28 Oct 2021 | Non categorizzato
Blessed Chiara Luce Badano was born on 29th October 1971. Events held in various parts of the world will mark this day. In her birthplace Sassello (Italy), Holy Mass will be celebrated and there will also be the Timeout and the projection of an unpublished video interview with her parents, compiled by the Chiara Badano Foundation. Blessed Chiara Luce Badano would have been 50 years old today. She was born 50 years ago, on 29 October1971, and today she is a role model for thousands of young people. Chiara passed away just a few days before she was 19. ‘Luce’ (Light), the name added to her original one, was given to her by Chiara Lubich, wishing her a life in which she would be a bearer of that light which comes from God’s love. She met the Ideal of unity when she was a teenager and she became a Gen, a member of the young generation of the Focolare Movement. She always cared for others and she lived as a normal young girl, perhaps never imagining that she would have to face a very serious illness at the age of 17. If Chiara Luce were alive today, what would she be like and what would she have lived for? This is a question many of us ask ourselves because we feel that Chiara Luce is still so close to us, that she is one of us, even today. So we put this question to three of her closest friends, Chicca and Franz Coriasco and Cristina Cuneo, from the Chiara Badano Foundation. Chicca answered: “Based on the experience we lived with her, we imagine that she would absolutely be a normal young girl, but aware of the fact that by living the Gospel and Chiara Lubich’s ideal, one can do great things”. What would have been her priorities in life? Cristina emphasised: “We believe that it is today’s young people who can answer this question. In fact, in one of Chiara Badano’s last messages, that was almost a testament, she spoke of ‘handing over’ the torch to young people ‘like at the Olympics’. And this is what so many are doing today by their commitment to diminish inequalities and social injustice, to care for the environment, to safeguard the common good, in the most painful situations each one encounters. All the more so during this period of the pandemic emergencies. They try to heal open wounds as she tried to do throughout her life: in her own small way, but always very concretely”. Franz added: “In one of her essays she wrote: ‘Often, man does not live his life because he is immersed in times that do not exist: he is immersed either in the memory or regret of the past or projected into the future. In reality, man possesses only the present moment, that must be lived in its fullness, exploiting it to the full… In this way we become aware of the value of life, a precious gift that cannot and must not be wasted or burnt by sterile selfishness and useless ambitions’. The Timeout was a daily appointment for her; every day at midday she stopped to join many others in the world and pray for peace. This was a fundamental urgency for her, and we believe it remains so for all of us even today”. Chiara Luce was beatified on September 25, 2010 after the Church acknowledged the miracle of the sudden healing of a boy from Trieste (Italy). The first celebration to mark this event is to be held on October 28 at 20.00. (Easter Time – United States and Canada) and organised by New City Press, Living City and YCNA (Youth Center for North America). It consists of artistic pieces, interactive moments and speeches by people touched by Chiara’s testimony of life. The programme also includes a message from a witness who met Chiara directly. During this event, two new books in English are to be launched: “Blessed Chiara Badano. Her Secrets to Happiness‘ , addressed particularly to children, with its text by Geraldine Guadagno and its illustrations by Loretta Rauschuber, and ‘In my staying is your going. The Life and Thoughts of Chiara Luce Badano“, edited by the Chiara Badano Foundation. On October 29 at 18.00 (Italian time), Holy Mass will be celebrtated at her hometown, Sassello (Italy). This will be live streamed on the website chiarabadano.org. It will be followed by the projection of the video “Chiara Badano: a life of light” (directed by Marco Aleotti). In this video, which one can watch in the coming days on the website dedicated to her, there are unpublished interviews with her parents who talk about her and their family life. On Saturday 30th October, the liturgical feast will be held. At 12.00 (Italian time), the meeting place will be the cemetery of Sassello, where in unity with Chiara Luce there will be the Timeout: one minute silence to ask for peace in the world. This event will be live streamed. At 15.00 p.m. (Italian time) Bishop Luigi Testore will celebrate Mass at the Holy Trinity Church in Sassello. Father Gianni Califano, the postulator will also participate. At the end of the Mass, the award ceremony of the Chiara Luce Badano 2021 Prize will take place .
