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23 Oct 2011 | Senza categoria
The Eucharist always had an important role in the life of Chiara Lubich, ever since her childhood. Both her personal life and that of her first companions – and that of the entire Movement – has been marked by the Eucharistic presence. And it could not have been otherwise, when we recall that Eucharistic Jesus is the heart and soul and very life of the Church. The action of the Holy Spirit in his charism of unity, instilled in Chiara and in her first companions a powerful attraction for Jesus in the Eucharist, to the point that they could not wait to go to Mass and share their lives with Him each day. And later, when they began travelling through Italy by train, they would eagerly gaze out over the countryside searching for church steeples, because they knew that the Eucharist, their love was there. There is a marvelous interconnection between the Eucharist and the spirituality of unity. Chiara comments on this great mystery in the following way: “Since the Lord concentrated our attention on Jesus’ prayer for unity when he wanted to initiate this vast movement, it meant that he had to give us a strong push in the direction of the only one who could accomplish this unity: Jesus in the Eucharist. In fact, just as newborns instinctively nourish themselves at their mother’s breast, hardly knowing what they are doing – ever since the beginning of the Movement we noticed that people who grew close to us began going to Communion every day. How are we to explain this? What instinct is for a newborn, the Holy Spirit is for an adult, who is a newborn into the life that the Gospel of unity brings. He is driven to the “heart” of Mother Church and he fees on the most precious nectar that it has, in which he feels to have found the secret of the life of unity and of his own divinization. Indeed, the work of the Eucharist is to make us God by participation. Mixing together our flesh that has been made alive by the Holy Spirit and Christ’s life-giving flesh, we are divinized in soul and in body. The Church could be defined as: the oneness caused by the Eucharist, because it is comprised of divinized men and women, made God, united to Christ who is God and united to one another. This God-with-us is present in all the tabernacles of the world, listening to our confidences, our joys, and our fears. How much comfort Eucharistic Jesus has provided for us in our trials when no one would grant us an audience because the Movement was under investigation! He was always there, at all hours, waiting for us, telling us: In the end, I’m the boss of the Church. And in struggles and pains of every kind he gave us such strength that we thought we should have died many times if Eucharistic Jesus and Jesus in our midst, whom he fueled, had not sustained us.”
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21 Oct 2011 | Non categorizzato
“It’s with surprise and great joy and gratitude that we welcomed the proclamation on the up- coming ‘Year of Faith’ announced by Pope Benedict XVI. And even more so, his apostolic letter ‘Porta Fidei’ that announces this thematic year, which will begin on October 11, 2012, on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. Once more we grasp the strong thrust of the Holy Spirit in this initiative which arrives punctually in this moment of history. The young people of the World Youth Day, the families, workers and youth who are demonstrating, inaugurate a new springtime and invoke profound social reformations. They are signs which tell us how much today’s humanity is seeking change. I found confirmation of this also in my recent trips which I took to the United States, Santo Domingo, Russia, Slovenia and Great Britain. “We cannot accept that salt should become tasteless or the light be kept hidden,”[1] writes the Pope. We also deeply feel this urgency and it calls us to convert: to live the Word of God with particular intensity. In welcoming the Pope’s ‘mandate,’ we have launched out once more with even greater vigour. We have committed ourselves to go back to the totalitarian way of living of the first years of the Movement: first of all to re-evangelize ourselves, in order to then spread the Gospel with all its transforming power to that humanity which surrounds us. Even today – as Chiara Lubich wrote already in 1948 – “the world needs a cure of the Gospel.”[2] Moreover, we have profoundly echoed the Pope’s pressing invitation to give public witness to faith, to the Word lived-out “as an experience of love received,” “communicated as an experience of grace and joy.”[3] In the initial years of the Focolare Movement’s life, the sharing of experiences of life based on the Word of God was a novelty. These experiences were irrefutable, because they were ‘life’ and fruitful, able to generate a living encounter with Jesus and to form a community out of dispersed people. Benedict XVI reminded us that we don’t face this task alone, but together. We want to intensify that experience of communion and brotherhood in our environments: in parliaments, factories, neighbourhoods, universities and families, because it is in communion that the Risen One makes Himself spiritually present, touches people’s hearts and transforms them. The Pope strengthened our conviction that this is a moment of special grace for the Church, in which the Council’s spirit of renewal is in action more than ever.”
[1] Apostolic Letter “Porta Fidei,” n. 3.
[2] Lettere dei primi tempi. Alle origini di una nuova spiritualità, edited by F.Gillet and G. D’Alessandro – Città Nuova Publishing House, 2010.
[3] Apostolic Letter “Porta Fidei,” n. 7.
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20 Oct 2011 | Focolare Worldwide
It tells two stories, the story of the Focolare and that of the United States. In an air-raid shelter in the city of Trent (1944), Chiara Lubich and some other young women rediscovered the words of the Gospel: “that all be one” (Jn 17:21). A hundred-fifty years earlier the founding fathers of the United States wrote on their flag: “E pluribus unum,” of the many, one. Both phrases reveal a fundamental tendency: to aspire for unity in diversity. 
