7 Jan 2019 | Non categorizzato
For more than three years, the Focolare community in Wallis- Futuna has been collaborating with the local authorities in an ecological initiative to restore the island of Wallis to its original beauty Wallis, Futuna, Alofi and another twenty small islands in the northern Pacific Ocean form an archipelago, which has been part of the French overseas territories since 1961. Wallis is the largest and most densely populated island; it is surrounded by lots of smaller islands and by an enormous coral reef. This area of outstanding natural beauty is being gradually spoilt by the increase of rubbish that is accumulating there. Everything from drinking straws, scrap, plastic bottles to tyres, glass and old furniture is either being dumped on the island or being washed up by the ocean, polluting the beaches and marine life. Eva Pelletier from the Focolare community said, “The problem has become more serious and has attracted a lot of attention from the media, including coverage by the RFO Wallis and Futuna channel. In 2015, in response to Pope Francis’ encyclical ‘Laudato Si’, we decided to launch a series of initiatives, aimed at both adults and children, to create greater awareness of the problem on our island. This ecological action created opportunities to collaborate and dialogue with a range of local organisations and groups. The problem has caused division and tension among the three leaders in the area and even in the Governing Assembly. In fact, we were very surprised when, in November 2017, at the beginning of the week dedicated to waste reduction all over Europe (SERR), our Prefect, with the support of the Department of the Environment, wanted to take part in one of our initiatives on the little island of Nukuloa, to the north of Wallis. Given the significance of the occasion, they were joined by other ministers, the leader of the northern district and the governors of Vaitupu and Vailala. After the opening speeches and ceremony offering garlands and typical food to the participants, a child very spontaneously handed out gloves to wear during rubbish collection; the first people to be given these gloves were the Prefect and the Prime Minister. That day we cleared 500 kilos of rubbish from the beaches. The Department of the Environment has supported this initiative since 2016 and has provided boats, lorries and workers. In May last year, we realised that we should not limit our work to just the collection of rubbish (more than 2600 kilos) but that we should focus on the prevention of an epidemic of dengue fever that is spread by infected mosquitoes. We began to clean up the canals, drains, riverbanks and even a very deep well. Everyone needs to do their part and even if they do not, we are not going to lose hope. As Chiara Lubich said, ‘In loving, want counts is to love.’”
Chiara Favotti
4 Jan 2019 | Non categorizzato
In some countries children receive gifts on the feast of the Epiphany. What about the Child Jesus? Who thinks of him? Here’s a story that really happened, as Chiara Lubich told it to children in the little town of Loppiano (Italy).
My dear gen 4, I have to tell you a true story about something that happened at Christmas time, in a city called Vicenza in Italy. It’s a true story. There was a parish priest in that city who hadn’t been there for long and he taught the girls and boys … the art of loving. … But Christmas was coming up and so the Parish priest said to these children: “Look it is going to be Christmas soon so all of you have to try and do many, many, many acts of love for Baby Jesus”, and the Children said, “Yes, we will”. And they started to do many acts of love. On the night before Christmas, before Baby Jesus was born, the parish priest put the manger out in front of the altar, but it was empty because baby Jesus hadn’t been born yet. That evening the children saw the parish priest coming in with a very big parcel filled with a great many little rolls of yellow paper. There were 277 of these little rolls of yellow paper and on each one was written an act of love. So all together there were 277 acts of love. Now what did the Parish Priest do? He took these little rolls of paper and put them into a big sack, he filled up the sack and put it in the manger. He told the children, “Your acts of love will be like a pillow and a mattress for Baby Jesus when he is born. And the children were very happy to hear this. And so Christmas day came. Sometime in the morning, before midday, maybe at 10.30, the parish priest asked the children, “What do you think should we do with these acts of love? Do you know what we can do? We’ll tie them up into little parcels and then tie the parcels onto lots of balloons. We could even make two bunches of balloons and tie on the little parcels full of our acts of love. Then we will send them up to heaven and they will go to Baby Jesus. So all the children started to help. They had to buy the balloons and blow them up. They had to tie up the parcels with their acts of love and tie them onto the balloons and send them up to heaven. And the parish priest helped them send the balloons up into the sky. The children were really happy. They stared up into the sky and saw the balloons floating up higher and higher and becoming smaller and smaller, smaller and smaller until they couldn’t see them anymore. They started to say, “Maybe they will burst. Some of them said, “I bet they have all burst”. Some of them said, “Who knows?. Instead the balloons didn’t burst. Up there, high, high in the sky a strong wind blew up. A very strong wind. And what did the wind do? It tossed the balloons here and there, it blew them higher and further. For an hour, two hours, three hours. And the balloons kept on going where the wind was blowing them. And it kept on blowing them for four hours, five hours, six hours and more. I forgot to tell you that the parish priest had written his phone number on the little parcels. He just stuck it in at the last moment. Anyway at nine o’clock on Christmas night in a city far, far away from Vicenza, 100 miles from Vicenza and 100 miles is really a lot, in a city called Reggio Emilia there was a big house surrounded by a beautiful garden. Six little children were playing in the garden. They