Lorenzo Russo
25 Oct 2021 | Non categorizzato
Chiara Lubich wrote that “Life can be a divine adventure,” and she suggested ways in which this can become true. We can learn to look at all that happens to us believing that everything is a sign of God’s love and that everything that happens to us can contribute to our good. All things work for the good of those who love God. God has his own plan of love for each one of us. He loves us personally, and—if we believe in this love and respond with our own love (this is the condition!)—he makes all things contribute to the fulfilment of his plan for us. It is enough to think of Jesus. We know how much he loved the Father and, if we think of him even for moment, we can see how he lived the Word of Life for this month to the full throughout his life. For him nothing happened by chance. Everything had a purpose. However, we see this Word personified in him in a unique way during the last days of His life; nothing in his passion and death happened by chance. For him, even the extreme trial of feeling forsaken by the Father worked for what is good, because, by overcoming this trial Jesus brought his Work to completion. The causes were perhaps not obvious. Those who made him suffer and die did not know exactly what they were doing. They did not know who it was they tortured and crucified. They were not aware of conducting a sacrifice, the sacrifice par excellence that would bring about the salvation of humanity. Jesus suffered at the hands of people who acted without this intention, but since Jesus loved the Father he transformed all these things into means of redemption, seeing in those terrible moments his ‘hour’ that had at last come, the fulfilment of his divine and earthly adventure. Jesus’ example sheds light on our own life: everything that comes to us, all that happens, all that surrounds us and all that causes us to suffer, can be understood as the Will of God who loves us or as being permitted by God, who loves us still. By doing this, everything will be more interesting for us in life, everything will have meaning; everything will be extremely useful. Let’s take heart. Our lives are still before us. We are still on the road. Life can still be transformed into a divine adventure. It’s enough to keep on loving and keep our eyes open for his ever marvellous will.
Chiara Lubich
(Chiara Lubich, Conversazioni in collegamento telefonico, [Telephone conversations] edited by Michel Vandeleene, Città Nuova, Roma, 2019, pp. 160-161)
21 Oct 2021 | Non categorizzato
“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Mt 25:40). Gustavo Clarià, an Argentinean focolarino in Lima, recounts an experience that makes this Gospel passage come alive. It’s a story that communicates a sense of joy that comes from small gestures that break down walls between people and make others happy. The first time I saw him he was standing there, motionless, with something in his hands which, from a distance, I couldn’t quite make out. The double mask and the hat only allowed me a glimpse of his eyes. He caught my attention because he seemed to have no expression at all and was just staring into space. As I drew closer, I saw that he was holding a box of sweets. There was no doubt he was there to sell them, yet he did nothing, not even a gesture to offer them to the people who were passing by. I greeted him, but got no reply. When I left the church at the end Mass, I greeted him again, but there was no response. “This sad man must be my age,” I thought, “how unfair life seems sometimes. Yet God loves him immensely as he loves me.” I promised myself that I would always greet him, but was this really what he expected? After all, he was there to do his job and obviously hoped that someone would notice. I decided to buy something. I’m not in the habit of spending money on sweets or eating them at any time, but I had to start somewhere. I stopped in front of him and took an interest in the variety of his products as if I were in a big sweet shop. After careful consideration, I chose a mint chocolate. I paid, thanked him and said goodbye, without eliciting any reaction. Exactly the same thing happened for several days. I went away for about a month but then I returned and went to the parish Mass. He was still there, in the same place. I greeted him without expecting any response, but surprisingly, as he recognised me, a smile escaped his lips and he seemed happy to see me again. I could not believe it. During Mass, when it was time for the collection of offerings, I rummaged in my pocket and found a two euro coin. I was about to put it back in the basket when I thought: “Jesus identifies with the people who suffer the most. With two euros I can buy some more sweets.” On the way out I went to him and said, “What can you offer me today?” For the first time he looked at me and, with a complicit gesture, began to search in his box until he found what he wanted me to taste: “You will like it, it is a very good strawberry-flavoured chocolate and it costs two euros.” It didn’t seem real to me. It was the longest dialogue in the world. He had uttered a complete sentence just for me. I thanked him infinitely for his kindness and left happily. I can’t wait to see him again to confirm his choice: that strawberry chocolate was really good.
