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.”
29 Dec 2018 | Non categorizzato
This year too as Christmas approaches there is a lot of buzz among the children of the Focolare Movement who are serious in sharing to others the invitation to welcome Jesus in those who are suffering
Pope Francis, during the Christmas of 2017, invited us to see to it that: «Our heart is not closed like the houses of Bethlehem were»1. Taking this invitation of the Pope seriously, with the support of their assistants, the involvement of their parents, teachers, classmates, their activity called «Jesus is left out!» (Hanno sloggiato Gesù) (HSG) is directing itself towards supporting projects of hospitality to help those who are marginalized or who suffer due to wars, injustices, those who are homeless or are forced to leave their homeland.
In this unique «framework» of hospitality, they have set-up small workshops to make little statues of Baby Jesus to offer in the streets, the town or city squares, in the most varied places so as to share with everyone that the real meaning of Christmas is Jesus who is born for everyone, today like yesterday, and that He is waiting for us to welcome Him in all those who are in need. The action of “HSG” conducted by the littlest ones, brings with it the profound values of Christmas: giving oneself, gratitude, unconditional love, generosity. This indirectly also reinforces these values in adults and in families. The production of the little statues promotes manual, creative and immaginative skills, collaboration, planning and self-expression. It develops in the children a sense of active citizenship, solidarity, fraternity, also through the fund-raising activities that provide concrete answers to the needs of children in different parts of the world. It stimulates the desire to give. Many people in fact, spontaneously leave a donation to support these initiatives. Experiences have been shared by adults who have received the message from the little ones on how, with love, they would like to find a home for Jesus at least this Christmas. «It is really life-changing to enter a supermarket and be welcomed by these children who smilingly offer you Baby Jesus», exclaimed a gentleman from Florence. «We think we can find everything in a supermarket but I never imagined that I would go home bringing Jesus with me!».
prepared by Rosi Bertolasso
28 Dec 2018 | Non categorizzato
A quarterly journal for those who work at all levels in the ecclesial ambit. The subheading “Pathways of Communion and Dialogue” describes the type of content that characterises it. Born in synergy between the Focolare Movement and the Città Nuova Publishing Group, this journal, in both printed and digital form, released its first issue in Italian, but articles in English are also foreseen. Other language editions are expected to be published in the near future. It is presented as an instrument of formation, as an aid for action and as a source of inspiration in the search for new ways and expressions to share the Gospel with the men and women of our time. It is aimed at pastoral workers and animators, members of religious organisations (consecrated persons and laity), people involved in parishes or dioceses, people belonging to ecclesial movements or associations, but it will also dedicate space to the relationship between different Churches and world religions, to the encounter between different beliefs and cultures, to the renewal of Church and society. Each issue will focus on a particular theme. “The Greek word ekklesía means ‘assembly’, people who know they are summoned and called together to be protagonists in the journey of a people,” reads the editorial of the first issue. “The subheading pathways refers to the experimental and in-depth nature of the publication; communion and dialogue defines the direction in which it is heading but also its style. We hope that the journal, in both printed and digital form, and in all its subsequent language editions, may express and be of service to the community.” The authors include: Piero Coda (theologian), Vincenzo Zani (Secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education), Tiziana Longhitano SFP, Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi (Archbishop of Aquila), Gerard Rossé (exegete), Brendan Leahy (Bishop of Limerick, Ireland), Jesús Morán (Co-President of the Focolare Movement), Fabio Ciardi OMI (expert on consecrated life), Susana Nuin (communications expert from Columbia), Callan Slipper (Anglican theologian) and Stefan Tobler Evangelical theologian. More details and journal subscription: www.cittanuova.it Email: ekklesia(at)cittanuova.it / abbonamenti(at)cittanuova.it
27 Dec 2018 | Non categorizzato
Twenty-five years of the Focolare in Albania “We, who have followed the developments of the Focolare Movement in the world and in Albania, have noted the Focolare’s concrete response to our need for unity.” Words pronounced by Donika Omari, an Albanian journalist and translator without any religious convictions, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the arrival of the spirituality of unity in the ‘Land of Eagles’. Albania still suffers from social, regional, ideological and religious divisions. A country made up of Muslims, with the presence of the Sufi religious brotherhood of Bektashi; Christians, mostly Catholic and Orthodox; and many people who do not recognize themselves in any religious belief. “Chiara Lubich’s message of unity overcoming divisions of all kinds among people – continues Donika Omari – has been healthy for our land.” 