didn’t know anything about the Art of Loving. They were just 6 ordinary children who were outside in the garden playing. But they were very sad because their Christmas party was over. All of a sudden, even though it was quite dark, they looked up and saw many balloons floating down and all these balloons had lots of little parcels tied onto them. When they saw all the little parcels these children were really excited. This was much better than Santa Claus. This was Baby Jesus who was sending them all these balloons. It was really a miracle that the bunches of balloons made it and didn’t burst. They didn’t hurt anyone. They just floated down into this garden. The six children were so excited! They ran inside shouting, “Daddy, Mommy! Look what has happened! A lot of little parcels rained down from heaven and look at what is inside them!” And so their mother and father went outside in the garden to look. They looked in amazement and they saw all these little parcels filled with little rolls of yellow paper. They unrolled them and started to read. One of them opened the roll of paper and read what was written: “I said sorry to one of my friends out of love for Jesus”, that’s one. And another, “Jesus, I offer you the effort it takes me to get up in the morning and go to serve as an altar boy at mass. And another one, “I did something nice for someone even if it was very hard to do”. And then another one, “I always say I am sorry to God when my grandfather swears”. And then another one, “This week I helped my parents set the table, carry in the shopping, wash the kitchen floor, and sweep my room”. So that child did a lot of things. And then listen to this one, “I dried the dishes even though by mum didn’t ask me to, and I also helped clean the house”. That one did two acts of love. And another one, “When my little brother Sebastian doesn’t want to sleep, I pick him up and carry him to my bed or my parents bed and I put him to sleep by singing him songs or telling him stories”. And another one, “When we went swimming I lent my bathing cap to my little brother because he forgot his”. Just a minute, I have got another one, I have only brought some to them with me because there were 277 of them and that’s really a lot! Listen to this one. “I peeled an orange for my grandpa because I know his hands hurt — and I tied my cousins shoe laces because my grandma’s back was sore”. This boy was really caring for everyone. And there is one more. It’s the last one. “I did what the cube told me: “To be the first to love” because when I went to confession there were lots of children in a long line waiting and I let them all go ahead of me.” That’s just a few experiences these children had written. So what happened to all these little rolls of paper? Well, like I said, those 6 children took them to their mom and dad who noticed that among all those experiences there was also the phone number of the parish priest. So what did they do? It was nine o’clock at night, so quite late. But they picked up the phone just the same and called the number. The parish priest answered and they asked, “Are you Father John”? “Yes, that’s me.” “Well we are in Reggio Emilia and all these balloons floated down into our garden, with all these acts of love from the children in your parish. What will we do with them?” So they decided that the children would take the 277 acts of love to their school to show their teacher and their friends. In that school now all the children are writing to the children in Vicenza, so these 6 children and their friends will learn to do acts of love. Source: Chiara Lubich Center
3 Jan 2019 | Non categorizzato
Lubumbashi, important mining city with a million and a half inhabitants, in the South of the Country, is home to the women’s focolare center. Amisa Tabu lives here and shares with us the life of this community that radiates its action in eight provinces in Katanga and Kasai Amisa, how was the Focolare communityà born in this territory? 30 years ago, some missionaries came to Lubumbashi and gave life to a small community which was 2,000 km from Kinshasa, and in 2011 they requested for the presence of the focolare. When the Movement gave three lines of action: «go out, together, suitably prepared», with the invitation of Pope Francis to go towards the «existential peripheries», we felt called to do so because «we were always the same people». We understood that it was not enough to tell people that God is Love, but we now had to make this concrete. The push given by New Humanty was important for us: bear witness to the Gospel lived in the various work environments, such as healthcare, education, the exercise of justice, business, etc. Living in this way we realized that the community began to grow. The ideal of life that we were proposing suddenly became attractive. What is the focolare place in a growing community? We keep our doors always open. Chiara Lubich left us with her testament “always be a family”. The people must be able to make the experience of being a family whose supernatural bond must exceed that of a natural one. Hospitality is a living part of our culture. In focolare we don’t have a fixed schedule and everyone comes whenever they can. What do you do for the local Church? In July 2017 we held two schools in the minor and major Seminaries, with 140 participants. It was followed by a retreat/school for 104 priests coming from different Dioceses of Congo. We feel the support of the Church. Some preists promote the spirit of communion of the Movement in their parishes. And for society? We are striving to develop the project of Economy of Communion. There are 44 entrepreneurs who are attending our formation courses, like the one held in Nairobi in 2015, and they have begun to get involved and commit themselves. The social and political situation of the Democratic Republic of Congo is not one of the most reassuring: there is violence and corruption. It is therefore necessary to insist on the formation of “new men” with the instruments that have matured in the experience of the Focolare Movement. When the focolare center came to Lubumbashi the community had only about a hundred members, now we are around 500 with the blossoming of vocations in the various expressions of the Movement.
