By Santosh Digal
Bhubaneswar: An international movement that that promotes the spirituality of love and unity among cultures has introduced its ideals to the Catholic youth in Odisha, eastern India.
St. Vincent’s parish in the state capital of Bhubaneswar on March 5 organized a-day long workshop on “spirituality of unity” of the Focolare Movement. About 160 young people from the city attended it.
Chiara Matcovich, Maria Strella Samuel from Delhi and Linus D’Souza from Mumbai were resource persons at the workshop held at St. Joseph’s School.
Matcovich, an Italian member of Focolare, said they came to Odisha to introduce the movement to the young Catholics of Bhubaneswar to help them live the Gospel in action.
D’Souza said they the seed of Focolare they have sown and God’s grace would enable the youth to respond to the Gospel in their context.
In her talk, Samuel shared how Focolare enabled her to live the Gospel in concrete manner to care for each other in a given situation and follow Jesus.
The Focolare Movement, present everywhere in the world, functions like a vast and varied family. It began in 1943 during the Second World War as a current of spiritual and social renewal.
‘A people born from the Gospel,’ is how it was defined by its founder Chiara Lubich (1920-2008), a charismatic and significant woman of the 20th century.
Its purpose is to work cooperatively to build a more united world, following the inspiration of Jesus’ prayer to the Father ‘May they all be one’ (Jn 17:21), respecting and valuing diversity. It focuses on dialogue as a method, has a constant commitment to building bridges and relationships of fraternity among individuals, peoples and cultural worlds. Persons of every age, vocation, religion, conviction and culture could belong to the Focolare.
Other speakers who addressed the gathering in Bhubaneswar included Anthres Tigga, joint commissioner of Income Tax Department, Bhubaneswar; Mary Bage, professor of Sociology of state-run Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Kamala Nayak of Odisha State Election, Father Dibakar Paricha, advocate and human rights activist, Dilip Tirkey, former Hockey captain and member of Rajya Sabha.
“I was happy to attend the seminar today. It enabled me to know about the Focolare Movement. What I liked most is that its focus on who to live and promote the spirituality of love and unity in life. We benefited a lot from the sharing,” Ashly Sebastian, a participant, told Matters India.