God provides...but we put in the gasoline! Will you help us buy a new car?
It has been almost two years since I arrived in Bucharest.Two intense, often tiring but deeply true years.Day by day, it becomes more and more evident to me that those who go on mission are not superheroes, that we do not save anyone, but that we can try to inhabit. To be with. SAVING TOGETHER. Dwelling together is not just being under the same roof, but so much more.Inhabiting relationships, even the most strenuous ones, even those with whom "from the outside" you would never have chosen, but who is now inscribed in your heart. To be listening to those who you do not feel deserve to even exist, to respect the silence and the fear of trusting because loneliness has been cruel enough and letting yourself be loved might be even more painful. In all of this, the real gift is people. Particularly young people, with whom I share walks, laughter, tears, questions that are unanswered but push to aim higher and higher.Today we need a car! Yes, I know, said like that, after all these reflections of mine, it may sound trite. But you try living Bucharest without one! Here even picking someone up, finding a family who lives a little further away, bringing aid to those in need, becomes an adventure worthy of an action movie (with chases, endless queues and creative parking included). And no, hitchhiking is not really the path to salvation.That's why I'm here to ask for your help. A push, indeed: A PUSH WITH MOTOR!!!I have spent so much time on my knees, crying in the little chapel, feeling so small and called to the so great at the same time, immersed in an embrace that sometimes I cannot even comprehend. And just as many hours blessing and thanking the Lord, my heart overflowing with gratitude for every step, every encounter, every difficulty turned into a Blessing.It is precisely with this sense of gratitude that I extend my hand today to ask for your support. I and so many others have launched this fundraiser to buy a car that will enable us to continue our service more effectively and with fewer ... sore knees. Every contribution, no matter how small, is a piece of the road we can take together.Thank you to those who would like to be there, donate, spread the word.
God provides...but we put in the gasoline! Will you help us buy a new car?
Fundraising by Valentina Di Capua
It has been almost two years since I arrived in Bucharest.
Two intense, often tiring but deeply true years.
Day by day, it becomes more and more evident to me that those who go on mission are not superheroes, that we do not save anyone, but that we can try to inhabit. To be with. SAVING TOGETHER.
Dwelling together is not just being under the same roof, but so much more.
Inhabiting relationships, even the most strenuous ones, even those with whom "from the outside" you would never have chosen, but who is now inscribed in your heart. To be listening to those who you do not feel deserve to even exist, to respect the silence and the fear of trusting because loneliness has been cruel enough and letting yourself be loved might be even more painful. In all of this, the real gift is people. Particularly young people, with whom I share walks, laughter, tears, questions that are unanswered but push to aim higher and higher.
Today we need a car! Yes, I know, said like that, after all these reflections of mine, it may sound trite. But you try living Bucharest without one! Here even picking someone up, finding a family who lives a little further away, bringing aid to those in need, becomes an adventure worthy of an action movie (with chases, endless queues and creative parking included). And no, hitchhiking is not really the path to salvation.
That's why I'm here to ask for your help. A push, indeed: A PUSH WITH MOTOR!!!
I have spent so much time on my knees, crying in the little chapel, feeling so small and called to the so great at the same time, immersed in an embrace that sometimes I cannot even comprehend. And just as many hours blessing and thanking the Lord, my heart overflowing with gratitude for every step, every encounter, every difficulty turned into a Blessing.
It is precisely with this sense of gratitude that I extend my hand today to ask for your support. I and so many others have launched this fundraiser to buy a car that will enable us to continue our service more effectively and with fewer ... sore knees. Every contribution, no matter how small, is a piece of the road we can take together.
Thank you to those who would like to be there, donate, spread the word.
6,565 €
100%
6,000 €
52 Donations
The fundraiser supports the project: A car to rekindle hope!
Total project goal:
15.500 €
The Pope John XXIII Community every day in Bucharest offers welcome, sharing and support to those in need. Now Community members and volunteers need your help to raise the €15,500 needed to realize their dream of buying a car, essential for daily travel.
The car has finally arrived!
1 month ago
In Bucharest, members of the Pope John XXIII Community and volunteers share their homes and lives with the homeless and, two evenings a week, go out to meet those living on the streets to bring them a hot meal. They then join the friars of Mother Teresa of Calcutta in welcoming the homeless and the Sisters of Mother Teresa in providing recreation and joy for children in the poorest neighborhoods. They visit institutions that take in orphaned and disabled children or youth to make them feel friendship and comfort. Beating heart of the mission is being there, listening, welcoming and walking together.
The traffic in Bucharest makes it difficult to get around the city with a nine-seater vehicle, the only one so far available to the house. Therefore, this fundraiser was launched to buy a car, smoother and faster...
The car has finally arrived! Here is their thanks:
"Thank you to those who chose to be there even from afar. To those who gave generously, to those who shared our message, to those who encouraged us with a word or a smile. Here in Bucharest, life goes on - among busy streets, sudden encounters, daily welcome and so many faces to accompany. Knowing that we are not alone ... well, that's the most powerful engine we can have!"
