertogli@hotmail.com http://www.antiochiachiesacattolica.org WhatsApp - Cell. 00905376798929