A little city

   “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!
   Today, 40 years later, the Mariapolis Center continues to be the center for countless meetings of formation for Focolare members and those from other organizations. People have been flocking here not only because of the great scenery, but also, as Prof. Giovanna Fontanilla, Secretary General of the Association of Catholic Universities of the Philippines, says “because of the wonderful people who are filled with great love for one another… the spirit of love, and such joy when you see them smiling, and it’s a joy that comes from within.”

   Alicia Morcillo, a Spanish focolarina, transferred to Tagaytay in 1971 together with some young people from different countries preparing themselves to become focolarinas. “None of us knew how to speak Tagalog. So how could we communicate with our neighbors? We agreed, with much courage, to introduce ourselves to them. Then we went to the parish priest to ask for a Tagalog-English dictionary and copied down some questions. We prepared little gifts for the people with small pieces of paper. Each one of us also learned a phrase in Tagalog. For example, I was supposed to go first: “Ako si Alicia” and the others would follow. Then again I greeted them, “Kumustaka na?” and so on. However, the result was that all the four or five neighbors we visited were not able understand our Tagalog. But we did not leave their house. We remained at the door smiling at them until they had understood that we just wanted to make friends. Since we were there to start the Mariapolis Center, before doing anything we agreed to live mutual love among us, and to offer this love to every person we would meet. We were really an odd group of people who lived together happily. People were curious to know what we were doing here.”
   Alicia didn’t know it at that time, but they were the first seeds of “Mariapolis Peace,” the little town of the Focolare in the Philippines. Actually, the first choice of a place for this permanent witness to reciprocal love and unity was Japan, but circumstances made it impossible then. Later, at the end of the seventies, the Focolare received some land as a donation in San Mateo, Rizal, and they were also dreaming about building something there.

   Yet, they awaited Chiara Lubich’s visit and approval. When she saw Tagaytay, Chiara immediately felt that this was the right place. “I made a dream with eyes wide open,” she said at a meeting with Focolare members, “that in Tagaytay a small city would rise up—a permanent Mariapolis—amid a normal city.” For Chiara, the main characteristic of this “Permanent Mariapolis” was to be 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 learn 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, 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.”