Chiara Lubich described the Gen4 as “tiny buds” on the great tree of the Focolare Movement. She gave the go-ahead to the first international Gen4 congress in 1988.

This year more than 400 Gen4 arrived, unafraid of flying in an airplane and in spite of their young age (4-9 years old). They came from Argentina, Panama, Venezuela and several European countries. It was a real congress. Two entrepreneurs from the Loppiano Prima Cooperative explained how they are living for a “new economy” and answered some questions from the Gen4. They studied the life of the early Christians, through games and quizzes. Then there was the grand “A City Invaded By Love” Game, with clowns, challenges, quizzes, bankers, mayors and everything else, all of them brought together by a single law, trying to “see Jesus in their neighbor” and understanding what the needs of such a unique city would be.

The slogans of the day were being chanted in two songs that had been written for the occasion: “The person next to me is Jesus: and “You did it for me”. They sang it, acted it out in small plays and put together a musical which they presented on Friday morning to the president of the Focolare, Maria Voce. They also posed some questions to her and were anxious to hear what she would say.

Hi Emmaus, what is Heaven like, and what is Hell like?” “Why did God create the world?” “We learned about the early Christian martyrs. Should we, today, also be martyrs for Jesus?” “How did Chiara realize that Jesus is among us?” “Could you explain to me what the Focolare is?

On the first day, one of the Gen4 had this to say: “I’m so happy inside, becuase I dreamt that Jesus came to this congress, that He was here with us, in the midst of us.” It was a dream that came true over the following days. Despite the different languages and cultures, they understood one another, they talked to one another, invented games that they could play together and exchanged gifts. During the Mass on the last day, they offered their acts of love to Jesus: a hundred colourful small papers, folded inside a small basket on the stage. There were also baskets filled with the things they had brought to put in common with the poor – the Gospel come to life.

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