The Genfest 2012 website is online!
In the footsteps of St Francis
In the eartly Paradise, God conversed with man: the father who dialogues with the son. Sin cut off the dialogue. To restore it, speech (the Word) came into the world and was made flesh: he became the mediator between men and God, and, through Him, dialogue was restored.
He gave rise to a new order, the law of which was love. And love is primarily expressed through words: love is not a monologue, it is dialogue: it does not close up within itself, but seeks the other and serves him.
(…) Christ breaks through all the barriers and restores contact with all. He talks also with lost women, also with thieves, forgives the crucifiers (…) he has come for the sinners, not for the just, that do not exist. Saint Paul, changed from a Pharisee to a Christian, risks being killed by his ex party companions, because he talks with the impure, with pagans; those pagans, with whom the zelot israelis did not talk, and from whom he was about to draw the big Church. For him, there were no jews, no greeks, no servants, no masters, no men, no women: but souls, all sons of God.
(…) Already in the second century ,there was a powerful push towards the evangelisation of the world, and therefore to the expansion of christian civilisation, with the dialogue of the greek apologists- Justin at the head-with the pagan thinkers. The former sought in the wisdom of Socrate and Plato and the sages of roman and other race, the seeds of divine Reason, and therefore the elements of solidarity, communion, and equality. Grounds were thus discovered of understanding and they engaged in dialogue,which drew closer gentiles and christians, after they had been further separated by imperial persecutions and teological controversies.
The ills of division and silence came about when religion was stirred up- and mixed- with politics: and so instead of conversing with the moslems, on the example of St. Francis, they battled them losing time, money, souls for generations(…) During all these forms of regression, dialogue was maintained alive by a group of saints.
(…) And dialogue is what, through the push of Pope John XX111 and Paul V1, has drawn closer ortodox and protestants and catholics in a few years, more than the controversies and subtleties, forgetfulness and silence of many centuries.
(…) Religion has no other preclusion but hatred, because it is love. It seeks unity and peace.
Iginio Giordani – Extract from “Ut unum sint”, 1967, n.7, pp.28-30.
“You’ll have the cement on Monday.” Stories of entrepreneurs.
Germán M. Jorge
He thanked me and the conversation ended there. But I can assure you: The satisfaction and happiness that I experienced in that moment were worth far more than the cement. This little incident caused surprise among my employees who at first didn’t understand, and I had to explain to them that the most important thing wasn’t the incident in itself, but what can come from it, both for inside and outside our business. That month we had record sales, and right in the middle of the economic crisis we are managing to sell around 30% more compared to the same period last year. This way of dealing with people, placing ourselves at the service of others has strengthened our reputation and brought new business opportunities every day almost without having to go out in search of them anymore. I believe that if businesses were to discover the value, also the economic value that is generated by the principles of the Economy of Communion when they are applied in a radical way, they would not hesitate to put them into practice.’ By Germán M. Jorge Source: “Economy of Communion – A New Culture” n.30
Spirituality of Unity: The Word
They lived a sentence from the Gospel and the novelty, for that time, was that Chiara and her first companions, to help one another and to grow together, told one another of the fruits they had experienced through living the Word. Chiara wrote: ‘The War was still raging. Every time the air-raid siren sounded, all we could take into the shelter with us was one small book: the Gospel. We opened it and the words, even though we already knew them quite well, because of the new charism , were lit up as if they had a candle beneath them, they enflamed our hearts and pushed us to put them into practise straightaway. We were attracted to them all and tried to live them one after another. I read for example; “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Mt 19,19). Our neighbour. Where was our neighbour? There, next to us in the all the people who had been hurt by the War, wounded, without clothes, without houses, hungry and thirsty. We immediately dedicated ourselves to them in many ways. ‘The Gospel assured us: “Ask and you shall receive.” (Mt 7,7). We asked for the needs of the poor – and, extraordinarily for war-time – we received everything we needed from God! One day, and this story is one of the first experiences we had and is often told, a poor person asked us for a pair of shoes size 42. Knowing that Jesus was in the poor person, I turned to the Lord, in the church of St Clare near to a hospital of the same name, with this prayer: “Give me a pair of shoes size 42 for you in that poor person”. I came out and a lady came up and gave me a parcel. I opened it and it was a pair of shoes size 42. ‘We read in the Gospel: “Give and you will be given” (Lk 6,38). We gave and gave and each time we received in return. We had just one apple left in the house. We gave it to the poor person who asked. And we saw the next morning, maybe from a relative, a dozen apples arrive. We gave those to others who were in need, and in the evening a whole suitcases of apples arrived. That’s how it was, all the time. ‘These events, one after the other, amazed and enchanted us. We had great joy and that joy spread. Jesus had promised and still now he keeps His promise. He is not, therefore, a reality of the past, but of the present. And the Gospel is true. This discovery gave wings to our steps on the journey we had just begun. When we explained this to people who were curious about our happiness in such sad and troubled times; they understood that they hadn’t simply found a few girls in a young Movement but Jesus alive.”
October 2011
“Follow me”
Jesus had already said these words to Andrew, Peter, James and John on the shore of the lake. He made the same invitation, using different words, to Paul on the road to Damascus. But Jesus did not stop there; down through the centuries he has continued to call men and women of every culture and nation. He still does it today: he passes by in our lives, he meets us in quite different places and in different ways, and he makes us sense once again that invitation to follow him. He calls us to be with him because he wants to build a personal relationship with us, and at the same time he invites us to collaborate with him in his great plan to create a new humanity. He does not care about our weaknesses, our sins, our limitations. He loves us and chooses us just as we are. His love will transform us and give us the strength to answer his call and the courage to follow him as Matthew did. He has a particular love for each one of us, a plan for each person’s life, an individual call. We can feel it in our hearts through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, through certain circumstances or through a piece of advice given by someone who cares about us. Even if manifested in different ways, his message spells out the same words:
“Follow me”
I remember when I too felt a call from God. It was a very cold winter morning in Trent. My mother asked my younger sister to go and pick up some milk at a place about a mile away from home. Since it was so cold, my sister did not feel like going. My other sister also refused to go. “I’ll go, Mom,” I said, and I picked up the bottle and left the house. Halfway there something peculiar happened: it seemed as though the skies opened up and God reached down to me with an invitation to follow him. “Give all of yourself to me,” I felt him say in my heart. It was a clear call that I wanted to answer right away. I spoke with my spiritual advisor about it, and he gave me permission to give my life to God forever. It was December 7, 1943. It is impossible to fully convey what I felt in my heart that day: I had married God. I could expect everything from him.
“Follow me”
This phrase does not only pertain to that specific moment when we make a choice for our lives. Jesus continues to ask us this every day. “Follow me,” he seems to suggest to us as we face our smallest daily chores — “follow me” in the trial we are called to face, in that temptation we have to overcome, in that act of service that needs to be done. How should we respond concretely? By doing what God wants from us in the present moment, which always comes accompanied by a particular grace. Our commitment this month will be, then, to do the will of God with decisiveness, dedicating ourselves fully to the brothers and sisters that we are called to love, our work, our studies, praying, resting, and all the different things we are supposed to do. Let us learn to listen to the voice of God deep within our hearts, which speaks to us also through the voice of our conscience: he will tell us what he wants from us in every moment, and our part is to be ready to sacrifice everything in order to do it. “Let us love you, O God, not only more each day, for the days that remain may be few, but let us love you in every present moment with all our hearts, souls and strength in whatever is your will.” This is the best way to follow Jesus. Chiara Lubich