{"id":326870,"date":"2014-12-08T04:00:54","date_gmt":"2014-12-08T03:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/paraguay-50-years-of-the-focolare-movement\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T14:58:45","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T12:58:45","slug":"paraguay-50-years-of-the-focolare-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/paraguay-50-years-of-the-focolare-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"Paraguay: 50 years of the Focolare Movement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2014Paraguay50-1\"\u201cVy’aguasu pete\u0129 \u00f1e’\u1ebdme\u201d <\/strong>(grand feast in a sole language), the event was given this title in Guarani, which besides Spanish is also the country\u2019s official language. Just as the hearts spoke out in joyful unison on that occasion, last 16 November, Maria Voce<\/a> wrote: \u00abWith great joy I join you in celebrating the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the Ideal in your beloved land of the Guarani<\/strong>, and your festivities at the Mariapolis \u201cMadre de la humanidad. We express our deep gratitude to all those who were the first tools in God\u2019s hands \u2026 \u00bb Some of these, protagonists of the beginnings of the Movement in <\/strong>Paraguay<\/a>,<\/strong> recounted their fascination in discovering the novelty and adventure in following \u201ca light that brightens every corner of existence.\u201d Unconditioned, concrete and demanding Evangelical love, still continues to fill the lives of these eighty-year-olds brimming with life and wisdom. \"2014Paraguay50-2\"Throughout the years, the spontaneous evangelical life of the first group <\/strong>gave rise to the Movement today, and is now diffused in all the main cities of the country, and like the \u201cparable of the small seed, is now a gigantic tree which opens its branches across the world,\u201d as Chiara Lubich<\/a> had envisioned. Along the lines of the \u201cthree keywords\u201d Pope Francis <\/strong>recently addressed to the members of the Focolari\u2019s General Assembly, the day was dotted with brief reflections on \u201ccontemplation, going out and formation,\u201d<\/strong> enriched by concrete and effective experiences and actions in the field of bioethics and politics, and of social inclusion. Also in Paraguay, the light of the Gospel took flesh in its culture,<\/strong> in such a way that it became a lifestyle of its inhabitants. And here, the roots of its inhabitants, the Guarani people, are still strong. They were the most numerous among the 20 aborigines who lived in this land for more than 5,000 years, as recent discoveries have confirmed. This naturally communitarian people lived in harmony with nature and possessed a highly marked sense of the sacredness and dignity of the human person. Diana Dur\u00e1n professor and scholar in History,<\/strong> summarised the wealth of the Guarani people\u2019s ancestral values and made herself a spokesman for the Focolari\u2019s proposal to rediscover these values, after centuries of oppression and contempt, and proposed them as the antidote to the anti-values threatening society today. A huge contribution came from the Synod on the Family<\/strong> that encouraged all to stand by others in a concrete way, to heal their wounds and relaunch the family, the pillar of Paraguayan society, still robust but increasingly undermined. \"2014Paraguay50-3\"The conferment of the \u201cArt of Dialogue\u201d prize, <\/strong>after online polls, was awarded to Mons. Adalberto Mart\u00ednez Flores<\/strong>, for his promotions of the Multisectarian Coordinating Table of the San Pedro provinces. The multisectarian service was created through his initiative in 2010, amid a situation of great strife that beset society. Thanks to this initiative still underway, and which convoked landowners, entrepreneurs, landless farmers and social parties, important improvements were achieved in the social sector as well as in the weaker brackets. The Focolari communities <\/strong>spread throughout the land recounted their experiences and actions: living a life of solidarity, especially in situations of suffering. The youth <\/a>and the kids. <\/strong>The music band was able to contaminate all with enthusiasm, while the kids of the Focolari<\/a>, incredible examples of going against the \u201chave-all here and now\u201d attitude were the protagonists of experience-sharing moments with a hundred of their peers. Lastly, the little ones, the <\/strong>Gen 4<\/a>,<\/strong> conquered all with the simplicity of their evangelical life. Seeing life spread and grow always takes us by surprise. The first followers of Chiara lubich\u2019s<\/strong> ideal of unity <\/a>in Paraguay can say that for 50 years they have witnessed the birth and development of dynamic Christian communities, with the typical joys and pains of a growing family. The challenges remain, but when there is unity, nothing seems impossible.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Festivities at Mariapolis \u201cMadre de la humanidad\u201d in Asunci\u00f2n. 400 people from all walks of life, from the \u201cpioneers\u201d in the land of the Guarani natives, to newborns gathered to celebrate a memorable event.<\/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-326870","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\/326870","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=326870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}