Search results for "parola di vita" | Movimento dei Focolari

Dialogue as a Style of Life

Feb 5, 2018 | Non categorizzato

2018-02-02-PHOTO-00000534 “A 360 degree dialogue with every person, even people of different convictions had become normal for our family, shared by our children Pietro, Elena and Matteo.” Annamaria and Mario Raimondi are like a rushing river as they share the many experiences of dialogue they’ve had as a family. They now live in a quiet little town in northern Italy, on Lake Como, only forty-five minutes from Milan, Annamaria points out. He’s an ordinary professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Milan, and she’s a teacher. Both are retired, at least “officially”. They’re quite lively and very active with their family and three grandchildren In their diocese, they’re very involved with ecumenism, and they’re also at the service of the local Focolare community.

Mario and Joe

“Because of my job,” Mario explains, “we had to travel a lot, especially in England, Paris and the United States. We met the focolare community in Boston while I was doing research there. The spirituality of unity opened our heart and our mind to many brothers and sisters from other cultures and different religious beliefs. Joe, a colleague whom I met in Paris, was on of them and, over time, became like a brother to me.” “In 1975,” continues Annamaria, “with the children, who were small, we became guests of his family in Bristol, England. Joe was the only son of a Jewish family – his father was Russian and his mother Hungarian. They had fled Vienna, because of the persecution. The wife of Joe, Zaga, is the daughter of a Communist colonel from the former Yugoslavia; she is a woman with great human values, who claims to be an atheist. Their four children and ours were age mates. We shared our daily life together, work, decision-making and approaches to education. One time, when we we had gone back to Milan where we were living at the time, the relationship with Joe and Zaga continued through letters, telephone calls and a lot of travelling for work. Sometime later Joe wanted to return to the faith, re-connecting with his roots. Now, 20 years later, he was unexpectedly diagnosed with a serious illness. The doctors gave him a month to live, and we ran to see him. During the funeral, which we attended, one of his sons said a prayer in Hebrew. That was a very moving moment.” 2018-02-02-PHOTO-00000537

“Even now,” Mario reports, “after many years the relationship with Zaga and her family still continues. She’s old now and not in very good health. We visited her often, for example, when her daughters married, and when her first grandson was born (who just happened to be named Mario!). We went through everything together in our lives: raising the children, vacations, the scientific research… It wasn’t just great human understanding among us, but something much deeper than that. Each of us felt free to be him or herself, and the love among was sincere. Zaga, who still claims to be a non-believer, participated in the priestly ordination of Pietro and the Religious Profession of Elena – even while wearing a cast on her leg – Matteo’s marriage… The relationship between our families is still there, and we continue to share the simple times together, the deep and the important moments.” “Last summer,” Annamaria went on to say, “we learned that an 80 year-old English gentleman had a heart attack while visiting Lake Como in Italy. The hospital was fairly close to our home. He and his wife, who didn’t speak any Italian, were having a hard time. The other members of their group had returned to England. During the hospital stay, which lasted for two weeks, we visited him every day him every day, helping him to communicate with doctors, finding a place for his wife to stay with some nuns near the hospital, doing ordinary things as if we had known each other forever. We gave them the Word of Life and shared simple but deep moments together. When he was released from hospital, we accompanied them to the airport. It was there that Antony – as he’s called – asked ‘May I give you a blessing?’ That’s when we discovered that he was an Anglican minister. The memory of that very special goodbye is always with us. Returned to London, Antony and his wife, who are already in close contact with the local Focolare community, still thank us, recalling that moment with gratitude.” Chiara Favotti

The Adventure of Unity / Building the Work of Mary

Jan 19, 2014 | Non categorizzato

<strong>December 7, 19443 is considered the day of the Focolare Movement’s birth, because on that day Chiara Lubich “married God” by consecrating herself to Him forever.

But the Focolare foundress had also been known to say that another date for celebrating the Movement’s birth was her October 1939 visit to Loreto where, according to a tradition, the house of Nazareth is preserved. The family atmosphere that was lived in that family was a “calling” for Chiara; a calling to silently relive the family of Nazareth, the greatest mystery in history, the life of God amongst His people.

