15 Sep 2023 | Non categorizzato
Allow our lives to be a continual praise of God by acknowledging His love and the greatness of His works in our lives. This is what this Psalm invites us to do. It is the foundation of every prayer, especially when, by loving the brothers and sisters we meet, we understand the fullness of gratitude. Concrete help for far and near The war in Ukraine brought us apprehension and fear. In response to this wave of evil, when winter arrived last year, we and other friends of the parish worked to procure heavy clothing and generators and flashlights to supplement the lack of electricity, to be sent to our neighbours close to our border. But one thing led to another and looking around, we then extended this solidarity action to the poor of our town. Without realizing it, a division had arisen in our society that we hadn’t paid enough attention to before. Someone pointed out that it took the war in Ukraine to open our eyes. Today, in addition to continuing the collections for the victims of war, we also work for those closest to us who are in need. (J.M. – Hungary) Hope In the waiting room of a bus station, I noticed a young, beautiful, elegant lady. Her face displayed signs of grim suffering. We got on the same bus. Then, at the train station, we bought tickets for the same destination. I made a bit of innocent conversation as we headed to our platform. Unfortunately, our train had just left; we had two hours of waiting ahead of us. I invited the lady to sit in the waiting room. Looking at her tense face, I put aside my problems and tiredness and decided to listen to her. While she talked to me about the trauma she had been experiencing for months, I found myself reliving an awful situation. I told her about it. Later, on the journey, our conversation was so intense that we didn’t realize that we had reached our destination. I tried to say goodbye, but she wanted to accompany me to the place where I had to go, so as not to interrupt our conversation. Her face had relaxed, her burden lightened. Then the goodbyes. Maybe I won’t see her again, but I’m sure that hope was born in her heart. (RA – England) Smiles help you keep going I am a palliative care doctor. In the morning, it is nice to be greeted with a smile and the relaxed faces of those who the night before were afraid of how they would spend the night because of the pain: yes, everything went well, and I feel better too. It couldn’t be taken for granted: opiates are still feared drugs because they are little known and needed to be discussed in a transparent doctor-patient dialogue. I observed another sick woman, whose communication was limited to movements of the eyes. I asked her, “Are you in pain?” Closing her eyelids meant yes. I wondered: how did I not notice before? I proposed a treatment which she accepted. Her frown relaxed, her eyes smiled. When I find myself facing my limits every day, I stop smiling. In those moments, others (a colleague, a family member, a worker) are like my “mirror” and help me to look inside myself. I need a good dose of humility to learn to accept myself. But then I laugh at myself and, having passed through the cloud, I see the possibility of starting to love again. (Paola – Italy)
Compiled by Maria Grazia Berretta
(taken from The Gospel of the Day, Città Nuova, year IX – no.1 September-October 2023)
8 Sep 2023 | Non categorizzato
On 8 August 2023, at the age of 99, Livia Groff (widow of Olivo Goller), a married focolarina from Trent (Italy) and part of the first Focolare community formed around Chiara Lubich, returned to the house of the Father. We remember her through a short extract in which she tells us what true conversion was for her. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Cor 5:17). This is the phrase taken from the New Testament that Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare Movement, gave Livia Groff as a motto for life who ended her journey on this earth on 8 August at the age of 99. Born on 25 May 1924, the third of 7 sisters, she began working as a shop assistant in Trent as a young girl. At the invitation of her friend, Doriana Zamboni, one of Chiara Lubich’s first companions, she met Chiara when she was 21 and joined the group of girls around her who took the words of the Gospel literally, put them into practice and shared with each other the effects of living those words. For Livia, this encounter was like a real thunderbolt. Discovering the love of God and discovering Jesus present in every neighbour were to become the polar star of her life and the certain guide on a journey she always shared with her husband, Olivo Goller, and her children, Diego, Maria Elena and Andrea. A witness of great fortitude and closeness to her neighbour, she faced the various trials that life put before her sustained by her faith in God and His love. For 37 years she cared for her husband Olivo who, due to an inexplicable car accident, was left paralysed in his legs and unable to walk for the rest of his life. Another great trial came for her at the age of 61 when her daughter Maria Elena died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 33, in Predazzo, near Trento, where she taught. With great courage and concreteness Livia always tried to put Jesus at the centre of every relationship, and with extreme kindness she knew how to take care of anyone she met on her path, accompanying her sons, Diego and Andrea, both focolarini, in their life choices; supporting the sick, as an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist as she had already done with her husband; inviting many to prayer. A beauty, which many recognised in her, incarnated, which went beyond style, but which concealed within itself a secret: the ability to look at the love of Jesus on the cross who cried out his abandonment, and recognise this in the trials of life and accept it without hesitation. We share below a short extract of an interview Livia Groff gave in Trent, dated 13 December 2011, in which she tells of her first meeting with Chiara Lubich and the beginning of a journey that changed her life. Watch the video (activate English subtitles) https://youtu.be/vmFJ5v15rLg
