{"id":306362,"date":"2018-07-30T23:10:08","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T21:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/life-directions\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T20:37:45","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T18:37:45","slug":"life-directions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/life-directions\/","title":{"rendered":"Life Directions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u201cWhat shall I do in life?\u201d<\/strong> one of the seven workshops held following the Genfest<\/a>, focused on the theme of the choices in life, that is, one\u2019s own \u201cLife direction.\u201d As the organizers recounted, \u201cthe construction of this workshop by adults and a group of young people from various parts of the world began last February, with meetings via Skype: a really edifying experience assumed by all with commitment, responsibility and creativity.\u201d \u201cUpon arriving in Tagaytay and getting to know each other personally, we realised the great expectations of everyone. Also the numbers expected at the workshop were high: out of the 1,000 enrollees in the seven workshops, 250 had chosen Life Direction,<\/strong> and came from various countries, speaking 16 languages.\u201d The program, guided in a light and gradual manner towards ever deeper issues in which concrete experiences were the main factor, was prepared by the youths of the Asian town themselves, and the thread focused on a \u201cdaily motto:\u00a0 a thought to put into practice during the day. \"\"\u201cThe first day opened with \u201cOpen your heart\u201d<\/strong>: an invitation to open one\u2019s heart to true happiness, trying to remove what could be an impediment in living the present moment intensely. Four experiences were presented in various situations and methods on the theme of happiness discovered thanks to concrete love, or discovered after starting again after a fall, or in painful and difficult situations. The exchange sessions in small groups verified what lay in the depths and how many questions and expectations each one had inside.\u201d \u201cOn the second day \u2013 they continued \u2013 the motto was \u2019What is the call\u2019<\/strong> which required our most active participation in presenting the sense of the \u2019calling\u2019 with a comprehensible language to be able to be accepted, and associated to three key words: understand, listen, choose.\u201d Then followed the story with God in five biblical personages: Samuel, the rich young man, the prodigal son, Mary, and Peter. A married couple, a religious, a woman committed in the professional world, and a focolarina were interviewed on the three key words. \u201cIn smaller groups we managed to deepen the sense of each of these callings, interacting with questions and answers.\u201d \"\"\u201cThe third day\u2019s motto was: \u2019Aim high.\u2019<\/strong> We left the word of Chiara Lubich who in 2002 recounted her calling to the youths in Barcelona. The questions, which were written, slowly filled the question box, and were the afternoon\u2019s programme, with other interviews of our guests: each underlined the beauty of their own vocation in the perspective of the sole calling to love. The hour and a half passed swiftly!\u201d \u201cIn these four days \u2013 the adults wrote \u2013 we saw youths who were thirsting for a relationship with God, in a profound quest, simplicity and serenity.<\/strong> We felt that something new had come about: an experience of light that had opened a new path of dialogue with the youths on the calling to a radical vocation.\u201d Some of those present said: \u201cIt was exactly what I needed at this point of my life. Living the present moment, opening my doors, and taking radical steps beyond ourselves, are what I am bringing home with me.\u201d \u201cThe youths who spoke about their choice to follow God in a total way gave me courage to make choices only out of love.\u201d \u201cFor me it was important to understand how to answer the call: understand (that God loves me), listen (to the voice within) and decide (to follow Jesus). I am so happy about this experience. Thanks!\u201d<\/strong> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the seven workshops that were held in Tagaytay, the town of the Focolare in the Philippines, after Genfest 2018 in Manila. A thousand young people attended to deepen among many others, the themes of Economy, Ecology, Sociology and other choices in life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}