The volume collects several interviews by Renato Farina with Fr. Giussani and transcripts of friendly conversations between the two. Farina notes that Fr. Giussani considered interviews as a personal encounter from which anyone can learn—every conversation is an event. 
Almost all the interviews, from May 1981 to October 1995, are devoted to topics which had a great historical relevance in those years—on the figure of Popes starting with Paul VI, and on the relationship of Communion and Liberation with the various Catholic associations. They also reveal a man that was leading the movement with a heartfelt obedience to the Holy Father. 
The conversations with his friends are both confidential and universal in nature; in speaking to those few, it is as if Fr. Giussani’s intention was to speak to everyone.

In the Sign of Fatima (May 1981) is Fr. Giussani’s reaction to the news of the attempt on John Paul II’s life. Of that single gesture he blames power as an affirmation of the possession that man exercises over reality, calling on the Church and even those who do not believe to defend the truth of humanity for which the Pope strives.

That Little Thing Open to Everything (October 1981) is a living testimony upon returning from the congress of movements held in Rome that September. What emerges is the way Fr. Giussani perceived a palpable fraternal unity among the movements in the Church, on the basis of an “experienced truth,” with companionship as its main feature, and charity and culture as its contents. Movements come into being only from the memory of Christ, and their mission is to liberate humankind from fear and the slavery of power, to bring people to conceive of their lives as instruments of collaboration with the Pope’s action.

He Who Loved the Church More Than Himself (December 1983) is an interview on the occasion of the death of Fr. Giussani’s best friend from the seminary—Msgr. Manfredini, archbishop of Bologna, his companion in Venegono. Fr. Giussani recalls how he loved the Church more than himself in following the Pope. This loss, which leads to a greater participation in the Cross of Christ, is at the same time a reminder that He alone is true hope. 

That Look of Love Makes Youth Last Longer (April 1985) gathers insights from Fr. Giussani from John Paul II’s apostolic letter Dilecti Amici, addressed to young people. Youth is an attitude of the heart, full of positive anticipation and surprise at the encounter with a companionship that gives reasons to deepen one’s awareness of reality. In order to shake up human awareness, we need to come across friendly people, instruments of His love. The only way to always stay young is to keep asking for God to manifest Himself. For young people, vocation is the mission to pursue the meaning of what happens to them, going all the way to the heart of the circumstances they are called to live in, to the point of asking insistently, accompanied by those who have already experienced the drama of this plea.

In the following pages (De Juventute, April 1985) we find the account of an evening devoted precisely to keeping this question alive, with young and old, at the “Comuna Baires” theater group in Milan. Fr. Giussani emphasizes that if you wish to stay young you need to have an ideal and never rest—your heart must always thirst for something infinite that comes to life in that very instant. The difference between dreams and ideals is that the former are not achieved in the present, and sooner or later those who follow their dreams will be pervaded by doubts. And doubt is the greatest enemy of certainty, the only chance to build something in life.

Communion and Collaboration (May 1986)—in this interview Fr. Giussani expresses his thoughts as to the persistent crisis of identity in Catholic associationism. On certain occasions, in order to blow off steam, the movement of Communion and Liberation itself is targeted. In this situation, Fr. Giussani intends to collaborate with Catholic associations as they all participate in the Mystery of Christ in the Church; he insists that the relationship between Catholics must be based on love for the Church and obedience to the papal magisterium, as a criterion for present and carnal judgment.

With The Secret Faces of Peter (August 1988) Fr. Giussani evokes the figures of Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II. About the first he says he was the one who perceived in Communion and Liberation a capacity for renewal that could overcome the crisis of Catholic associationism. He recalls the Pontiff’s personal encouragement to continue the journey begun. In speaking of the charism of this Pope, Fr. Giussani focuses on his intuition that the Church had to refer back to tradition in order to be saved from the formalism into which it was falling. And the teaching of John Paul II, to which the Church was introduced through the sacrifice of Pope Luciani, was based precisely on the certainty of tradition—to reaffirm the truth and love from which Christianity begins.

An Impetus of Creative Grace (February 1989) collects some reflections following the Synod of Bishops on the Laity which saw the contribution of Fr. Giussani himself. According to him, the main message of the Synod is that Christ communicates Himself to the world through the Church, which is vital because it is made up of people invested with the gift of the Spirit. This gift unites them in friendship, and from these relationships arise the movements and associations of the Church in which the Spirit of Christ works. The Pope pointed out that a re-evangelization was necessary, and the Synodal document outlined the criteria of ecclesiality that would help relieve the faithful from Enlightenment-style theological mix-ups. Fr. Giussani also explains to lay Christians who engage in politics that their goal in life is holiness in obedience to the magisterium; and that Montini himself spoke of politics as the supreme form of charity. 

An Event. It Is for This That They Hate Us (April 1992) is the result of a dialogue with his friend Renato Farina. Fr. Giussani states that Christians have been chosen for the mission, and because of this announcement a true Christian is the victim of a real persecution. In fact, the world regards incarnation, evangelism and obedience as intolerable, under the illusion of being free. But Christianity is an event that endures. Being a fact, it cannot go into crisis: it is simply there. The mission of a Christian is to witness this to all people.

Coffee with company (December 1993) is a conversation about the meaning of companionship. The word companionship is synonymous with utopia when we nurture the illusion it can erase the dramatic events of human existence, and when we think it will let us fulfill all our hopes and thus make our lives more bearable. This way it becomes an escape, a real alienation. Instead, Christian companionship arises from the encounter with Christ, Who makes man a new creature: it is thus a personal change that flows from His Presence.

The Highest Expression (April 1994) presents Fr. Giussani’s thoughts on music and singing, expounded to a group of voices from the choirs of Communion and Liberation. Singing is true when it expresses the human awareness of belonging to a positive destiny. So, it is charity because it manifests the voice of the hearts of an entire people. From this point of view, singing is fundamental to deepening human feelings and a sense of communion.

An Ecumenical Faith (October 1995) is a transcript of the lectio magistralis in the form of an interview when Fr. Giussani received the Catholic Culture Prize. Faith is culture because it defines the One for Whom life is lived, and a new awareness of reality originates from this fact. At the same time, faith does not deny, but complements reason in becoming self-conscious and aware of reality according to the totality of factors. Faith is an event, therefore an experience. In this sense it is not contradictory to reason, which is a tool for reading experience. The word “ecumenism” is synonymous with “culture” in the Christian context as a Christian can see in every relationship the truth that is present in everyone. Hence the miracle—the realization of a unity of thought and action flowing from a common affirmation of the truth.

“Jews and Christians Will Be Reunited in the End.” A Conversation with Fr. Giussani (August 2002) is an informal conversation in a hamlet in the lowlands south of Milan where Fr. Giussani insists on the existence of the Mystery that reveals itself to humankind as Charity. The experience is such only inasmuch as it makes you experience God’s love. The recognition and imitation of this love lead to the unity of a people moving forward in its religious journey, so that Christians and Jews, a people of waiting, can hopefully be one within seventy years. To come to this point we must recognize that Being is Mystery. And the Mystery is there as an experience of love in the figure of Our Lady, through whom the Mystery becomes flesh and is made tangible to all.