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11 May 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
I The Youth for a United World share some of the many signs of universal brotherhood that are taking place in many parts of the world.
New Zealand. “We do a different social project every month. There are many beautiful beaches in our country that are open to all: families, youths, runners and children. Even though the natural environment is generally taken into account and respected, the beach isn’t always clean. We contacted Wellington’s City Council which welcomed our project, supplying us with the tools that would be helpful for the clean-up. A group of youths from Youth for a United World met one afternoon, with rubbish bags and gloves. We chose one of the most crowded beaches. In addition to performing a service for the city, we also built friendships with many young people who got involved in the project.”
France. Following the Tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, we organized an evening of solidarity. During the evening we presented the United World Project and there was an internet link-up with a group of Japanese Youth for a United World. They shared how they had lived through the disaster, trying to help the people around them. We got to know more about the community of the Movement in Japan and their daily life. Some of our friends who were present that night were discovering for the first time the importance of solidarity and the joy that comes from being involved in a project that is geared towards universal brotherhood. The money we raised was sent to Japan to assist the local community.”
Italy. “My mother who is 94 years old, was rushed to the emergency clinic at 11:00 at night. My sister and I were worried and displeased when they asked us to leave the room, and our mother was left alone. A boy was seated beside us who looked like he wanted to talk. We asked him why he was there. His mother had perhaps suffered a heart attack, he told us. When we were allowed to visit our mother we found that she was in the same room as the boy’s mother. Thus we were able to bring the news to him and the husband who was seated in front of us. Then the boy went into the room and, in turn, brought us some news about our mother. The father – who was sitting there silently – began to speak with us of his work and the problems he was facing. Two hours later both our Moms were released. As we said goodbye to each other, the boy said: ‘It was a pleasure talking with you! I hope we can meet again!’ Our own anxiety had disappeared. Our personal pain and worry and we experienced that these can be overcome by loving the people around us.”
Ivory Coast. “The young mothers with children were not able to concentrate to focus on their work in the fields. So they decided to help each other by taking turns watching over the children. Before going to the fields, they now drop off their children with two of the other mothers who stay in their homes that day. They prepare the meals and stay with the children for the entire time. And a great trust has been born among this group of mothers.”
United World Project ¦ Facebook
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10 May 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
An opportunity for experiencing in order to then live and teach in seminaries, a Gospel lifestyle that is centred on communion: this was at the basis of the course for educators, which was held in the capital of Thailand on April 15-May 5.
The small handful of European priests who travelled from Rome found themselves before a young and living Church that is open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Seminaries are still full as they had once been on the old continent, even though the society and the economy are experiencing evolutions.
The 60 priests who attended the course were from several Asian regions: Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, East Timor and Thailand. They brought with them their own cultural diversity, but the challenge of seeing these not as an obstacle but as an opportunity for getting to one another was joyfully accepted by everyone.
Work was preceded by the celebration of the Eucharist, presided over by Francesco Kovithavanij, Archbishop of Bangkok and in charge of seminaries and the formation of the clergy at the local Bishops Conference.
As the days went on and the lessons continued, many noted the testimony of unity by the people who were the animators of the course and were personally committed to living what they were teaching.
Fr Silvestre Marques, the course director, noted: “the growing communion among all, communion of experiences, difficulties and many questions in a very open atmosphere.” For Brendan Purcell, from the diocese of Sydney, Australia, one fruit of this atmosphere was the deep sharing: “Especially by priests from Myanmar and Vietnam, who told of how their human and priestly life had been marked by tragic experiences – executions and the violent deaths of parents – that occurred when the priests were very young.”
The second part of the course focused on how to practice the spirituality of unity in the various areas of formation, through a dynamic workshop of experiences that identified the most urgent challenges, and concluded with a commitment to put it into practice in each one’s seminary. “This is a living course” one priest said, “in the sense that we are learning during these days to put into practice the life of communion, for the benefit of each one of us but also for the benefit of the local Church that we represent.”
After three weeks of living together in such a concrete experience of communion, each and every one of them testified to the “family” that they had become and the desire of continuing to carry on with the challenge and the adventure. Formation means preparing new priests whether in Asia or in any other part of the world.
