VII National Meeting MIRE (Mystic & Revolution)

May, 2015

A wonderful experience with young people who know what they want, fight for their ideals and position themselves in political and spiritual life. We brought a lot of positive energy and a lot of learning from this meeting.

MIRE is a movement formed by young militants, between 18 and 35 years old, that proposes the dialogical experimentation of the senses of Mystique, Community, Youth and Revolution in an alternative space, capable of overcoming the dissociations between body, reason and spirituality, capitalism and his constant attempt to stop our deepest utopias. He drinks in a liberating spirituality and in a feeling of unity in the option for the poor who have color, gender, class and sexual orientation.

We believe that the Mystique is the subjective dimension that we cultivate in our lives, which impels us to establish ties with the world and to have our steps guided by daytime dreams. We understand the Revolution as a process of radical rupture with the structures of exploitation, domination of human beings and nature, as a project that essentially becomes “a world where we are socially equal, humanly different and totally free” (Rosa de Luxemburgo).

MYSTIC AND REVOLUTION

Frei Betto

In Brazil a new movement of young Christians appears: the MIRE - Mística and Revolution. Launched in December at the national meeting of the Faith and Politics Movement in Santo André, MIRE already brings together almost 300 activists from 30 Brazilian cities, all aged between 16 and 30 years. This limit has its raison d'être, because without it there would be a risk that adults will stifle care that is characteristic of those who are in the period when we make the most fundamental decisions in life.

A national movement based in São Paulo, MIRE is organized into groups of 12 activists, including a monitor. In July, Vinhedo (SP) hosted, in its Benedictine monastery, the first training of monitors. The aim of the movement is to provide a Christian life centered on the testimony of Jesus, whom the Gospels call The Way. This walk is done with two legs: that of prayer (mystical) and that of social commitment (revolution). The nucleus meetings have their strong moments in the exercise of meditation and in the celebration of the Word of God. The militants are called to assume, individually and / or collectively, engagements that contribute to reduce the exclusion of the great majority of the Brazilian population, working in camps and rural settlements; trade union and student movements; voluntary actions to combat injustice and strengthen popular initiatives. In July, MIRE activists visited landless settlements in Goiás, culminating in a spiritual retreat in Goiás Velho.

Enthusiasm

Mystic is a polysemic word. For the MST, synonymous with animation in its meetings and events. For the religious tradition, the enthusiasm (from the Greek en-theos, "to be full of God") that floods the heart and the practice of those who experience God.

MIRE participants, inspired by liberation theology, seek a less rationalistic and more prayerful Christian life, without however giving in to the liturgical fads that turn celebrations into religious dances. The nuclei do not want to run the risk of restricting their meetings to debates around the current situation. They know that everything is political, but politics is not everything, as stated by Clodovis Boff. We seek an intimate dialogue with God, through the experience of silence, allowing ourselves to be "touched" by the Spirit, in a loving communion that goes beyond words, ideals and concepts. The three dimensions that found ecclesiality are valued by MIRE, an openly ecumenical movement: sense of community and sharing; nourish yourself spiritually in the Bible and in the works of mystics; pastoral commitment in a liberating dimension.

The term "Revolution" does not, for MIRE, have the warlike connotation of the 60s and 70s. It expresses the etymological sense of "starting over", both personally and socially. It is equivalent to the evangelical terms "conversion" or "metanoia", radical transformation of life, in the perspective of love and justice, and of society, in the hope that "another world is possible", without inequalities and exclusions. Source: http://latinoamericana.org/2003/textos/portugues/MIRE.htm

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