{"id":330818,"date":"2019-02-07T08:00:08","date_gmt":"2019-02-07T07:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webdev.flars.net\/bearers-of-hope\/"},"modified":"2019-02-07T08:00:08","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T07:00:08","slug":"bearers-of-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/bearers-of-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Bearers of hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clarita and Edgardo Fandino, International Directors of the \u201cTeams of Our Lady\u201d Movement live in Bogot\u00e1 in Colombia. They recently took part in the meeting for \u201cFriends of Together for Europe”<\/em> in Prague.\u00a0 We wanted to hear more about their experience.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

1) What was your experience of the meeting in Prague for \u201cFriends of Together for Europe<\/em>\u201d? <\/strong><\/p>\n

It was very moving to actually participate in this initiative which seeks to bring hope to a world that has become secularized, by building on the unity that already exists between several movements and inviting everyone to accept their responsibilities in society and the world – not by becoming isolated but by sharing their particular evangelical gifts.\u00a0 Personally, we would have liked to get to know more about the particular charisms of the different movements that were present, but we assume that this had already been done at previous meetings and that time restrictions on the programme meant it wasn\u2019t possible this time.\u00a0 Over the course of the two-day meeting, during breaktimes and in the group discussions, we were able to share experiences with many of those present.\u00a0 There was a strong atmosphere of respect, fraternity and openness that needs to spread to different areas of life so that we can become real agents of change like the yeast in the dough.<\/p>\n

2) As Columbians, how do you see Europe at the moment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t take part in the reunion of Together for Europe<\/em> as Columbians but as the International Directors of the \u201cTeams of Our Lady\u201d Movement which started in France and is currently present in 92 countries across all five continents.\u00a0 As Columbians we noticed big differences between today\u2019s Europe and today\u2019s America and our native Columbia, of course.\u00a0 Europe is currently going through a period of secularisation which is much more pronounced than in America and is influenced by waves of crisis and disintegration which together with separatist trends are undermining the institutions and systems currently in place. \u00a0Populism with agitators who polarize society and stir up discontent is a problem that has already reached universal dimensions.\u00a0 Today more than ever it is critical that those of us who profess values of faith become more active in promoting initiatives of change that bring about transcendent values. In the words of Ernesto Sabato, the marvellous writer and critical observer of the world\u2019s realities: “One thing for sure is the conviction that only spiritual values will be able to save humanity from imminent disaster.”<\/em><\/p>\n

3)\u00a0 You are the International Directors of the \u201cTeams of Our Lady\u201d Movement and have just concluded an important meeting in Paris.\u00a0 What future plans and visions emerged from your meeting?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We accepted responsibility for the \u201cTeams of Our Lady\u201d Movement worldwide last July in Fatima, Portugal.\u00a0 With approximately 9,000 people present from over 70 countries, including 400 priests and bishops, 4,000 couples and 200 widows and widowers, we spent a week together which had the parable of the prodigal son as its theme and the motto: “Reconciliation, a sign of love”. At the end of the meeting we established orientations in the form of a mandate for members of the Movement over the next six years.\u00a0 Our guiding motto is: “Don\u2019t be afraid.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go forth…”; it is an invitation to act, to put our vocation and our mission into action, beginning with the specific aspect of our charism: married spirituality.<\/p>\n

The meeting that we recently held in Paris with the group of people responsible for the movement internationally was the first of 3 annual meetings and its aim was to understand how the motto of Fatima could be brought to every member of the Movement so that they too could make it a reality in their lives. This is why we established a number of action points to help up face the challenges within and outside the Movement, in conformity with the Church\u2019s and in particular Pope Francis\u2019 invitation to go to the peripheries as agents of mercy.\u00a0 This appeal is well expressed by the Pope in his recent Apostolic Exhortation \u201cGaudete et exultate\u201d (GE 26) \u201c<\/em>It is not healthy to love silence while fleeing interaction with others, to want peace and quiet while avoiding activity, to seek prayer while disdaining service. Everything can be accepted and integrated into our life in this world and become a part of our path to holiness. We are called to be contemplatives even in the midst of action, and to grow in holiness by responsibly and generously carrying out our proper mission.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Themes we are developing include the art of accompanying widows and widowers, preparing and accompanying young people for matrimony and the first few years of married life, working on other realities of married life such as accompanying adults, listening to young people…etc.<\/p>\n

4) Could you tell us something about yourselves, your family, your lives, your work…? “<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are both Columbian and have been married for 32 years.\u00a0 We have 2 children – a boy of 26 years who recently got married and a daughter of 24 years who still lives with us.\u00a0 We live in Bogota which is a cosmopolitan city with a population of about 8 million.\u00a0 Clarita teaches music and catechesis and Edgardo still works as a civil engineer.\u00a0 We have been members of the \u201cTeams of Our Lady\u201d movement for 22 years which has nourished our married spirituality; we have carried out duties of service in various fields. \u00a0We will now be responsible for the Movement all over the world for the next six years.\u00a0 Our life is divided between Edgardo\u2019s professional work, the work of our \u201cTeams of Our Lady\u201d and the frequent trips required by this role. We are convinced that each one of us has a mission and responsibility in this world to be bearers of hope and to reflect Christ\u2019s love for humanity, making him present in our own environment and the peripheries we have to reach.<\/p>\n

Clarita and Edgardo Fandino, Bogot\u00e1\/Columbia<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarita and Edgardo Fandino, International Directors of the \u201cTeams of Our Lady\u201d Movement live in Bogot\u00e1 in Colombia. They recently took part in the meeting for \u201cFriends of Together for Europe” in Prague.\u00a0 We wanted to hear more about their experience. 1) What was your experience of the meeting in Prague for \u201cFriends of Together […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":15871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"Reviving Unity at Europe's Crossroads","_seopress_titles_desc":"Explore how the 'Teams of Our Lady' fosters unity and hope amidst secularization, reflecting on their impactful meeting in Prague. Discover more insights!","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2397,2435,3136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-330818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2018-friends-prague","category-experiences-reflections-and-interviews","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}