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Jul 18, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria
Pregnant and Working Despite the promises it had made, the company I work for was unable to provide maternity leave, compensation or future guarantees when I found out I was pregnant. So I had to resign. Then a friend offered me a position at his professional firm. It would have been a fictional employment; I wouldn’t have to work but my rights as a working mother would be honoured. I had already begun to prepare my documents when my conscience rebelled. By stepping outside the law, I would actually be performing a theft against the state, even though I wanted to be a model of honesty for the child I was awaiting. So I declined the job offer, against the wishes of my relatives. But a few days later they were also shocked by how God had answered in such a providential way: a new professional career for my husband, a crib, stroller and baby clothes for my son, as well as a new job for me.
M. L. – Sicily
The Ironing Board For a short time my son has been living on his own. He often comes to visit me, and one day when he saw me ironing, he said: “You know what? I’m missing an ironing board.” I didn’t think about it very long, and I gave him mine. He went away happy, but I was feeling happier because I had given him something he truly needed. A couple of days later a friend of mine asked: “Could you use an ironing board? I have one in the cellar that I’m no longer using.” I was stunned. It was also more comfortable than the one I had given away.
R. B. – Switzerland
The Classmate One day, one of my classmates began throwing books in the air and cursing against God: “Why aren’t you ever there when I need you? What are you doing up there?” I didn’t understand why he was acting like that, until I learnt that his mother had to have cancer surgery. I tried to be close to him, sharing this great suffering, and we prayed together to Jesus that the surgery would go well. Then my other classmates also prayed. The class seemed transformed: this event had made us become more united. The surgery went well, and we all thanked God.
J.S. – Germany
Translation Work 
I was in need of money and was able to find work translating. One day my friend confided to me that she was going through difficult times economically. I offered to let her share the translation work I was doing. That same day I received an offer for another job that would earn me double the amount I had shared with my friend.
E. M. – Azores
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Jul 17, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
The tension of those 115 minutes of play time is felt all over the world, and even more so in Argentina. Everyone is in front of the television screen for the finals of the Soccer World Cup. When Germany makes a goal, there is a moment of profound silence, then a shout of joy from those who side with that team and immediately after the applause of everyone. They are the more than 500 teens from different Countries who arrived in the Argentinian Little Town of the Focolare Movement (250 kms. away from Bueno Aires), to participate in the “Citizens of the World” Youth Camp that started on July 14. Some were supposed to arrive later but they hurried to come so as to live together the great finals. There were flags, faces painted with the colours of the two national teams, songs, cheers… everything, but all done in mutual respect. Even if they didn’t know one another, in a short time freindships were formed. They are adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17, coming from 27 countries and 5 continents. They are all members of Teens for unity. Sharing the World Cup finals together was a happy coincidence, as it became an opportunity to practice living the experience of fraternity, before starting the tasks to be done during the first week of the youth camp. The proposal consists of realizing an international workshop where teens are formed according to the culture of fraternity, and which will allow them to acquire a worldwide dimension, where one learns to respect and love the country of the other as one’s own. The event will take place in two stages. The first week will be held at the Mariapolis Lia, where the teens will work together in a dynamic programme, “just like in a laboratory” they explain, “where different elements are mixed together to produce something new. This is what we want to do during these days”. The objective is to learn to build relationships with everyone, in a venue of a “culture of reciprocity” that allows each one to be formed as “men and women citizens of the world”. Saturday July 19, the first phase concludes with a day open to other teen boys and girls and with a live streaming link up (live.focolare.org/rpu) with the Teens for Unity all over the world. At the end of the day they will make a pact to commit themselves to “going towards the peripheries”, so as to concretize actions of solidarity in terms of fraternity. From July 20 to 27, during the second week, the project will continue, moving to different cities of the Latin American continent, where there are social iniziative animated by the spirituality of unity, typical of the Focolare Movement. This include schools, community centers, homes for street children, home for the elderly. In the meantime, the streets and the areas of the Little Town come to life and experience a new sprint with the presence of these teens who want to participate in the “world championship of fraternity”. video
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Jul 12, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
A trail in heaven. This is the title of the docu-fiction that tells the exciting story of Vincenzo “Eletto” Folonari, a young heir of a rich Italian family, who left everything to follow Jesus “I chose God and nothing else” was one of his famous phrases. http://vimeo.com/100491503 Presentation: 
«He was young. Rich. Handsome. He had everything that someone his age could ever want. But Vincenzo looked beyond, he wanted something more in his life. He came to know the spirit of the Focolare, he left everything for an ideal: universal brotherhood. He disappeared one summer day, amidst the waves of Lake Bacciano. But his death was not in vain. It was the push that gave life to the Gen Movement. Youth, teens, children present today in 182 Countries of the world. That was his dream. He was named Vincenzo. But for everyone he was Eletto». To acquire the dvd (available in various languages): http://editrice.cittanuova.it/s/38125/Una_scia_nel_cielo.html
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Jul 11, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
It was not easy to start the production. Financial difficulties did not allow her to have a stable income, until the right moment came, and Donatella Paolini Baldi was able to go ahead: «The number of families of bees and the amount of honey produced increased – she shared – so much so that I was able to ask for the v.a.t, to do various registrations, to constitute a real and true enterprise, to leave my other job and to have a small income as an apiculturist». “Beach honey” fragrant and aromatic is the best-selling product of the small enterprise, that she was able to build up through the help of the Corporation of a regional Tuscan natural park: a special quality that has already received some awards. Inserted in some purchasing groups as a supplier of honey, she is also a member of the “district of economic solidarity”: a pact made among organizations, purchasers, producers and citizens (consumers) who aim at making production and consumption sustainable. This is a network of enterprises with similar goals, who aim at local production with few middlemen, reusable energy, biological cultivation, and who propose a series of services and products that are highly social and ethical. 
