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Dec 21, 2012 | Non categorizzato
Chiara Lubich – Christmas 1955
«He, who entered history two thousand years ago, wants to enter our lives, but the road in us is cluttered by obstacles. We need to flatten the hills, remove the blocks. What are the obstacles that can obstruct the road for Jesus?
They are all the desires not in conformity with God’s will that well up in our soul; they are the attachments that cling to it.
Minuscule desires to speak or keep silent, when we ought to do the opposite; desires for affirmation, for respect, for affection; desires for things, for health, for life… when God does not want them.
The more evil desires, of rebellion, judgement, revenge…
They all well up in our soul and invade it completely. We have to extinguish these desires decisively, remove these obstacles, put ourselves back in God’s will and so prepare the way of the Lord.
We must, the Word says, make his paths straight.
To make them straight: exactly that. Our desires lead us off the path. If we extinguish them, we put ourselves back on the ray of God’s will and we find our road again.
But there is a method of being sure of walking on a straight way, which takes us with certainty to our goal: to God.
It has an obligatory route; it is called our neighbour.
This Christmas, let us throw ourselves once again into loving every person we meet during the day.
Let us light up in our hearts that most ardent and praiseworthy desire which God most certainly wants: the desire to love every neighbour, making ourselves one with him or her in everything, with a love that is without self-interest and without limits.
Love will revive relationships and persons and will not allow selfish desire to spring up. In fact, it is the best antidote to selfishness.
We could prepare for Christmas like this, as a gift for Jesus who comes, giving him this as our fruit: rich and succulent; and our hearts: inflamed, consumed by love».
Chiara Lubich
[Source: Christmas Joy, New City, London 1998, p.55-56]
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Dec 21, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
The first Summer School in the Mariapolis Lia, the Focolare little town in Argentina, called in Spanish Escuela de Verano, is without doubt an extremely important step, with far-reaching consequences, in the academic development of Latin American young people.
It is not the first time that this little town has hosted an intense university-level study programme. It already hosts various well-attended seminars and courses in politics, economics and the arts.
The Escuela de Verano is the first such educational project run jointly with the Sophia University Institute, based in Loppiano, near Incisa Valdarno (not far from Florence, Italy), whose international educational status means it can give academic accreditation to the Summer School. Among its aims, Sophia offers a course of life, study and research that explores a deeper understanding of Christian culture, as inspired by the life and work of Chiara Lubich who founded Sophia in 2007. The ideal of universal brotherhood, which she proposed and developed, can be seen in the experience of that culture and in the way it expresses itself. It is a culture that seeks to shed light upon the many dimensions of human knowledge, in its various disciplines, as it searches for the common good.
This first Summer School will look at: Epistemological Foundations for a Culture of Unity from the Perspectives of Theology, Science and Politics. Apart from established Latin American lecturers, it is significant that Prof. Piero Coda the President of Sophia will be present and will give a lecture on The Trinitarian God and the Historical Development of Christian Faith. Prof. Sergio Rondinara, who works in the fields of epistemology and cosmology, will give two lectures on The Relationship between Humankind and the Cosmos, Scientific Rationality and the Relationship between the Natural Sciences and Faith, and Ecology. Dr Daniela Ropelato, lecturer in political sciences, will also give two lectures on Contemporary Forms of Democracy, New Social and Political Agents, and Fraternity as a Political Category.
The Escuela de Verano offers university-level education to young men and women through the medium of an intense experience of study and of a shared life with others. It builds an academic community and is designed to enhance the students’ career development and their intellectual progress in their various disciplines. This communitarian enterprise, rooted in a dialogue sustained by a mutual exchange of experiences, fosters both the personal and corporate growth of its participants.
There seems to be great enthusiasm for this first Summer School in Latin America, which will begin on 28 December 2012. Already 100 university students from Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Argentina have asked to be enrolled. From these 61 have been accepted on the courses.