BE HOLY
11/01/2025
Just today, on the day when we remember all the saints, I want to say a sincere thank you to each of you who have generously contributed to this fundraiser.
I believe that holiness is just that: living a full life, inhabited by Love.
I would like to wish each of you to be able to discern, in your daily lives, your call to holiness.
As Fr Luigi Maria Epicoco writes:
"The call to holiness is the call to value that side of our lives where we struggle most, where we experience ourselves as losers, poor, discarded.
It is a side of our lives that we usually hide, of which we are ashamed, but which, when handed over to God's love, becomes our true masterpiece.
Saints are not primarily those who do something, but those who allow themselves to be made by God's Love.
They re-establish the primacy of God in their lives and do not allow themselves to be seduced either by themselves or by what good or bad is happening to them.
Those who discover this way have not a light around their heads, but an inner light that makes them walk as beloved even in the midst of misfortunes.
The saints are a people of the entrusted, to whom we all entrust ourselves today so that they may teach us their own secret."
Today, thanks to your concrete gesture, we have taken a step together on this path ... that of trust, sharing and love that transforms the everyday into the extraordinary.
Today I say THANK YOU
08/21/2025
Today, on my birthday, I feel I want to give thanks for the gift of life. It amazes me wonderfully that one of the first video calls I received, very early in the morning, was from Pavel, with whom I have shared life in different forms over the past two years in Bucharest.
Pavel lived between the streets, coffee, and cigarettes. When I met him, it was not easy to relate to him: initially very closed, quiet, a bit gruff, with the added strain of language that made it difficult to understand each other. Sometimes living together was not easy: making a family together means touching differences, accepting that no one is put next to the other to change them, but to learn to accept each other as they are. And that is where the wonder is born, the extraordinariness of life that, day after day, becomes a song of praise.
That is why this morning, receiving Pavel's video call struck me deeply. That smile of his - far from obvious - in wishing me well from a distance was an unexpected gift for me, a precious gift. Once again, the Lord surprises me and reminds me that life is a wonderful gift, and that choosing to spend it in sharing is the most revolutionary act of love, flowing from feeling fully loved.
And in the end I think that if even a man of few words like Pavel can surprise me like this, then truly life will never stop reminding me that the miracle lies in the simplest things. Kind of like our car fundraiser: because it is not just a car...it is proof that when you are loved and let yourself be loved, even four wheels can become a sign of revolution.
Thank you to everyone for your contribution.
A brotherly hug!
When you can dream, you begin to live
06/26/2025
In March Nicu came to us. He had tired eyes and life on him. That life that weighs, that scratches, that you try to keep at bay as best you can. For him, drinking was the way. Not so much to hurt himself as not to feel. To distract himself from a restlessness that left no room, and a loneliness that kept him awake even when he slept.
Tomorrow? It did not even exist. Only the void between days existed, filled as it happens, as one manages.
And then, slowly, he began to live with us.
Nothing extraordinary. No magic formula.
Just shared life. A dish in the evening, the bed made, the washing machines to be hung out, the kitchen to be cleaned, the crumbs to be swept up, coming home when it rains.
Simple. Everyday.
Yet out of this simplicity a seed was born.
Nicu began to breathe. To feel that he existed not just to survive, but to live. And one day he said, "I would like to get a driver's license."
A sentence that would not have even made sense before.
Because before there was no space to think.
Now there is space to dream.
Today Nicu is studying for tests, working hard, trying.
Not to prove anything, but because he feels that something is possible. Because where before there was only darkness, now there is a lighted window.
A little hope with the scent of freedom, of confidence.
And we are here, beside him. Not guiding him, but walking together. Sharing dishes, cleaning shifts, rains and laughter.
And watching this dream grow. Because sometimes all it takes is a roof, a warm dinner and someone calling your name.
Because dignity is not taught. It is shared.
And dreams sometimes come from being able to go home at the end of the day.
Today Nicu dreams of a driver's license.
And that, believe me, is already a miracle.
Behind the fundraising we are doing, there is "not just" a car.
There is all of this.
There are stories like Nico's.
There are people who fall down and, when they find someone who is not afraid to stand beside them, they get back up.
There is the extraordinariness of the everyday.
There is the real life, the life that runs through the veins.
Who knows if Nicu will really be able to get it, that license.
But in the meantime, we are here. And we want to be there.
Because even before the goals, there is presence.
And that alone is worth the whole journey.
Thank you--from the bottom of my heart and with a full heart! ❤️
05/20/2025
These days we have started to receive the first help for our fundraising, and we want to say it loudly: THANK YOU!
Thank you to those who have chosen to be there even from afar.
Thank you to those who gave generously, those who shared our message, those who encouraged us with a word or a smile.
Each contribution, whether small or large, is a step that brings us closer to our goal: to be able to continue our mission in the midst of the city, with more agility and more presence.
Here in Bucharest, life goes on - between busy streets, sudden encounters, daily welcome and so many faces to accompany.
And knowing that we are not alone, that there is a network of people who believe with us in this road of sharing... well, it is the most powerful engine we can have!
Let's keep walking together. Even on four wheels!!! 😉
