I’m Letícia Alves and I live in the north of Brazil, in Pará.
In 2019 I took part in the Amazon Project, and for 2 weeks a group of volunteers and I dedicated our holidays to living with the people of the lower Amazon, in the city of Óbidos.
Before embarking on this adventure, I wondered if I would be able to give myself completely to this experience, which was set in a reality so different from my own. During the project we visited some riverside communities living on the banks of the Amazon River, and everyone welcomed us with unrivalled love.
We provided health, legal and family support services, but the most important thing was to listen deeply and share the lives, stories and difficulties of those we met. The stories were all very diverse: the lack of drinking water, the child who had a toothbrush for the whole family, or even the son who wanted to kill his mother… The more we listened, the more we understood the meaning of our presence there.
“The urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family TOGETHER”
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And among so many stories, I was able to see how much we can make a difference to people’s lives: how much just listening makes a difference, how much a bottle of drinking water makes all the difference.
The project was more than special. We were able to plant a seed of love in the midst of so much suffering and “building together” made us grow. When Jesus is present among us, everything becomes inspiring, full of light and joy.
It wasn’t something I lived for just 2 weeks and that was it, but it was an experience that really transformed my life, I felt a strong presence of God and that gave me the strength to embrace the sufferings of humanity that surround me in this daily construction of a united world.
My name is Francisco. I was born in Juruti in the Amazon, a town near Óbidos. I was surprised to learn that people from different parts of Brazil were travelling across the country to give of themselves to take care of my people and I wanted to join them.
What struck me most was the happiness among everyone, the volunteers and the local people, who even though they lived with very few material possessions, experienced the greatness of God’s love.
After experiencing the Amazonia project in Óbidos, I returned to Juruti with a new outlook and the desire to continue this mission, but in my own town. Over there, I saw the same needs that I had found in Óbidos. This desire became not just mine, but that of our entire community, which embraced the cause. Together we came up with the idea and gave birth to the Amazonia project in the community of São Pedro with the aim of listening and responding to the “cry” of those who need it most, of those who are often not heard. We chose a community on the mainland, began to monitor their needs and then went in search of professionals who could help as volunteers.
With the collaboration of several people, we brought the life of the Gospel, medical care, psychological care, medicines and dental care to that entire community. Above all, we tried to stop and listen to the difficulties and joys of those we met.
I have one certainty: in order to build a more fraternal and united world, we are called to listen to the cries of those who suffer around us and to act, with the certainty that everything done with love is not small and can change the world!
Agustin, Patricia and their two children are an Argentinian family. After following a course at Sophia ALC, the Latin-American branch of the university institute that is based in the international little town of Loppiano (Italy), they began to research their roots among the indigenous peoples, and this gave rise to a strong commitment in intercultural dialogue.
The 2025 edition of the traditional youth festival in the Focolare little town will showcase the fragility and conflicts experienced by young people today and transform them into an immersive artistic experience full of hope. There will be many workshops and a live final show to tell everyone: ‘You are born to bloom’.
‘Remember that you were born to bloom, to be happy’. This is the message that, in the Jubilee Year of Hope, the young organisers of May Day in Loppiano (Figline and Incisa Valdarno – Florence) want to give to their peers who will participate in the 2025 edition of the traditional festival that has been held since 1973 in the international town of the Focolare Movement on Labour Day.
The theme
At the heart of ‘You are born to bloom, the courage to flourish’, the title of the event, are the fragility, wounds and conflicts experienced by today’s children and young people, sublimated into an artistic, immersive and growth-oriented experience.
‘We believe that the conflict we often experience in the most difficult stages of life can become an opportunity to be reborn stronger and more aware of who we are,’ explain Emily Zeidan, from Syria, and Marco D’Ercole, from Italy, members of the international team of young organisers of the festival. As Pope Francis told us, ‘Conflict is like a labyrinth’, we must not be afraid to go through it, because ‘conflicts make us grow’. But ‘you cannot get out of the labyrinth alone; you get out with someone else who helps you’. So, on May Day in Loppiano, we want to remind everyone of the beauty of each other, even in moments of vulnerability.
