“Let the children come to me”: these words of Jesus are very real in the Focolare Movement where children have a privileged place. Gen 5 are children up to 4 years of age and Gen 4 up to age 9. The spirituality of unity is presented to these children in a style that they can understand and appreciate and they take to it with real enthusiasm, putting it into practice immediately wholeheartedly.
The children are enchanted by the life of Jesus and try to put His words into action, especially through living the Word of Life for Children.
One of their special resources has become well known, it is the ‘dice of love’, each of its faces shows a point from the art of loving: love everyone, be the first to love, make yourself one, see Jesus in the other, love your enemy and love one another. “We roll it each morning – they explain – and whatever phrase comes up we try to live for the whole day.”
The children share this life with their school friends, other friends and relatives as a result there are some classes and a few entire schools, as well as some parish groups and educational projects that have taken up using the dice as a method of formation.
From meetings, activities and via their own little Gen 4 magazine, the children come into contact other people: old, young, children from other cultures and religions giving them ‘first hand’ the experience from an early age of all peoples being the children of the one Father making them brothers and sisters to each other. They gain an awareness and sensibility to those in need, near and far and this drives them to put into practice the ‘culture of giving’.
These children really are living proof of the words Chiara gave them: “When we love we are happy, and if we always love we will always be happy!
As part of their fundraising efforts in preparation for their international summer workshop ‘Hombemundo’, groups of teenagers in various parts of the UK have been very creative: cake and notebook sales at school, a traditional ceilidh in Scotland and a Croatian meal in Welwyn Garden City amongst other things!
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The Archbishop of Damascus talks about his country after 6 years of war – a site of ruins, childhoods taken away, deserted parishes and the daily struggle to find food and water.
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The border between Thailand and Myanmar, north-east of Thailand, the new frontier eyed by multinational industries. The very place where a new Gospel-inspired project is taking root.
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