1 May 2013 | Non categorizzato, Word of
Here is one example. Night had fallen in Rome. In their basement apartment, a small group of young women who wanted to live the Gospel were wishing each other good night. Then the doorbell rang. Who could it be at this hour? At the door they found a panic-stricken young father. He was desperate: the following day he and his family were going to be evicted because they had been unable to pay their rent. The women looked at one another and then, in silent agreement, went to the dresser drawer. There they kept what was left of their salaries. In envelopes marked “gas,” “electricity” and “telephone” was the money they had set aside for these bills. Without a moment’s worry about what would happen to them, they gave all the money to their visitor. That night they went to bed very happy. They knew someone else would take care of them. Just before dawn the phone rang. It was the same man. “I’ve called a taxi, and I’m coming right over!” Amazed that he should have chosen to come by taxi, they awaited his arrival. As soon as they saw his face they knew something had changed. “Last night, as soon as I got home,” he said. “I found I had received an inheritance I never dreamed I would get. My heart told me I should give half of it to you.” The amount he gave them was exactly twice what they had generously given him.
“Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be put into your lap.”
Haven’t you also experienced this? If not, remember that the gift must be given with no self-interest, without hoping to get it back, and to whoever asks for it. Try it, not so that you can see if it works, but because you love God. You might be tempted to say, “I have nothing to give.” That’s not true. If we want to, each of us can discover that we possess inexhaustible treasures: our free time, our love, our smile, our advice, our peace, our words that might persuade someone who has to give to someone who has not. You might also say, “I don’t know whom to give to.” Just look around you: don’t you remember that sick person in the hospital, that widow who always feels lonely, that boy in your class who failed and got discouraged, the young man who is sad because he can’t find a job, your little sister or brother who needs a helping hand, that friend who is in prison, that new person at work who is unsure of herself? In each person, Christ is waiting for you. Put on the new style of behavior that comes from the Gospel and is the garment of a Christian. It is the exact opposite of having a closed mind or being concerned only about ourselves. Stop putting your trust in this world’s goods, and start relying on God. This will show your faith in him, and you will see from the gifts you receive that your faith is well founded. It becomes apparent, however, that God does not give as he does in order to make us rich. He acts in this way so that many, many others, seeing the little miracles that happen to us as a result of our giving, may decide to do the same. God also gives to us because the more we have the more we can give. He wants us to be administrators of his goods and see to it that they are distributed throughout the community around us, so that others might be able to repeat what was said of the first Christian community, “There was not a needy person among them” (Acts 4:34). Don’t you think that in this way you too can help give a solid spiritual foundation to the social change that the world is waiting for? “Give and it will be given to you.” When Jesus said these words, undoubtedly he was thinking first and foremost of the reward we will receive in heaven. But the reward we receive on this earth gives us already a foretaste and a guarantee of our heavenly reward.
Chiara Lubich
(Previously published in June 1978 and October 2008)
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.
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27 Apr 2013 | Non categorizzato
Miguel: We are members of a very large Catholic parish near Denver, Colorado. We arrived there from Argentina about 3 years ago. We didn’t know anybody, not one single person in the area; we arrived in the middle of a “snowy” winter, when people – understandably so –tend to “socialize” less. The fact of us being retired didn’t help.
It was a new chapter in our lives, but, as always, a new opportunity to practice the “art of Christian loving”. We sensed immediately that it was going to be a matter of taking the initiative – be the first- to reach out to “strangers”: fellow parishioners, neighbours, etc, in an attempt to get to know and build more permanent relationships with them. So Raya and I said to each other: “We have to be pro-active and creative in trying to create opportunities to do this, not just for ourselves, our “survival”, but to contribute a little “to change our little corner of the world” for the better.
Many of our parishioners were well acquainted with one another and had enjoyed for many years well-established social networks that seldom allowed for newcomers. Our first effort was to deliberately hang around after Mass in order to start a conversation with someone. Our second effort was to meet and greet these folks each week for the next 18 months. I consciously did this by always asking them something they may have shared with me in our previous conversations, and almost everyone always seemed to feel valued
Miguel: I joined a Catholic men’s association where I found myself helping others install big Christmas trees in the parish, , and driving 60 miles to take food baskets to migrant workers in the Colorado corn fields. In most of my conversations, I would first try to talk about what the other guys would feel comfortable with: daily life, Denver Broncos or mountain hikes; trying in other words to make myself “one” with them as the “art of loving” suggests. But then, whenever the opportunity allowed, I would also try to share something from my spiritual life and my experience in trying to live -not just think- in the spirit of the Gospel. Gradually, I could sense their “respect” and friendship was growing, and within less than 18 months, Raya and I were nominated for the Parish Council.
Raya: A few months later, we were asked by the Church to host a new “small faith community”. Since in all the 80 or so existing small church groups, we had not found any who emphasized the practical side, the connection between Scripture and daily life, we knew that we wanted to focus our group exclusively on this topic so we agreed to host these weekly meetings.
