Yiós is a new summer camp started by Legionaries, consecrated and lay members to spread the teaching of Theology of the Body to young people. This summer they ran a 9-day camp in Vic, near Barcelona.
Belén Martín, one of the organizers of the camp, explained, “Yiós was born in the hearts of some Regnum Christi members who desired to share St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body with youth.”
This summer, in Vic, near Barcelona, a group of boys and girls from high school and university met in a nine-day camp to discuss the exciting topic of Theology of the Body. The goal was to respond to the desire of the young person’s heart to love and love well. “What is more characteristic of our charism than to speak of the heart where love dwells and learn from the love of Christ who is the one who restores man, redeems and regenerates the body and spirit, and grafts us all in the Trinitarian communion?” Belén asked, “In Yiós everything is covered with our Regnum Christi style of working: cheerful, open, funny and with deep prayer.”
Several people involved in the event gave testimonies. Below Gongaza, Belén and Alberto explain how the event affected them.
Gonzaga
“Yiós is the adaptation of the Theology of the Body course for young people. St. John Paul II teaches us how we can reach God through our body, and for this it is necessary to ask three questions: ‘Where do I come from?” which refers to creation, the beginning of the body; ‘Where am I?’ which is my story; and ‘Where am I going?’ which is the eschatological man, redemption, how God loves us and saves us.
“I had the good fortune to be able to come to Yiós to work on staff. I was in the “Vocation to Love” group, and I would love to return because the Theology of the Body is a subject that attracts my attention and is extremely profound. It fills me and invites me to continue discovering God in me. Now in particular, it also helps me in my dating relationship, it helps me learn to love my girlfriend with the love of God, and from the love of God.
“I would recommend this experience to anyone, but specifically to the young members of Regnum Christi, because it is an experience that changes hearts and changes perspective. To me, as a practicing Catholic and as an active member of RC, it did bring me something new. I was very hopeful to see that others like me know this reality that was presented to me a year ago. It also gave me a lot of peace to know that if I am in a life of grace, I am fulfilling the commandments, and I am next to God, I can do things with peace and tranquility because that does not come from me, it comes from Him, and I know that it is that way of living that is best for me.
“It has been a great gift from God, an opportunity to know him more and to know myself more. To join him more, and therefore, every day, to be a little happier at his side.”
Belén
“My experience in Yiós has been full of profound thanksgiving. I had discovered a beauty and depth about the vocation to love that every person has in the catechesis of human love by St. John Paul II. It transformed my life and my marriage. However, these teachings were not easy for me to disseminate and share with young people. In Yiós, we have created the space to for everyone to grow together, with the whole Regnum Christi family, being formed about the Theology of the Body, praying in community and living together, asking and answering questions, sharing fears, opening wounds and, above all, letting the Holy Spirit enter to the bottom in our lives. We have rediscovered divine filiation. We are children in the Son! I still have a smile and a feeling of awe at what I experienced there. I have to confess that young people are a shot in the arm of Regnum Christi, renewing us in mission and in love for the Gospel for me now that I have been on my own path for 50 years.”
Alberto
“Yiós looking from the depths of your heart towards the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is getting a little closer to understanding, feeling and knowing that God is pure Love. That everything, including your body, begins from Love.
“I would love to repeat this experience to continue discovering what the vocation to love means and how to live that vocation. However, I would want the second experience to go deeper and deeper into Body Theology, so as not to repeat the same material.
“I would recommend this experience to everyone, above all to people of faith who live by rationalizing and thinking about everything with their heads, pretending to understand everything for themselves. Anyone who does not know at heart that God is all Love and Mercy. I would also recommend it to anyone who has some interest in the truth about their body, especially about sexuality.
“I am not a member of Regnum Christi, but as a Catholic it was key to understand my God with my heart instead of my head, to start to live from Love, knowing that I am the fruit of Love. More heart and less head.”
You can read the original on the Spanish Regnum Christi site.
