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Interview Portuguese Spanish    
Year 10 - N° 496 - December 18, 2016
ORSON PETER CARRARA
orsonpeter92@gmail.com
Matão, SP (Brasil)
 
Translation
Leonardo Rocha - l.rocha1989@gmail.com

 
Antonio de Almeida Silva Filho: 

“What will we have to say to the Master of life about all the treasures we have received?” 

Our fellow Spiritist from the Brazilian state of São Paulo explains how he became a Spiritist and speaks about the value the knowledge of the Teachings has in our lives 

Antonio de Almeida Silva Filho (photo) lives in the city of São Carlos, in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, where he works as a dentist. He is a member of the Nosso Lar Spiritist Centre and its former president. In this interview he shares his views and experience based on a long experience in the Spiritist Movement: 


How did you become a Spiritist? 


I was born in a family that was changing from Catholicism to Spiritism. I used to go to Sunday mass, taken by a very religious neighbour who did that with lot of love. I also did my first communion. I was always very moved by the chants and ceremony in the Catholic Church, which I eventually interpreted as a sign that I had been a priest in previous incarnations. I became interested in Spiritism when I went to university and shared a room with a Spiritist friend. Our long conversations and some good debates strengthened in both of us our Spiritist principles. We then joined a youth Spiritist movement. In that phase of my life, I became very anti-Church, but time changed that and I am now not only tolerant but sympathetic to the many ways of connecting with God. 

And when did you begin your association with the Nosso Lar Spiritist Centre? 

It all began when we met regularly at the Obreiros do Bem Spiritist Society. One of our companions there said he was embarrassed when a relative of his, who was a Spiritist, had come to visit and asked him to take him to some Spiritist charity project in the city. But there was none. The afternoon when he told us that we decided to set up such a project. And as in those days there were many children begging in our city, we decided to found an institution to help children. As I was the secretary of the meeting where that institution was founded on December 2nd 1962, I became naturally linked to it. I am now the only founder of the organization still incarnated and in full activity. 

What are the organisation’s main activities? 

We attend regularly 230 children aged from 4 months to 4 years. We have a number of projects, including sports, recreation and entertainment, focusing on after school clubs. We also have a project to inform teenagers about pregnancy and to help teenage mothers. We often say that we look after the children from before they are born until they are ready to face the world. We also run Spiritist courses, talks, mediumship groups and other activities in nearby facilities. 

What aspect of Spiritism strikes you the most? 

To show why each one of us is incarnated here and, through the Spiritist model, to show the best way of making the most out of this opportunity of progress and happiness we have. 

What is the strongest memory you have of your experience as a Spiritist? 

Without Spiritism I would not have done a third even of what I have accomplished so far. Of all I have received from Spiritism, perhaps the most important has been the opportunity to build a family and a home, with a true guardian angel as wife and four Spirits, who, as children, I leave to the world as my legacy. 

After so many years in the Spiritist Movement, what activities or organisations would you like to highlight? 

The Spiritist Movement is like a good seed that fell on good soil – the Brazilian people. When I see Spiritist themes and issues as part of the plot of films and soap operas, when I see common people in Brazil mentioning so naturally reincarnation, Spiritual obsession and the interchange with the Spirit world, I realize that in a few decades Spiritism has conquered its place through its rationality and the strength of its core principles. 

What else would you like to add? 

We are on the right path. We have in our hands huge wealth, not only a few talents. What will we have to say to the Master of life about all the treasures we have received? Having been born on the land Chico Xavier had as his labouring field makes us indebted from birth with Divine Providence.

 


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O Consolador
 
Weekly Magazine of Spiritism