Rome (Italy). On 16 April 2025, with the concluding ecumenical prayer and the exhibit of the works carried out during the three days, ended in Rome on the Pincio Terrace, the intercultural and inter-religious workshop Doors open to hope, curated by Fondazione Migrantes, Earth Day Italy and Association Madonnari Rodomonte Gonzaga, part of the project “Open Doors”, developed in collaboration with the Dicastery for Communication of the Holy See.
Among the artists from various parts of Italy and the world, there was also a representation of the House of Prayer San Biagio, of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of the St. John Bosco Province (IRO), who for three days worked on the icon representing the episode of the disciples of Emmaus.
Interviewed byda Vatican News, the protagonists illustrate the meaning of their participation and the spirit of the initiative:
“Iconography is one of the activities we propose that is the encounter with the Word made image and colors. Through listening to the Word, we then move on to image and color, as an encounter and relationship with the God of Life,” explains Sister Vilma Colombo, FMA, Animator of the Community of San Biagio, present during the three days with Sister Anne Decoster, iconographer of the Sacred Heart Province (BEG) from North Belgium.
While Ilaria Mondati, student of the school of iconography, deepens the choice of the icon of Emmaus. “We have chosen the disciples of Emmaus to represent first of all the Jubilee, as pilgrims of hope. Here, Jesus Christ walks with the disciples. He meets them right where they are, in their own lives but sometimes also in their own sorrows, in their own pains. It is precisely a Jesus who comes to life and walks with us. It is a sign of dialogue and unity. In fact, in this great event we are with other religions, precisely to be a sign of hope, in a world torn by war and divisions.”
The testimony of Benedetta Ferrone, another participant:
“We were about thirty artists from various parts of Italy, each with his/her work that took shape during the three days, under the eyes of many people and tourists from all over the world who, intrigued, approached, stopped, and asked for information, embraced by a beautiful and suggestive Rome, overlooking the Terrace of the Pincio in Villa Borghese.
Representing the House of Prayer of Saint Biagio, we were a group of five, to which was added someone during the exhibit. Three of us wrote the icons of the disciples of Emmaus, donated at the end of the event to the exhibit that – in the coming months – will be itinerant throughout Italy.
Returning home and living these special days in which we remember the greatest love that Jesus had for each one, I am increasingly sure that it was not a coincidence that the exhibit took place during the days of Holy Week.
This is what these days have been for me. The encounter with the greatest Love. Tangible, real, concrete, made of stories, faces, names, and different ways through which to express their beliefs, but all permeated by respect, esteem, and commitment to be travelers and witnesses of fraternity.
One of the artists present, a Hindu, at a certain point quoted the so-called Golden Rule, present in all religions, which is expressed by, ‘Do to others what you would like to be done to you’. The commandment of love, that Jesus left us and that we have just remembered this Holy Thursday, tells us clearly that love is not a mere commandment, but the essence of each one, towards which we go, we tend if we have the courage to hope, even if what happens around us cries the opposite.
There are people who believe and witness that beauty is a language that unites, that moves hearts and generates peace. And that, to take the words of Fr. Tonino Bello, ‘peace, before the finish line, is a journey’.
On this Holy Saturday, prelude of Easter, within the Jubilee of Hope, may our heart, following the example of Mary, be this Stabat that keeps in the heart the hope that generates change, because the last word will always be Love”.
The works have remained at the Migrants Foundation and will go all over Italy for moments of prayer, exhibition, encounter between the different religions.
