On Saturday, the 10th May, hundreds of young people from all over Tuscany flooded the city of Florence, Italy, for the second edition of "Francesco Live", this year dedicated to the Canticle of the Creatures.
Numerous initiatives in the city promoted by the Youth Ministry of the Tuscan Province of the Friars Minor that involved the young people. In the morning, the participants were welcomed at the "La Compagnia" theatre to deepen the composition of St. Francis from several angles.
The young people were also welcomed by the mayor of Florence, Sara Funaro, who recalled the "indissoluble bond" between the lily city, Assisi and La Verna, emphasizing the relevance of that first poetic text in the Italian vernacular that "offers messages that seem to have been written today".
Many institutions participated in the events, including Cosimo Guccione, current President of the City Council of Florence, who last year was amongst the proponents of the first edition of Francesco Live, dedicated to the Centenary of the Stigmata.
The intervention of Sister Simona Paolini, a nun of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Child Jesus and canonist, was intense, who focused above all on the verse of the Canticle in which Francis praises God "for those who forgive for your love". Sr Simona called that poem by the Poverello of Assisi "a medieval selfie," because, far beyond being an ecological manifesto, "it is a way of understanding reality, of understanding each other as men and women and it is a passage from simply looking to seeing, to contemplating, to being amazed as reconciled people."
Finally, the highly anticipated meeting with the musician, youtuber and international cooperator Pietro Morello, who recounted his experiences among children in war contexts or amongst sick children in Italian hospitals, and how music is one of the vehicles with which to take children by the hand, in the awareness that the only way to raise peace-loving generations is to give them education.
The day continued in the spaces of the church of All Saints, where the young people spent the afternoon involving themselves in the various workshops proposed.
Finally, the evening in the garden of the friary of San Salvatore al Monte alle Croci was an opportunity to cement fraternal relationships in a great final party, in which the young people of the "Cantico project" presented a preview of the song dedicated to the Canticle of the Creatures, composed at the end of a path of reflection, meetings, prayer around the poetry of Francis of Assisi.
"We are truly grateful," said the Friars Minor, "for this further opportunity for meeting and dialogue with young people, who once again demonstrated their extraordinary liveliness, their strength, their courage in knowing how to look with hope at God's newness through the gaze of Francis of Assisi. Thanks to the institutions that have supported us and believed in this project, thanks to the sponsors and thanks to the many volunteers who have made all this possible".
