A glimpse behind the scenes

Jan 30, 2021 | Non categorizzato

General Assembly Diary 7 30 January 2021 As the Assembly continues to work on the priorities and lines of action for the next six years, today we’d like to offer a glimpse behind the scenes, to get to know the people who are keeping the “machine” working, without whom none of this could happen. The online nature of the event called for a network of collaborators and technicians specialized in different fields, indispensible not only for the efficacy of the digital platform but also to guarantee the juridical validity of this Assembly. No less than 73 people comprise the technical team of the Focolare General Assembly. Many are physically present in the Movement’s international centre at Rocca di Papa in Italy, while others collaborate remotely from many parts of world including Brazil, the Philippines, France, Guatemala, Britain, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Thailand and USA. Twenty I.T. experts are working on the web pages and various apps. 14 hosts, divided into two teams, run all the various video-conferences. 34 translators in 7 countries guarantee the participants have simultaneous translations in 5 languages (French, English, Italian, Portughese and Spanish). Then there is the 5-person squad responsible for the general coordination of all the technical teams. But it’s more than a network of collaborators or technical experts, according to Francesco Mazzarella, one of the video-conference hosting team working from Sicily. He writes: Behind the online Assembly, a group of people around the world, the so-called technical experts, have been ‘meeting’. We’ve been getting to know each other and creating a bond far beyond the technical aspect because there’s been a spiritual sharing among us too. It’s come about gradually, through a process of what we could call ‘techno-relationship’. Most of the time, we don’t think about all that has to happen before an event can take place. Today, the challenge goes via the internet, with the all uncertainties and challenges involved, and with all the possibilities it contains too. To manage these moments online without seeing each other face to face, without being able to physically shake each other by the hand, is the real challenge of this Assembly. But the greatest issue for the technicians is about making a gift of our own competencies, which have been acquired through much personal sweat and study. This requires a kind of exchange of trust. Let me explain myself. A technican, even those who have made a choice to follow the principles of the spirituality of unity in their work, is still a professional who takes personal pride in their work and their own skills. The willingness to share methods or procedures that have been learnt with so much personal effort and study is not automatic. It requires a real act of faith, trusting that the others are there out of love, trusting that by so giving we are contributing to building the Assembly. So it’s a connection of electronic signals and of souls which constitutes the foundation and techo-relationships of this adventure called our online Assembly. Usually, the technicians only come to our attention when something isn’t working properly. In this Assembly, it’s different. Their work and their “style” are building this event, day by day. Thanks to each one of them!

Focolare Communications Office

Text in PDF

Lithuania – The spiritual closeness of God and others is a healing balm

Jan 30, 2021 | Non categorizzato

The story of Irena, a doctor in Lithuania who is a member of the Focolare Movement in Eastern Europe who was infected with the Covid-19 virus. She experienced both the fatigue of illness and the strength in God’s love through prayer. “I’m inundated with messages and prayers. I don’t even know how my friends, acquaintances, colleagues hear about it. Even friends who I didn’t even know knew how to pray are praying. I had no idea that so many people could join in prayer for my health.” Irena is a hospital doctor, a member of the Focolare Movement who lives in Lithuania, in Eastern Europe. During these months that her country has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, her work became exhausting, and she was infected by the virus and experienced all the fatigue of the disease. But her strength, she says, has come from her trust in God’s love. Her discovery of being united with many people in prayer rewarded her personal efforts and gave energy to her healing journey. Her experience was particularly hard. At first, work on the ward continued at the usual pace, but soon the contagion spread among her colleagues. Irena found herself working alone. “I had to find places for staff to be sent to isolation,” she explains, “to settle patients who had to be discharged because there was no one to care for them and contact relatives so they could take care of them. “There were no masks for the patients, and I would hand them out my own. Once, with a colleague who stayed after hours, we examined 37 patients. Only the night was calm, and I could pray.” After days in the hospital without rest, Irena was able to return home. Yet it was with the knowledge that she had contracted the disease. She was relieved to feel the spiritual closeness of Focolare founder Chiara Lubich. “On the shelf next to my bed there was a photo of Chiara smiling, and I saw her as if for the first time. She smiled at me and I smiled at her, everything became easier.” Gradually, the symptoms of the disease became more burdensome, but Irena did not give in to the pain. “I lost my taste receptors and realized that even the sense of taste is a gift from God. I offered my suffering for my colleagues and for my country. The nights were very difficult, but Chaira was with me smiling.” When the disease became more aggressive, hospitalization became inevitable, and this brought new challenges. “I no longer had the strength to speak, and I underwent an experimental treatment. The person in charge took care of me, but the nurses forgot to bring me my medication and didn’t ask if I had the strength to take food from the cart. But I could offer these hardships as well.” Here, too, help came from those close to her. “In my room there was a lady with cancer, and she brought me food, drinks. We became friends, and when I felt better, we prayed together.” Feeling united in prayer with the many people who prayed for her allowed Irena to feel loved, by God and by her brothers and sisters. “I am grateful to God for the indescribable love that I experienced during my illness,” she says, “because I always felt him near me, and for the beautiful experience of common prayer, which has huge power, and God has allowed me to experience it live. I feel reborn.”

Claudia Di Lorenzi