Oriana Milazzo, 31, has chosen to become a Clarissa. From a promising Italian basketball player to a consecrated life in a monastery in Alcamo
There are Calls and Calls (and the capital letter is not accidental). Because there is for example that of the National Under 20 Basketball Team, a dream she nurtured as a child and that perhaps she would never have imagined she would realize and then there is the other, the most important one, the Call, with a capital C, which led her to leave basketball at 22 years old – with her debut in Serie A1 – to say yes to God and consecrate herself as a cloistered nun.
Sister Chiara Luce
She is Sister Chiara Luce, born Oriana Milazzo, now 31 years old, originally from Canicattì, who just a few days ago in Alcamo with her solemn profession said yes forever to the contemplative life among the Poor Sisters of Santa Chiara. Canicattì also has a pretty good tradition when it comes to vocations: from Rosario Livatino, the magistrate killed by the mafia, a martyr of justice proclaimed Blessed, to the servant of God Father Gioacchino who is venerated in these parts, to Bishop Angelo Ficarra, the man who edited the entry for Saint Jerome for Treccani. The story of Sister Chiara Luce, who La Sicilia was able to contact thanks to her father, Prof. Michele Milazzo, is beautiful. She seems to radiate light even from the other end of the phone, where with a sweet voice – have you ever tried to imagine the voice of an angel? Sister Chiara Luce’s comes close – she doesn’t say the classic “Hello?”. The opening line is “Peace and good.” And peace and goodness seem to guide her story, of how she decided to become a cloistered nun, answering questions, even those that may have seemed banal to her: who are we to delve into such an intimate choice?
The angelic voice
“Certainly my choice – said Sister Chiara Luce and as you read remember the angelic voice – did not come from one day to the next. It is a light that has made itself felt ever more clearly along a path that has unfolded over time. Then when I understood my vocation everything unfolded in three years (until the solemn profession of the last few days, ed.). So certainly not from one day to the next”. Sister Chiara Luce (“Should I call her Oriana or Sister Chiara Luce?”, “I am Sister Chiara Luce”, she says) thus tells her life and why she decided to embrace the consecrated life in the monastery of Santa Chiara in Alcamo. A story that is intertwined with her life as an athlete: “Within the Call – says Sister Chiara Luce – there is also a special place where the Lord guides us with Providence. I arrived, or rather, I returned to Alcamo and I already knew this monastery and I understood that the Lord was calling me right here”.
The connection with basketball
The connection with basketball is easily explained: a promising Sicilian and then Italian women’s basketball player, she left Canicattì at the age of thirteen to play with Alcamo, which was then in Serie A2. “And already then – Sister Chiara Luce immediately explains – there was my first encounter with the monastery because, being small, just 13 years old, my parents had entrusted me to a family that was very close to the monastery and so through them I came into contact with the nuns. I was very struck by the atmosphere that you could breathe inside that monastery”. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
The fact is that Oriana Milazzo (her role was the point guard, which in soccer, to simplify, is the director) was so good at playing basketball that she was first called by Priolo, the team that had been the protagonist of Italian women’s basketball for years, immediately after came her debut in Serie A1 and then also the call to the youth national teams. Only that there was something that evidently called her from Alcamo: «After Priolo I returned to Alcamo and I was 18 years old. I remembered the monastery and so I got even closer». A very strong call that Sister Chiara Luce attributes to Providence. And to think that Oriana who grew up in Canicattì in the neighborhood of via Barone Lombardo was a girl like many others: middle school, high school, the idea of enrolling in Medicine and then working in Africa with the missionaries. «I went to church – she says -, on Sundays to mass with mom and dad, catechism, communion, confirmation. I lived like all girls, nurturing a passion for sports. First on the fields of my father’s soccer school and then, since there was no women’s soccer, I dedicated myself to basketball. It was a tool to make friends and transmit my values. With sacrifice you get results and with sports you grow.”
The call
“Then I understood,” Sister Chiara Luce continues, “and at 22 I stopped playing even though by the grace of God I was in Serie A1 also playing for the National team (in international events in Serbia, Sweden and Latvia, ed.)”. In fact, the real Call was another and so the visits to the nuns of the convent of Alcamo became more and more frequent: “There is a period of getting to know each other without anything special,” Sister Chiara Luce says. “Any girl who wants to get to know the sisters can do so, they are always available to listen in the parlor. I approached them out of curiosity and asked to speak to some of the sisters and from there I began a journey of discernment. I had everything I wanted but it wasn’t enough. So I sought God’s will and during this journey I asked for help from a priest and a sister. It is a progressive journey that the Lord has illuminated.” Then there are those stages that remain etched in the memory that, in one way or another, play a role in the choices that are made: «I participated in the Youth Day in Madrid in 2011 with Pope Benedict XVI and from there I understood that there was a call. Then in 2012 another gathering, again with Pope Benedict …». And here the reason why she chose to call herself Sister Chiara Luce is revealed: «It was the day that Saint Clare began the journey of consecration. But I didn’t know it and it was the Pope who said it. Do you see that the Lord speaks in our lives and calls us? And I chose Chiara Luce because it was said that in Assisi Saint Clare, even if she kept herself hidden in the monastery, radiated her light outside».
The closing
Today Sister Chiara Luce is a cloistered nun, and it is true cloistered: «Our life takes place inside the monastery; the day is marked by prayer and work. The first thing is prayer but we also offer a listening service to couples in difficulty or people who want to talk, to girls who approach us. We do it in the parlor where there is a grate which is a significant sign». The grate is always there: «I left my dearest affections like mum and dad but in cloistered life and prayer I found them with an even stronger love. We see each other once a month, except during Lent and Christmas when we cannot have contact with the outside. Cloistered life is not a constraint but is almost a need of the heart and is part of the call received to serve our brothers and sisters and the world. We do not become alienated but separate ourselves from the world to be even more effective». COPYRIGHT LASICILIA.IT © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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2024-07-10 16:22:14
#Sister #Chiara #Luce #left #basketball #chose #seclusion
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