![Living the Gospel: A Contribution To Unity]()
28 Jan 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
Free from prejudice
We decided to join together with a lively community of Evangelical Methodists in our city, in helping out the many North African immigrants who live in our area: Tunisians who work as labourers in silk production; Senegalese and Moroccans who work as travelling sellers. . . . Many of them do not find a hot meal during the week. So we planned on setting up a canteen where they could be served hot meals when they come for the public market each week. We take turns buying the food, cooking, serving and eating with them. So many prejudices and stereotypes crumble between one dish and the next. S. F. (Italy)
A seed of unity
While in hospital for a small surgery I read a book given to me by my fiancé. It contained factual experiences of Gospel life. They were beautiful but I said to myself: “It’s impossible to really live this way.” Then my fiancé introduced me to some of these people and, speaking with them, I saw instead that it could be done. This opened a new path for us. We married with the intention of keeping our family open to others. At first I wasn’t religious even though I belonged to the Evangelical Church and Anna was Catholic. As we began to live the Gospel I began to realize that I should first go and give witness in my Church. So I did. I made contacts and now belong to the parish council. Through our lives we’d like to show our children and everyone we meet how beautiful Christianity is, making our family a small seed of unity. D. J. K. (Germany)
Peace
The many more violent clashes inside my country had produced a strong sense of anger and revolt within me. I suffered because of my helplessness in front of so much injustice and suffering. Innocents murdered, families chased from their homes and villages in ruin. I felt like I was drifting away from God, as if I were dying within myself. That night, describing to my wife the way I was feeling, she proposed that I make one more effort to leave at dawn and go to welcome some refugee families who had fled their devastated village. We went and one of the families with three boys came to stay with us. Then peace returned to my heart. J.P. (Lebanon)
Source: Il Vangelo del giorno, Città Nuova Editrice.
28 Jan 2014 | Non categorizzato, Word of
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
First of all, Jesus points out the very best way to be purified: ‘You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.’ (Jn 15:3) His Word, more than the practice of religious rites, is what purifies our inner self. The Word of Jesus is not like human words. Christ is present in his Word, as he is present, in a different way, in the Eucharist. Through his Word Christ enters within us and, provided we allow him to act, he makes us free from sin and therefore pure in heart.
Thus purity is the fruit of living the Word, of living all the Words of Jesus which free us from our so-called attachments, which we inevitably fall into if our hearts are not in God and in his teachings. These can be attachments to things, to people, to ourselves. But if our heart is focused on God alone, all the rest falls away.
To succeed in doing this, it can be useful at different times during the day to say to Jesus, to God: ‘You, Lord, are my only good!’ (see Ps. 16: 2) Let’s try to say it often, especially when various attachments seek to pull our heart towards those images, feelings and passions that can blur our vision of what is good and take away our freedom.
Are we inclined to look at certain types of posters or television programs? Let’s stop and say to him: ‘You, Lord, are my only good’ and this will be the first step that will take us beyond self, by re-declaring our love for God. In this way we will grow in purity.
Do we realize sometimes that someone, or something we do, has got in the way, like an obstacle, between us and God, spoiling our relationship with him? That is the moment to say to him: ‘You, Lord, are my only good.’ It will help us purify our intentions and regain inner freedom.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Living the Word makes us free and pure because the Word is love. It is love, with its divine fire, that purifies our intentions and the whole of our inner self, because our ‘heart’, according to the Bible, is the deepest seat of our intelligence and our will. But there is a type of love that Jesus commands us to practise and that enables us to live this beatitude. It is mutual love, being ready to give our life for others, following the example of Jesus. This love creates a current, an exchange, an atmosphere characterized above all by transparency and purity, because of the presence of God who alone can create a pure heart in us (see Ps. 50:12). It is by living mutual love that the Word acts with its purifying and sanctifying effects.
As isolated individuals we are incapable of resisting the world’s temptations for long, but in mutual love there is a healthy environment that can protect purity and all other aspects of a true Christian life.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
So, then, the fruit of this constantly re-acquired purity is that we can ‘see’ God, which means we can understand his work in our lives and in history, hear his voice in our hearts, and recognize him where he is: in the poor, in the Eucharist, in his Word, in our communion with others, in the Church.
It is a foretaste of the presence of God which already begins in this life, as we ‘walk by faith, not by sight’ (2 Cor. 5:7), until the time when, ‘we will see face to face’ (1 Cor. 13:12) forever.
Chiara Lubich
Each month a Scripture passage is offered as a guide and inspiration for daily living. This commentary, translated into 96 different languages and dialects, reaches several million people worldwide through print, radio, television and the Internet. Ever since the Focolare’s beginnings, founder Chiara Lubich (1920–2008) wrote her commentaries each month. This one was originally published in November 1999.
This monthly leaflet is a supplement to Living City, the Focolare magazine (livingcitymagazine.com). People’s life experiences as they put the monthly sentence into practice can be read in Living City or in books published by New City Press (newcitypress.com).
