![Living the Charism: Life and Nature]()
14 Aug 2011 | Non categorizzato
The Psalm says: “Teach us how short our life is, so that we may become wise.” (Ps 90,12). Wisdom is the mother who teaches us to recognise that which does not pass and all that through eternity has been shown through time. Calm fears, resolve anxiety, fills emptiness, opens hearts to neighbours.
“Sickness has healed me – a mother writes – ,
it has brought me a complete vision of existence which the course of my life had taken from me. Now I seem to know how to love my family.” Love is perpetuated through the ages in the biographies of those who have passed before us and whose stories allow their lives to reach us. This is the communion of Saints.
This aspect highlights the relationship between the person and not only life but also death. Chiara Lubich wrote in 1973: ‘Were I to leave this earth today, and were you to ask me for a final word about what our Ideal is, I would have to say, certain that it would be understood in its deepest sense: “Be a family”. Are some among you suffering from spiritual or moral trials? Be understanding to them, as a mother would, and even more. Enlighten them through your words and through your example. Do not allow them to lack the warmth of a family, but rather increase it. Are any among you in physical pain? May they be our preferred brothers and sisters. Suffer with them. Try to understand their pain completely. Share with them the fruits of your apostolic activities so that they know that, more than anyone else, they have contributed to them. Are any among you approaching their final moments of life? Imagine you are in their place, and do for them what you would want done for yourself, until their very last breath. Are any of you rejoicing because of a success, or for any other reason? Rejoice with them, that their consolation may not fade and their hearts not close, so that their joy may belong to everyone. Are some moving to another place? Do not let them leave without filling their hearts with a single inheritance: the sense of a family, so that they may take it with them wherever they go. Never place any kind of activity, whether spiritual or apostolic, before the spirit of being a family with the brothers or sisters with whom you are living.’
![Living the Charism: Life and Nature]()
11 Aug 2011 | Focolare Worldwide
The symposium’s promoters say: “It is an honour for us that Argentina, and particularly Mariapolis Lia Brunet were chosen to organise this symposium.” This year the symposium will be preceded by a series of events that will begin with the “World Day of Peace” which will take place on 15 August in the small Focolare town. These day meetings have taken place since 1997 with growing participation on the part of members of the Jewish and Christian communities of Argentina and Uruguay. Each year a new topic is examined by Jews and Christians, with moments of reflection, testimony, dialogue and recreation. These day meetings are an expression of the link that has been formed between the Focolare Movement and members of the Jewish community in Argentina. 
A second event, which is geared toward the youth and run parallel to the World day of Peace, is entitled: “I met people who want a united world. . . come and meet them too.” This event is organised by the Teens and Youth for a United World from the Focolare Movement and by the Ann Frank Center of Argentina. Teenagers and youths from each of these centres have been actively involved in putting together this event. The dynamic programme will include laboratories, games, debates, presentations and sharing. The objective of the programme is to promote the integration of respect for the social, political and religious culture of the other, with all that this implies, and to face various problems facing youths, like violence, discrimination and exclusion. This event is geared toward teens and youths who come from Argentina and other lands such as Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, the United States, Italy and Jerusalem. This series of events will culminate in the Fourth International Symposium for Jewish-Christian Dialogue, on 21-25 August under the auspices of the Minister of Cult & Worship of Argentina. There will be presentations by Jewish and Christian scholars from around the world who will delve into the topic chosen for this year: “Identity and Dialogue: an experience that continues” The Argentinian Minister of Foreign Affairs will preside at the closing events.
