The words of the Pope’s homily were particularly significant. They were based on the Gospel for the day (Mk 9:30-37) where it is clear that Christian progress means to become more humble and that power in the Church is service: ‘Real power is service. As He did, He who came not to be served but to serve, and His service was the service of the Cross. He humbled Himself unto death, even death on a cross for us, to serve us, to save us. And there is no other way in the Church to move forward. For the Christian, going ahead, progress, means humbling oneself. If we do not learn this Christian rule, we will never, ever be able to understand Jesus’ true message on power.’

Greeting him the end of mass, Maria Voce told the Holy Father of the prayers and the gratitude of the whole Focolare Movement: ‘We all committed to living what you say to the letter, in particular to go out and meet other people because in others we meet Christ.’ ‘That’s just what’s needed,’ the Pope relied, ‘a culture of encounter!’

Video: Pope Francis celebrating mass, Casa Santa Marta 21.5.2013

CCTV service – Pope Francis:  True power, even in the Church, is in serving others (21.5.2013) www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HquzYPDPGq0

“It definitely confirmed the commitment to live our charism, as we felt how strongly communion is the essential mark of the Church today. And then our charism of communion, it seems to me, was highlighted for us as a necessary service to the Church. This was also confirmed by considering the feast under which we were meeting. We asked about each other, we assured each other of prayers …” .

“Renewed perhaps in the courage to face the world, because every movement surely has this inner drive that Pope Francis is strongly stressing, to reach out to others, to be available to the Church, to place ourselves at the disposal of the Church. Hearing it stated so forcefully by the Pope, it was like giving us the courage to say: we’re small, we’re weak, but in spite of this it is Jesus who leads us. Jesus is with us. The Pope sends us, so we can go …”.

As he looked ahead at the road before the different charisms and movements, the Pope put everyone on guard against both particularism and homologation, and he presented them with three words: harmony, newness, mission. What does this mean for you concretely?

“I was deeply impressed by the word “newness” because we would all be tempted to continue leaning on what is already familiar to us from the road we’ve already travelled, based on past experiences. But the Pope has challenged us to welcome surprises from the Holy Spirit, to listen well to what He asks of us and to follow Him on the streets of the world.”

Source: Vatican Radio – News Radio May 21, 2013 19:30 edition

Four questions and answers off the cuff. The Pope’s words were the most touching moment of the Pentecost Vigil at which 200,000 faithful from many ecclesial groups gathered on

May 18, 2013. “I know your questions. . . it’s the truth!” Yet his answers were spontaneous, and they engaged those present in profound silence. He was first questioned on how he reached the certainty of faith and how we are to overcome our fragility. He responded with a story: “I had the grace to grow up in a family where the faith was lived out in a very simple and concrete way. It was especially my grandmother who taught me the path of faith.” “She spoke to us about Jesus and taught us the catechism. On Good Friday she brought us to the candle procession. At the end of the procession came the dying Jesus, and our grandmother would make us kneel. She would tell us: he is dead, but tomorrow he will rise! I first received the Christian message from my grandmother!”  Then came the Pope’s invitation to abandon all fear: “We’re fragile, we know that, but He is stronger. With the Lord we are certain, the faith grows with the help of the Lord. . .”  .

What is the most important thing on which we should fix our sights? “The most important thing? Jesus. If we move forward with an organization, but without Jesus, we go nowhere.” And he invited all to live in “synergy with the Holy Spirit”. Not so much to talk but to give testimony by the way we live.

How should we live so that the Church may be a poor Church and for the poor? What can our contribution be to the Church and to society in this time of crisis that involves public ethics? “Living the Gospel is the main contribution we can give. The Church is not a political movement, nor a well-organized structure. We aren’t an NGO, and when the Church becomes an NGO it loses its salt and has no taste, it’s only an empty organization made up of many structures.”

Among the greatest dangers mentioned by the Pope were those of efficiency and of closing in on itself. Such closing in on oneself leads to illness: “The Church needs to come out of itself and start moving toward the peripheries of society. Obviously, when you go out, there will be accidents: “But I prefer a thousand times more a Church that is damaged than a Church that is sick from closing in on itself. Go out, go out!” This was the path the Pope was inviting all to follow in order to move away from a culture of confrontation and fragmentation and a “culture of waste”, and toward living a culture of encountering others, encountering Jesus and all our brothers and sisters, beginning from the poor, looking in their eyes and touching them with our hands in order to “touch the flesh of Christ and to take upon ourselves the sufferings of the poor.”

