Happy and blessed was the Order’s initiative, through Fra Augusto Gonçalves, when it came to   Aparecida do Taboado and founded the House of Hospitality in this small but big-hearted town.

I was born into a Christian family and have always nurtured my faith in my community. I am a retired teacher and I was a member of a Catholic movement called Cursillos di Cristianità (Christian Training): but when I came across and joined this organization, I discovered a new source of inspiration for my life.

The House of Hospitality has given us the opportunity of turning our gifts and charisms into action as volunteers, and to go about our work of understanding, listening to, and observing the various problems which people bring to us, including poverty, poor health, and lack of food and company, in this town of 23 000 inhabitants. We try to bring attention and affection to our mission and to be a warm, human presence when we visit people in their homes or when they come to us with their pressing problems, with situations seemingly so hopeless that people become lethargic...

The motto of this House – "For life, for all life" [Pela vida a vida toda] – spurs and encourages us to behave and act  to give doses of hope and dignity to those who need us.  When we go out to clean houses, when we accompany people in hospital or in the out-patients’ department, when we give people clothes and overcoats, or when we serve them meals, we feel it is Jesus whom we are helping.  And vice versa when we receive gifts, blankets, clothes and offerings from benefactors, we are certain that it is God at work through the Holy Spirit.

In the game of life, those who succeed in having and living the charism of a reciprocal exchange of experiences collaborate with those who fail to understand the cards that are on the table...