Tomorrow, July 30, 2023, marks a beautiful occasion to celebrate friends around the world: World Friendship Day, a day when people express love and sincere feelings for their best friends, precious treasures in each other’s lives.
The U.S. Congress, in 1935, decided to establish National Friendship Day. Since then, the celebration of National Friendship Day has become an annual event.
The Assembly defines friendship as a “noble and precious sentiment in the lives of human beings all over the world” and celebrates its importance not only within the personal relationship between people, but also by promoting the values of cohesion and solidarity between countries, cultures and nations, emphasizing its centrality as a vehicle for peace, union and mutual understanding.
Aja, Friends of Saint Jeanne Antide Thouret
We asked our AJA friends, Friends of Saint Jeanne Antide Thouret, to tell us what this precious bond is for them that keeps them connected to our foundress.
Testimony from Lebanon
What is friendship in the Bible? In the book of Proverbs, true friendship creates a bond stronger than that of brotherhood (17:17).
Why is this? Because a brother can become an adversary or rival, like Cain and Abel, Joseph and his brothers and so many others.
On the occasion of World Friendship Day, how fitting it is to appreciate the ties that bind the Friends of Saint Jeanne-Antide to each other, but above all the ties that bind them to their brothers in today’s society. The Friend of Saint Jeanne-Antide has a special and tender regard for the poor, the people in difficulty, whom he tries to help in their spiritual and material needs. He is the Good Samaritan wherever he may be. A friend is never indifferent to injustice or evil. He cares for man, his church and the environment.
Friends of Saint Jeanne-Antide are witnesses who draw their strength and boldness from the Word of God, the teachings of the Church and the charisma of our foundress Saint Jeanne-Antide Thouret.
As a result, friendship develops through the relationship that a friend has with the Trinity, the Virgin Mary and the Saints on a vertical level, and which is reflected in a horizontal, practical and effective way towards all people in the four corners of the world.
Long live the friendship that makes man grow, transforms him into an instrument of peace and drives him to cross the seas, God willing!
A person who always tries to live Love
30 July World Friendship Day – Lebanon
