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5 Oct 2012 | Non categorizzato
‘We have been living in an apartment block for fifteen years. There are four staircases and a hundred and twenty dwellings. When we got married, we wanted to build up good neighbourly relationships with everyone and possibly to share the joy of the kind of life we lead based on the Gospel. But working all day long we never saw anyone. However, after the birth of our children we met other parents and their children in the park and the yard for our building. We had the idea of inviting some of them for an evening meal, and after that there were times to get together for parties and outings. The atmosphere finally began to change and become a lot warmer.
‘At times relationships just take off, overcoming any natural reservations, and we try not only to give but we also to find the courage to ask. One day Marco was rewiring our flat, but he realized that he wasn’t able to do everything. With a bit of humility he went to ask for help from our neighbour opposite, and he helped willingly and with unexpected kindness.
‘One very hot and sticky Saturday in August we got home at about midnight. The children were fast asleep in our arms. In front of the red lights of the lift there were two couples already waiting. They didn’t seem to have the least intention of letting us go first, despite our “burdens”. We had had a bit of an argument with them about how, in their opinion, our children shouldn’t play in the yard. They got into the lift. While we were waiting for our turn, the lift broke down and the alarm went off. The stairs were practically deserted, because in the heat everyone had left town. What could we do? Call the fire brigade or service manager, and then put our children to bed and keep ourselves to ourselves? Basically they hadn’t treated us very well. But the air in the lift was getting hotter and hotter… Marco ran to the place where the motor was and with tremendous effort managed to force the lift up to the next floor, freeing those who had been stuck in it.
‘One evening we went out to eat with our neighbours. At one point, their parents, who also live in the same building, called them to tell them that water was coming out of their flat. We all rushed back. The door of the washing machine had opened and water was gushing out in a continuous stream. The result was that their whole place was under two centimetres of water, to say nothing of the water that had already escaped through front door. Things looked tragic when we thought of the possible damage to the flat bellow; they had only just put down some parquet flooring. We offered to let our friends’ children sleep at our place. The men began to brush the water off the balcony and the women soaked it up with buckets and rags. We worst was avoided – fortunately.
‘Another evening, when we were in the living room, we heard a terrible cry from the floor below. To begin with we thought we ought to keep our noses out. But then Marco went down. The door into the flat was wide open. Marco entered cautiously. The eighteen year-old son was pinned to the ground by two of our neighbours. His father was staggering about and seemed utterly lost. His mother was desperate and, as she gasped for air, she said that the boy had wanted to throw himself off the balcony. Another neighbour was holding a bandage to his face where the boy had punched him. The boy carried on shaking and shouting with wild eyes and foaming at the mouth. We did what we could, especially comforting the parents and waiting together for the ambulance that was coming to take the boy to the hospital. He had overdosed on cannabis.‘This too is the kind of thing that can happen in a building like ours.’ (Anna Maria and Marco, Italy)
Taken from: Una buona notizia. Gente che crede gente che muove – Città Nuova Editrice, 2012
And what about you?
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28 Sep 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
‘From the moment I learned that last year was going to be dedicated to living the Word,’ Maria told us, ‘I thought about when I got to know the Movement as a girl. Chiara Lubich encouraged us to write the Gospel with our lives. In the month of March we were living the words: ‘Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life’ (John 6:68) and in her commentary Chiara affirmed that when the words of Jesus are lived they change our way of thinking and acting. Well, some workers came to do a job in our garage. One of the people in our apartment block, who did not know they were coming, was upset and moaned at the plumber. By chance I found myself in the middle of the discussion and I tried to make peace. I spoke with our neighbour to explain why the work needed doing and I spoke with the worker to explain why my neighbour was complaining. The tension was broken and calm restored.’
Luigi continued, ‘One of our daughters was having difficulty in one subject when the teacher changed. The problem affected a lot of them in the class, and many parents got involved criticizing the teacher. We thought we should do something to quieten things down. The words from the Gospel: “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49) helped us to have the right attitude with everyone – our daughter, the other parents and the teacher. We took on the responsibility of writing letters, meeting with parents and the principal, speaking to the teacher, listening to everyone’s explanations and trying to get everyone to move to a constructive dialogue. It would appear there was no happy ending, because about half the class fell behind in the subject. It seems to us, though, that it was a chance to bring a different spirit into the school and, above all, we shared this “defeat” with our daughter, helping her overcome the obstacle, ready with her to respect her teacher and praying also for him every evening.’