31 Aug 2023 | Non categorizzato
The Season of Creation is a time during which Christians around the world unite in prayer and action to care for our common home. It’s a time of grace that the Christian Churches propose to encourage people to renew their relationship with the Creator and with creation, through meditation, conversion and community commitment. Each year, this period opens on 1st September with an ecumenical celebration on the occasion of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and ends on 4th October, the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, patron saint of ecology loved by many Christian confessions. The theme chosen for this 2023 is “Let justice and peace flow“. It draws inspiration from the words of the prophet Amos, “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!“ (Amos 5:24). The hope, therefore, is that like a “mighty river” these two elements, justice and peace, can invade our planet with well-being and beauty. It is a challenge that certainly mobilizes us and to which everyone, as part of the people of God, is called to respond by committing ourselves on the front line and in our own small way, to create bridges of dialogue, for climate and ecological justice, listening to the communities most affected by the loss of biodiversity. There are many activities and initiatives launched around the world in preparation for the opening day, such as the one promoted by the Laudato Sì Movement, which invites us to pray for climate justice and share this prayer with all the negotiators and political leaders of COP28 (https://laudatosimovement.org/pray-with-us-for-climate-justice/). You can register for and access the Ecumenical Prayer Meeting on 1st September, through the following link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_s6x-_ULjRZWRyzUYGNAhAg#/registration. Or you can watch it on the Laudato Sì YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv3kExaSMmI For more information visit https://seasonofcreation.org/en/. https://youtu.be/VTm53zJN6NA?si=gQpYtBQ2uznuPIpU
26 Jul 2023 | Non categorizzato
The 37th World Youth Day (WYD), which will be held from 31st July to 6th August 2023 in Lisbon (Portugal), is upon us and many young people are preparing to experience this global event with the Pope. Various initiatives have been organized and for months now, many people have been working with dedication on this moment of true family for the Church. Everything is ready. The sun is high on the seven hills of Lisbon (Portugal) and the ocean breeze brings with it an air of novelty and anticipation: the WYD is upon us and young people from all over the world are arriving. After months of preparation and having visited various stops throughout the country, last weekend the symbols of the Day, the Pilgrim’s Cross and the Icon of Our Lady “Salus Popoli Romani”, finally reached Lisbon and we are now ready to welcome the first young people arriving for the “Days in the Dioceses” which will take place from 26th-31st July 2023 in the 17 dioceses of mainland Portugal and the islands. A way to prepare pilgrims and host communities to get into the event and live it to the full. Father José Cardoso de Almeida, parish priest of Sátão, in the diocese of Viseu, a priest volunteer of the Focolare Movement told us, “When we were told that WYD would be held in Lisbon, we welcomed the news with immense joy. I am sure that it will be an occasion of grace for each of the participants, as well as for our country. In my case, I feel I have to be open to the surprises that the Spirit wants to communicate”. 
Fr. José has experienced the anticipation and enthusiasm of several WYDs first-hand. Like many other people, he immediately felt the call to get involved in organizing this Event which was taking place in his own “backyard”, by motivating young people and welcoming those who would come from various parts of the world: “This last year has been full of meetings. A lot of activities were organized to help cover the expenses of those who had greater economic challenges to get here. As a ‘little builder’ of this WYD, together with many others, I encouraged some families to open their doors to young people from other countries for the ‘Days in the Dioceses’. In our area, we will welcome about 3,000 young people, mostly French. Then we will leave for Lisbon and I will lend a hand for the sacrament of Reconciliation, during the event.” It has been a concrete experience that shows how serving others generated countless fruits in the various communities. As Fr. José said, “For example, the discovery of the beauty of working together. I think that today’s young people need to discover that the secret of happiness lies in true love, and as Pope Francis says, in the experience of “going out of oneself” and “being with and for others.” This is true unity. ” And it is in this “going out” that we find the image of the Virgin Mary, ready to “get up and go with haste”, as the motto of this WYD announces, on the way to visit Elizabeth. Ana and José Maria Raposo told us that this is an “invitation to encounter the living Jesus in the family, at work, in social and political life”. They are from the parish of Nossa Senhora da Conceição dos Olivais Sul in Lisbon and are members of the Volunteers of God of the Focolare Movement. Ana and José have been married for 45 years, have five children and four grandchildren and are one of the many Portuguese families who will host the young people who will take part in the WYD in their own homes. 
