![Living the Charism: Economy and Work]()
24 Jul 2011 | Non categorizzato
“Love, for example, is communion and leads to communion. Jesus in us, because he is Love, brought about communion.” – Chiara Lubich
Their awareness that God shows his love through the circumstances of life, even the painful ones, gave the desire to the first focolarine who were in danger of losing their lives beneath the bombs, that they should be buried together in a single tomb with the inscription: “We have believed in love.” This awareness of being loved by God made them able to be ready to give their lives each for the other. This led to the sharing of all their spiritual and material possessions, the sharing of all their aspirations, of their fears, and their dreams.
Giosi Guella, one of the first focolarine shares about the first living conditions of Chiara and her first companions: “There wasn’t anything in Piazza Cappuccini. But, at the same time, there was everything: for us and for others. It was logical that there shouldn’t be anything: if there was something, we gave it away. We returned home with our salaries, and put them in common.” Our jobs, balancing our budget, studying, teaching, doing house chores, since they were all seen as service, became the concrete occasions to love our neighbours. Service was the rule of the community that was forming around the first Focolare and made you think of the first Christians who ‘were one heart and one soul and didn’t have any needy among them” (cf Acts 4:32-35).
Whoever adheres to the charism of unity, in one way or another communion of heart becomes a natural thing, putting into common the things one has: for some it means everything, for others something, for others what is extra. From these expressions of communion a far-reaching project has also been born, even from a theoretical point of view: the Economy of Communion, which is the mature and integral expression of a way of understanding the human person and living in service of him. Hundreds of businesses around the world belong to the Economy of Communion. In these businesses, work is envisioned as a way of nobilization of the human person. Legality and justice are daily priorities.
Chiara Lubich wrote: “The magna charta of Christian Social Doctrine begins there, where Mary sings: ‘He has put down the mighty from their thrones, he has raised up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty‘ (cf. Lk 1: 53-53). The highest and most uncontrollable revolution is found in the Gospel. And, perhaps, it is part of God’s plan that even in these times, immersed in finding solutions for social problems, it will be Our Lady who will give a hand to Christians in building, consolidating, constructing and showing to the world a new society in which the Magnificat will be powerfully echoed.”
![Living the Charism: Economy and Work]()
23 Jul 2011 | Focolare Worldwide
“Love brought to a social level will make us credible.” Challenged by these words of Chiara Lubich in 1984, the Igino Giordani School of Social Learning (EDES) was begun in Argentina. Since then, twelve courses have been offered every two years allowing the charism of unity to enter into dialogue with various issues in the social field in the light of the Social Doctrine of the Church (SDC). Vittorio Sabbione and Lia Brunet who were pioneers of the Focolare Movement in South America, were the principle supporters of this project, guided in the beginning by Bishop Jorge Novak. This year, EDES has begun a new phase in Mariapolis Lia (O’Higgins-Argentina) where the school is located. Between the 9th and 11th of July it examined a topic entitled: “The Social Dimension of Humankind’s Yes to God”. 
Methodology. The coordination team which was composed of experts, used a communitarian work approach. Topics and issues were chosen together by everyone. Texts were screened and chosen by the whole group as well. Then a final version was drawn up that was presented to the School. It was constantly a matter of thinking together enlightened by the words of the Gospel: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst” (cf. Mt 18:20). This same dynamic was applied by the students who participated in the seminar. Some of the topics that were discussed included: “Social life in the perspective of fraternity”, “Principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church”, “Humankind’s yes to God in its Trinitarian structure: Jesus Forsaken, the social question and the united world”, “Tools for implementing the SDC”. The presentations given by Bishop Agustín Radrizzani (Bishop of Mercedes-Lujan and current Rector of EDES), were much appreciated, because of how they were both deeply rooted in the teachings of the Church and steeped in the charism of unity. 
Experiences were important: the construction of housing in the Barrio Nueva Esperanza (Tucuman); efforts to integrate the work between the neighborhood parish of San Nicolás (Córdoba) and a community of gypsies; the preferential option for the poor of a teacher from Asunción (Paraguay), and the extensive work of “family listening groups” (San Martín, Buenos Aires); “Child Alert”, a citizen’s initiative born from the town’s painful loss of its dying children in Santa Fe, after which the provincial government enacted a law that was then adopted by other Argentine provinces; and the wonderful story of the Aurora School of Santa María of Catamarca, that with its craftsman training program has become a pioneer in the redemption of the culture of the native Calchaquí people “The training course was very important for evaluating our situation with new eyes,” says one Argentine youth. He adds: “It helped me to understand that change is within our reach and that we can accomplish it together.” The presence of the young brought a note of vivacity and hope to the EDES. 
The enthusiasm that was expressed at the conclusion of the seminar foretold a future that would be rich in developments and proposals. “The climate of simplicity, seriousness, research and inviting to live a new kind of society, permitted me to profit from the topics that were discussed, and instilled in me a desire to lose nothing of what I experienced here,” said a young professional career woman with a lot of experience behind her. She concluded: “It seemed beautiful to me and well done. The topics discussed were well inculturated in the Latin American reality and in tune with the DSC, especially the “Aparecida Document”. I learned so much!”
