{"id":328942,"date":"2017-02-24T04:00:32","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T03:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/in-nigeria-a-high-school-becomes-a-mariapolis\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T15:06:28","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T13:06:28","slug":"in-nigeria-a-high-school-becomes-a-mariapolis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/in-nigeria-a-high-school-becomes-a-mariapolis\/","title":{"rendered":"In Nigeria, a high school becomes a Mariapolis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"20170224-03\"<\/a>For three days, St Joseph\u2019s College transformed into a fraternity experiment. <\/strong>The young students, ages 9 to 18, lived side by side with their professors, their families, as well as many other young people, adults and elderly from other cities. The Mariapolis<\/a> was organised by members of the local Jos community, as well as other communities like that of Abuja (4 hours away) and Onitsa (12). There were also some young people<\/a> of the Focolare<\/a> from Lagos.<\/strong> In Nigeria<\/a>, a country of seemingly limitless expanses,<\/strong> long trips bristling with danger often need to be overcome. Yet this did not stop anyone from supporting the Mariapolis at St. Joseph\u2019s. The school opened its gates<\/strong> to welcome the young and not so young, students, teachers, workers. Among the Mariapolites was John Maigari,<\/strong> who had once attended and taught at the school. Now retired, Maigari also previously headed the diocese\u2019s department of education. Many years prior he himself had experienced Mariapolis life, where each person sees each other as family to love and to serve. Now after many years, the professor hoped that the students could experience that same lifestyle. His proposal was welcomed. \"20170224-01\"For three days, the school completely changed.<\/strong> Moments of reflection and going in depth were joined with tangible experiences. Divided into groups, students of different ages lived side by side with teachers and those attending, sharing the various moments of the day: cooking, washing dishes, tidying up the meeting hall, cleaning toilets and the school playground. For some it was their first time; they had never done anything like it. Even the school\u2019s principal washed dishes! A large book was prepared for the students<\/strong> to capture their comments. It tells of three days of true living. The retreat changed their lives, they say. \u201cThe unity we lived during those days struck us from the very first moment that you set foot in our school.\u201d It was a unity that the words of Chiara Lubich<\/a> and the witness of the Focolare members had transmitted to them. \"20170224-02\"<\/a><\/strong>\u201cI feel really happy and enthusiastic,\u201d writes Nipps,<\/strong> \u201cbecause these days were wonderful. I experienced many things and was particularly struck by the love and unity that the team of people who ran the program had between them.\u201d \u201cBefore my life was incomplete,\u201d says Keivin,<\/strong> \u201cbecause I didn\u2019t feel at all that God truly existed and was alive. Now I truly believe in God.\u201d \u201cThis retreat wasn\u2019t like the others,\u201d adds Daong.<\/strong> \u201cYou ate with us and slept at our high school.\u201d In this part of Nigeria,<\/strong> for years there have been many episodes of violence between Christians and Muslims, with seeds of hatred sown across the country. These young students also had lived through this. At the Mariapolis at Jos, they were able to experience an alternative: the firepower of God\u2019s love and unity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Jos, Nigeria, 600 high school students experience, together with their teachers and families, the shared lifestyle of the Focolare Movement, discovering how \u201cGod truly exists and is alive.\u201d<\/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-328942","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\/328942","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=328942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}