What was the deep and inner secret of Sandra?

Her secret is contained and revealed in the beatitude proclaimed by Jesus, 'Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God', that is, blessed are those who have a clean heart because they will see God. Sandra's heart was clean because it was full of love for God and neighbour.

After she finished high school she wanted to know the will of God for her life. She wanted to give herself totally and straight away to the poor through direct sharing by putting her life with theirs. She was also advised to attend university before dedicating herself totally to the poor and the mission. She was very faithful to the path she had started with t he Community of Pope John XXIII and therefore she asked me for confirmation of her choices, that it was right for her to go to university. She was very happy, not only because she could attend the faculty of medicine, but because she was certain that she was fulfilling the will of God. Her life continued in the presence of God in a continuous dialogue with him. For Sandra, God was a person to whom she could say anything, with whom she could discuss everything, a person to thank for the wonders He prepares for his children.

One of the fundamental points of the vocation in the Community of Pope John XXIII is prayer and contemplation, because 'you are able to stand tall only if you are able to kneel down' and because 'you are able to stay totally with the poor only if you are able to stay totally with the Lord'. Moreover, the members of the Community desire and commit themselves to make union with God a way of being. Sandra spent many hours in prayer and contemplation. She was committed to the Lord as much as she was committed to the poor. In the same way as Jesus, Sandra did not belong to herself: in the same way as she felt she belonged to God, she felt she belonged to the poor.

Direct sharing of the life of the least is an essential aspect of the vocation of the Community. She gave all her free time from university to drug addicts who were following a programme in our therapeutic communities. What was amazing in her was the gift she had of arousing their nostalgia for heaven. I met Sandra when she was 12 years old and she started to live the spirituality of the Community with a group of teenagers and she continued to do so until the morning of the accident in which she went into a coma and I took her to Rimini hospital and kept her mouth open so that she would not be suffocated by the blood which was coming out.

Sandra was a unifying factor among her brothers and sisters. Nobody ever heard her say a negative word about others. Her fraternity was full and joyful. Her love for Mary was full of tenderness. For her, saying the Rosary meant staying with Mary in the company of Jesus. Give us, Lord, Sandra as a sister who can accompany us on our path to holiness.