Love that Heals<br/><br/>
This year’s Mariapolis was held on May 19-21 at the Salvation Army Camp at Lake Simcoe. The theme of the event was “Love that Heals”, and there were about 250 participants, with a third of them being youngsters and children. Around 40% of the participants were also Chinese. This event was organized by the Focolare Movement. Through a vacationing format and a witness of spiritual life, the idea of “may all be one” was brought out. The only requirement for the participants was to try to open one’s heart and “be the first one to love”. <br/><br/>
The word “love” can instantaneously be linked to “kindness, forgiveness”. However, “love” also includes keeping a healthy body, which includes a good sleeping order, enough exercising, and eating regularly etc.. <br/><br/>
We also watched the movie “Akeela and the Bee” together, and it enlightened us to the theme of “Love that Heals”. The story was about an 11-year-old American black girl named Akeela, who was blessed with a good memory. Her school thus sent her to a “Spelling Bee” competition, which was held at Washington D.C. for the final national stage. In the beginning, Akeela’s mother strongly opposed her to joining the competition, as she was afraid that Akeela would not be able to face the end result of losing. However, she changed her mind at the end because she was touched by the teachers at Akeela’s school. At the final stage, the winner was to be determined between Akeela, a Korean student who was under extreme pressure from her father, and another 2-time champion. These 3 competitors became best friends during the event, and they admired each other very much. The two-time champion purposely gave up the chance to be the winner again so that Akeela and the Korean student could fight for it. Akeela also committed several mistakes on purpose so that the Korean student could win, because she knew that the Korean student’s dad would give her a tough punishment if she lost. However, on the other hand, the Korean student also purposely committed some errors. At the end, the rules made them co-winners.