Mariapolis Peace
The dream of many thinkers and pioneers with a strong philosophy or rich spirituality has been to build a town that puts these ideas into practice. This was also true of Chiara Lubich. And as the years pass, this is becoming a reality.
The little towns, through the life style they promote, can offer new ideas for life in bigger towns and cities. They are models of a new kind of society, whose law is mutual love, the law of the Gospel, with the full communion of cultural spiritual and material goods that this entails. Through the life that circulates, their outreach in the world has remained constant. Each year they have thousands of visitors.
“This place is really nice; maybe we can build our Mariapolis Center here!” Touring Tagaytay in May 1966, Cengia and Silvio had just discovered a spot on top of the hill overlooking Taal Lake. And so… they prayed: “Jesus if it is according to your will, we’d like to ask you for this piece of land for the Mariapolis Center.” Then they took a small medal of our Lady and buried it underground. It was a custom followed in many other parts of the world.
Three months later, the owner of that property got to know the Focolare, and being completely fascinated by the life of unity, he asked if the Focolare would accept the land! This then was to become the land which overlooking the magnificent view Taal Lake and Volcano, would be the site where to stand the first house of the Mariapolis Peace and see the coming and going of its inhabitants and visitors from around the world.
The first group of focolarinas to live in the place came in 1971. Armed only with the desire to bring the Gospel message of love and confident of the Father’s love for them, they started to reach out to their neighbors crossing the barriers of language and culture as the first step to make the prayer of Jesus “that all may be one” a reality in this part of humanity.
On the other hand, the focolarinos would not come until 1982. This happened as a mighty struck of luck like in the fairy tales on the occasion Chiara’s first visit to Asia. Coming from Japan upon invitation of a big Buddhist movement, she proceeded to the Philippines to meet her people. In that meeting, she confided: “I made a dream with eyes wide open, that in Tagaytay a small city would rise up—a permanent Mariapolis—amid a normal city.”
For Chiara, this “Permanent Mariapolis” was to be a place of dialogue with other religions—whence came the name “Mariapolis Peace.” She had just been in Japan to share her experience with thousands of Buddhists. So a school for intern members was needed to Read more about other Asian religions. At the same time, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines had asked Chiara to open a school where priests could learn about the spirituality of unity.
How could these schools survive without the help of people to witness to the ideal of unity? Listening to her was a wealthy businessman and philanthropist, who immediately decided to donate a piece of land nearby. Chiara went to see it and she liked it. She also visited a house just in front of the Mariapolis Center, where the “School for Oriental Religions” could hold their lessons. While the piece of land was donated, this house had to be bought.
An appeal was then made to all members gathered in St. Augustine, Manila, to contribute to the building of the “City of Mary.”. That same night, the focolarinas heard someone knocking at their door. It was Ami, a poor girl who had come to offer a bunch of bananas for the construction of the Mariapolis. That was the first contribution they received, followed by a friend of Ami’s who gave 20 pesos. In a few days the house was bought, thanks also to a rich lady who advanced the whole amount.
The school for priests also began soon after, first on the ground floor of Mariapolis Center, while the priests waited for their own house to be built.
And then… everything else followed: Focolare Centers, Schools for the Sisters, the Gen, the Seminarians and then houses for the Families. All these people, however, had to survive somehow! Thus the many activities Mariapolis Peace has today, from handicrafts to furniture, from T-shirt printing to publications, from a language school to two social centers, which take care of hundreds of poor families from the surrounding neighborhood.
Everything is done out of love, so that the world may believe again in love and see what life could be if the love of God and neighbor were the only rules. This is how a living dialogue with other religions also takes place.“I like coming here,” say Abin, a Muslim friend of the Focolare.
Because as Muslims we find true unity and reciprocal love. Here we experience the peace and serenity badly needed in our country, and especially in Mindanao.