For information and to subscribe to this leaflet or to the magazine, write to: Living City, 202 Comforter Blvd, Hyde Park, New York 12538; tel: 845-229-0496; e-mail: livingcity@livingcitymagazine.com. Visit focolare.org (international); focolare.us (U.S.). © 2014 by Living City of the Focolare Movement, Inc.
Read more on this topic:
- Leahy, Brendan. “Living the Word Together,” Going to God Together, New City Press, 2013.
- Lubich, Chiara. “Enlarge our heart,” Essential Writings, New City Press, 2007, p.81.
- Lubich, Chiara. “Until love is mutual,” The Art of Loving, New City Press, 2005, p.87.
Next month: March 2014
“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” (Jn 15:10)
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26 Jan 2014 | Non categorizzato
Chiara Lubich always saw Pasquale Foresi as someone with a unique design in the development of theFocolare Movement: the design of incarnating the charism of unity in concrete ways. For this reason she considered him, together with Igino Giordani, a co-founder of the Movement. In 1949 when he met Chiara and the Movement, Pasquale Foresi was a young man looking for his way in life. He felt called to priesthood and attended seminary in Pistoia, Italy, and the Almo Collegio Capranica in Rome. He recalls: “I was happy and satisfied with my choice, but at a certain moment I had second thoughts (. . .) I began to doubt that I could move toward priesthood with these thoughts in my heart, so I suspended my studies at least for the moment. It was then that I came to know the Focolare Movement (. . .) In the members of the Movement I found an absolute faith in the Catholic Church and, at the same time, a radically evangelical way of life. It made me see that this was my place and soon the idea of the priesthood returned.” He was the first focolarino to be ordained to the priesthood, followed by others who also felt called to serve the Movement in that way. Pasquale saw in the first steps of Chiara Lubich and her companions “an evangelical spring gushing forth in the Church” and he began a partnership with them that would lead him as a priest to make a fundamental contribution to the Movement’s development, as a very close associate of Chiara Lubich. 
He wrote about some of his basic tasks in the Movement: “As a priest I was in charge of relations with the Holy See. I also worked for the Movement’s growth and development throughout the world. I assisted Chiara in drafting the Statutes of the Work of Mary. I also helped in starting up some of the permanent fixtures in the Movement such as the “Mariapolis Centres” that provide courses for the members; the town of Loppiano in Italy; and Citta Nuova publishing house.” But there is one area of Fr Foresi’s life that perhaps represents his specific contribution to the development of the Movement. He explains: “It’s in the logic of such things that these new spiritual currents or charisms in the Church contain implications for culture as well. If you study history you’ll find that this has always been the case: the development of architecture, the arts, ecclesial and social structures, the fields of human knowledge and especially theology.” Fr Foresi has spoken and published numerous articles and books on the novelty of the spiritual and social dimension of the theology that emerges from Chiara’s charism. His words contain a keenness of analysis, breadth of vision and optimism for the future that is made possible by the wisdom that comes from a strong charismatic experience, as well as the abysses of light and love, humility and loyalty that can only be created in a person’s life by God.
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22 Jan 2014 | Non categorizzato
«Today I am 46 years old. It’s twice the age I had when I started living the Ideal [the spirituality that radiates from the charism of unity, ed.]. I’m happy because from now on the period I have lived the Ideal will be more than without it.
But, my God, once more I need to throw my life into your heart. I need to burn my being in the ardent flames of the Holy Spirit, whom we have to thank for all eternity and from this moment for having indicated this way of love to us: to love, to love always, to love all. At the end of each day, to be able to say: I have always loved.» (Diary of 22 January 1966)
«Speaking of Jesus, St Paul writes: ‘… and he gave his life for me.’ (Gal 2:20).
Each of us can repeat those words of the Apostle: for me.
My Jesus, if you have died for me – for me – how can I doubt your mercy? And if I can believe in that mercy with faith which teaches me that a God has died for me, how can I not risk everything to return this love?
For me. Here is the formula which wipes out the solitude of the most lonely; raises into God every poor man belittled by the whole world; fills every heart to the brim and makes it spill over onto those who either do not know or do not remember the Good News.
For me. For me, Jesus, all those sufferings? For me that cry?
Oh! You will certainly not let my poor soul be lost nor many others, but you will do everything… if only because we have cost you too much.
You gave birth to me for Heaven, as my mother did for earth. You are always thinking of me, only of me, as you do of each and every person.
You give me more courage to live my Christian life than if I had the whole universe at my back to spur me on.
For me. Yes, for me.
And so, Lord, let me also say especially for the years that remain: for You.» ( Chiara Lubich, Knowing How to Lose, New City, London 1981, pp.3-4).
![Living the Gospel: A Contribution To Unity]()
20 Jan 2014 | Non categorizzato
Gen Verde
Music Made To Be Played
New Year, New Release! It’ s 66th album.
These 14 original songs plus an instrumental take a fresh look at the challenges and choices facing individuals and society today. The album offers a clear and positive perspective on building relationships in a multicultural but divided world in order to go together towards a hope-filled future where all can live in dignity and peace.
