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Forthcoming Gatherings and Events

 

 

Brazilia 2012

XI International Gathering

21st to 26th July 2012

'Dare to Live the Gospel'

The gospel chosen as the theme: The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10, 25-37)

Bookings for the Gathering in Brasilia have now officially opened and it is time to firm up on your ‘declarations of interest’. About 100 people from our Super Region have expressed interest in going, so now is the time to convert this interest into a firm booking. There is a booking form on the Transatlantic Website www.teams-transatlantic.org . Please return the form with your 10% deposit as soon as possible to Paul & Helena McCloskey, Brasilia Bookings Coordinators. Separate arrangements will be made for the collection of deposits and other monies for people travelling from Africa and Trinidad. They should liaise with their Sector/Regional Couple.The website also contains examples of current prices for flights to various places in Brazil this coming July, which may give an indication of likely costs for 2012. It will be some months before exact flight timetables and prices become available for July 2012. The website will be updated as additional information comes to light.Once booking forms are received, your email will go into a Google email discussion group so that all Transatlantic travellers can share ideas, ask questions etc. Many of you may want to extend your trip either before or after the Gathering to see something of Latin America. In that case you will need an internal flight to Brasilia on 21st July, or away from Brasilia on 26th July.

No doubt you will have questions; Paul and Helena will do their best to answer them, but they are not travel agents! Please use the form below to contact them.

 

About the Logo for the XI International Gathering of EQUIPES NOTRE-DAME

 

The creation of the logo for the XI International Gathering of Equipes Notre-Dame was inspired by the miraculous fishing event at the Paraíba River, in which the statue of Our Lady of Aparecida, Patroness of Brazil, was caught in the fishermen’s net, giving rise to the devotion to the Virgin of Aparecida.   The fishing net with the image of Our Lady of Aparecida above Brasília 2012, the place for the Gathering, invokes the intercession of the Virgin of Aparecida on behalf of all the participants at the meeting.

The cross on the bow of the boat signifies Christ at the head of the Equipes Notre-Dame Movement.   The couple holding hands on the boat symbolizes the experience and reality of married spirituality, a spirituality embodied in daily life that leads the couple to walk together mutually supported in the joys, the hopes and the difficulties of life.

The boat can have another meaning: the couple who "sail together” in life, working together in the search for spirituality, in mission and service to the Church and the world. We are accustomed to thinking as a couple and often favour the icon of a mountain journey. But the boat is also rich in symbols: it glides on a calm sea, swaying or turning around, it is a base to which one can cling. The boat, like life, moves in a sea that welcomes, pushes back, in which it is necessary to be committed to float, in a sea rich with many experiences, of adversity, of difficulty, temptations, but also of abundant harvests of gifts and fruits.

The fishing net could represent the entire world, where we are all called to live by sharing the needs, the necessities, the projects, one with another, without any difference, for the sole purpose of belonging to all humanity, beloved and saved by God. The zero of 2012 comprises two interlinked wedding rings to symbolize the sacrament of marriage, the union of the couple based on God’s love.   The colours green, yellow and white that form the net refer to the colours of Brazil, the host country for the XI International Gathering of the END.

Finally, the lower part comprises the official logo of Equipes Notre-Dame, in the form of the fish; it represents the internationality of the Movement which gathers as a community around Christ.