The global pandemic linked to Covid 19 has brought the planet to a standstill. Containment measures are being taken everywhere. Everyone's daily life must adapt and the functioning of organizations must reinvent itself. To get through this difficult and sometimes even painful stage, we are becoming aware of the importance of fraternity and the quality of relationships with oneself and others to maintain the course of hope. Beyond experimenting with new forms of remote work and relationships, Fondacio has chosen to make this time of withdrawal and confinement a time of retreat and openness, to move from Covid to CoVivre. The challenge is to listen personally and collectively to the invitations to reinvent ourselves and to deepen our vocation to build what some have called the "world after" in a more committed way. Internationally, we wish to connect our impulses, to let ourselves be challenged by the pressing calls of the world to build a more humane and fairer world. This is the meaning of the CoVivre Journey “From Easter to Pentecost, let us connect our enthusiasm to be active ferments of hope for the world” of which, halfway through, we deliver here some elements and which is intended to be lived widely.
The pandemic caused by Covid-19 is affecting all countries, to varying degrees. Unprecedented containment measures are being taken and profound changes are taking place in our lifestyles. This is a painful time for many: illness, isolation, difficult living conditions, etc.
Within Fondacio, many activities – sharing fraternities, community meetings, training sessions – and even major events such as the Fondacio France Festival 2020 planned in Angers at the beginning of May, have had to be suspended, cancelled or postponed. Many social projects on all continents are also at a standstill, with very direct consequences for all their beneficiaries. The scenarios for resuming certain activities remain very uncertain. Insecurity is both personal and weakens many projects.
In the midst of this global crisis, we quickly realized the opportunity and importance of being connected, of being able to connect with each other and remember the strength of a unique and diverse community, engaged in the heart of the world's challenges. Transforming this time of retreat and confinement into a time of spiritual retreat and openness became obvious, in order to move from Covid to CoVivre.
Thus, in a few days the CoVivre Course was set up to experience a spiritual, international, personal and community retreat, to listen to the calls to reinvent ourselves and to deepen our vocation to build a more human, more just, more ecological world.
“From Easter to Pentecost”, let’s connect our enthusiasms
to be active ferments of hope for the world"
This journey spans the Easter season, between the feast of Easter when Christians celebrate the victory of Life over death and the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost which invites us to commit ourselves boldly and resolutely to serve humanity. It offers three "Spiritual Conversations", that is to say a time of meditation and personal reflection around some passages from the Bible which echo our reality and an inner dialogue before sharing the essentials in a small sharing group which welcomes the words of each person and allows itself to be challenged by what emerges from this "pooling".
In our tradition, we know that reading the "signs of the times" and discerning the newness to be welcomed in the midst of difficult situations can be opportunities for transformation to move forward and emerge stronger. Doing so with a plurality of perspectives and the participation of people from different countries is therefore an incredible opportunity.
With great agility, in a few days two hundred people from twenty-three different countries registered for this Course. Twenty-five small groups per language - English, Spanish and French - were then formed with at least three different nationalities. From France, Chloé shares with Rose Ann and Jason from the Philippines, Charles in Ivory Coast, Annie from Malaysia, Aleona based in Laos, Thierry in Belgium and Elena from Romania. What diversity, what richness!
We experience joy and communion; bonds of friendship are formed and we experience a large, connected human family. Meeting the other in their experience and welcoming them into our homes, even through a screen, is a way of connecting with each other, while decentering ourselves to enter into the novelty of a cross-border reality.
These first shares reinforce this awareness: Love is the key to the world. We are in a period of rupture and radicalism. By daring to connect with ourselves, with others and with the world, Hope is given to us as good news. Cultivating a positive outlook on the goodness and beauty of the world is an essential basis for addressing its injustices with lucidity and becoming, together, actors of change, with what we are and our talents today, without waiting to be completely ready to act and find new answers to the challenges of our time.
Being ferments of hope for the world today means building alliances with others to reconnect Man to his thirst for infinity and to the awareness of his own limits to serve humanity and safeguard our common home, the environment in which we live and that we want to bequeath to future generations. It is with humility that we move forward, because we know that abandoning the comfort of our habits to build a truly different "world after" will come up against our difficulties in letting go and our selfishness. Our faith comforts us in the fact that we are not alone in this journey; this is our hope, essential for undertaking ...
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