The theme of May Day in Loppiano is highly topical, considering that in Italy, one in five minors suffers from a mental disorder (depression, social withdrawal, school refusal, self-harm, anxiety, eating disorders, suicidal tendencies), according to data from the Italian Society of Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry. Those under 35, on the other hand, experience job insecurity, are underpaid, suffer from territorial and gender inequality (‘Youth 2024: the balance sheet of a generation’, EURES), and do not feel understood by adults in their needs and experiences, particularly when it comes to fears and fragility, aspirations and dreams.
Pope Francis had great faith in us young people. He never missed an opportunity to remind us that the world needs us, our dreams, and great horizons to look towards together, in order to ‘lay the foundations of social solidarity and a culture of encounter,’ emphasise Emily and Marco. For this reason, ‘You are Born to Bloom’ will be a show created together, where the audience will not only be spectators but an integral part of the international town of the Focolare Movement. Narration: everyone who participates will be called upon to become a protagonist of the show, giving their best with others.
The programme
In the morning, participants in the May Day festival in Loppiano will have the opportunity to explore their own fragility and beauty through art, motivational and experiential workshops led by psychologists, trainers, counsellors, artists and performers.
Among these, the Gen Verde International Performing Arts Group will prepare young people to take to the stage and be part of the cast of choreographies, choirs, theatre company and band in the final show. The Gen Verde workshops are part of the project ‘M.E.D.I.T.erraNEW: Mediation, Emotions, Dialogue, Interculturality, Talents to foster youth social inclusion in the Mare Nostrum’, Erasmus Plus – Youth – cooperation partnership.
The festival will culminate in the afternoon with the collective creation of a live performance: all participants will be an active part of the story, and there will be no distance between the stage and the audience.
Among the artists who have confirmed their participation are Martinico and the band As One.
‘You are born to bloom, the courage to flourish’ is made possible thanks to the contribution of Fondazione CR Firenze.
Loppiano’s May Day is an event of the 2025 United World Week (1-7 May 2025), a global workshop and expo to raise awareness of fraternity and peace.
For information and reservations, please contact: primomaggio@loppiano.it +39 055 9051102 www.primomaggioloppiano.it
On Oct. 4, the day of St. Francis of Assisi, ends the period of the Season of Creation, a period in which it is proposed to deepen dialogue with God through prayer, associated with concrete actions for the care of the planet. The Focolare Movement has always supported the initiative by participating and organizing events in various parts of the world. Here are some initiatives from the Season of creation 2024.
In Leonessa, at the center Italy, a nature walk was held. The event, entitled Breaths of Nature: together for our planet, was attended by young and old alike. The group of participants departed from the Capuchin friars’ monastery, led by the friars themselves together with the forest police, the Italian Alpine Club and Prof. Andrea Conte, astrophysicist and Italian coordinator of EcoOne, the Focolare Movement’s Ecology network. The excursion culminated at a spring, where Prof. Conte led an evocative meditation on the journey of a carbon atom in the environment. Conte then showed how to turn ordinary waste into tools for scientific experiments, demonstrating how science can be fun and affordable for everyone.
Following this, topics such as environmental awareness, the effects of climate change and the importance of education for sustainability were discussed in depth at the town’s Auditorium. Prof. Luca Fiorani, from the EcoOne International Commission, offered an in-depth analysis of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, the concept of integral ecology and relational sustainability. The large attendance and the attention shown by those in attendance is proof of a growing interest in environmental issues and a growing awareness of the importance of taking action to protect our planet.
In Oceania, this is the fourth year that the Focolare community has contributed to ecumenical prayer for the Season of Creation. “We have been praying and witnessing through various actions of caring for our common home,” they recount. ”This prayer service is our effort to give hope to our vast area that stretches 7,000 km from Perth, Western Australia, to Suva, Fiji, the largest island nation in the heart of the Pacific. This was followed by a reflection by Jacqui Remond, co-founder of the Laudato Si’ Movement and professor at the Australian Catholic University, who spoke about the need to change hearts for ecological conversion.
Archbishop Peter Loy Chong of the Archdiocese of Suva in Fiji could not join them because he was welcoming Pope Francis in Papua New Guinea. But he sent a message emphasizing in particular the importance of the word “Tagi,” which means “the cry of the peoples of Oceania.” It is the cry of the small Pacific islands in the face of climate change, which has not yet affected the world. Or rather: the world has not yet listened deeply to the voices and particularly the cry of the people of Oceania.
