The first evening. My students and I entered breathlessly as the large hall was already packed with thousands of people, young people and adults who had come to Rimini from all over Italy for the Easter Triduum of Gioventù Studentesca. On the big screens, images portrayed the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, an episode that would accompany us over the next few days. The event had opened, shortly before, with a surprise: Matteo Severgnini read the greeting of Pope Francis, who personally sent a message to the GS young people, inviting them to "renew the joy of being God’s children" because it is He who "says to all of us: 'With age-old love I have loved you; so I have kept my mercy toward you’ (Jer 31:3). (...)

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