{"id":328938,"date":"2017-02-22T04:00:06","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T03:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/dubais-first-mariapolis\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T15:06:27","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T13:06:27","slug":"dubais-first-mariapolis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/dubais-first-mariapolis\/","title":{"rendered":"Dubai\u2019s first Mariapolis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mariapolis \u201cWe find ourselves here in countries of the United Arab Emirates due to work,\u201d Claudia says.<\/strong> \u201cOur workplaces are often strongly competitive, and it is difficult to integrate because there is little time for relationships that are simple and authentic. \u201cThe Catholic Church in Dubai is young, lively, joyous and not overly complicated<\/strong>. More than 2,000 faithful participate in and focus on daily mass \u2013 mostly from the Philippines, Pakistan and India. \u201cOur local Focolare community is also made up mostly of migrants, and we try to give witness to the Gospel in the circles we move through, bringing love and unity around us. There are many who know about and live the spirituality of unity<\/a> after first hearing about it in their home countries. We try to propose it to those whom we\u2019re close to as a remedy to the frenetic, individualistic life here. \u201cFor us the monthly Word of Life<\/a> meeting is fundamentally important. We read it together and try to go deeper into its meaning, sharing experiences that emerge from putting it into practice. \u201cMaria Voce<\/a> and<\/strong> Jesus Moran\u2019<\/a>s trip to India in January 2016<\/strong> gave us a new drive to bring the ideal of unity to many, staying closely networked together.\u201d \u201cSo we naturally involved all the people we\u2019re in contact with to live the<\/strong> Mariapolis <\/a>experience<\/strong>, which we took great care in preparing,\u201d explains Amjad<\/strong>. \u201cOn January 27\u201328, 65 people from 12 countries (4 from the Middle East, the rest from Pakistan, the Philippines, Brazil, Japan, Italy and Cameroon) decided to come together at Ras Al Khaimah, an emirate near Dubai, to experience our first Mariapolis in these lands. \u201cEmotions were running high! For some it seemed like a dream come true to finally get together after such a long time. We were welcomed by the parish of Father Willy, who is originally from the Philippines. The theme we chose, \u2018Unity in diversity<\/em>,\u2019 reflected the reality and challenges that we all live through really well.\u201d \u201cWhat really struck me,\u201d writes a young person from India,<\/strong>\u201d was what we heard from Chiara Lubich <\/a>about the \u2018technique\u2019 of building unity. Now I\u2019d like to practice it.\u201d\u201cTo discover how Jesus, in the moment he felt forsaken by the Father, can become a \u2018key to unity\u2019 in as much as I try to imitate him, filled me with hope,\u201d said a woman from the Philippines<\/strong>. In a joyous atmosphere<\/strong>, participants were able to tell of their joys and difficulties, both in the hall and smaller groups, which is so important in order to share our lives together. There were moments to play, pray, and an intercultural evening to relax that included songs, video clips, skits and dances that involved everyone. \u201cSpecial care was given to activities for the children, some of whom did not want to go back home,\u201d says Claudia. <\/strong>\u201cIt was like an oasis,\u201d explains Amjad,<\/strong> \u201cwhere each of us found a family, with a spiritual presence of Jesus that is alive.” “During these past days, the fire of this ideal, which I got to know many years ago, was re-awakened,\u201d confides a man from Brazil.<\/strong> \u201cNow I want to give this fire to others.\u201d Mia and Michel write<\/strong>: \u201cIt seemed to us that by the end, everyone returning to their countries or emirates, like Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, brought with them that \u2018piece of fraternity\u2019 that they had lived at the Mariapolis. Everyone evidently wanted to continue living this in their own environment, bringing hope to everyone. Now we keep connected through social media in a vibrant network, trying to help us live for each other, open to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sixty-five people from 12 different countries came together at Ras Al Khaimah, in the United Arab Emirates, on January 27\u201328 to bring to life a typical Focolare gathering that features people living the Gospel lifestyle together, young and old alike.<\/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-328938","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\/328938","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=328938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328938\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}