Gustavo E. Clarià
19 Oct 2021 | Non categorizzato
Signing a blank cheque, making a leap in the dark … trusting in God can often appear just too big a challenge to us and we don’t find the courage or strength to try. By recognising how small we are, asking help and allowing someone to take care of us with tenderness, we can find a way to recognise the providential Love of a Father who will never abandon us. And we in turn can circulate this love in the world. Sharing Our house was half-destroyed by an earthquake, so my children and I were sleeping out in the open air and we had next to nothing to eat. One morning I had literally nothing to cook, but placing my trust in God who is our Father, I set a pot of water on the fire. Just as it was about to boil, someone arrived carrying a bag full of fruit and vegetables. No sooner had I started to cook soup than another friend knocked at the door bringing us some meat and a little rice! When my children came home from school they couldn’t believe it and asked, “What’s happened, Mum? You told us there wouldn’t be anything to eat today”. So I told the whole story to them, and even though they claim not to believe in God any more, they heard how my prayers had been answered. However, it didn’t end there. After lunch, I felt drawn to ask Jesus to send me someone in need so I could share the food we’d received with them. The very next day I met a young man who asked me if I could give him a piece of bread. I welcomed him with love, and even if he was anxious not to abuse our hospitality because he could see how poor we were, I made him sit down at our table and I served lunch to him. (Lusby – Colombia) A circuit of Love Arriving at university one day, I bumped into an old man dressed in rags, nearly blind, covered in open wounds because he kept falling over. And he was so dirty. In him, I saw the image of Christ on the cross. I helped him up and asked if he’d like to take a bath. I went into the university compound and somehow found the courage to ask the Rector, a devout Muslim, for permission to use his own personal bathroom because it was the only one with a bathtub, so that the old man could take a bath with my assistance. He was certainly surprized by my request! But he not only agreed but also personally provided the old man with soap. I then escorted the old man to his home, bought him some food and gave his room a much-needed clean up. The next day the Rector called me to his office to explain my motivation for what I had done. I told him how the choice to love our neighbour united millions of people of all religions. He was very interested in getting to know more, and he gave a contribution to buy some essentials for the old man. That’s not all. Some of my fellow students who had witnessed the whole scene put some money together to buy new clothes for him. (Bassam – Iraq) Three cows For a while I’ve been helping a boy from a poor family I’d met during our mission to the Kakuma refugee camp in the north east of Kenya, paying his school fees. Sadly the moment arrived when I couldn’t sustain this help anymore and I told him of my own financial difficulties. A little while later this same boy appealed to me again for help, which made me suffer even more because I couldn’t help him. So I took the decision to sell the one cow I was keeping at my parents’ house and use the money for his schooling. Naturally he was delighted to get back to school. One day in the parish I’ve been serving for nearly a year, a group of parishioners arrived to visit me because they’d heard my father was unwell. Among the gifts they brought were not one but three cows! I couldn’t believe my eyes. I thought of the promise of the Gospel: “a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. (Father David – Kenya)
collated by Maria Grazia Berretta
(from Il Vangelo del Giorno, Città Nuova, anno VII, n.4, settembre-ottobre 2021)
18 Oct 2021 | Non categorizzato
“We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God”, (Rom. 8:28) is the word of life that we are trying to put into practice during this month of October 2021. In this text, Chiara Lubich helps us understand better what St Paul was writing to the Romans. God makes all things work together for those who love Him. … So things don’t work together for the good of everyone, but only for those who love God and respond to his love. God’s love for each of us is not something generic, but is instead deeply personal and special. He makes all things work for the good – that is, for salvation, true happiness and spiritual progress – of those who love him. Everything. So it is not only the Words of God or the sacraments, or the various ministries and other means he has established in the Church that work for our spiritual good. They obviously do. The Apostle clearly means something more. For those who believe in the love of God, and love him, the many circumstance that influence our existence are not simply a matter of chance, nor the result of the blind laws of nature, nor of human planning. Rather they are guided by his love; they are the many opportunities and means that God uses to bring to completion the work of our sanctification. God hides behind all the events of our lives. He is hidden, for example, behind a particular state of health, or a setback, or a sudden change of plan due to circumstances. He hides behind the particular conditions of our state in life, or a sudden spiritual trial, or a problem of any kind at work. He’s behind the fact that we happen to be in a particular place or with a particular person. For those who love God, everything, even the faults of our past life, acquires a positive meaning, because in all these circumstances we experience the love of God who wants to guide us towards holiness. … Above all, we should never stop before the merely external, material or secular aspect of things, but believe instead that every event contains a message through which God expresses his love for us. We will then discover that our life, which may seem to us like a piece of material full of knots and threads woven together in a haphazard way, is actually a marvellous design that God’s love is weaving on the basis of our faith. Secondly, we must trustingly and totally abandon ourselves to this love at all times, both in small and large things that happen in life. Indeed, if we know how to entrust ourselves to God’s love in ordinary circumstances, he will give us the strength to entrust ourselves to him even in the most difficult moments, such as when we suffer or experience illness, or at the very moment of death.
