With delicacy, Mother Abbess tried for a minute to lift a ladybug from the chapel floor. She had made a small rise from the cuff of her habit, but the insect seemed puzzled and hesitant. The Mother waited patiently, bent over, until the ladybug got on track. At that moment I understood (truly!) that stories about the friendship between Saints and animals are not fiction at all.
And, because nothing happens by chance, other lessons were added to this one received in silence. I gathered them from the latest book (steaming, freshly printed!) that the nuns from Măgura sent me to include in our common project („Authenticity conquers!”). „Traces Leading Home” is about four mischievous squirrels (with names to match: Mărăndița, Pipăruș, Pașa, and Mitrița), who acquire virtues (if that sounds pompous, reading the book will convince you that I'm not exaggerating) living in communion with the community of Ciucea Monastery. Who could have brought these stories to life if not Father Ioan Gînscă, the liturgical jeweler?
„Well, these stories are much nicer and more substantial than those of the renowned Beatrix Potter!”, I happily told myself after enthusiastically reading the book! Now I'm going to tell all my friends about this local variant, so accessible for us and our children. We no longer have to look enviously over the fence and think that others have more valuable books than us!
And there's more. For several years now, I've been reading FASCINATED by illustrated children's literature. (Perhaps also because a quarter of a century ago we didn't have such things and I devoured with eagerness any illustrated volume that appeared at home or at the school's small library.) Sometimes − often, in fact − I happen to find messages that seem written exactly for me, the adult who constantly gets lost and feverishly searches for their path again. Yes, I can read to our boys about the fierce storm during which the squirrels took shelter in the church, because Mother Superior had left the door ajar, and they will learn a gesture of unconditional love and care from it. I, in the daily tumult, take and ponder the following phrase: „Sometimes God does not spare us from storms. But He shows us where to shelter. And when we come out of there, we are no longer the same.” (There are a few such reflections in each of the four stories.)
I warmly encourage you to look for this book, from whose „bag” you will gather traces of goodness, of searching, and of beauty, regardless of age!
Georgiana Camalessa