In 1991, the first focolarino, Gigi Franco arrived in Durazzo and was welcomed by a family. Then, the second focolarino arrived and the male Focolare centre was opened in Tirana, followed some years later by the female one. Since then a community has been forming, which includes today Christians, Muslims and people without a religious belief. “The spirit of ‘becoming one with the neighbour’, the brotherhood among people without distinction of social category, race, nationality, ideology – explains Donika Omari – are messages that have attracted me to this Movement from the beginning. We feel this need for our country where old and new upheavals have hindered the normalization of human relations.” The country has experienced very painful moments, such as the 1999 war in Kosovo, but the Focolare Movement all over the world helped us. They helped to raise funds, take in over 500,000 refugees, and also helped out in reconstructing the country after the war. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Focolare in Tirana, a public event was held in the Great Hall of the Catholic University “Our Lady of Good Counsel” where Chiara Lubich’s book in Albanian, “Una via nuova”, was presented. There were about two hundred participants, with representatives from Kosovo and Macedonia. Among them was the Apostolic Nuncio, Msgr. Charles Brown, the Catholic Archbishop, Msgr. Frendo, the Cathedral of Tirana’s Orthodox Bishop, Asti Bakallbashi, and a Muslim Pedagogy professor from the University of Skopje, Prof. Shehu. “This anniversary is a sign of continuity and development. It gave me the joy to see that despite the invasion of consumerism and the anxiety for a precarious future, leading many to think of expatriation, the family and social values of Albanian society are still intact even among the youth,” says Livio Brianza, who has lived in the Focolare of Tirana for twelve years. The Focolare Movement’s President, Maria Voce, sent a message to the Albanian Focolare community in which she expressed: “nourished and strengthened by continuous mutual love and by an ever more intense presence of the Love of loves among you, may you contribute in making your cities ‘shine like gold’ with increased commitment.” “Twenty-five years ago I wanted to change the world – says Madi Roço, an Albanian and a legal expert in environmental legislation – I was very confident that I would see the world united with my own eyes. I still have the same dream, loud and clear. Seeing the Focolare ‘family’ grow and join me, has ‘armed’ me with the courage to move forward.”
Cristina Tomelleri
21 Dec 2018 | Non categorizzato
Christmas greetings from Maria Voce, President of the Focolare Movement. https://vimeo.com/307656906 It’s Christmas! If I look around me, in towns and cities but also in the media, I often ask myself, “What is Christmas really about?” It is as though there is a din all around me, because it seems to be made up of dinners, gifts, decorations, lights and street markets. And all this din seems to be trying to hide – without succeeding – the cry of pain and suffering on the part of so many people in the world who are calling out for solidarity, respect, welcome, peace and justice. They are really appealing for love. And human beings don’t know how to give them love, but God does. God knows how to give love and he does so. The little Child we see in the crib this Christmas, as in all the other Christmases, tells of God’s love. God so loved humankind as to become one of us, becoming small and defenceless, facing all kinds of sufferings, not only facing them but actually experiencing them, all the sufferings of humankind and death itself. Coming to live among people on earth was God’s way of saying “yes” to humankind once more, to reunite them again with him. God’s ‘yes’ to humankind is represented by that little Child in Bethlehem, by that baby whose name people don’t even want to hear mentioned any more. I visited a country where in order to keep the festive atmosphere of Christmas without referring to God, people invented a “Winter Festival” to be able to celebrate. Yet even so, God loves each person and continues to love everyone, telling us so once more. This Child not only shows us God’s love but shares this love with us. He gives us love, helping us to live it and teaching us what to do. He then wants us to do the same, to be witnesses of God’s love to other people, giving God’s love to others, a love like his. God’s love does not have preferences. It is a love that reaches everyone, that does not put up barriers; it is not prejudiced and does not discriminate between people. This love can open our hearts, our hands, our arms, our wallets and our homes. If this kind of love is alive among people, then God himself lives among them. Only God can make everyone feel at home, creating a family among everyone, all brothers and sisters, a real celebration. Christmas is like this. If we live in this way, it is a real Christmas for us. This is the Christmas I wish for all of you. Happy Christmas!