Chiara Lubich
(Chiara Lubich, in Parole di Vita, [Words of Life] edited by Fabio Ciardi, Opere di Chiara Lubich, Città Nuova, 2017, p. 297)
She was born 50 years ago, on 29 October1971, and today she is a role model for thousands of young people. Chiara passed away just a few days before she was 19. ‘Luce’ (Light), the name added to her original one, was given to her by Chiara Lubich, wishing her a life in which she would be a bearer of that light which comes from God’s love. She met the Ideal of unity when she was a teenager and she became a Gen, a member of the young generation of the Focolare Movement. She always cared for others and she lived as a normal young girl, perhaps never imagining that she would have to face a very serious illness at the age of 17. If Chiara Luce were alive today, what would she be like and what would she have lived for? This is a question many of us ask ourselves because we feel that Chiara Luce is still so close to us, that she is one of us, even today. So we put this question to three of her closest friends, Chicca and Franz Coriasco and Cristina Cuneo, from the Chiara Badano Foundation. Chicca answered: “Based on the experience we lived with her, we imagine that she would absolutely be a normal young girl, but aware of the fact that by living the Gospel and Chiara Lubich’s ideal, one can do great things”. What would have been her priorities in life? Cristina emphasised: “We believe that it is today’s young people who can answer this question. In fact, in one of Chiara Badano’s last messages, that was almost a testament, she spoke of ‘handing over’ the torch to young people ‘like at the Olympics’. And this is what so many are doing today by their commitment to diminish inequalities and social injustice, to care for the environment, to safeguard the common good, in the most painful situations each one encounters. All the more so during this period of the pandemic emergencies. They try to heal open wounds as she tried to do throughout her life: in her own small way, but always very concretely”. Franz added: “In one of her essays she wrote: ‘Often, man does not live his life because he is immersed in times that do not exist: he is immersed either in the memory or regret of the past or projected into the future. In reality, man possesses only the present moment, that must be lived in its fullness, exploiting it to the full… In this way we become aware of the value of life, a precious gift that cannot and must not be wasted or burnt by sterile selfishness and useless ambitions’. The Timeout was a daily appointment for her; every day at midday she stopped to join many others in the world and pray for peace. This was a fundamental urgency for her, and we believe it remains so for all of us even today”. Chiara Luce was beatified on September 25, 2010 after the Church acknowledged the miracle of the sudden healing of a boy from Trieste (Italy). The first celebration to mark this event is to be held on October 28 at 20.00. (Easter Time – United States and Canada) and organised by New City Press, Living City and YCNA (Youth Center for North America). It consists of artistic pieces, interactive moments and speeches by people touched by Chiara’s testimony of life. The programme also includes a message from a witness who met Chiara directly. During this event, two new books in English are to be launched: “Blessed Chiara Badano. Her Secrets to Happiness‘ , addressed particularly to children, with its text by Geraldine Guadagno and its illustrations by Loretta Rauschuber, and ‘In my staying is your going. The Life and Thoughts of Chiara Luce Badano“, edited by the Chiara Badano Foundation. On October 29 at 18.00 (Italian time), Holy Mass will be celebrtated at her hometown, Sassello (Italy). This will be live streamed on the website chiarabadano.org. It will be followed by the projection of the video “Chiara Badano: a life of light” (directed by Marco Aleotti). In this video, which one can watch in the coming days on the website dedicated to her, there are unpublished interviews with her parents who talk about her and their family life. On Saturday 30th October, the liturgical feast will be held. At 12.00 (Italian time), the meeting place will be the cemetery of Sassello, where in unity with Chiara Luce there will be the Timeout: one minute silence to ask for peace in the world. This event will be live streamed. At 15.00 p.m. (Italian time) Bishop Luigi Testore will celebrate Mass at the Holy Trinity Church in Sassello. Father Gianni Califano, the postulator will also participate. At the end of the Mass, the award ceremony of the Chiara Luce Badano 2021 Prize will take place .