Love, Start Again and Share

Love, start again and share are the three words proposed by the Focolare President Maria Voce on the day after the closing of the eleventh edition of the Genfest, the international festival of the Focolare Youth Movement, held for the first time outside Europe.

Over 6,000 young people from one hundred countries around the world launched the project “Pathways to Fraternity” in the wake of the title of this edition of the event, “Beyond All Borders”, both in the physical and the moral sense.

The protagonists were the stories of young people who have lived through the drama of migration and segregation in everyday life: “Today, there is little talk about the people who live on the limit in everyday life—explain the organizers in a note—, those who live with walls, a sense of powerlessness, and the desire for redemption.”

“Often—adds President Voce—, fear is the mother of every fence and protectionist attitude. Yet, for young people, this does not seem to be the final solution. On the contrary, they believe that borders are horizons, points of departure, diversity to be enriched.”

Hence, the “recipe” of the three words: love the peoples of others as their own; start again, without ever losing hope that another world is possible; and share personal and collective wealth, resources, and burdens.

Finally, the challenge facing young people is that of being men and women of unity, people who carry in their hearts the treasures of every culture, but who also know how to give them to others and, ultimately, be global men and women.