![Living the Charism: Life and Nature]()
9 Aug 2011 | Focolare Worldwide
At the conclusion of their visit to the Focolare community in Slovenia, Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti met with the secretariats of consecrated religious, adherents of the Focolare Movement, during their annual meeting. They are seventy, six from Asia, seven from Africa, five from Brazil, one from Canada and the rest from almost all European countries. It is the third time that the president of the Focolare and the co-president met the leaders of this significant part of the movement and therefore knowledge has become more and more profound, simple and familiar. The meeting was in the Mariapolis Center Spes – Upanje, obtained with very good taste and imagination of the old post office building, which used horses to transport the letters. So much so that the stables have been transformed into a dining room, but it is the new meeting room, ogive lines, full of light, to welcome the meeting and the intense dialogue. By Costanzo Donegana [nggallery id=60]
![Living the Charism: Life and Nature]()
8 Aug 2011 | Focolare Worldwide
One hundred and ten priests from twenty African nations met in Nairobi from 27 July to 4 August for a “Panafrican Conference of Focolare Priests”. The meeting was entitled: “In God’s Family the Church: A Way for Priests Today”. Through discussions in workshops and plenary sessions, they explored some of the challenges facing the Church on the African continent. What united these priests from so many ethnic backgrounds at a small Focolare town near to Nairobi in Kenya? They wished to contribute to the rediscovery and actualisation of God’s design for this continent, in the light of the evangelical lifestyle proposed by the Focolare Movement, which has been present in Africa for nearly forty years. The president of the Focolare Movement, Maria Voce, welcomed the priests in a written message at the opening of the conference: “I heartily wish that the presence of the Risen Lord in your midst may be the Light for understanding how Jesus desires priests to be in this day and age, and how they can serve the Church in our most beloved Africa, which has so much to offer to the whole world.” The conference gave living expression to the potential of the African clergy today. It also underscored the average age of the attendants – thirty-five – many of whom are already in positions of responsibility. 
In an Africa which some of the participants described as the “Africa of crises”, the idea of the family, which is so central to African social and ecclesial culture, took on new intensity and light when viewed from the perspective of mutual love and evangelical unity. The discovery of Jesus Crucified and Forsaken as the key to reconciliation and peace, led them not to feel that the challenge was a utopia, but to enter into the wounds and to become protagonists on the road of renewal and of communion which have the measureless love of Christ as their standard. The meeting was based on listening and sharing, with moments for reflecting and examining in study groups. And there were plenary meetings for sharing and discovering ways to incarnate their vision in a culturally liveable proposal for the Church in Africa. The meeting was interspersed with real life experiences that were “offered,” as one attendant wrote, “not in the form of scientific accounts, but in a family style which was nevertheless not disorganized, and had much to offer for meditation.” 
This renewed in them their calling to rediscover themselves as men of God who are called to evangelize Africa with the weapons of the spirit, of love and of unity. Also through their ability to go against the current, as the Nunzio Apostolico of Kenya, Paul Alain Lebeaupin stated during his presentation. The Archbishop of Mombasa, Boniface Lele, invited the participants to a great openness and mutual assistance among priests so that they may be coherent servants among the Family of God.” The nations represented at the conference stretched from the Atlantic to Indian Oceans and embraced the austral and central regions of Africa: Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Zambia, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Madagascar. Compiled by the Secretariat for Priests of the Focolare Movement
![Living the Charism: Life and Nature]()
7 Aug 2011 | Non categorizzato
The first young woman to follow Chiara Lubich was Natalia Dallapiccola. She once shared the following episode: “One evening, we gathered around a table (the only piece of furniture that survived). Since there was no electricity, Chiara was reading by the light of a candle: “This is my command: Love each other as I have loved you. Everyone will know that you are my disciples by the love you have for each other.” Natalia continued: “Those words fell like gasoline on fire. We wanted to know what Jesus’ deepest desire was, a word that would immediately reveal precisely what he wanted of us. And here was the summarizing phrase, the great discovery of our search.” She concludes: “We said to each other: ‘And so, before going out to school, to the office, to buy something at the market; before going out to help the poor, or even to pray – we must first have among ourselves the same love that Jesus has for us. This is what He wants.’”
Photo ©Adriana Avellaneda
