7 Nov 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
“I lost my Mother, my uncle and his wife at the beginning of the war in 1993. All three of them were murdered by some people from our own quarter, people whom we knew well. Then Father took our orphaned cousins to live with us. There were fourteen of us altogether and Father never showed any partiality towards any one.
In order to keep us together Father decided not to remarry. Being the oldest, I helped him out because the smaller children were feeling their mother’s absence. To my proposals that we seek justice against those who had killed our relatives, Father always helped us to forgive, explaining to us the significance of reconciliation.
He suggested to my brothers that they start a “club”, an association for young people that would promote peace and reconciliation. This club contributed to returning peace to people’s spirits in our Commune.
I live in Italy now. When spring arrived, I received news that he had been admitted to hospital, and I had the idea of writing to a few friends asking for their prayers. Then he was transferred to the intensive care unit, and I rushed back to Burundi, I found him suffering greatly. My brothers and sisters were doing everything they could for him. I thought about all the love he had for his children, the love that he showed to so many others, including those who had murdered our relatives. I remembered the Word of Life we were living: “For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away” (Mt. 13:12). And I remembered Jesus on the Cross.
On the day following my arrival Dad departed peacefully for Heaven. It was as if he had been waiting for me. Later as I was pondering over the words that the Archbishop had spoken during my father’s funeral – in which he recalled their conversations about reconciliation and peace – it was confirmed to me, as Chiara Lubich reminded us, that Heaven is a home we will live in up there, but that we build here on earth.”
Maria-Goretti (Burundi)
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6 Nov 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
Following an invitation from the Nuncio, Mgr Joseph Spiteri, three focolarini from India, Marilu, Ala Maria and Rey, spent twelve days in Sri Lanka. They found a Focolare community that was small but full of life, despite the fact that it is nine years since the last visit – the terrible civil war, which has left marks that are still visible, only finished last year.
With the Cardinal of Colombo
Msgr. Malcolm Ranjith
During the visit it was possible to meet the Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, who met Chiara Lubich in the 70s and who is deeply interested in the Movement’s experience of inter-religious dialogue in India, and most especially of its ‘dialogue of life’.
This experience was also spoken about by Dr A. T. Ariyaratne, the Buddhist founder of the Gandhian Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, which in Coimbatore last January received the ‘Defender of Peace’ prize, given in the past also to Chiara Lubich. Some of the people who work with him were extremely pleased to learn of the relationship between the Focolare and the Shanti Ashram in India and expressed the wish that something similar could happen with them in Sri Lanka.
A visit to Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne
A wonderful moment, full of a sense of family, took place in the meeting with the community of the Movement made up of 25 persons who met the Focolare many years ago and who still desire to live its spirituality. Here a few impressions. A former teacher said: ‘I am going through a difficult moment but, coming here, I have understood that I must be the first to love.’ A woman who came for the first time said, ‘Seeing you so happy cannot leave me indifferent. You have given me courage and I shall start living in the same way.’ And a nun said, ‘Hearing your experiences and seeing you so vibrant has reawoken me.’ Mgr Spiteri, who was also present, at the end of the meeting gave a blessing, saying, ‘Now we have come to know this life, above all in this year of faith, we must be living witnesses of the word.’
Another moment of light was with the bishop emeritus Nicholas Marcus Fernando who, after he had been told about the Focolare’s inter-religious work, said, ‘Love is what’s needed. Before I thought that it was goodness, but that is an abstract concept. You need love for dialogue and for everything.’
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4 Nov 2012 | Non categorizzato
Parish priest Martin Piller recounts: “I had often spoken to the parish council about the poor people that knock at the door of the priest house, asking for money. Thinking of Jesus who identifies himself with such as these, helped me to care for them in their need. My collaborators and I asked ourselves what we might do to improve their situations.”
Mark Etter from the pastoral team: “We read a text by Chiara Lubich: ‘If you want to win over a city to the love of God, if you want to transform a town into the kingdom of God, first make your plans. Gather round you friends who share your feelings. Unite yourself with them in the name of Jesus (. . .) Make a pact of mutual love with them. Then look for the poorest. Having consoled, helped, enlightened, made happy those who were the dregs of society, you have laid the foundations to build a new city.’”
Piller: “Jesus was clearly speaking to us through these words: the poor are our treasure. And so we sought out a few people who were sensitive to the poor, and shared with them our desire to work together for two hours each week, for the poor“
Etter: “The beginning was anything but professional. Work tools may have been lacking, but there was no lack of ideas. Someone suggested working together with them at repairing the tables in the parish garden, and then paying them for their work. Another person then suggested breaking some empty bottles and using the pieces of glass to sand away the old varnish from the table tops. And so we did, but the next time someone brought along some sandpaper.”
Piller: “Four years have gone by now. Today some forty people of all ages and backgrounds have joined in working with us for two hours every week. There are teenagers, retired people, parents, drug addicts and homeless people. Everything has grown. A pastry shop donates sandwiches and sweet breads for our coffee break. In the church bell tower we’ve set up a candle-making shop and in the parish centre a workshop for making other objects. We are now financially supported by an Economy of Communion business. We’ve begun a constructive relationship with the city’s social workers. They visit us often and have shown very positive interest in our work.”
