Tasca Family

Michela: We do not belong to the first generation of the Focolare Movement. We came in contact with the spirituality of unity many years later, during the early seventies, when we participated in a camping holiday organized by one of the first focolarini priests, Francesco Cardinali. Afterwards, it was important for us to meet other couples who were living this spirit. We were immediately fascinated by the way they tried to live the Gospel and how they helped one another to overcome difficulties.

Pino: We both have strong characters and often we don’t see things in the same way. Thanks to this new style of life, we gradually learned to question ourselves, to give up our own ideas in order to come to an agreement, to turn our diversity into a precious moment of mutual correction.

Michela: The spirituality of unity taught us to see and love Jesus in our three children. Concretely, this means being firm on certain rules and at the same time, making them feel all our love, in whatever situation they find themselves in.

Pino: With Annachiara, for example, it wasn’t always easy. When she was a teenager it was a continual challenge, because of the way she dressed (she went to high school dressed in a very disorderly manner, with her brother’s trousers – he’s much taller than she is) and because of the way she behaved. What helped us was the unity between us, always trying to love in a real and true way without judging her, ready to share in every situation and trying to help her to draw out the positive aspects of every situation. In this way, our relationship with Annachiara was never broken.

Michela: I teach high school and so I am always in contact with young people in the most difficult age: adolescence. The experience with the spirituality of unity lived in the family made me sensitive to grasping the discomfort that is often behind certain attitudes of young people. And so I was often able to help not only my students, but above all the mothers to whom I tell my experience.

Pino: Our experience as a family enabled us to serve in our diocese. Our pastor involved us in marriage-preparation courses; then the bishop asked us to direct the diocesan family pastoral office. We have been doing this for a long time now and our main task is to help couples in difficulty. We try to make them realize that their future depends on knowing how to accept one another and to talk things over with other couples in order to share their problems and to help one another to overcome them. Above all, we try to transmit the great discovery that has transformed our life: to believe that love conquers all, to be certain that everything is an expression of God’s Love.