22 Jul 2011 | Focolare Worldwide
I was parish priest at the Farim Mission, in Guinea Bissau, a city to the north of the capital, Bissau, on the border with Senegal. I would go to a village for catechism classes, preparing for Baptism. What was being taught was important, but I personally had the impression that it was all too theoretical. In past years, during my stay in Fonjumetaw, Cameroon, I had seen how the Word of Life helped in the work of evangelization. And so I began to take the monthly Word of Life and, following a brief explanation, I would invite everyone to put it into practice in order to then share with each other the fruits of doing so in the coming weeks. To make it easier, I handed everyone a piece of paper on which I had written the Gospel sentence and I invited them to hang it by their bed and read it in the morning when they rose from their beds, and at night, when they went to sleep. If they didn’t know how to read, I suggested that they ask their children to help them. Over the next few weeks, more and more people had something to say. One afternoon, in the village of Sandjal, some twenty km from Farim, when the time came to share experiences, a man told what happened to him during the previous week. The Word of Life was “Love your enemies” (Mt. 5:44). “One night the my neighbour’s cows entered into my bean plantation and destroyed it. This wasn’t the first time. This is why we hadn’t spoken to each other for months. But this time I was determined to make him pay. It was high time for him to see the damage he was doing. Me, my wife and children each took up a big piece of wood and set out for our neighbor’s house. But after taking only a few short steps i recalled the the Word of Life and said: ‘Stop! We can’t go. Last week I received a small paper which said to forgive our enemies, and in a few days I have to go back to the catechism class. What will I tell them if I go now to punish my neighbour? But then he will carry on doing as he has always done!’ Let’s go home and sit down. Letting it go as if nothing had happened didn’t seem correct. We decided to go to the man, not with a threatening air, but to dialogue. We explained to our enemy what had happened and we asked him to pay more attention to his cows. Our neighbour was speechless. He fell at my feet and asked me to forgive him over and over again. From that moment we began to greet each other, and I would say that we have become friends. It was months that we hadn’t spoken! And a new joy has entered my home.” In another village, Sarioba, 5 km from Farim, the same scene, a student stands up and says: “Every Monday we have to go on foot to Farim for school. There’s a seller who lives in a village not far away, who also goes to Farim with his truck. Normally, he doesn’t carry anything on the truck. Only that this time, after we had already travelled a distance of almost one kilometre, he stopped. He was having mechanical problems with the truck and he wasn’t able to move. When we reached him, we asked him if he needed a push to get the truck running. My friends said to me: ‘Let it go, let him take care of it himself. He never helped us.’ I was thinking the same thing, but then I remembered the Word of Life. And so we decided to give hi a hand to get the truck started. The engine started and the gentleman invited us to jump on, but we told him there was no need, and we continued on foot.” Fr. Celso Corbioli, OMI
![Living the Charism: Economy and Work]()
20 Jul 2011 | Focolare Worldwide
After a trip of nearly thrity-two hours, Franco Pizzorno and Pierangelo Tassano from the New Humanity Movement arrived in Singida, Tanzania. The object of their trip was to attend a formation course for seventy leaders of the ‘volunteers of God’ coming from Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Ruanda, Congo and Tanzania, who are invovled in enlivening different sections fo society with Gospel values. 
The five days of meetings proved to be very fruitful, highlighting the importance giving a life witness to the efficacious words of the Gospel. The cultural and spiritual research, presented by the volunteers themselves, and the deep sharing of experiences, made some guidelines emerge for seeking peace and the common good of society and its different ethnic groups, particularly in the field of education. “The peoples of these nations,” say Franco and Pierangelo, “have in communion and creativity in their DNA, perhaps more than people of other continents.” “Ubuntu, a typical African term means “I am what I am because of what we are,” and this is the natural root of this culture of relationships that makes you see problems in a different light, opening a space for new intuitioins from which valid solutions can be found not only for African society, but beyond.” 
John Bosco from Uganda states: “M. lives in my city. She has AIDS and other related illnesses. She’s old and poor. I called a meeting of the executive committee from my parish to see how we could help her, and with my wife cared for her. We brought her food, medicine, we washed her clothes. . . and other friends helped us in assisting her. Now M. is a part of our community. These actions did not go unnoticed and our testimony has stimulated many others to look better upon those who are in need.” Franco e Pierangelo conclude: “We left well aware that the peoples of this continent have so much to offer to the world, and so we listened and tried to understand not so much their most compelling needs, but mostly the talents of this culture which is so different and rich. As always, we recevied much more than we gave.”
![Living the Charism: Economy and Work]()
18 Jul 2011 | Cultura, Non categorizzato
Download site: http://itunes.apple.com/it/app/youcat/id448164885?mt=8 
Smartphone, iPhone, iPod, and iPad users will not be surprised by this announcement; in fact, they’ve been waiting for it. For the uninitiated, however, it can be useful to know that the frontier of new technologies, and in particular the so-called applications for mobile phones, now allow you to receive the news published on www.focolare. org on your smartphone! Glossary Smartphone (literally “smart” or “intelligent” phone) is a portable device that combines the functionality of the phone and the management of personal data. App – If you have a latest generation cell phone or iPad – as Giulio Meazzini, Citta Nuova journalist, explains in his book “Dal mare libero alle oasi protette” (From the Open Sea to Protected Oases) – the services that interest you can be accessed by using the “applications”, the so-called apps on the display that appear as many coloured icons, each one different from the other. 
The difference is by no means trivial: every app is built by a specific provider and offers a range of quick services, which are private and exclusive, targeted to the user. How the App of Focolare.org functions The app has been developed by TeamDev for Focolare.org and it can be downloaded for free at: http://itunes.apple.com/it/app/youcat/id448164885?mt=8 It is currently only available in Italian. In weeks to come it will also be available in English and Spanish. The screen allows you to enter the home page or one of the theme channels. This is version 1.0 with successive modifications forthcoming. Happy navigating to everyone! We look forward to your feedback!