Etter: “There were many times when we knew that the cash box was empty, even though many people would be coming, expecting to be paid. I well remember that night when we knelt together in church asking for the light to go on. The next day someone dropped an envelope at the priest house with a huge sum of money inside. It seemed to be God’s answer to our faith in his Word: ‘Ask and you shall receive.’”
Piller: “Marco, one of the people who came regularly, died suddenly from a drug overdose. Since his parents wanted to have a private funeral ceremony, we went into the chapel and, following a song, we were quite moved to see how everyone spontaneously turned to God.”
“We continually try to put ourselves in the shoes of the needy and we are always enriched. A few weeks ago we gathered some money for the daughter of one of the workers, who is sick in Africa. It was a great surprise to us when saw everyone’s willingness to give all that they had earned that day for her.”
![From India to Sri Lanka]()
12 Oct 2012 | Non categorizzato
Grape pickers come to Loppiano from all over Europe during the months of September and October. Members and friends of the cooperative, they are of all ages and walks of life. Every year they offer some days, at most two weeks, free of charge to help the paid workers with the grape harvest. Why should anyone choose to use part of their holidays to do something not even always pleasant? The timetable works with military precision: breakfast at 7:30, then at 8:00 leave for work, at 12:00 noon the midday meal, and then work in the fields until evening. There is time for relaxation and, for those who wish, there is Mass at the shrine of Maria Theotokos, after which the evening proceeds with another meal and the chance to mix with other people living at Loppiano. Despite the exacting rhythm, everyone is enthusiastic, even grateful. In part this is because here there is a way of doing things that takes account of human persons and there is direct and constant contact with nature. Still more, though, the grape pickers experience the atmosphere of fraternity that is the essence of every single day of the life of the farm and of the little town of Loppiano. As they tell one another about their lives and experiences between one vine and the next, they help each other cope with the hard work and find themselves having moments of real hilarity. 
Ambrogio Panzieri from northern Italy put it like this: ‘For a very long time I’ve not felt such intensity – both humanly and spiritually. It’s as if I’ve always known these people who are willing to encourage me and give me the strength to believe that even at home I will be able to bring the same joy, the same mutual gift of ourselves to one another.’ Antonio Sottani, who has been at the farm for 15 years, summed it up like this: ‘Certainly at the basis of everything there is the generosity of the members and friends of our cooperative. We offer board and lodging, but above all the chance, while at work, to have an experience together of doing things for and with one another. It sometimes happens, in fact, that after a few says the grape pickers feel the need to change how they live their lives, to face up to tough situations in their hometowns and in their families, bringing love into places where it does not exist. But for our part we don’t do anything in particular, we simply try to love them.’
Carlo Isolan
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10 Oct 2012 | Non categorizzato
6th Pedagogical Meeting at Padua University
How are we to educate in an age that is marked by growing disorders, religious extremism, a social, economic and cultural crisis and uncertainty of the future generations?
How are we to educate in an environment where any hope of being able to educate a human being seems to have been lost, to the point that we now refer to the human person as uneducable?
How do we move out of the darkness and into the light in order to answer the challenges of the many extreme situations that are spreading across countries and entire continents?
These are some of the challenging questions that the participants of the Sixth Pedagogical Meeting (6 October 2012) sought to provide answers for. The meeting was entitled “Night and Dawn” and was held in the University of Padua’s Aula Magna. It was a mix of life and reflection, charismatic thrust and pedagocial theory. The charismatic dimension was drawn from the thought of Chiara Lubich who links this choice to the experience of Jesus living through His abandonment on the Cross, love to the maximum degree that “indicates to us the limitless degree of responsibility and intensity required for the educational endeavour” and makes us discover “the endless responsibility contained in assistance and education.”
A first step: to try to respond to the socio-cultural unease at the “macro” level by taking charge of the unease that is found at the “micro” level, that is, in daily life. So it was for one Italian teacher in a northern suburb of Paris who chose not to apply for a transfer but to continue his efforts where he was working in a multi-cultural environment with students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. It was often a hard commitment, which carried a cost (such as the car that had been smashed up by kicking, since it had been identified as one belonging to a teacher). But his commitment also gave hope and possibility to students who had felt rejected, instilling in them that strength that comes from knowing that someone believes in you.
Other experiences and approaches were shared by another teacher working in one of those notorious neighbourhoods in Palermo, Italy – including Brancaccio where Fr. Puglisi had been murdered. By opting for the least this teacher was required to reinvent himself every day, to place himself in the game again with passion and professionalism, to transform unexpected events into occasions for fraternity. It was an all round commitment, with the support of the “Peace Project Network” that involves thousands of teenagers and several institutions in offering answers to the search for meaning with concrete solidarity projects and activities of all kinds,
Texts of the presentations, including those of the EdU International Commission and Prof. Tiziano Vecchiato (President of the Zancan Foundation) will be available in a few days at: www.eduforunity.org.