Various experiences followed such as the creation of an Aboriginal reconciliation garden at the Mariapolis Center in St Paul. Horticulture students and their teachers who use the center for their classes were invited here. They are all migrants and were very interested in learning about the important indigenous food plants.
Young people from Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, on the other hand, joined with an Aboriginal elder for a walk in the countryside where they learned how to relate to and care for creation.
In Mexico, a course was held on ecological conversion and spirituality, an open dialogue for the care of the Common Home. It was an initiative of the Evangelii Gaudium Mexico Center, Sophia ALC University together with the Focolare Movement. Five online sessions – one each week during the Season of Creation – by Prof. Lucas Cerviño, focolarino theologian and missiologist. 87 participated from different Latin American countries, from Mexico to Argentina. Here are some of the themes addressed: the ecological crisis and conversion; metamorphosis of the sacred and spirituality; God is love as a fabric of life in love; listening to the cry of the earth and the poor as love for Jesus forsaken and crucified; unity looked at as cosmic fraternity to care for the Common Home; Mary as Queen of Creation and the presence of Mary’s mystical body.
Finally, in Italy, in the city of Padua, the “Path of the 5Cs of Laudato Sì” was inaugurated thanks to the network Nuovi Stili di Vita made up of civil, religious, and lay associations-including the Focolare Movement-that care about promoting lifestyles that are moderate and respectful of nature, sustainable economy, and that stimulate communities with initiatives and proposals to achieve the common good together.
The 5Cs path was installed at a flowerbed where in 2011 the five Ecumenical Churches, (Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Methodist and Evangelical), celebrated the Day for the Custody of Creation by planting five beech trees together. It was preceded by a short concert by a young singer-songwriter from Vicenza who communicated to us the sensitivity and dreams of today’s youth toward a future of hope.
The 5Cs highlight five terms taken from Pope Francis’ encyclical: custody, conversion, community, care, change. The event was lived with intensity and was a spur for resolutions of concrete commitment to achieve a better, more just and equitable world, in harmony with the Earth we inhabit.
The ecumenical family from around the world comes together to listen and care for our common home. As usual, September 1 begins the Time of Creation, a period of prayer and reflection associated with concrete actions for the care of Planet Earth. This event will conclude on Oct. 4 with the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology beloved by many Christian denominations. The Focolare Movement participates in the initiative. From the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity this January leading up to today, we have experienced the phase of “Preparation” for the Time of Creation, which is essential for creating bonds and relationships, renewing the joy of meeting and cultivating the gifts of communion and peace as the People of God together with our common home.
Theme of 2024
The theme of this year is Hope and act with Creation. Where does this theme originate? In the letter of the apostle Paul to the Romans, the biblical image depicts the Earth as a Mother, groaning as during childbirth (Rom 8:22). St. Francis of Assisi understood this when he referred to the Earth as our sister and mother in his Canticle of Creatures.
Unfortunately, the times in which we live show that we do not relate to the Earth as a gift from our Creator, rather as a resource to be used.
Can there still be hope?
Certainly, there must be, along with an expectation for a better future. Hoping in the biblical context does not mean standing still and remaining silent, but rather groaning, crying and actively striving for new life in the midst of difficulties. Just as during childbirth-taking up the apostle Paul’s depiction-we go through a period of intense pain but a new life is being born.
Hope is a gift from God. Only through hope can we fully realize the gift of freedom, which together with responsibility enable us to make the world a better place. Only when we cooperate with Creation can the first fruits of hope be born.
Hope and act
Hoping is trusting that our action is meaningful, even if the results of this action are not immediately seen. We know how urgent it is to take bold action to contain the climate and ecological crisis, and we also know that ecological conversion is a slow process as human beings are headstrong on changing their minds, hearts and way of life. Sometimes we do not know how our actions should be. There is much we can learn from other cultures and countries about how to hope and act together with Creation.
This year the 1st of September is a Sunday, we are all invited to celebrate the beginning of the Time of Creation in our respective countries and communities.
