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2 Oct 2011 | Non categorizzato
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.”
1 Oct 2011 | Non categorizzato, Word of
“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
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29 Sep 2011 | Focolare Worldwide
Benedict XVI visited the land of his birth for four intense days between 22 and 25 September. Even though the Masses – celebrated in the open at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, in the Square in front of the Cathedral in Erfurt, in Etzelsbach, the shrine of Thuringia, and in Freiburg, in the Black Forest – marked some of the high moments of his trip, the Pope gave clear testimony, through many additional encounters, that he had not only came for the 30% of Catholics. He also met representatives of the Jewish faith and of Islam, he gave a noteworthy speech at the German Camera of Deputies and entertained guests from Orthodox Churches. He had a meeting with representatives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in a very significant location: the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt where Martin Luther had studied theology; joined the Augustinian Order and was ordained a priest. On this occasion the Pope clearly expressed his esteem for the spirituality of Luther and for his commitment in the search for an adequate answer to the question of God, Benedict XVI invited the Christians of both Churches to “witness together to the presence of the living God, offering the world in this way, the answer it needs. May we help each other in living it. This is a grand ecumenical task which introduces us into the very heart of the Prayer of Jesus.” The President of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EK), Nikolaus Schneider showed appreciation and underscored what Benedict XVI said: The two Churches should “help each other in intensifying and in enlivening the life of the faith in our society – truly and ecumenical task.” Those who had hoped that the Pope would take concrete steps in ecumenism, and those who had hoped that Benedict would have traced a new itinerary regarding a common concelebration – especially in view of the 500 years since the Reform, which will be celebrated in 2017 – were not contented. Even for couples of different confessions, who cannot approach the Eucharistic Table together, he did not offer anything “new.” The faith is not something that you can bargain over, as you can with political agreements – this was his motivation: “Unity in the faith does not grow by weighing the advantages and disadvantages, but through a profound identification in life and in thought.” Benedict XVI did not want to offer superficial answers or concrete solutions to the ecumenical field or to the underlying questions of the Catholics. He wanted to enter into the roots of the “crises of the Churches” upon which basis he sees a crisis of the faith. He had come to encourage trust in God and to reinforce the faith in Christ, which he considers to be fundamental to change and renewal.”
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26 Sep 2011 | Focolare Worldwide
“The ‘Together for Europe’ vocation has not gone out of fashion, but is increasingly necessary because the world is heading into a deep crisis which is not only economic and structural, but a crisis of relationships,” affirmed Marco Impagliazzo during a conversation with some representatives of the group that is promoting Together for Europe, and the delegates of the Focolare for the nations of Europe who are meeting at their international centre in Rocca di Papa, Italy. He goes on: “The value of our journey is even stronger today than when we started, because Europe is even more in crisis today.” ‘Living together’ is the key-phrase that must be learnt and proposed, dreamt and realized. It is a vision which involves everyone, it involves the youth: “Precisely because of the crisis, we need to work even more.”
Marco Impagliazzo
Gerhard Pross
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25 Sep 2011 | Senza categoria
Chiara and her first companions asked themselves how they could show God that he was truly the centre of their lives. They wondered how how they could put into practice their newly found ideal: God-Love. It soon appeared obvious to them that they should return God’s love for them. Their life would no longer have any sense if it were not “a small flame of this infinite brazier burning with the flame of divine Love: love responding to Love”. And it seemed such a great and sublime gift to be able to love God that they often said: “We shouldn’t say “we must love God” but “Oh, to be able to love you, Lord! To be able to love you with this tiny heart!” They recalled a sentence from the Gospel seemed to leave no escape for anyone who wanted to live a Christian life: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 17:21). Therefore, doing the will of God was their grand opportunity to love God. And God and his will coincided.Chiara wrote: “God was like the sun. And a ray of this sun was reaching out to each one of us, the divine will for me, for my friends, for everyone. There is a single sun, different rays, but always ‘rays of sun’. A single will of God different for each person, but always will of God. Our task was to walk within our ray without ever departing from it. And we had to follow along this ray in the time that was allotted us. No wandering into the past or fantasizing about a future. It was better to abandon the past to the mercy of God, since it was no longer in our possession; and the future would only be lived once it became present.
Chiara Lubich (centre) in the mountains of Tonadico with her first companions
