Focolare Movement

Reset your world. You’re in control.

Oct 16, 2017

Logo GenfestOn September 23 and 24 over a thousand young people converged on the Focolare town of Mariapolis Lia in Argentina, to take part in the 2017 youth festival in preparation for the upcoming Genfest 2018.

18_Fdj2017Once again this year the Youth Fest that coincides with the start of spring in the southern hemisphere, has made its mark. On September 23 and 24 more than a thousand young people from Uruguay, Paraguay and several regions of Argentina took over the permanent Mariapolis immersed in the Argentinian Pampas, to have an experience of brotherhood. But this year they’re looking farther – to Manila where the 2018 Genfest will be held with young people from around the world. Using a video game format, the young people gradually confront some of the issues they have to face in their daily lives: appearance, individualism, choices and consumerism. These are the four levels that the four actors on stage have to pass through to overcome and reach the last level with each other’s help. The keys that get them through each level are: values such as self-acceptance, solidarity, effort with regard to what the conscience suggests to every one of us, and sharing. But often you need to take into account the past that draws you back and the future that can paralyse you. Only one option is left: to live the present and, in that moment, take control and reset your  history. 27_Fdj2017The inventor of the game leaves the actors and the Youth Fest participants with a question: Reset, yes or no? The answer is left open. The video game ends and becomes a metaphor for life that places the players in front of the possibility of going through the daily situations of life in order to grow and reach their personal goals. The game becomes real life. Reset your life, you’re in control is the slogan of the event which, with the help of songs that had been composed for the event, planted the message of the 2017 Youth Fest in the hearts of all the participants.  

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