How are we to confess the faith? “To confess the faith two virtues are needed: courage and patience, as we were reminded by the testimony of Brother Shabhaz Bhatti, Pakistan Minister who was murdered in 2011. We’re all on the path of martyrdom. Some give testimony to Christ by giving up their physical lives, some by living small martyrdoms throughout the day.” “A Christian should always respond to evil with good.” “Let us make these brothers and sisters feel that we are deeply united with this situation.” “Do you pray for these brothers and sisters in your daily prayers?”

During the final words to Pope Francis by leaders of the communities and ecclesial movements, Maria Voce also expressed her gratitude to the Holy Father and the Focolare’s commitment to “give a courageous and joyful testimony to the Christian life.” She shared some of her impressions with us: “his words touched our hearts” especially his continued insistence on the encounter with Jesus and prayer, which he came back to in all his answers, underscoring “the spiritual dimension of the Christian person: prayer and the encounter with Jesus that happens through people on the peripheries of society, on the outside. He rejected excuses and table strategies, while never denying the challenges. We need to look to Jesus and the rest will come as a consequence.” The president of the Focolare underscored the atmosphere of friendship and joy among the representatives of communities and movements. “I believe that the Pope, when he arrived, felt this joyful heart of the Church.” Giancarlo Faletti, co-president of the Focolare, stressed that the Pope emphasized the love of Jesus and of neighbour as the dynamic of life of those who look outwards: “He did not look at the movements just as a particular part of the Church, but he addressed all Christianity.”

See the CTV transmission replay

The event is one of many initiatives taking place during the Year of Faith. It was presented by Archbishop Rino Ficishella, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, during a press conference in the press room of the Holy See.

The slogan chosen for the event is significant: “I believe! Increase the faith in us.” “The personal pronouns used in this phrase,” the prelate explained, “attest to the underlying meaning. Each member of the Church is called to personally pronounce his adherence to Christ and to the Church.” It is a free and personal choice. But he also says that faith is communitarian, it’s an “us” imbued with community values, principally those of the Church. “So many men, women and youths,” he went on “have rediscovered in these movements not only the faith that they had lost,” but “they have undergone a real and true conversion of life.” “These ecclesial realities,” he stated, “are one of the most evident fruits of the Second Vatican Council.” These words powerfully echoed the expression used by Benedict XVI who, on Pentecost 2006, defined the new ecclesial realities “one of the most important novelties brought about by the Holy Spirit in the Church for the implementation of the Second Vatican Council.”   

Archbishop Fisichella continued by saying that the choice of Pentecost is meant to make it understood that “in the Church today these new ecclesial realities are a sign of the Risen Lord who guides His Church in the work of evangelization.”

The start of the meeting in Saint Peter’s Square is set to begin at 15:00, and continue with testimonies and musical and artistic performances. The international Gen Verde band and 150 members of various members of different movements will also perform at different moments.

Pope Francis will join them at around 18:00 and, after having heard the testimonies from Ireland Pakistan, will participate in an open discussion, answering some questions.

On Sunday, May 19th, the Pope will celebrate the Mass at 10:30 in Saint Peter’s Square, followed by the Regina coeli.

During these days of preparation some words of John Paul II have been returning to mind, from the first grand meeting on Pentecost 1998:: “What a great need there is these days for mature Christians, aware of their baptismal dignity, of their own vocation and mission in the Church and in the world! What a great need for living communities! And so we have the movements and new ecclesial communities: these are the answer from the Holy Spirit to this dramatic challenge at the end of the millennium. You are this providential  answer.”

