The Franciscan Sisters of the Poor celebrated the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi on October 6th with the parish and all those who received services from the projects undertaken at our capacity-building center, Centro de Formação Francisca Schervier (CFFS) located in the Brazilian city of Goiânia.
It was a great joy to start our day by witnessing the involvement and participation of our Associates, collaborators, friends, volunteers and members of the parish, all of whom worked hard for the celebration to unfold in the best way possible.

All participants were able prayer experiences -- one of them held amidst nature. Such prayer moments were organized by catechists and catechism students, proving to everyone that it is, indeed, possible to show gratitude for our peaceful culture and our plantings, growing and caring for our common home by transforming garbage into vases for all kinds of plants. This not only make our living areas more beautiful, but also helps to feed and heal us.

Friar Jaime took us even deeper on the subject. Our children and teenagers were shown a movie on the life of St. Francis. We were, then, able to reflect on the importance of being at peace with ourselves, with others and with all the creation that surrounds us.
Several other presentations were given by the children from the catechesis, teenagers from the community, members of our local artistic group “Clar’Art” and our Associates. These artistic displays enabled us to think about the God’s creative power and the importance of all His creatures. We also reflected upon how our actions both destroy and preserve life, and about how we must urgently transform our ways of thinking and acting, so that those coming after us can inherit a better world.

It was a beautiful, lovely, very productive day. The preparation process itself was also a gift, as it challenged us and helped us overcome our limitations. We were very happy to see the results of our collective work! It required the combination of many different ideas to achieve a greater purpose.
To close the event, there was time for the kids to play, and we all enjoyed a delicious lunch prepared by volunteers of the community.

Carla Denise Nunes Macedo (collaborator at the Clar’Arte project)

Published: January 28/01/2020