A week-long school for families entitled “Pathways to happiness for the family” has just ended. It took place at the Mariapolis Piero, a locality on the outskirts of Nairobi – Kenya. The school followed a four-day conference “Family and inculturation in Africa”, where the subject of the family was taken into consideration first in the African tradition, then in the light of Sacred Scripture and of the teaching of the Church, and then in the light of the Charism of Unity.
About 270 people coming from 20 nations of the African Continent participated, among which the Congo, Nigeria, Burundi, Tanzania, Mali, South Africa, etc…. The contents of the course were decided in synergy between the central Segretariate of New Families and a few African families, representatives of various countries: therefore from the preparation through the days of the School it was clear that it was a special opportunity for many families coming from very different cultures to share their life experiences, along with the relative challenges and to verify the fruit that the Charism of Unity brings to daily life.
Various subjects were discussed, accompanied by many concrete experiences; here are the titles: “The life of unity in the family”, “The man-woman relationship: resources and obstacles”, “Communion of life and Goods in the family” and “Education: being parents today”.
At the school Maria Voce and Jesùs Moràn, respectively president and co-president of the Focolare Movement, intervened. Answering various questions asked them by the participants, they stated, among other, that the African continent, where the sense of family is so present and rooted in the tradition, can have a basic role in bringing back to light some important values such as unity, generosity, sense of the sacred, worth of the elderly, sense of responsibility for every child in the village etc. Such typical family values can then be a gift for the whole world, which seems to have lost sight of them.
At the end of the school, the participants were unanimous in affirming that they had “discovered” the necessary key to creating harmony, peace, love and unity in their respective families and to face up to with courage the challenges that the family in Africa finds itself in front of today. Here is some feedback from the participants: Edgard Lokoko from Angola “I feel renewed. From this school I have received a sort of fuel for my soul, It has been a blessing for me and with the “White Light”, (that is with the Ideale of Love and Unity)…we are more prepared to take upon ourselves all the challenges inside our families”.
Betsy from Nigeria, married with children: “Marriage is a vocation but you don’t know what you might experience. With this meeting I go back home as a stronger person, to be the first to love and also with the encouragement of those who took part. I learned from them the importance of taking time for each other, spending time for the other, it doesn’t matter if it’s a little or a lot, to love the other without expecting anything in return. I hope that God will give me the grace to be Light myself”.