Living the Spirit of God is to let the Holy spirit live in us. And then to the extent we love God, we love also other human beings who are God’s representatives … And to the extent the goods of the Holy Spirit are communicated, they also increase. To develop and to blaze with life, charity must expand; it is blood and longs to circulate; it is fire and longs to burst all bounds. As natural life is a circulation of heat, communicated from cell to another, so also from the first cell set alight for the Creator there has been a continuous passage and an unwavering increase of heat in time and space. Likewise the supernatural life is an unwavering communication of heat – grace, charity – from the sun which is God to the souls who share in God. Other people are channels of the transmission of grace; in a sense they are sacraments of God. If others are excluded the Holy Spirit passes on no longer, life is stopped. And it is understandable: the love that passes on from me to the other person and from the other person to me is God who circulates.

The origin of this entire miracle is to be found in the incarnation and hence in charity. Humankind, therefore, being the image and likeness of God … is God who lives – incarnate so to speak – in human limitedness. If it is like this, I must see humankind like this and deal with humanity as if it were God in effigy. It is mutual; I must behave as God’s representative—from this come my vicarious dignity and my duties in action.

Humankind has been made by God and every cell of every human body and every fold of every spirit bears its maker’s trademark, the stamp of the Eternal. From such a maker humankind has received an unmistakable imprint, so that each human person on his or her own is like a masterpiece. Humans carry in their every molecule the proof of the existence of God who placed them in the world. The Holy Spirit is the One who acts in this divinization; he is the active principle of God’s incarnation. All individual humans are brought to share in some way in union with God, and the love that makes humans into God is the same that made God become human.

From Igino Giordani, La divina avventura [The Divine Adventure], Città Nuova, 1993

(first pub. Garzanti, 1953)

©Centro S. Chiara Audiovisivi Soc. Coop. a.r.l. All rights reserved

The wide embrace of Bernini’s colonnade is not able to contain the crowd of people who belong to as many as 56 new communities and ecclesial movements; a tiny representation of the approximately 80,000,000 Catholics, for the most part lay people, who make up this immense people.

It’s the first time that they are meeting all together with the Pope.

An enormous multicolored garden: this is the way someone described St. Peter’s Square on that sunny afternoon of May 30. The presence of members of the various movements, who with their specific charisms contribute towards making the Church beautiful, alive, and credible, constituted a surprising and remarkable display of unity in diversity.

A reality witnessed to by founders of four of the most widespread movements: Chiara Lubich, Kiko Arguello, Jean Vanier, Luigi Giussani. Their charisms draw life from the same Spirit; it is a unity in diversity, demonstrating Christian life as a reflection of the Trinitarian mystery.

« …numerous charisms are always born in the most important moments of the life of the Church. I’m thinking of the Council of Trent. … Today then, I would say that the Holy Spirit …, blowing in the same direction, puts the accent on different notes, because the life of the Church is like a symphony, a great concert; many instruments are needed, the greatest number of voices are needed». (Msgr. Piero Coda)

Therefore, a wide variety of charisms are at the basis of the many new ecclesial movements, supported and encouraged by the Pope as the providential answer of the Holy Spirit to the challenges at the end of this millennium.

In his address Pope John Paul II does not hesitate to affirm that what happened in the Upper Room in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, is being renewed this evening in St. Peter’s Square.

«With the Second Vatican Council, the Comforter recently gave the Church … a renewed Pentecost, instilling a new and unforeseen dynamism. … You, present here, are the tangible proof of this “outpouring” of the Spirit». (Pope John Paul II)

In speaking of the journey taken so far by the movements, Pope John Paul II sees them now on their way toward a new stage of ecclesial maturity in which their strong common announcement is a valid alternative to the secularized culture which encourages and promotes models of life without God.

«It constitutes a precious capital for the entire mission of the Church. Its founder did not say in vain that the witness of unity is “so that the world may believe.” The missionary fecundity of the movements will be potentiated if this witness of unity in diversity shines forth so that the world may believe».(Gusmán Carriquiri)

A witness of unity among all the movements in view of the new evangelization: Chiara expressed this need to the Pope.

