The Focolare awaits the Pope with joy.

“I’ll be coming as a pilgrim of hope and of peace, to celebrate our faith in the Lord with you, and also to learn from your charity and perseverance in the search for peace and harmony.” This is how addressed the “dear people of Colombia” in a video message just a few hours before his departure for Bogotà. Speaking in Spanish, he cited the motto of his journey, recalling that “we always need to take a first step in any project and activity.”  This “urges us also to be the first to love, to build bridges and construct brotherhood. This “urges us to be the first to love, to build bridges, to spread brotherhood. It encourages us to go out to meet the other, to offer our hand and share the sign of peace.” The Pope went on to say that Colombia is a “land rich in history, culture,, faith, men and women that have worked with determination and perseverance to make it a place where brotherhood and harmony reign, a place where the Gospel is known and loved, where saying brother or sister doesn’t sound strange, but a real and proper treasure to protect and defend.”

The Focolare community is preparing joyfully for the Pope’s arrival. Yolima Martínez reports from Bogotà: “We members of the Focolare will welcome him with great enthusiasm, so that his message may fill our land with hope. Colombia, she explains, is in a transitional phase, a phase of deep social divisions that continue to persist. “But we know, as Chiara Lubich taught us, that all of us are candidates for unity, so we believe that the words of the Holy Father will be a call to peace for everyone, to reconciliation and tolerance, regardless of anyone’s creed or way of thinking.”

There great expectation in the air, especially among Christians. “The young people, summoned by the local Church, are preparing for this visit, preparing not only the logistical aspects, but also their own souls in view of this encounter.

Escuela Sol Naciente in Tocancipà, north of Bogotà where the Mariapolis Centre is located, is geared toward children and teenagers between the ages of 13 and 15, to give them a global formation as individuals that are sensitive to the values of solidarity, peace and ecology. Fifteen of their students and two of their teachers will take part in the Eucharist presided by the Pope.

One of them is Milena: “I’m happy to be meeting Pope Francis, because he’s one of the closest persons to the young people. He understands us and invites us to follow God and build a better society.” Laura: “The Pope’s visit inspires us to be better and to help everyone, not only the Christians, but also the people that think differently.”  Andrés: “The Pope is an important figure in today’s culture, so it will be an opportunity for us to profit from his wisdom.”

Yolima continues: “All the Focolare members will be at the different Eucharistic celebrations, especially in Bogotá e Medellín. Among them, Lucia and her husband, Pedro, who will approach the Pope. They will extend the greetings from the whole Focolare community in Colombia. Lucia: “We’ll have a chance to approach him for a few minutes. Our wish is to go as children of Chiara, to thank him in the name of the Movement and to assure him of our prayers.”

It will be a pause in the frenzy of daily life, an invitation to stop. “In the days that Pope Francis will be visiting our country,” Yolima concludes, “we’ll be presented with the possibility of a personal encounter: the encounter with Jesus.”