Maria spoke again, ‘In May one of our daughters was diagnosed with a dangerous tumour. It was a shock: why does God ask this of us? We were confused … it was not easy to go beyond our pain. The Word was a help to us yet again and bit by bit we tried to accept deeply what God was asking of us. My relationship with Luigi and with our daughters grew stronger. We felt the love of many people who shared the suspense of this experience of with us. The operation went well. In the room with Letizia – I was able to be with her the whole time she was in hospital – there was a woman whose family lived a long way off. She hadn’t eaten for days because of the treatment she was having. The Word of Life for that month was: “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6:27). I felt I could offer her this “food” through what I said and little acts of service. One day I lent her the magazine New City and later on I saw that she was reading the Word Life column in it.’
‘When summer came,’ continued Luigi, ‘we went back to the town where we were born. There was family trouble awaiting us. One of Maria’s aunts needed a lot of medical treatment and her was husband sick in hospital; both of them were elderly and they had no children. Maria’s uncle was fully aware how ill he was. We stayed with him right up to the moment of his death. We spent several moments in the last few nights whispering prayers in his ear. It seemed to us that bit by bit he was prepared for his meeting with God.’
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23 Sep 2012 | Non categorizzato
“For several years I had become hard, closed up on myself, sad; today Chiara Luce has opened my doors” one of the convicts tells Maria Teresa, mother of the blessed Chiara Luce Badano, while he embraces her and holds her hands.
The 20th September was certainly a special afternoon, in the theatre of the Rebibbia Roman prison: 250 inmates were dressed in their best clothes to greet the couple, Ruggero and Maria Teresa Badano, parents of the blessed Chiara Luce. “It will be a special evening,” Anna Del Villano announces in her presentation. She is the director of one of the sectors of the prison.
How did all this come about? Alfonso Di Nicola, of the Focolare Movement, who has for many years carried out voluntary work in the prisons of Rebibbia: “I got to know that the Badanos visited the convicts in the Viterbo prison in 2011,” he relates,“and I thought that we could organise a similar evening also in Rebibbia.”
While the inmates find their seats, it is impressive to see how they greet each other warmly. They come from different sections of the prison, “according to the crime committed,” they explain.
Four people sat on the stage: the Badanos, Chicca Coriasco – a close friend of Chiara Luce – and Franz, her brother. Maria Teresa breaks the ice and recalls how much her daughter loved the sick and those who suffer, and invites all to share this moment as in a family. Ruggero does not hide his emotions.
What is Chiara Luce’s message? She was a normal girl who played sport; she loved Sassello, her native city, especially when it was covered with snow. Together with Chicca, she got to know the Focolare spirituality when she was still very young. They took up Chiara Lubich’s invitation to live the Gospel with youthful enthusiasm, in the diverse situations of everyday life, both joyful and sorrowful; and then they would share the fruits of their experiences in order to encourage each other.
“As it is with older brothers,” Franz quips in, “I kept myself aloof from them.” She was a normal girl, and it was precisely this normality that drew him to her, especially when her illness would eventually be diagnosed as terminal cancer. Franz continues, “Chiara Luce was in love with Jesus crucified in the way Chiara Lubich presented him: abandoned, “a loser”, a “conquered God” who resembles each one of us… who at a certain point cries out on the cross”.
Love for God was the secret that helped her live her grave illness – an osteosarcoma, a very aggressive tumour. Through him her every suffering was transformed into love with contagious serenity and joy. Ruggero relates: “I used to spy upon her from the keyhole of her room to see whether she was always like that, or whether her smile was only for us. But she smiled all the time.”
The silence in the theatre is not usual. Chiara Luce’s story captures the attention of all and this young girl enters the heart of those present. While some images of Chiara Luce were projected on a big screen, an international Focolare choir sang “God Loves Me”, the song written for the beatification of Chiara Luce, on 25th September 2010.
“Soon Chiara Luce will be a saint” one of the inmates exclaims. Maria Teresa replies: “Then you will no longer be here… we all pass through difficult periods”. Her words fall like balm and are greeted with a warm applause!
