OUR ESSENCE
Nuestros
Valores
Work as a means of earning a living is only one aspect; we are governed by something greater than money, which is why we strive to teach our institutional values:
Love: “Where there is no love, put love and you will get love,” said Saint John of the Cross. We want to bring and instill this love to all those who need it, to the families who come to our foundation, so that this fire may be kindled in their hearts and spread to their surroundings.
Joy: We want to serve with a well-disposed heart adorned with joy, which fills our actions and words with life, transmitting peace and the desire for good to our neighbors. “Give God the best of yourself with a smile. Joy in service is what gives God the greatest glory.” Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
Piety: We recognize, live, and desire to share the experience of being children of God. We instill in hearts the profound love God has for us and foster love for Him, His Church, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and all that is of God. As a Catholic foundation, we live a spirituality in accordance with our Holy Church.
Solidarity: We seek to reach out to those in need, not only by providing support in situations of material need, but also by sharing and giving spiritual goods. We want our beneficiaries to achieve temporal and eternal well-being.
Hope: Although we live in a world full of conflict and difficulties, this is not all. We see in hearts the desire for change, we see how united efforts can help and uplift, we see and know that it is possible to change reality together, with God's grace, and, as witnesses to his love and generosity, we have the firm conviction that there is always a light at the end of the road.
Respect: “Respect for the human person implies respecting this principle: “Each person, without exception, must consider his neighbor as “another self,” taking care, first of all, of his life and of the means necessary for living it worthily” (GS 27).” (CIC 1931).
We believe that every person is valuable, regardless of their past or status, and that we all deserve to be recognized and valued, along with our rights, our time, our abilities, our dignity, and more.
Responsibility: We teach the value of commitment, keeping one's word, assuming the consequences of one's actions, and acting with charity toward one's neighbor, with freedom and love.
Nuestra Esencia
At the Lirios de Gracia Foundation , we have a purpose: to transform lives through dignified work. We are committed to helping women, young people, and migrants, especially Venezuelan migrant families who have faced difficult situations in their search for a better future. Many of these people are on our streets, looking for an opportunity to earn a living, and we believe the best way to help them is by offering something invaluable: dignified work that restores the hope, dignity, and stability they need, so they can feel useful, valued, and loved, and that helps them discover they can do things for themselves.
Have you ever wondered how you feel when you receive your reward for your hard work and dedication at the end of the month? That sense of satisfaction and accomplishment is something we want to give back to these people. Instead of relying on begging, we're training them in artisanal trades, allowing them to earn a fair living by creating beautiful and useful products.
Manual labor not only provides them with an income, but also fosters fundamental virtues such as patience, perseverance, perseverance, and responsibility. This offers them a more dignified life and a new perspective, distancing them from idleness and helping them build a better future for themselves and their families.
Our beneficiaries make these products by hand, with dedication, care, and a lot of love. And here's an opportunity for you... by purchasing these products (which you can customize for your company and/or events), you're not only supporting us, but you're also helping to transform lives, one by one, and be part of a story of hope and dignity.
We are currently working in collaboration with the Youth Service Foundation; to learn more about this partnership, visit our "Projects" section.
Our name:
The lilies represent Saint Joseph, one of our greatest collaborators in the
foundation; a just and hard-working man who always walks hand in hand with Mary. In addition, the
Lilies are also an image of purity, both of the heart and of the body.
Grace, the undeserved gift of God, through which we can do all good,
to love Him and others, to keep His commandments, to repent, to sanctify ourselves… grace that
wants to give to everyone.
Through the intercession of St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary, the Lord wants to pour out his grace upon
all of her children, in this case, through decent work and the spirituality of the
foundation.
Our logo:
Three lilies, representing our name and in honor of Saint Joseph, the purity and chastity of this holy worker. Trinitarian, for the one and triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
A rosary at the base represents the importance and need to seek Our Mother in order to reach Jesus, as a means of obtaining the necessary graces from God for the fulfillment of the work and the sanctification of all.
A cross, as the origin and center of everything, Our Lord Jesus Christ, center of all our love, of all devotion and of this work.
The color blue, for our Marian heart.
Our slogan: “Smile, pray, and work.”
Inspired by the spirituality of Saint John Bosco and his emphasis on joy, we consider this quality essential to the work. “Holiness consists in always being joyful,” Saint John Bosco.
Prayer, necessary for the transformation of hearts and of society, to receive from God and give to Him what is necessary and even more, the source of our strength and the sustenance of this foundation.
Work, the means to dignify people, transform lives and sanctify them.
The concern of seeing people on the streets, begging for money, selling whatever they could to make a living, was one of the driving forces behind the founding of this foundation.
Our founder, concerned for those without decent work and following God's inspiration, began holding artisanal bookbinding workshops in 2022 with mothers and young people from a foundation in Chía, Cundinamarca. They were taught the trade, paid for their work, and sought to bring these souls closer to God through the recitation of the Holy Rosary and short talks.
As time passed, she saw the need to start having a space dedicated to these workshops and work. By God's providence, she learned about the Youth Service Foundation, which later very kindly opened its doors to the formation of an agreement that would benefit the Lirios de Gracia Foundation with a place to work.
Until then, the Lirios de Gracia Foundation was merely a charity, but in order to grow and better serve people, it was essential to legalize the project as a foundation. A name would have to be found, a logo created, and everything else required for this new phase of the project.
Throughout this journey, the Blessed Virgin Mary was always with us, and at this stage, the intercession of Saint Joseph was crucial. In the search for and defense of decent work, who better than Saint Joseph to help as our patron saint? Thanks to the devotion to Saint Joseph's lilies, shared by a friar to our founder, the name Lirios de Gracia (Lilies of Grace) was born.
Thanks to Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, the Lirios de Gracia Foundation was established on June 21, 2024, the feast day of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, one of the foundation's patron saints.
In August of this year, the partnership with the Youth Service Foundation began at its headquarters in the Santa Fe neighborhood of Bogotá, working with mothers in this area.
Currently, the Lirios de Gracia Foundation workshop is located at the 80th Street headquarters of the Youth Service Foundation, serving the same community in the Santa Fe neighborhood. It hopes to not only help mothers but also support the entire family.