«It’s important that we create among ourselves opportunities for dialogue, as we do with people of other Christian confessions or with people of other religions. We all belong to something much greater than the individual movements. Each one must simply find his place and know how to stay with the others». (Jean Vanier)

«If each one of us understands that from the contribution of each one, a contribution that springs also, I hope, I think, from a journey that we are taking towards precise goals, like many rivers which then flow together into a sea, we will surely be able to permeate many more areas of culture, many more areas of science, many more areas of human promotion which we have too often delegated to those who might not have convincing proposals to offer people … and to bring them to Christ Jesus». (Salvatore Martinez)

«… the Movements must grow in friendship. They should get to know one another, have esteem and love for one another. Of course, all this cannot be accomplished… with politics, through agreements …. My hope is that the understanding among Movements will grow, and it will grow in the measure that the various charisms become increasingly more involved in evangelization. Because it’s not a question of coordination, but of a spirit, of a spirit that must mature, that must penetrate, of a spirit that is grafted onto different stories, persons and Movements.» (Andrea Riccardi)

This really seems to be the best attitude for responding to the expectations of the Church and for effectively adhering to the Pope’s invitation at the conclusion of the historical meeting of May 30.

« Today, from this Square, Christ says to each of you: “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation” (Mk. 16:15). He is counting on each and every one of you!» ( Pope John Paul II)

Excerpt from the documentary “ON THE WINGS OF THE SPIRIT. Ecclesial Movements: Springtime of the Church” produced on the occasion of Pentecost 1998 ©Centro S. Chiara Audiovisivi Soc. Coop. a.r.l.. All rights reserved.

“I have been a very fortunate man. How I’d like to be able to express all the love that God has shown to me, though I think it would be impossible to put into words all that I’ve  received [from Him].” With these words Oreste Basso began to describe the golden thread that he saw woven through the story of his life. He was born in Florence, Italy, on January 1, 1922. His family instilled in him Christian principles and rectitude of mind. He loved the humanities and dreamt of a life and career that would be just right for him. The experience of the War was “a dreadful lesson because in the war you could see all human ideals collapsing.” “The only thing that remained standing after the war,” he recalled, “were the natural affections of the family.” After graduating in engineering in 1946 he found a job at a factory in Sesto San Giovanni (Italy), which was then considered the “Stalingrad of Italy”. He lived in Milan and in the evenings was often at a canteen where he met some friends – Piero Pasolini, Danilo Zanzucchi, Guglielmo Boselli and Alfredo Zirondoli – who were later among the very first people to follow in the adventure of the focolares. They would discuss Maritain, Neo-Scholasticism, music and art. One of them, Giorgio Battisti, one day invited Oreste to “get to know something beautiful, some young people who live the Gospel.”

One of these young people named Ginetta Calliari, who is among the first companions of Chiara Lubich, went to meet them and was bombarded with questions. Quietly she would listen to them until late in the night. Each month she would travel from Trent just to meet with them. “We began to realize,” Oreste said, “that the Gospel was something that was to be lived not by people who were far from us, but by us, by me, by him, by the others.” The fruits of this new life were evident in Oreste’s life. He earned the esteem of one of his subordinates who was very active in politics, and came to know of his evangelical ideal. He told Oreste: “If you believe in this God, then I can also believe in Him in the way you say.”

In 1959 Oreste left home and went to be part of the focolare in Milan together with the others who had followed this path after having heard it announced to them by Ginetta. Then he met Chiara: “Such a beautiful encounter!” he said. “She seemed such a stupendous person to me,  in her great humility and light.”

Meanwhile the number people began to grow in the cities of Italy, who were eager to know the nascent Movement. Oreste moved to the city of Parma with Lionello Bonfanti. His story has the flavour of the beginnings: “There was a couch for sleeping, and for eating we bought an alcohol stove. Usually we ate cheese, lots of milk – milk saved us! But we were truly happy.”

A few years passed and the Focolare Movement-Work of Mary – this was the name given by Chiara to this new eccesial phenomenon – continued to spread and take form in its mutiple aspects. Oreste was therefore asked to transfer to Florence and take on a role of responsibility. He immediately agreed in spite of his job where he had just been offered another promotion. The general director was himself saddened because of Oreste’s departure from the company. “It was the begining of another life,” Oreste said, “totally immersed in the charism of Chiara and  being one of its bearers.”

In the late 1950’s he was recalled to Rome where always at Chiara’s side, with his discreet and joyful style, he continued his work right on the forefront, assisting in drawing up the Statutes of the Work of Mary. In 1981 he was ordained a priest, a ministry which he considered to be a privilege and a call to greater love.

