{"id":306398,"date":"2018-08-15T23:10:33","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T21:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/in-dublin-with-the-concreteness-of-the-joy-of-love\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T20:37:51","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T18:37:51","slug":"in-dublin-with-the-concreteness-of-the-joy-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/in-dublin-with-the-concreteness-of-the-joy-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"In Dublin with the concreteness of “The Joy of Love”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"They attended all the World Meetings of Families, since the one held in Rome in1994. And at this year\u2019s gathering in Dublin, they will share their testimony at the Pastoral Congress. They are Anna and Alberto Friso, <\/strong>once responsible for New Families, a branch of the Focolare Movement. They speak to Vatican news about the challenges faced by Christian families in today\u2019s world, and of their expectations for the Meeting in Dublin which will have as its main theme Pope Francis\u2019s apostolic exhortation<\/span> Amoris laetitia<\/em><\/a> (The Joy of Love). You paricipated as a family in all the World Meetings \u2013 a full quarter of a century! What has changed over the past 25 years for Christian families, in your opinion? <\/strong> Anna: <\/strong>The accent put on the new generations, the fact of no longer believing in \u201cforever.\u201d The challenge we must embrace is to get young people to perceive that love is an essential component of life and that it is a wellspring of happiness that married people bring. Turning to marriage doesn\u2019t mean losing your freedom, but obtaining the possibility of a happy life! Alberto: <\/strong>Two things in particular characterize today\u2019s society: individualism and relativism. There seems to be a lack of coesion in front of these two tendencies, the unity of the couple. This has meant that we Christians, we Christian families have to look deeper into God\u2019s plan to see in what way He has called us to live in his image and likeness. As a family that has given such a long witness of Christian living, what would you feel like saying to a young couple that is stepping into marriage concerning eternal love? <\/em><\/strong> Alberto: <\/strong>What we feel like saying is: Keep in mind that the love between you that you felt in the first moments you felt these\u00a0 sentiments growing, is of extraordinary importance \u2013 eternal! It\u2019s a spark of the deep value that will lie at the basis of your life, for the rest of your life, even when the storms come, and, it\u2019s God\u2019s love. Therefore, it\u2019s not the two of you that get married, but the three of you, because Jesus will be with you! And, thank God, this means answers. The young people themselves become testimonies of this! Anna: <\/strong>The challenge is to not allow yourself be challenged by the dominating culture that focuses on feelings, personal rights that prevail over the other\u2019s rights, or even over the value of the couple itself. God\u2019s plan for marriage has this seal of happiness that it is possible bring to fulfillment precisely because it\u2019s a very part of the person\u2019s destiny, part of the DNA of every human being! \"\"<\/a>In Dublin, The Joy of Love <\/em>will obviously play an important role. What is this post-synodal exhortation giving to Christian families, and not only Christian? <\/strong> Alberto: <\/strong>Most particularly, it urges us to give witness to Christianity especially through the way we live, the way we give witness to God\u2019s love. When it comes to the world, it\u2019s not so much that we have to defend a ideas, ways of thinking, or a particular value; we have to give witness to the fact that God is Love and that love lies in the depths of the human heart, even hearts that are going through the darkest crises. Anna: <\/strong>We\u2019ve experienced this so so much, precisely because of its luminosity and also its concreteness that doesn\u2019t come to terms with the doctrine, but is able to comprehend and give a hand to those who have been wounded by life. And to these people, most especially, it is able to offer the hope of finding a way to happiness even in the midst of problems. Its beauty lies in its being a hymn\u00a0 to love. Inside this document we can see all of the Church\u2019s tenderness. I believe that it is really a gift for new generations of newlyweds. Source:<\/strong> Vatican News<\/a>, August 10, 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\"Alberto and Anna Friso who have long been committed in the New Families of the Focolare Movement, share their own expectations for the World Meeting of Families in Dublin, Ireland (August 21 \u2013 26, 2018). Interview by Vatican News.<\/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-306398","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\/306398","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=306398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}