Once again, this year Loppiano offers a program of spiritual exercises in two stages – June and September – an opportunity to learn more and have a living experience of the spirituality of unity in an international community and natural environment that favor the encounter with God.
On August 25 – August 30 of last year, a diverse group of 28 people attended a week of spiritual exercises in Loppiano. They were married couples and singles, priests, Religious, consecrated women and a seminarian. Although the outside temperature was high, the heat didn’t interfere with the experience: “These days were truly refreshing,” said one of the participants when saying goodbye. I could feel the Lord saying to me: ‘Come to me, all of you who are tired,’ and I gave him all my tiredness. During these days I retraced the golden thread in my life and realized that all my effort should be to aspire to unity, to relationships of true peace that had become somewhat compromised.”
Encouraged by the positive response, the organizing team decided to do it again. Perhaps now, more than ever, after a year and a half of pandemic, we feel the need to make a pit stop as they do during Formula 1 auto racing, to take a break not only to recover physically, but also spiritually, to go deeper and perhaps seek some more answers to the existential questions that the somewhat surreal experience of the pandemic has raised in each and every one of us. Loppiano could echo the words of Saint Peter: “I have no silver and gold, but what I have I give to you” (Acts 3:6). The citadel certainly cannot offer the answers, nor solutions to many of the global and personal problems that have emerged in the last two years, but what it can offer is the Spirituality of Unity, a charism, which is a gift that God gave to the world through Chiara Lubich.
Part 1: June 22 – June 27, The revelation of God-Love and Prayer; Love of Neighbor – Mutual Love; Jesus Crucified and Forsaken and his many faces; Jesus in the Midst – “May they all be one” (John 17:21); Mary, the First Disciple
Part 2: August 31 – September 5
More topics for those who wish to continue the experience.
Guests will be hosted at Visitation House with its breathtaking landscape and a natural environment that arouses a sense of gratitude and adoration toward the Creator.