He was elected co-president of the Movement in 1996 and played a fundamental role at Chiara’s death (March 14, 2008), as well as during the General Assembly that followed, in which the successor of the founder was elected.

The messages that have arrived after the news of Oreste’s death from the Holy Father through Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone and from president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, Cardinal Rylko, testify to his radically evangelical lifestyle as well as to the simple and sincere relationships that Oreste Basso knew how to build each day until the end.

Numerous testimonies continue to arrive, all expressing gratitude and affection for Oreste.

The small handful of European priests who travelled from Rome found themselves before a young and living Church that is open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Seminaries are still full as they had once been on the old continent, even though the society and the economy are experiencing evolutions.

The 60 priests who attended the course were from several Asian regions: Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, East Timor and Thailand. They brought with them their own cultural diversity, but the challenge of seeing these not as an obstacle but as an opportunity for getting to one another was joyfully accepted by everyone.

Work was preceded by the celebration of the Eucharist, presided over by Francesco Kovithavanij, Archbishop of Bangkok and in charge of seminaries and the formation of the clergy at the local Bishops Conference.

As the days went on and the lessons continued, many noted the testimony of unity by the people who were the animators of the course and were personally committed to living what they were teaching.

Fr Silvestre Marques, the course director, noted: “the growing communion among all, communion of experiences, difficulties and many questions in a very open atmosphere.” For Brendan Purcell, from the diocese of Sydney, Australia, one fruit of this atmosphere was the deep sharing: “Especially by priests from Myanmar and Vietnam, who told of how their human and priestly life had been marked by tragic experiences – executions and the violent deaths of parents – that occurred when the priests were very young.”

The second part of the course focused on how to practice the spirituality of unity in the various areas of formation, through a dynamic workshop of experiences that identified the most urgent challenges, and concluded with a commitment to put it into practice in each one’s seminary. “This is a living course” one priest said, “in the sense that we are learning during these days to put into practice the life of communion, for the benefit of each one of us but also for the benefit of the local Church that we represent.”

After three weeks of living together in such a concrete experience of communion, each and every one of them testified to the “family” that they had become and the desire of continuing to carry on with the challenge and the adventure. Formation means preparing new priests whether in Asia or in any other part of the world.

See video – Franciscan Media Center

Chiara explained: “We can’t enter into the soul of a brother in order to comprehend and understand him. . . if our own spirit is filled with an apprehension, a judgement.

(. . .) “Making yourself one means placing yourself in front of everyone in the position of a learner, because we really do have something to learn. It means cutting completely the roots of your own culture and entering into the culture of the other in order to understand it and letting it express itself, until you have finally understood it from within you. Then, once you’ve comprehended it, then, ye, you may begin a respectful dialogue with him and also pass on the evangelical message through the riches that he already possesses.”

In sostanza, sintetizza Chiara nel 2000 visitando la cittadella di Fontem (Cameroon), “è l’amore che deve guidarci nell’inculturazione, così che agisca lo Spirito Santo”. Therefore, inculturation as Chiara understands it is an “exchange of gifts”: “Like this, the brother has first given to us; then we follow suit. . . and upon this ‘living’ something that is between us we, in act of pure service, can gently, with love and within the limits of discretion implant those aspects of the evangelical truth that we bring, and that bring fulfillment and completion to what our neighbor already believes, what he or she has been awaiting, coveting, longing for. And these aspects then draw along with them the entire truth.”

Several editions of this course on inculturation have taken place over the past 21 years on a bi-annual basis. Each of them has focused on a single cultural or existential aspect of life: privat property and work; the concept of God; the human person and the community; reconciliation; suffering, illness and death; education; communications; the sacred in the traditional religiosity of Sub-Saharan Africa.

This year (May 10-13) the focus will be on “the human person in African culture”. This topic will be examined from three perspectives: traditional African culture, Holy Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church in the light of the charism of unity.

Source: excerpts from Chiara Lubich in the Presentation of the volume  “Il senso del sacro nell’Africa subsahariana” Opus Mariae, Nairobi, Centre for Inculturation, 2012, pp.5-7.