Fr Giussani's letters to the first four students of Gioventù Studentesca (Young Student) who left for Brazil. It was 1962. "I beg you, my friends, to think of how many things depend on you; how many things for the future of us all"

These letters were written by Fr Giussani to the first four "giessini" in Brazil: Franca, Italo, Lidia and Giancarlo. Recopied by one of them (this is why only a few phrases survive of some of them), they constitute not only an extremely significant document of that moment lived by GS, but a very clear expression of Fr Giussani's thought, of his concerns at that moment. One is tempted to stop and comment line by line and stress some points. But it would not be a happy choice, because it would replace the work that each one needs to do if he wants to enjoy the fruit of reading it. Let it suffice to note that the pivotal theme of these texts, written over a short period of time (five months), is that being comes before doing. The risk of stresses that were to bring division in the following years was already beginning to show itself. Striking, too, is Fr Giussani's great concern in indicating to these young people what is essential: the link with the person of Christ, above all through prayer; the dedication to the Kingdom of God, even through the sacrifice it asks for ("be in love with the Lord who has chosen you for starting off something that could produce great fruit for his Kingdom"); a boundless openness both towards each other and towards others ("have no pretensions, and don't pass judgement on anything"). It will serve to recall the history that preceded these texts. Right from the start of Gioventù Studentesca, Fr Giussani wanted in his work, and in the awareness of the young people a universal openness: "The Church's universal perspectives are the normal guidelines for the life of a Christian" was an expression of Pius XII that recurred again and again in Fr Giussani's talks and writings in the early years. It was necessary to replace the moral imperative that was dominating the whole of catholic education with an ideal perspective capable of moving young people. This was the first and basic concern of the founder of GS. But the young people needed to be directly and personally involved with the ideal proposed them. This, too, was a central principle of Fr Giussani's educative method. Hence the need to be on the look-out for the opportunities that chance (or Providence) would present. Piero Gheddo, a journalist and mission historian, observed, "I think that GS was the first Catholic movement in Italy to invite young people to leave for the missions". In 1960 Fr Giussani had met Mgr Aristide Pirovano of the Pontifical Mission Intitute, Bishop in Amazonia, who had come back to Italy that year, and through him Dr Marcello Candia, an outstanding Milanese industrialist who was planning to leave his firm to go to Brazil as a missionary. It was precisely Candia who introduced Fr Giussani to Sr Raffaella of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit of Lucca. She was Principal of a girls' Boarding School in Belo Horizonte. Though in the end no lasting agreement was made with her, the meeting proved to be the decisive link for the great leap. In early August 1960 Fr Giussani sailed from Genova for Brazil. The Bishop of Amazonia had taken part in the Convention "Living the dimensions of the World" and the plans for the journey had been made. The following year Fr Giussani repeated his trip in the summer. He travelled with Mgr Pirovano and the first provisions for Dr Candia's hospital. Meanwhile a new way had been opened in January 1961 by the leader of UEC, the Catholic Students' Union in Belo Horizonte, Marco Aurelio Velloso. While on a visit to Italy he had come to Milan with his parents and had paid a visit to GS. From July 16-23, 1961 three young men and three young women of GS took part in the convention of the Catholic Students' Union at Belo Horizonte in the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences: Alberto, diocesan president of the GIAC of Milan, Eugenia the president of GS, Giorgio the secretary general of GS, Gianni of GS, Anna Grazia, daughter of a wine producer who paid for the trip and Matilde. Fr Giussani joined them after visiting Macapà. With improvised translators, in the presence of two hundred girls, they organised a "three-days" like the "three-days" of Varigotti, in Sr Raffaella's school. This was the beginning of a systematic exchange between young people of GS and Brazil. So it was that in January 1962 Giancarlo, Italo, Lidia and Franca left "for Belo Horizonte to spend one year, staying at the Boarding school directed by Sr Raffaella". Italo took ill and came home, but the other three stayed until November 1962.

I
12/2/62
The experience of this year is an experiment for you: a long experiment, some will say; but, after all, ten months is not so much. It is an experiment for us, because these are the beginnings of something much greater.
I beg you, my friends, to think always of how many things depend on you; how many things in the future for every one of us. It is not important what you manage to do: what is decisive is what you manage to be.
What we want is only the Kingdom of God: for the Kingdom of God-from Christ onwards-only what we are is important, not what we manage to do.
This aridity in the results, this superficiality of the contact, this difficulty in communicating what you feel most in you will certainly make your work harder.
It will give you a feeling of loneliness and hardship that perhaps the girls will feel less. It will make it easier for you to feel nostalgia for a happier and more homely environment with your feelings. I beg you not to wonder at these difficulties, to treat them as obvious, and calmly to overcome them.
What is important is not what you girls manage to do with the ten or so who are following you.
What is important is the essential love with which you educate them. The more your effort lacks results, the more it will be the way to develop your Christian personality.
Remember the two great rules that build your work, which is the beginning of our work: