02
Jun, 2009
Focolare Mariapolis

A different kind of holiday?

If you are looking for an experience that is more than a holiday, then the Mariapolis is the perfect event for you. The Mariapolis is a temporary ‘town’ where the message of love contained in the Gospel is put into practice in the great and small things of every day life. It is a holiday with a difference, open to everyone, with talks, moments of reflection, outings, workshops and programmes for children.

People will come from all over the UK to the Mariapolis which will be held in York from Monday 3rd August to Saturday 8th August. Participants will stay in varied types of accommodation at the University and nearby campsites. The central venue will be Archbishop Holgate’s School on the Hull Road, YO10 5ZA.

The Mariapolis is organised by the Focolare Movement, one of many newer spiritualities in the Church today that strengthen spiritual life and help people to translate faith into action in the family, workplace, parish, or sphere of interest.

Focolare began in Trent, Italy during the war and was a rediscovery of the love of God who counts the hairs on our head and of the Gospel that can be lived in every day life. On reading the testament of Jesus ‘May they all be one’ Focolare’s founder, Chiara Lubich, and the young people who followed her offered their lives to God for the fulfilment of that prayer.

An ecumenical event

The Mariapolis is for everyone. It is not without significance that the city of Trent, where the Council of Trent took place as a key stage in the fracture among Christians, should have given birth, four hundred years later, to Focolare, a movement for unity and for active involvement in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue. On her last visit to England in 2004, Chiara Lubich had a special meeting in York with the West Yorkshire Ecumenical Council and met the Archbishop of York.

So as well as Catholics you will also find Anglicans, Methodists, members of the United Reformed Church and the Salvation Army. There are sometimes people of other religions and also a good number who don’t have a formal faith practice but who share in life of the Mariapolis.

These events came about because in the late 1940s, Chiara Lubich and her companions started to go up into the Dolomite Mountains during the summer months. After a few years, several hundred people would come together to breathe in the fresh mountain air and the special spiritual atmosphere they found there. This type of event now features in the annual programme of the Focolare Movement all over the world.

You will find people there of all ages and varied backgrounds, professions and interests. Mariapolis is indeed a holiday with a difference, so although there is prayer and spiritual input, there are outings, interest groups, special programmes for children, a barn dance and perhaps even a fair outside. You can come for the whole time, for part of it, or drop in for a day. A detailed programme will be on the Focolare website shortly before the event.

The spirit of the Mariapolis

‘In the pursuit of reciprocal love we must go beyond our established positions and, with real love, forge relationships with everyone. Reciprocal love demands that we take the initiative unconditionally and without expectations. It leads us to see others in the way we see ourselves, and to let this be the guiding light of all our projects’ (Chiara Lubich at the UN 28th May 1997).

If you would like the invitation and booking form, or further information about the Mariapolis, contact Focolare, 11 Drummond Avenue, Leeds, LS16 5JZ, tel 0113 274 2808, e-mail focolareleeds@talktalk.net, website www.focolare.org.uk

Focolare also has monthly meetings at St Chad’s Parish Church Hall, Otley Road, Leeds, LS16 5JT on the first Saturday of the month from 2.00 – 5.00 pm.

Celia Blackden

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