Miguel: About 50% of our time together in the group consists in the sharing of real-life experience in the art of loving so that the abundance and diversity of opportunities to love our neighbors can be universally appreciated. After a while people in the group also started sharing their own experiences of living the Word. One, for example: George, a computer engineer, shared one day: “Since I saw this new approach to the Gospel I realized that I had to change my relationship with my customers and colleagues, by being more attentive, 100% present in each moment, in dealing over the phone with anxious customers whose computer systems were not working, or by taking without the usual ’lamentations’ more complex jobs which my colleagues or boss would send in my direction.”
Raya: Eventually, I began to notice the power of this kind of sharing in helping to inspire others to live more authentically. One lady immediately realized that being a good neighbor was something that she and her husband could easily do—after all almost everyone has a neighbor or two. So, she recounts, “We took the initiative and went together to speak with a couple with whom we had only a casual encounter before. We soon discovered that the wife was about to undergo cancer treatment, and that the husband was quite anxious about it. We volunteered to prepare meals for him while she was in the hospital, we brought her flowers when she returned home, and afterwards I was able to share with them information gathered from my own workplace regarding many positive outcomes reported for her very kind of treatment.”
Miguel: But just having group meetings as you may all know is not sufficient to create a community – we also need to experience a sense of “family” among the members by relating one on one-personally- with each other and repeatedly. So whenever, our regular meeting schedule was interrupted, we would encourage group members to do something individually with another group member and to keep in contact with one another through telephone conversations at least once monthly. In addition, Raya and I regularly tried to model this individual caring for each of the members of our group by-for example- becoming empty of our own concerns when we would spend time with them, so that we could be 100% attentive to learning about theirs. We also encouraged others to share about their personal relationship with God, their deepest aspirations, and their honest struggles with the challenge to love others. All this, in the attempt to unite deeply, spiritually everyone in one group striving for a common purpose.
Raya: Striving to love our neighbours in this way always seemed to bear some kind of tangible fruit and the need to aim for this was always present. Sometimes, just before a meeting, Miguel and I would differ on how we were going to proceed. We also knew we had a responsibility to always practice what we tried to teach, so working to always love each other as “neighbours” – not without effort – also became an important prerequisite for each meeting. The more we practiced living the Art of Loving, the more we began to see tangible fruits from our efforts. In myself, I noticed an increased sense of peace and well-being whenever I put the needs of another ahead of my own. My relationship with Miguel also was enriched.
Our efforts were reciprocated. Our neighbours began offering invitations to us, and some of the group members began sharing experiences of observable behavioural change. The importance of “practicing what we preach” became abundantly clear.
Miguel: Once one member shared : “I was brought up in a solid and even intellectual Christian tradition but here there is something “different”, a new approach related to ‘real every day life’ – a way by which I can concretely contribute to make of this world a better place: at work, family, wherever … Now I am also involved a with the formation of a teenagers and young adults groups, in my church.
Our faith community helps me not to feel alone, it gives me the strength of a “group” to start each day and to practice the art of loving…”.
See also: Expo 2013 website
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16 Apr 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
“We have a chance… we can speak on common themes of Christian theology.” With these words, Prof. Stanciu, Dean of Orthodox Theology at the University of Babes-Bolyai, recommended to aim at what unites rather than divides. “We all know that there’s need for love and there are no elements of disagreement when one speaks of love. Why not benefit from this opportunity?”
This second meeting was held on the 16th April at the department in an atmosphere of harmony of thought and life. It was entitled: “Whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him” (1Jn 4,16).
Orthodox and Catholics in turn presented academic papers and life experiences in an atmosphere of intellectual and spiritual productiveness, as a fruit of the shared intention to live this moment in the light of Jesus’ words: “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst” (Mt 18,20). “From the presentations it seemed to be that there was not just a dialogue of concepts among the speakers but also of hearts”, commented an Orthodox professor. “We not only spoke but also lived”.The friendly and fruitful relationship among some Catholics and Orthodox has in fact developed over several years.
Bishop Vasile
The Meeting began with the Metropolitan of Cluj Andrei’s greetings to the nearly seventy participants present, and ended with the speech of bishop Vasile, the Metropolitan’s deputy. He drew a parallel between the birth of the Focolare and Saint Basil’s activity or the message of Assisi “because in the difficult times the world was passing through, they knew how to bear an extraordinary witness to Christ, uniting forces with whom they helped society advance, mobilizing all the Church’s energies in order that it might mirror that what it ought to be and for which Christ founded it.” He also wished that these meetings of mutual enrichment, knowledge and fruitful exchange, would continue to be held on a regular basis.
In order to highlight the importance of the event, the Metropolis radio hosted a programme with various interviews.
