Sunday, 10/09/2022, I had the opportunity to accompany a group from the Quilombola Communities of João Surá, Sete Barras and Córrego das Moças to participate in the FESTA DA SEMENTE, in the city of Mandirituba/PR.
It was a day to thank God and contemplate the beauty of creation. Even though it was early in the morning, going up the mountain, the beauty created by the fog was present. Soon, the sun highlighting the white with the green of the woods. Only a passionate God can create these wonders.
And it was a party: indigenous people, quilombolas, faxinais, farmers, African refugees, seed guardians and faith healers. In the conversation circles, problems were shared: lack of land tenure regularization, racism, lack of public policies. But the hope expressed in the songs, in the dances, in the sharing, in the speeches, in the shouts of order stood out.
And I looked at everything enchanted and thought: Brazil, at least, if not the world, could be like this: all brothers, all celebrating, all praising an Imaginative Creator. All wanting a preserved, cared for, loved, respected nature. No pesticides. No competition. The Mother Earth being generous and welcoming, fertile, generous. Lunch was the pinnacle of abundance. All from the earth, from the hands of the seed guardians.
“My happy soul, sing to the Lord, for He has done and does wonders.”
Sr. Maria Sueli Berlanga, sjbp