Focolare Movement

International Eucharistic Congress in the Philippines: Marinova’s Story

Feb 5, 2016

A touching story of conversion: how her experience in the Eucharist lifted her hatred that had always shackled her life. #IEC2016

Marinova-01The 51st International Eucharistic Congress has been held in Cebu City, Philippines. (January 24th – 31st, 2016). The official social media coverage of the IEC 2016 scouted for meaningful life stories related to the Eucharist and published them in its facebook page (IEC2016SocialMedia). The experience of Marinova, a focolarina based in Cebu, touched them. “I was 11 years old when a big suffering came to my family. My father was killed by a group of persons who were very influential and no justice was served because we were poor. Our grandparents reminded us that true justice is found only in God! Thanks to their help I was able to finish college and got a job immediately. I became the bread winner of the family as I worked hard to help my mother. I incurred a lot of debts with loan sharks in order to bring ahead my family. Because of all these problems, an intense hatred developed in my heart for all those people who killed my father. They caused all the miseries in our life. Then I took up studies in Law because I wanted justice for the death of my father. But God had another plan for me. One of my classmates, a youth member of the Focolare Movement, invited me to a meeting of this ecclesial movement which has as its goal the fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer to the Father, ‘That they may all be one’, and strives to bring unity to the human family by translating the Gospel into life. A new adventure began in  my life. I too started putting into practice the words of Jesus. He said: ‘Love and I will manifest myself to you. ‘Whatever you do to the least of your brethren you do it unto me.’ I became addicted to this new drug: LOVE… I found the essence and true meaning of my life and for the first time I felt that Jesus in the Eucharist was the source of it all. One day I asked Jesus to teach me how to live concretely his word ‘Love your enemy’, since I felt that hatred for those who killed my father still enveloped me.  And indeed the following day, at work, I met by chance the leader of the group.  Spontaneously I greeted him with a smile and asked him how everyone in his family was. I saw that this greeting was a great surprise for him. I was even more surprised by what I was did. Little by little I felt that the hatred  within me was melting and was slowly being transformed into love! But that was only the first step! Love is creative! I felt that each one in the group should feel that we had forgiven him. Together with one of my brothers, we visited them trying to re-build our relationship and to make them understand that God loves them!  It came to a point that one of them asked for forgiveness for what he had done and in turn asked for prayers for his family and his health. I knew clearly that this experience of forgiveness and healing was the transforming power of Jesus in the Eucharist.”.

___

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to Newsletter

Thought of the day

Related post

In the same boat: a journey toward peace

In the same boat: a journey toward peace

8 months of navigation, 30 ports, 200 young people. The ship for peace, ‘Bel Espoir’ set sail in March 2025 from Barcelona (Spain) and will continue its voyage until October. Its route will link five shores of the Mediterranean. On board, eight groups of twenty-five young people of various nationalities, cultures and religions that share a common desire to build a better world. They will live together and get to know each other, amid debates and personal experiences, tackling new issues at each stop. Among them are traveling twenty Living Peace ambassadors and other young people from the Focolare Movement. Bertha from Lebanon shares her experience. She is involved in the MediterraNEW project which works for the education of young people, predominately migrants in the Mediterranean.

Argentina: commitment in intercultural dialogue with indigenous peoples

Argentina: commitment in intercultural dialogue with indigenous peoples

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.