edited by Gianna Sibelli
2 Jan 2019 | Non categorizzato
Think big and begin small, look at the world but start from your own neighbourhood
All over the world, the
Teens for unity have started to come up with ideas and give life to
the project «Zero Hunger», with the support of the FAO who is encouraging especially the youth and teens to personally commit themselves to realize.
In Mumbai in India too the starting point was to identify the poor if the city. Poor not only of material things but also those poor in health, friendship. After meeting around eighty teens afflicted with Aids who are living in situations of dire poverty, the
Teens for unity wrote a letter to 600 families of various religions who live in the enormous condominiums in the area, explaining to them their dream of a world without hunger and proposing a used newspaper collection which would then be sold to generate funds. More than 50 families agreed to join the action expressing their gratitude for this project. The activity was repeated, encouraged precisely by the families in the neighborhood. Now other groups in many parts of India are repeating similar activities. If we are able to do an activity for an entire neighbourhood, why not involve the entire Town? This was the idea of three brothers from
Cesate in Lombardy, Italy, who presented their idea to the Mayor: to make Cesate a «Zero Hunger Town»! Together with her, they thought of activating a synergy among the Town, the parish and the school, extending the project also to nearby Towns. The teens talked to the parish priest and to the priest responsible for the oratory about Project «Zero Hunger» who were very happy about the proposal. They planned a strategy to reduce wastage in their refectories. With regards to the schools instead, a group of teens in Lebanonthey have planned that every year on October 16, the World Day of Nutrition, they will organize a «Zero Hunger Day» to encourage the reduction of wastage during meals.
It is precisely in synergy with the organizations in the city that this action brought ahead by teens from Lebanon started. In collaboration with Caritas, they gathered together more than sixty elderly who live in situations of solitude and financial difficulty. They prepared and served them lunch and organized dances and games. At the conclusion, one of the young girls asked the animator of their group if they could do this every week. «But we need a big budget to do this» she replied. «You adults – the young girl said – always think about big projects, but we must begin with small gestures». Involving one of her friends and other adults, they began a small activity: they prepare a meal together every two weeks which they bring to a family in difficulty, spending the afternoon with them.
Anna Lisa Innocenti
1 Jan 2019 | Non categorizzato
From an interview with Focolare President Maria Voce, originally published in the January issue of Neue Stadt magazine 1. What makes you laugh? Bloopers. For example I’m walking, I don’t see a step and find myself on the ground. I laugh so hard inside it’s difficult to get up! 2. What gets you mad? I don’t feel anger grow inside me. At the most I feel sorry – for something that’s happened, that’s been said to me or annoyed me. 3. What’s been the most important experience of your life? When I met a group of young people whose unity and witness fascinated me. They were consistent with the Christianity they lived, loving and being at the service of everyone, without ever judging anyone. This led to me getting to know the Focolare. My life changed the moment I truly listened to someone, thinking that he was my brother, that Jesus was within him. 4. What are your weaknesses? Curiosity. When I hear two people talking outside my door I can’t help but bend an ear. Each time I have to take a step and set that aside. 5. And your strengths? Optimism and trust. I trust in God and in others, even if I don’t know them, even if I realize that my trust is misplaced. This makes it easy to relate to others. 6. Where is your favorite place? I like the whole world. But in terms of a favorite place, I think of a comfortable house, where there are people with whom I can have true, deep communion. If possible, it would be a warm place with sun – on the shore! In my mind this house would be in a city, since I am a pretty social person. 7. What helps you rebuild your strength? A good sleep after having lived the present moment well and entrusted my worries to the Eternal Father. 8. What worries you? Everything that has to do with conflict and hostility: wars, family quarrels, unresolved problems. Many times there is nothing I can do about it, but if I can, I try to find a solution or help others find one. 9. What do you have at heart as you guide the Focolare Movement? For the movement to be an authentic witness of the charism of unity. There are groups all over the world who are living it this very moment. This gives me peace, it gives me confidence. This is where new ideas are born – new ways of incarnating. May they bring the charism of unity forward so that it achieves the goal Jesus prayed for: “That they may all be one.”
