{"id":308672,"date":"2023-07-26T07:40:31","date_gmt":"2023-07-26T05:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/a-church-community-on-the-way-to-the-wyd-of-lisbon\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T20:44:21","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T18:44:21","slug":"a-church-community-on-the-way-to-the-wyd-of-lisbon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/a-church-community-on-the-way-to-the-wyd-of-lisbon\/","title":{"rendered":"A Church-Community: on the way to the WYD of Lisbon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 37th World Youth Day (WYD), which will be held from 31st<\/sup> July to 6th<\/sup> August 2023 in Lisbon (Portugal), is upon us and many young people are preparing to experience this global event with the Pope. Various initiatives have been organized and for months now, many people have been working with dedication on this moment of true family for the Church.<\/em> Everything is ready. The sun is high on the seven hills of Lisbon (Portugal) and the ocean breeze brings with it an air of novelty and anticipation: the WYD is upon us and young people from all over the world are arriving. After months of preparation and having visited various stops throughout the country, last weekend the symbols of the Day, the Pilgrim’s Cross and the Icon of Our Lady \u201cSalus Popoli Romani\u201d, finally reached Lisbon and we are now ready to welcome the first young people arriving for the \u201cDays in the Dioceses\u201d which will take place from 26th<\/sup>-31st<\/sup> July 2023 in the 17 dioceses of mainland Portugal and the islands. A way to prepare pilgrims and host communities to get into the event and live it to the full. Father Jos\u00e9 Cardoso de Almeida, parish priest of S\u00e1t\u00e3o, in the diocese of Viseu, a priest volunteer of the Focolare Movement told us, \u201cWhen we were told that WYD would be held in Lisbon, we welcomed the news with immense joy. I am sure that it will be an occasion of grace for each of the participants, as well as for our country. In my case, I feel I have to be open to the surprises that the Spirit wants to communicate\u201d. \"\"Fr. Jos\u00e9 has experienced the anticipation and enthusiasm of several WYDs first-hand. Like many other people, he immediately felt the call to get involved in organizing this Event which was taking place in his own \u201cbackyard\u201d, by motivating young people and welcoming those who would come from various parts of the world: \u201cThis last year has been full of meetings. A lot of activities were organized to help cover the expenses of those who had greater economic challenges to get here. As a \u2018little builder\u2019 of this WYD, together with many others, I encouraged some families to open their doors to young people from other countries for the ‘Days in the Dioceses’. In our area, we will welcome about 3,000 young people, mostly French. Then we will leave for Lisbon and I will lend a hand for the sacrament of Reconciliation, during the event.\u201d It has been a concrete experience that shows how serving others generated countless fruits in the various communities. As Fr. Jos\u00e9 said, \u201cFor example, the discovery of the beauty of working together. I think that today’s young people need to discover that the secret of happiness lies in true love, and as Pope Francis says, in the experience of \u201cgoing out of oneself\u201d and \u201cbeing with and for others.\u201d This is true unity. \u201d And it is in this \u201cgoing out\u201d that we find the image of the Virgin Mary, ready to \u201cget up and go with haste\u201d, as the motto of this WYD announces, on the way to visit Elizabeth. Ana and Jos\u00e9 Maria Raposo told us that this is an \u201cinvitation to encounter the living Jesus in the family, at work, in social and political life\u201d. They are from the parish of Nossa Senhora da Concei\u00e7\u00e3o dos Olivais Sul in Lisbon and are members of the Volunteers of God of the Focolare Movement. Ana and Jos\u00e9 have been married for 45 years, have five children and four grandchildren and are one of the many Portuguese families who will host the young people who will take part in the WYD in their own homes. \"\"They told us, \u201cFor young people, like Mary, to live their vocation, it is necessary to believe in them and let them lead, without forgetting the importance of inter-generationality. It is necessary to believe that the world today is already changed if hearts are changed, if the mind is free, if one leaves one’s comfort zone, if one looks around and sees Jesus in everyone; we have to believe that a united world is possible\u201d. QQ An experience that looks at this fragile time, looks at the other and is strengthened thanks also to the concrete witness of those who, believing in love, want to put it at the service in the “welcome” that, as Ana and Jos\u00e9 say, “means to be a family for those who arrive. It was spontaneous for us to immediately join in welcoming the young pilgrims who will participate in the WYD. We have always welcomed people who needed help because they were passing through or traveling. The last few months gave us an opportunity to review things and reorganize the spaces so that the young people who arrive really feel at home.\u201d World Youth Day continues to prove to be, even today, a great event of the Church that, around the Pope and young people from all over the world, becomes \u201cCommunity\u201d. And to be, as Father Jos\u00e9 Cardoso de Almeida stated, \u201ca workshop of the Kingdom of God and the image of that universal fraternity that derives from the Gospel\u201d. <\/p>\n

Maria Grazia Berretta<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 37th World Youth Day (WYD), which will be held from 31st July to 6th August 2023 in Lisbon (Portugal), is upon us and many young people are preparing to experience this global event with the Pope. Various initiatives have been organized and for months now, many people have been working with dedication on this moment of true family for the Church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-308672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308672","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}