Selection of testimonies from those who worked as volunteers at New York Encounter
MESSAGE BY RIRO MANISCALCO (PRESIDENT) TO ALL VOLUNTEERS
Dear friends,
Friday afternoon, as I was sitting in the VIP room waiting for the first guests to arrive, I found myself praying to Mary.
For me the days of the Encounter have always been a time of gladness. I really do enjoy every instant of it - and that includes also the (inevitable) mistakes and shortcomings. Yet when the time came on Friday, I felt like a shadow was looming over me. I’ve always had “the blues sadness, the “desire for an absent good,” as St. Thomas defines it. I was afraid this Encounter might not touch me as it had in previous years; that it might be “life more than life” for everybody except for me. So I started praying to Mary, not for the outcome of the Encounter, but for me. I then realized, immediately, that it is the same thing because without “I” there’s no “We”.
Ask, keep your eyes open, don’t hide that “desire for an absent good,” and you receive the hundredfold.
So I did, and it happened again, because our Lord keeps his promises. And this is why I would like to thank each and every one of you, the “human face of the Mystery.” I especially thank those I don’t know, those, who (not knowing me) kept offering me the program booklet as I was pacing restlessly back and forth. You constantly helped me to remember that we are really serving the work of Another. We are all protagonists of the work of Another.
My wish, to myself and each one of you, is the same as last year: to hold dear what you brought home from the Encounter, and that you may share it with everybody so that it continues to bear fruit.
Gratefully yours,
Riro
The Encounter is better when I volunteer
“I was very aware of my freedom, but more than that, volunteering is just plain fun! It's been really amazing to become friends with so many new people every year through the role as a volunteer.”
“I volunteered for three years and then didn't last year, and last year's Encounter, while beautiful and 'used' for a different purpose, was lacking something. I have found that the Encounter without being able to express my gratitude through giving back is missing a very unifying element.”
“Volunteering at the NYE enhanced my experience of the weekend. Volunteering serves as a reminder that giving of myself to others brings joy, even if it means I have to miss a talk. It is worth it to put others before my own desires and wants. I honestly do not think I would have enjoyed the encounter as much if I did not volunteer.”
“I have found over the past two years that volunteering is a more enjoyable way to live the NYE. In particular, I have found that ‘doing the work of another’—to quote Fr. José—is more interesting than following my own interests and whims.”
“Day after day I was more happy.”
Encountering Christ in volunteering
“What I enjoy about volunteering is being reminded of the presence of Christ in the simple circumstance in front of my eyes. It is an opportunity for growing in the familiarity with Christ through an encounter, and where I discover that offering who I am in gladness is the best thing I can do.”
“In volunteering, I learned that Christ comes when we look outside of ourselves.”
“I volunteer because I want the Encounter to continue. For me and my family, it is a place of witness that the questions we wrestle with on a small scale at home are also done on the ‘world’ stage. That Christ is pertinent to what we are living now. Nowhere have I seen this in a convincing way that does have to negate anything.”
“In volunteering, I learned that to say ‘yes’ to Christ is always an unpredictable gift for me.”
“I experienced a unity working together with other people in this event which seeks to find what our hearts desire and are made for. I came home with a greater intimacy with God.”
“What I learned volunteering is that it isn't about doing or producing anything - it is about following and accepting each moment as an opportunity to dialogue with Him—what are You showing me now, through this task or this person?”
“This year I learned that we are called together to give glory to Christ even in our own individual limitations, and I verified that ‘with Christ human things are more human’.”
Discovering that I am useful
“I'm useful to someone to build something great I would not be able to create by myself.”
“I was grateful and happy to contribute to the event, everybody was gladly willing to help. I learned a great deal about how to work with care, efficacy and joy. I learned that there is more joy in giving than in holding, that the first witness is to engage with the small detail that is given to me with the same commitment I would use for the most important thing.”
“I felt a sense of participation and belonging. This is a beautiful event that I am hosting! God gave me this place where I get to use my health and natural abilities to be a part of something really beautiful, to share with the world.”
“Volunteering helped me to see what I couldn't have seen just as someone attending the NYE. It allowed me to give what has been given to me in a way that I didn't expect. I was able to offer something of myself, small as it may have been, to allow others to be free to come and experience what had first drawn me to this people, to this event. Maybe I am not saying it well, but volunteering reminded me in a small way what it means to have Something to Start From.”
Friendship
“I made so many new friends!”
“Everything was positive. Especially, the opportunity to be with friends and to meet people who share in the same desire to make the Encounter possible—this place where a new humanity and a new people are visible to all who walk through those doors. I can't possibly conceive of being in this country and not volunteer at the Encounter! It's great to be able to work in a place where we can really experience loving and being loved for what we truly are.”
“I understood once more that friendship comes from participating in something greater, from looking in the same direction rather than at each other. I've become very close to people I only see once a year.”
"I am a high school teacher in Miami and I have had quite a few students ask about going to the NYE this coming year. We went last year and they were really moved by it. I know that GS (the high school student organization part of Communion and Liberation) doesn't have an exhibit this year to take care, but I was thinking of taking them to help with the set-up and take-down. In addition, I was wondering if there was anything else they could be used for. I thought that maybe they could help in the children's area to babysit kids. Is that a possibility? They also enjoyed the assembly with the 3 high school seniors and Vitadini, and the final assembly with Fr. Carrón on Monday morning. Is there any chance we can have something similar again? I have also already spoken to Gabe from South Carolina about maybe finding a time/location to sing songs together.
I think that going to the NYE last year moved them and made them realize that GS is so much more than me and my classroom. They were surprised at how many people were there searching for the same things they desire and how some of the presentations spoke directly to their own hearts (An Epidemic of Loneliness and An Irreducible Expectation in particular). Then, in the summer we went to the GS Summer Vacation in South Carolina and they spent time getting to know some of the kids they had met at the New York Encounter. They still keep in touch with them and have been talking together about the New York Encounter. I think it is a beautiful journey they are on and they are realizing more and more how we are just a piece of this larger community that walks together."
Something surprising
“Some of our youngest volunteers were the hardest workers. I felt badly that some of these high school students were working 12 hours with smile on their faces.”
“Volunteering, I learned charity, gratuitousness, patience, who I am, the beauty of our companionship, and that this place is for everyone in the world.”
“I had initially wanted to volunteer with my friends, but there was no space on their team, so I ended up more or less volunteering with strangers. I was afraid at first that I would miss out on things that I wanted to see, or people I wanted to spend time with, but in volunteering I was given more than I would have planned for myself—particularly through the people I was able to meet and see during my time volunteering. During my first shift, I got to stand by the front door and watch everyone enter. I saw EVERYONE and didn't miss out on greeting any of my friends, or even strangers to whom I was able to smile and say welcome or answer their questions. It was amazing to see and speak with the different people coming in, and to find out how they heard about the Encounter. I even became friends with the doorman, Victor. I was surprised by how many people attend who aren't involved in the Movement. Each shift that I served came with a special ‘gift’ like this, where I was given something more beautiful than I would have planned for myself. But the overall point is, in saying yes to what was asked of me instead of trying to come up with my own idea of what would make me happy, I experienced more than I would have imagined for myself.”
