Romania: Magis youth festival for 60 young people

The youth festival MAGIS of 2021 took place between the 2nd and 8th of August in 6 different locations. It’s an ignatian festival based on spirituality and work, creating new connections between youth than can discover new vocations, companions or even new friends in Christ. This year, with the occasion of the jubilee of 500 years from Ignatius’ conversion, the main motto was “Să reînnoim toate în Cristos” (“Seeing all things new in Christ”).

The festival was organized by the Jesuits from all over Romania (EUM Province) and the laics consecrated to the ignatian spirituality, and it was dedicated to nearly 60 people between 18 and 35 years of age. They were split in 6 groups, each group having a different domain of activity. 6 experiments took place between August 2nd and 6th in different corners of Transylvania:

• Ora et labora took place in Ghimes, a village in the eastern Carpathians, that proposed to enjoy the spirituality living a simple life, praying, cooking and working together in the middle of simplicity and silence.
• Pietre vive: took place in Sibiu, Transylvania, tried to discover God’s presence using the art and the architecture of the churches, stones, bricks and colors. The challenge was to discover ourselves how the work of man can lead us to God, and then, to explain to the others.
• Bibliodrama: proposed an approach to God and to ourselves by trying to live in the stories of the Bible, to interact with the persons described in the Gospels, to live and to feel like we were presents in these actions.
• Volunteering: there were destructing floods in the Occidental Carpathians so we decided to respond to the community’s needs. The experience was based on spirituality in the morning and physical work in the afternoon, trying to meet God’s presence by constructing houses, listening to people in needs and trying to resolve their urgent necessities. The experience proposed to the participants to live in simple conditions (living in a camp, cooking together) and to dedicate time to the prayer in the local church. We started the week in 8, we ended up being 60.
• Via Transilvanica: was proposed in order to discover God in nature’s beauty and to experience to be on the road with the others. The 5 days on walking in the middle of the nature, tens of kilometers per day is not always easy, but it can turn your regard and your concern to the others and to God.
• Music and theatre: this experience proposed to discover the beauty of God in arts. The participants were invited to learn how to meet God by interpreting a scene of St. Francis Xavier’s life. The music had also a big contribution by animating the local daily masses in the parish of Jesuits in Satu Mare.

After these experiences, all the participants were back to Muntele Baisorii (located in the middle of the Occidental Carpathians) for the festival. “For 3 days, every group had to share its own way to find God, and the highlights of its experience” says Lucian Drambarean, director of CLC Romania. “Each day finished with a mass celebrated together, with camp fire, music and a relaxed atmosphere. At the end of the evening, after the conscience exam, everybody shared and received the joy of making all things new in Christ”.