{"id":329456,"date":"2017-09-05T14:07:09","date_gmt":"2017-09-05T12:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/the-focolare-awaits-the-pope-with-joy\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T15:08:15","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T13:08:15","slug":"the-focolare-awaits-the-pope-with-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/the-focolare-awaits-the-pope-with-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Focolare awaits the Pope with joy."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PapaFrancescoColombia\"<\/a>\u201cI\u2019ll be coming as a pilgrim of hope and of peace, to celebrate our faith in the Lord with you, and also to learn from your charity and perseverance in the search for peace and harmony.\u201d This is how addressed the \u201cdear people of Colombia\u201d in a video message just a few hours before his departure for Bogot\u00e0. Speaking in Spanish, he cited the motto of his journey, recalling that \u201cwe always need to take a first step in any project and activity.\u201d\u00a0 This \u201curges us also to be the first to love, to build bridges and construct brotherhood. This \u201curges us to be the first to love, to build bridges, to spread brotherhood. It encourages us to go out to meet the other, to offer our hand and share the sign of peace.\u201d The Pope went on to say that Colombia is a \u201cland rich in history, culture,, faith, men and women that have worked with determination and perseverance to make it a place where brotherhood and harmony reign, a place where the Gospel is known and loved, where saying brother or sister doesn\u2019t sound strange, but a real and proper treasure to protect and defend.\u201d \"DSCN5406\"The<\/strong> Focolare <\/a>community is preparing joyfully for the Pope\u2019s arrival.<\/strong> Yolima<\/strong> Mart\u00ednez<\/strong> reports from Bogot\u00e0: \u201cWe members of the Focolare will welcome him with great enthusiasm, so that his message may fill our land with hope. Colombia, she explains, is in a transitional phase, a phase of deep social divisions that continue to persist. \u201cBut we know, as Chiara Lubich taught us, that all of us are candidates for unity, so we believe that the words of the Holy Father will be a call to peace for everyone, to reconciliation and tolerance, regardless of anyone\u2019s creed or way of thinking.\u201d There great expectation in the air, especially among Christians. \u201cThe young people, summoned by the local Church, are preparing for this visit, preparing not only the logistical aspects, but also their own souls in view of this encounter. \"DSCN5422\"<\/a>Escuela Sol Naciente <\/strong><\/em>in <\/strong>Tocancip\u00e0<\/strong>, <\/em>north of Bogot\u00e0 where the Mariapolis Centre is located, is geared toward children and teenagers between the ages of 13 and 15, to give them a global formation as individuals that are sensitive to the values of solidarity, peace and ecology. Fifteen of their students and two of their teachers will take part in the Eucharist presided by the Pope. One of them is Milena<\/strong>: \u201cI\u2019m happy to be meeting Pope Francis, because he\u2019s one of the closest persons to the young people. He understands us and invites us to follow God and build a better society.\u201d Laura<\/strong>: \u201cThe Pope\u2019s visit inspires us to be better and to help everyone, not only the Christians, but also the people that think differently.\u201d\u00a0 Andr\u00e9s<\/strong>: \u201cThe Pope is an important figure in today\u2019s culture, so it will be an opportunity for us to profit from his wisdom.\u201d Yolima<\/strong> continues: \u201cAll the Focolare members will be at the different Eucharistic celebrations, especially in Bogot\u00e1 e Medell\u00edn. Among them, Lucia and her husband, Pedro, who will approach the Pope. They will extend the greetings from the whole Focolare community in Colombia. Lucia: \u201cWe\u2019ll have a chance to approach him for a few minutes. Our wish is to go as children of Chiara, to thank him in the name of the Movement and to assure him of our prayers.\u201d It will be a pause in the frenzy of daily life, an invitation to stop. \u201cIn the days that Pope Francis will be visiting our country,\u201d Yolima<\/strong> concludes, \u201cwe\u2019ll be presented with the possibility of a personal encounter: the encounter with Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colombia. There is great expectation over Pope Francis\u2019s first apostolic visit to a land rich in history, culture and faith. But it is also marked by wounds and social division.<\/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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-329456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329456","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=329456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}