Sister Chiara Luce with the mother abbess of the community of Alcamo, Sister Virginia – photo diocese of Trapani
From the basketball court to the monastery. From professional sport to contemplative life. It is the parable of Oriana Milazzo, 33 years old, former point guard in A1 with Priolo, a prestigious Sicilian basketball club, and with the Under 18 and Under 20 national team. Friday 28 June at 5pm in the church of Santa Maria di Gesù, in Alcamo (Trapani ) the Eucharistic celebration will be held with the solemn profession of the young woman. That she chose to follow in the footsteps of Saint Clare of Assisi, to join her poor Sisters, to say “yes” forever to this new life. Which also brought a new name: Sister Chiara Luce di Maria, home of the Holy Trinity. A name that unites, to that of the founder, that of the Ligurian Chiara Luce Badano, the young lay Focolarina beatified in 2010.
Chiara Luce’s “yes” will be welcomed forever – says a note from the diocese of Trapani – by the abbess of the Poor Clares of Alcamo, Mother Virginia Formoso, while the provincial minister of the Friars Minor, Father Antonino Catalfamo, who will preside over the Mass , will receive the ring and the solemn blessing. The celebration will be broadcast live on the Youtube channel of the Friars Minor of Sicily (link to the link https://www.youtube.com/@ofmsicilia).
From the basketball courts to the WYD to the convent
A story as beautiful and luminous as her name, that of Chiara Luce. A vocation that has taken root, grown and flourished within another vocation: that of basketball, a passion that Oriana, born in Canicattì in 1991, shares with her sister Ilaria, born in the same Sicilian city, three years younger, she also landed in the A1 basketball series and the national team jersey. It is the itinerant life linked to basketball that brings Oriana to Alcamo. Here her parents entrusted the girl to a family of Franciscan tertiaries who went to Mass at the monastery church and allowed her to begin to get to know the community of the Poor Sisters.
Then came the transfer to Priolo, the debut in A1, the call-up to the national team. A dream that comes true. But happiness is not complete, “there was something that continued to be missing, I felt a dissatisfaction within myself”, says Chiara Luce in Marilisa Della Monica’s article published in Avvenire on the occasion of the profession of temporary vows, which took place in Alcamo in 2019. To overcome that dissatisfaction, Oriana tries to make herself useful to others, dedicates more time to her commitment in the parish and makes the decision to continue her medical studies with the aim, on the horizon, of becoming a missionary doctor. Having arrived in Rome and begun her studies, she continues to feel that all this is not enough for her. “Questions begin in my heart to understand what my place in the world was for my own good.”
It was at the WYD in Madrid in 2011 that God’s plan for her became clear to her. She returns to the monastery of Alcamo and the poor Sisters. “I felt like I was coming home,” she confesses. Thus she begins the new journey with the Poor Clares. Two years of postulancy in Alcamo, one year of novitiate in the monastery of Città della Pieve, another two in Alcamo until temporary profession on 13 May 2019. A journey of discernment and a challenging, intense, beautiful training path. Experienced, Chiara Luce underlines, with the help of her family: her parents “always supported me and made me feel loved”. That path now leads you to solemn profession. To a life of prayer, poverty, brotherhood, in the charism of Saint Clare.
Alcamo, an ancient but still fruitful history
To welcome Chiara Luce’s “yes” forever is a community with an ancient but still fruitful history. The Santa Chiara Monastery – the note from the diocese of Trapani still recalls – was founded in 1545 by three sisters from Alcamo of noble families: Antonina, Angela and Alberta Mompilleri, who renovated “a large estate of family-owned houses” and began life there religious, obtaining the church of Saints Cosma and Damiano adjacent to the monastery. The canonical erection dates back to 1547, shortly before the discovery of the image of Maria Santissima dei Miracoli in Alcamo (21 June 1547). The history of other Sicilian monasteries is linked to the community of Alcamo. And from the community of Alcamo other communities were born outside Sicily – the Beata Vergine del Buon Cammino Monastery in Iglesias, Sardinia, and recently the Klera Kintana Manajava monastery in Ambanja, Madagascar. The OFS Santa Chiara Fraternity also arose from the Monastery. A story that continues to bear fruit.
2024-06-25 18:21:24
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