Official website of the postulation: www.chiaralucebadano.it
Chiara Luce Website “Life Love Light”: www.chiaraluce.org
Franz Coriasco, author of “Dai tetti in giu”, Ed. Citta Nuova, Roma 2010
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22 Sep 2012 | Non categorizzato
19 May 1973, a Saturday and Loppiano, as every Saturday for the last nine years, is bustling with activity to welcome the weekend visitors who come find out about the permanent ‘Mariapolis’. It seems like a day like any other, but it will turn out to a historic one. In fact on this day the Loppiano Cooperative was founded. The idea was to offer a witness to the Gospel lived in a real experience of work. This may seem like a small thing, but the origins of this particular firm were in a mixture of ‘gold’ and ‘mud’ – the latter also literally. Loppiano had begun several years before. On those Tuscan hills there was no lack of enthusiasm and joy, and the young people worked hard in all possible ways to fulfil their dream: to make visible the Ideal of a united world in the relationships among the little town’s inhabitants. They came from all over the world, were extremely diverse, and at the same time among them reigned a harmony that it would be hard to find elsewhere. Of course, it was not easy because change was needed in many stony parts of each of their hearts, the effect of their mentalities, ethnic origins or differing cultures. But there were also other things to weigh them down, more visible and just as burdensome. These were the land that had been abandoned for years, rendering the terrain inhospitable, transportation difficult and the living conditions extremely uncomfortable. They needed someone competent to work the land, rebuild the houses and make it possible for the rural setting to show signs of becoming a city, even if only in miniature. 
The appeal that went out to the whole of the Focolare Movement was heard especially by the ‘Volunteers of God’ throughout the world. Some of them, living in the valleys of Bergamo in the north of Italy, left their work and all they were already doing and, with tremendous generosity and even more faith, moved with their young families to Loppiano. They had no job security or guaranteed housing, but they began restructuring some of the cottages and, with sacrifice and hard work, they began to construct the little town and to cultivate the land surrounding it. It looked like madness to eyes of their friends and relations. And yet, thanks to these first families, Loppiano flung open its doors to the world and became a tangible spiritual and human experience known and valued today by people in every continent. It incarnated the spirituality of the Focolare Movement in the concrete work of every day, respecting nature and the human cost of what was done. As a result, in all these years no synthetic products have ever been used to cultivate the land, but everything is grown organically and is certified as such. 
The Cooperative has more than 4000 shareholders spread throughout the world. By means of their shares and consuming its products, they contribute to developing the business and, indirectly, also to building the whole of the little town. In 1991, when Chiara Lubich launched the Economy of Communion, she said that it had be presaged by the Loppiano Prima Cooperative. Today Loppiano is indeed a beautiful place, with its lawns, houses, roads, running water for all. But the faith and courage of its pioneers were needed. Most of them are still alive, some are already in heaven, but without them nothing would have been possible, especially not the fulfilment of Igino Giordani (Foco)’s prophetic words in a message to the Cooperative: ‘You witness to and proclaim the Gospel with a loud voice through your work and the communion of goods … And you are the first fruits of a society many have expressed only in words and yet all have dreamed of it. Because of you and thanks to you, the world of tomorrow has already beguin’. End of Part 1 (To be continued)
Official Cooperative Website – Terre di Loppiano: http://www.terrediloppiano.com Products CATALOGUE
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20 Sep 2012 | Non categorizzato
“We used to think that the period following the wedding would be a continuation of our honeymoon,” Luca and Giulia tell us. They got married recently. “In fact we are very happy, despite our many differences in character and habits that emerge in our daily life. This initial period is a time of trial.” “For example, when I return home in the evening, Luca tells us, “I just feel I want to unwind. Giulia, on the other hand, is there waiting to tell me what she had lived during the day. Living the Gospel teaches us to love each other in a concrete way. With sensitivity we seek to explain, listen and accept each other.” “What is interesting,” Gulia says, “is that when I do manage to lose what I would like to say and do in that moment, Luca asks me how I have passed my day. A dialogue emerges that is very serene and enriching for both of us.” “When we were in Madagascar on our honeymoon, we got to know a local man and his family. We could see they were struggling financially,” Luca recounts. “They were expecting a child, but they couldn’t afford the hospital fees. We reflected over this, even though they never asked for anything.” “Since I love football,” Luca continues, “I had planned to subscribe to pay TV in order to view the matches at home. However we felt that the needs of this family were ours as well. I spontaneously felt that the subscription was superfluous; so we sent them the corresponding sum together with other funds we saved by going without unnecessary expenses. Even if initially it seemed as though we had lost something, now we can say that we gained; in fact we are often invited by friends or neighbours to watch the games on TV, and this gives us the opportunity to build profound friendships.”
‘We have been living in an apartment block for fifteen years. There are four staircases and a hundred and twenty dwellings. When we got married, we wanted to build up good neighbourly relationships with everyone and possibly to share the joy of the kind of life we lead based on the Gospel. But working all day long we never saw anyone. However, after the birth of our children we met other parents and their children in the park and the yard for our building. We had the idea of inviting some of them for an evening meal, and after that there were times to get together for parties and outings. The atmosphere finally began to change and become a lot warmer.