Many exceptional discoveries followed upon that moment. But Chiara was never alone in these discoveries: Natalia Dallapiccola, Giosi Guella, Marilen Holzhauser, Graziella De Luca, Vale e Angelella Ronchetti, Dori Zamboni, Gis e Ginetta Calliari, Silvana Veronesi, Lia Brunet, Palmira Frizzera, Bruna Tomasi . . . and a few years later, Marco Tecilla, Aldo Stedile, Antonio Petrilli, Enzo M. Fondi, Pasquale Foresi, Giulio Marchesi, Piero Pasolini, Oreste Basso, Vittorio Sabbione . . . these were the first of many other who would follow Chiara. The personal lives of these men and women who followed the path opened by Chiara show how necessary each of them was to God’s plan in bringing about the Movement and its structures, as the charism took flesh. It couldn’t have happened in any other way for a charism characterized by a unity that is an expression of life of the Trinity. These companions were people from very diverse backgrounds and professions, all guided by the same voice to place their talents at the service of others.

The Focolare Movement’s development over these 70 years seems to explain the assertion of Gregory the Great that the Sacred Scriptures “grow with the one who reads them” and “Like the world, the Scripture is not created once and for all: the Spirit still “creates” it each day, you could say, little by little, as he “opens” it [to us]. Through a marvellous correspondence He “dilates” it according to the measure in which the intelligence of the receiver welcomes it”[1]. For the members of the Movement it was the sharing of how each person was living the Gospel that nourished the understanding of Jesus’ words. Living the Word and communion was a practice that would lead to a collective form of asceticism.

The life of Chiara and many others who welcomed and accepted the Word in times of epochal cultural transformations demonstrates what the work of their life had been: “to be partakers in God’s plans for humanity, to embroider patters of light on the crowd and at the same time to share in each neighbour’s shame, hunger, troubles and brief joys.” Today more than ever, the real attraction is to live “the highest contemplation while mingling with everyone, one person alongside others.”

Chiara’s early companions experienced what the Second Vatican Council explains regarding to the Church: “By the power of the Gospel [the Holy Spirit] makes the Church keep the freshness of youth. Uninterruptedly He renews it and leads it to perfect union with its Spouse” (LG, 4).

[1] Guido I. Gargano, Il libro, la parola e la vita, L’esegesi biblica di Gregorio Magno, San Paolo edizioni, 2013 (Our translation)

Finding God in Prison

Jan 19, 2013 | Focolare Worldwide

Mirta Zanella, a native of Argentina, from Mendoza, is married and has three children. She has known the spirituality of unity for quite some time now and has experienced that living the Word of God transforms us and also changes the reality around us.

One day her house keys disappeared, along with her husband’s salary and other valuable items. Who could it have been? The theft had to be necessarily carried out by someone close to the family. This caused Mirta great suffering, so much so that she was unable even to pray. Then, remembering that Jesus invites us to forgive, she does so, even for the person who stole from her.

A few days later she learnt that a lady in difficulty who begged for alms in the neighbourhood, and with whom she’d had a friendly relationship, had stolen from a neighbour’s house. While she threatened this neighbour with a gun, her husband stole the goods. Subsequently, even Mirta received serious threats from her and so she called the police to defend herself. The woman was arrested. After the trial that found her guilty of various crimes, she was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

In the following months Mirta’s husband suggested that she go visit her in prison, but this was not part of her plans. “No way,” she answered, also overtaken by fear. Sometime later there was a new request. This time it was the parish priest who invited her to accompany a group of ladies to the women’s prison where, for that matter, the woman who robbed her was also imprisoned. Somewhat confused, Mirta accepted the invitation, remembering the Word of Life: “Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice’” (Mt. 9,13).

Thus she went with the group to the prison and saw the woman at the end of Mass. In a flash she decided to greet her with a hug. “She started to cry and asked for forgiveness,” narrates Mirta. “I replied that the Lord had already forgiven her and me too. She asked me to pray for her children and I promised to do so”.

From that day onwards, Mirta continued to visit the prison with the priest and others, until she was asked to coordinate the Prison Ministry group. The prison inmates were touched by their concrete love and changed their attitude by making themselves available. They tidied up the chapel by restoring the crucifix and polishing the benches, so much so that Mass can now be regularly celebrated there. Some impressions of the prisoners confirm the changed atmosphere brought about: “I didn’t know how to dialogue with my children. Now I’m able to understand them”; “I was selfish. I only saw my pain, but I’m trying to be also sensitive to that of the other”; “The place doesn’t matter. Here I’ve discovered God”.

On Christmas Eve, Mirta and her friends organised a gala dinner in the prison and the Bishop went to celebrate Mass. On the one hand it meant forgoing to celebrate the feast with their families, while on the other it gave them a strong awareness of building an even larger family.