I can still remember the impression left on me by that image of Saint John of God, bearing an unconscious man on his shoulders, reflecting pain in his eyes, pain caused by the adversities of destiny, an image which only LOVE for people with disabilities, and needy and abandoned people can relieve.

LOVE which only Christ detected when He died on a cross to redeem humanity from sin, LOVE that he alone has left us as a legacy for each one of us, as lay men and women attentive to that call, to serve the weaker and discriminated people, teaching us to reach out, evidencing fellowship in a vow of hospitality, reflecting that charism which was revealed every time he cared for any helpless human being, speaking a word of encouragement, creating bonds of trust and fraternity to them.

And it was as the years passed that I was able to understand his conduct, and I have often been able to understand his intentions, his thinking, because he has reached this point, and nothing good has happened to him so far in his life. For he did not want to be this way, but something went wrong within him, that something which asked me to pick him up or carry him on my shoulders, where there is the will to help with LOVE and an open heart.

And it has therefore been very easy to enrich my spirit and enable me to come to this house with this knowledge, and I am happy today to see this important and devastated community which always finds an open space and a haven in which people can clarify their ideas.

Thanks to that John-of-God spirit that revives the desire to go forward.