In the introduction of the book, “Focolare: living a Spirituality of Unity in the United States,” Thomas Masters and Amy Uelmen (New City Press, NY), begin with the stories of young people who practice the spirituality. Like Rebecca from Ohio, who was helped by the spirituality of unity to carry through with her decision to volunteer in Sierra Leone. Or Nick, who grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, who completed a Master in International Affairs and found himself face-to-face with his choice of relationship and dialogue in an environment that was strongly competitive. Elizabeth is a championship swimmer. She met the Focolare at a swimming competition in her hometown in Indiana: “When these girls who knew the Focolare came to my school, I was struck by the way they interacted with each other. The cultural mix – for someone from rural Indiana like me – made a strong impression. I felt like the whole world was in my backyard.” “It wasn’t easy for me to explain to my friends who all these Europeans were, where I went and what we did,” recounts Keith, who grew up in a black neighborhood of New York. “But it was special with them, I felt drawn. We did the same things that I did at home with my friends: sport, games, but the atmosphere was different, we tried to love one another.” The Focolare town of Mariapolis Luminosa in Hyde Park, New York, offers summer programs for teenagers. Naomi, a sixteen year-old from Chicago recounts: “Before leaving for Mariapolis Luminosa, I was a typical teenager: school, friends, shopping, enjoyment. It was hard for me to think of others. Well, this has all changed. When I returned home, I began to give away my things; I make my bed every morning; I try to prepare at least one of the meals each day; I listen to my eight year-old brother; I try to socialize with everyone at school. I don’t go shopping in the stores where a sweater costs a hundred dollars. I try to do everything for God, to make him smile. My mother is still wondering what happened to me.” Finally, David from New York, who came to know the Focolare during WYD 2002 in Toronto. For him it has meant not becoming rigid in ‘devotional’ practices, but placing God’s love and love of neighbor at the centre of things: “As I rediscovered my faith in this way, I felt called by the Holy Spirit to become a priest, and now I’m in the seminary.” These six experiences suggest that it is easier to understand the spirituality of the Focolare through the experiences of those who put it into practice. Beginning with the life of Chiara Lubich and those who joined her on this path, followed by the example of Americans young and old, families and clergy – this book tells the story of a shared experience of people whose lives have been transformed in an individual way, but also in a quite similar way by the light of God’s Love.
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19 Oct 2011 | Non categorizzato
John Paul II had just arrived in Assisi on 24 January 2002. He immediately headed towards Saint Francis Square to welcome the Representatives of the World Religions and their Delegations. After the greeting addressed by the Pope and the introduction by Cardinal François Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân, the Representatives read out the witnesses for peace in their respective languages. Here we offer you what was said by Chiara Lubich who, together with Andrea Riccardi, represented the Catholic Church. «For us Christians, Jesus is the God of Peace. This is the reason why the Catholic Church makes peace one of its most heartfelt goals. “Nothing is lost through peace. Everything can be lost through war,” exclaimed Pius XII. Pacem in Terris was the title of one of John XXIII’s encyclicals. “War never again!” repeated Paul VI while at the United Nations. And John Paul II, after the terrible events of 9-11, indicated the path to peace: “There is no peace without justice, there is no justice without forgiveness.” The whole Catholic Church works for peace and there are many paths it follows to reach it. The dialogues are very effective, following the path traced out by the Second Vatican Council. They guarantee peace because they generate brotherhood. They take place on a universal level and in different Churches, as well as through groups, associations, ecclesial movements and new communities. The Church carries out the first dialogue among its own sons and daughters, beginning with building that required communion on every level, which is assurance of peace. It carries out a second irreversible one with different Churches and ecclesial communities, a dialogue which augments peace in the big Christian family. 
It carries out another one with the main world religions, based on the ‘golden rule’ that is present in a number of Sacred Books and which is expressed in the Christian Scriptures with these words: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’ (Mt 7:12). This ‘golden rule,’ which emphasises the duty to love one’s brothers and sisters, creates pools of universal brotherhood in which peace reigns. Lastly, dialogue and collaboration on many fronts with all those who have no religious reference point but are men and women of goodwill, so we can also build peace with them. Therefore, various expressions of one big dialogue, generator of that brotherhood which in this extremely difficult historical moment can become the soul of the vast worldwide community, which today’s workforce and government are paradoxically beginning to hope for.» 24 January 2002
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18 Oct 2011 | Focolare Worldwide
This is the invitation that was launched by the Youth for a United World (YUW) in Japan on Sunday, 9 October during a “Power of the Smile” concert in Tokyo, as they remembered the fatal tsunami that hit the northern coast of their country. “They idea for the concert,” they tell us, “came to us when we realized how much the quake had shaken and frightened people. With the “Power of the Smile” we wanted to offer our friends a few moments of serenity, which they could then bring to others.” Their message was launched with the musical refrain from the final song: “With the power of my smile, I will believe that I can love this land.” “During the past months,” they continued, “many YUW groups have gone out of their way, finding a million ways to help us with their solidarity. And their projects and efforts have encouraged us to do something concrete ourselves. As soon as we heard of the disaster on 11 march, we began a collection of funds in the metro area of Tokyo, an unusual thing in our culture, but it awakened a strong spirit of solidarity and altruism in many people on the street. Subsequently, some of us went to the district of Fukushima for a few days, offering the refugees some warm coffee and loivng and listening ear.” Finally, with four musical groups alternating on stage, the concert took place. “Before going on stage we met in a circle and promised each other that even though we felt there were still a lot of holes in our original plans for the concert, what we most wanted to leave with the audience was the light of our unity.” “Little by little the concert went on,” recalls one of the presenters, “I saw the faces in front of me change!” This concert by the YUW of Tokyo was very unlike most traditional concerts. It was a coffee-concert, with groups on stage continually interacting with the audience and the possibility for anyone to go on stage, to meet and know each other over a cup of coffee and piece of cake. When the concert was over, some of those who had attended wrote: “I wanted to go and volunteer in Fukushima, but I couldn’t. What a joy to have discovered that simply by offering my smile to everyone, I can do something concrete to make our society a bit happier!” “I didn’t expect so many smiles! They filled me with love!” “Giving a smile is a power that conqers all!” “You too, me too. . . altogether let’s believe in the possibility that we can love this land!”
