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Five luminous and fruitful years

Five luminous and fruitful years

13 Mar 2018 | Non categorizzato

MariaVoce_PapaFrancesco_VegliaPentecoste“Five years of enlightening and fruitful pontificate.” Maria Voce’s greeting to Pope Francis, in the name of the Movement’s communities worldwide, was full of joy and gratitude. She assured him of the Movement’s renewed commitment to “bring the proclamation of the Gospel to men and women in the most varied situations” and “ that we shall always be faithfully by your side, cooperating with all our strength in proclaiming God who loves the world so much. We assure You of all our love and prayers.” Maria Voce commented: “We feel privileged to be able to live in this time when the Spirit, through the Pope, is calling the Church to a twofold path: a return to a life rooted in the Gospel and a new focus on the signs of the times, which invite all Christians to reach out to all men and women. The Pope himself is a remarkable example of this.

New Facebook page in Portuguese

New Facebook page in Portuguese

13 Mar 2018 | Focolare Worldwide

Screen Shot 2018-03-12 at 15.36.31Our new Facebook profile in Portuguese is online: Facebook em Português | @ focolare.org.pt As with other languages, the Facebook profile in Portuguese will also propose, every day, the “Thought for the Day”, the Word of life, articles published on the site, but also other information, news and events – especially those in Portugal and Brazil – with the possibility of interacting with many people who believe in a more fraternal world. Invite your friends to visit and follow our page. Spread the ideas and values that can contribute to the construction of a more united world!    

The Soul of the City

The Soul of the City

13 Mar 2018 | Non categorizzato

Maria Voce

Photo © CSC Audiovisivi

The model for our interpersonal and social relationships is Trinitarian love. Even though God is One, he is never alone, but rather a reality of love that expresses plurality, the model of every human community: social relations in the image of the Trinity. One expression of such relations is the city, which Chiara Lubich had always looked at with particular interest. Every city has its “calling”, its specific design that can be turned into a gift, one note in the overall symphony. It was from this perspective that she accepted the many honorary citizenships that were presented to her. Perhaps it was for this reason that she longed to see many little cities being built, laboratories of human community, blueprints of a united world, witnesses to how society could be based on the Gospel’s law of mutual love, on living brotherhood. There are 25 such Focolare towns on all the continents, in different social and cultural settings, such as the United States, Cameroon, the Philippines, Germany, Brazil, Argentina and more. Chiara Lubich was the inspiration of them all, she followed and illuminated their developments. Their prototype is the international town of Loppiano in Italy which will have the honour, on May 10th, of welcoming Pope Francis.
3 marzo 2018

Photo © CSC Audiovisivi

Looking at them, Chiara saw them as an “inclined plane” towards the people who are suffering from doubt, uncertainty and no future. She told each of those cities, “to give hope and security, an extended hand of friendship to the people of today who are looking for happiness in the wrong ways, in drugs, eroticism, wealth… These little cities say to all, and show to all, that the true and perfect joy is Jesus. They give light to those suffering disunity in their families or in their local environments, because they provide an example and the secret of unity. They disarm those who are tempted to violence in every field, because they demonstrate, for example, with the internationality of their citizenry that it is through meekness born of love that one can conquer the world.” The people who visit these little cities find a home, a family, a Mother – Mary!! She’s the one that forms and informs entire society of the Focolare Movement. Chiara had always indicated the Magnificat when showings us a life plan and an action plan: “The charter of Christian social doctrine begins there where Mary sings: “He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” That has been the experience of the Movement from the very start until now. Some people put their jewels in common, some their lands, all types of possessions; others put their needs in common. Choosing to live a simpler lifestyle helps everybody to have everything they require. The Gospel contains the highest and most overwhelming revolution. And perhaps it is God’s plan that even in this age immersed in solutions to social problems, it will be Our Lady to give all of us Christians a hand in building, solidifying, erecting and showing to the world a new society that strongly re-echoes the Magnificat. We would want to see the communion of goods, among individuals and families, to extend to the city, state, peoples and continents, making way for the civilization of love.

2018 Winter Paralympic Games

12 Mar 2018 | Focolare Worldwide

At the closing of the Winter Olympics last 9 March in Pyeong Chang, a grand inaugural ceremony of the 12th edition of the Winter Paralympic Games was held, and which will last up to 18th. March. In accordance with the International Committee, the Paralympic Games are held every four years, in the same city as that of the Winter Olympics, with the participation of physically disabled athletes. As Pope Frances underlined, if “sports can cast bridges between countries in conflicts and give a valid contribution to prospects of peace among peoples,” the Paralympic Games “even more attest to the fact that through sports, one’s own handicaps can be overcome,” thanks to the “example of courage, constancy, determination in not allowing oneself to be won over by limitations” given by the athletes. “Sports appears to be a big school of inclusion, but also of inspiration for life and commitment to the transformation of society.” The first Winter Paralympics were held in Sweden in 1976. Like the summer Games, they owe their existence to the tenacity with which some doctors, especially the English Ludwig Guttmann, were able, with their methods, to help the veterans of WWII to find in sports competitions an opportunity to rehabilitate themselves and find their own role in society.