They told us, “For young people, like Mary, to live their vocation, it is necessary to believe in them and let them lead, without forgetting the importance of inter-generationality. It is necessary to believe that the world today is already changed if hearts are changed, if the mind is free, if one leaves one’s comfort zone, if one looks around and sees Jesus in everyone; we have to believe that a united world is possible”. QQ An experience that looks at this fragile time, looks at the other and is strengthened thanks also to the concrete witness of those who, believing in love, want to put it at the service in the “welcome” that, as Ana and José say, “means to be a family for those who arrive. It was spontaneous for us to immediately join in welcoming the young pilgrims who will participate in the WYD. We have always welcomed people who needed help because they were passing through or traveling. The last few months gave us an opportunity to review things and reorganize the spaces so that the young people who arrive really feel at home.” World Youth Day continues to prove to be, even today, a great event of the Church that, around the Pope and young people from all over the world, becomes “Community”. And to be, as Father José Cardoso de Almeida stated, “a workshop of the Kingdom of God and the image of that universal fraternity that derives from the Gospel”.
Maria Grazia Berretta
25 Jul 2023 | Non categorizzato
The Word of life for this month is, “Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple, truly I tell you: none of these will lose their reward” (Mt 10:42). This is the mission to which each of us, just like the disciples, is called: to be credible witnesses of the Love of Christ, in the concrete gestures that are part of our daily lives; a circular Love, which you give with joy and are surprised when it returns abundantly. New Car Accident When I returned to the car park, I found that the new car that my father had lent me was scratched. What could I do? I felt bad because he would be upset and I started to think about how much it would cost to have it repaired. Then I noticed a small magnet on the dashboard holding this writing: “…cast all your worries onto Him because He cares for you”. I tried to do that. And I felt a sense of peace which is what I needed in order to try to figure out what to do. I was absorbed in these thoughts when there was a knock on the window. A lady wanted to talk to me. She was the one who had scraped the car and had left hoping to get away with it, but remorse made her come back. She gave me her phone number and agreed to look after the cost of getting the car repaired. I was amazed and grateful. I told her how I had found peace reading that sentence on the dashboard. And she thoughtfully replied, “It was Him who brought me back.” (Z.X. – Croatia) The right place When I was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit, I realized that my medical competence would be put to the test there and at the same time I felt that that was “my” place. Up until then, I had not had the opportunity to work in such a department where every day, suffering appeared in the most tragic forms: people who had serious accidents, neurological problems… and they were often young people. I wasn’t sure I was up to it. However, the idea of putting myself at the service of Jesus who was present and identified with all those people gave me strength. He said “You did it to me”. After six months, the hospital management offered me the position of head of the department. The reasons for their choice included: my ability to integrate with colleagues, my attitude of calm and peace, and my professional behaviour. The next day in the chapel, I thanked Jesus: it was his words that made me be what others needed above all there, in that place. (J.M. – Spain)
The exam I was preparing for an important exam at university when a friend who was going through a difficult time with his girlfriend came to visit me. I welcomed him and while I was preparing a meal for him, we started talking. The thought of the exam was really on my mind but I tried to set it aside to concentrate on listening to my friend, who was so upset and sad that he did not realize that time was passing and it was time to go to bed. In the end, I offered him a bed for the night. It was really late and I couldn’t even think of opening a book. The next morning the alarm woke me up and a colleague reminded me that I had to turn up for the exam. Still half asleep, I quickly got ready to go out, while my friend continued to sleep. I never dreamt I would pass that exam! I was very happy. When I went back to my room, there was a note on the table: «I don’t know how to thank you. You showed me that I mean something. You gave me new strength. Like you, I want to be “completely there for others.” (G.F. – Poland)
Curated by Maria Grazia Berretta
(taken from The Gospel of the Day, New Town, year IX – n.1° July-August 2023)