The style of the Economy of Communion has entered into all the activities of this small enterprise that produces honey: taxing itself when – in spite of the good production – it was not possible to pay both salaries (her own and that of Peter, a young collaborator). Or in resisting the “siren’s call” when, applying for a regional subsidy for apiculturists, she is offered a loophole to gain more advantages. «I suffered a lot thinking of the materials that I could have had for free – Donatella shared – or better still, paid for by the community and even if I imagined the ridicule of my colleagues, I said a difficult “No”, but it was a “No”! To speak of fair play is easy, but to go against the current is a bit difficult. In the end, my enterprise was considered as qualified for the subsidy and was entirely financed by it; and I was happy that my choice, without their knowing it, allowed other financed apiculturists to be inserted in the list after me». In the “honey plant” which is availed of for the extraction of the honey, Donatella met G., a labourer who is serving his jail sentence by working there. «Even if I was reassured by the person responsible for the plant, by the social worker and by his lawyer, I still found it difficult to accept the fact that I had to spend a lot of my working hours alone with him. In fact, before knowing him they already gave me a detailed description of the multiple homicides he committed… When I found myself in front of him, tall and robust, courteous and helpful, this wall continued to be present between me and him». Until one day G. heard a conversation of mine on the telephone. «I was talking to a friend who was sharing her feelings with me in search of understanding and help. I was trying to encourage her to maintain certain actions such as: seeing each other new every morning, seeing the positive in each other. G. understood well the meaning of my words so much so that he thanked me afterwards. His gratitude enlightened me… ». And still more, punctual providential interventions, seen as actions of the “hidden partner”, God, to whom Donatella and her collaborator Pietro entrust themselves continually. «It was a particularly difficult year due to the cold and the intense rain which compromised the blossoming of the flowers and therefore the production of honey. Among the apiculturists there was a drum beat of telephone calls. In this atmosphere, S. an apiculturist who supports his family through his work, called me up crying. He didn’t know what to do, he was desperate. I told him to calm down and to have faith. I overcame my reluctance and I went to look for and then found some fields that are next to 10 hectares of sunflowers. We can put the houses of the bees on his land and the bees can then fly to the sunflowers in the neighbouring field, whose owner was happy to collaborate. I don’t know if we will have an abundant production of honey, but I understood that asking and giving have truly the same value».
Jul 9, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
http://vimeo.com/98416187 An entrepreneur is someone who pursues a productive idea. That of John Mundell, of Indianapolis (USA), is quite original. The enterprise of this civil engineer, where19 collaborators work, adheres to the project of the Economy of Communion (EoC). There are around a thousand companies in the world that adhere to this evangelical way of working in the economic field, with a strong presence in Europe and with a notable growth in the regions of Latin America and Africa. The simple but winning idea launched by Mundell is called “The Company Cube” (Dice for the companies). This is a nice instrument that helps to live in a practical way the life style precisely of the Economy of Communion. The Company Cube, is a practical way of remembering the values that create a work environment grounded in mutual respect, concern, and shared responsibility. Not only this, it also aims high, and proposes itself as a daily “modus operandi” to bring about social change through decisions made centered on the person. How does it work? “Take the Cube and… throw it – John Mundell explains. Read the side that faces up and try to live it in your place of work. At the end of the day think about how your way of acting changed and share your experience: Roll it, Read it, Live it, Share it. You will experience surprising results!”. But what is written on the faces of the dice? Build (relationships everyday!), Support (with actions, not just words!), Share (expertise, time, yourself!), Value (every person,every idea!), First (to help others!), Competitors (can be friends too!). Regarding “Competitors”, a colleague shares: “When I found out my competitor had won a project we both had written proposals for, I called to congratulate her. She was surprised to hear from me. She shared her approach and it gave me an idea for our next project.” In August of 2013, during an international congress of th EoC held in Mexico City, entitled “The person and comunione, towards a refoundation of the Economy”, John Mundell launched the Spanish version of “The Company Cube”: “El dado empresarial”. For more information: The Company Cube ( http://www.thecompanycube.org/it/ )
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Jul 8, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
«Solitude, silence, do not frighten: they are made to protect, not to cause fear. Nevertheless, one can take advantage of such a suffering. The greatness of Christ is the cross. He was never so close to the Father and so close to the brothers as when naked, wounded, he cried out from the gallows: «My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?. With that suffering he redeemed: in that fracture he reunited all men with God. Therefore we should not think that sufferings, which are never lacking even in this moment of rest, are a hindrance: they are a stimulus. And so […] listen to that Voice, so as to start to converse: a Voice that arises from the depths of your soul and falls from the heights of the heavens. You are not accustomed to listen to it and so, in the first encounters, it may seem that it escapes you, almost as if there is a thick wall between you or a cosmic distance. It is because it comes from the most intimate part of you and you are used to the clanging that comes from the world outside. It comes from the planets, from the sun, from nature […] and brings with it a profound voice: that of the author of the sky and of the earth.[…] Listen to it. Contemplate it, within the silence wherein God speaks. This is, in the day of life, the hour of dusk of contemplation, when the creatures gather together to assess the work that has been done and to prepare the actions of tomorrow: a tomorrow immersed in eternity. […] Detachment from the world, therefore, and attachment to God: thus not a separation from people, inasmuch as they are brothers, members of the same divine and human family. The wealth of experience of those who have passed the exam of life is useful to them: but above all what is useful is that wisdom, which in religion is called sanctity. The mystic introduces into the arteries of the Mystical Body the virtues of contemplation: seeds of the divine, that expand into the social fabric. This needs it as never before. […] So then one (…) detaches from creatures so as to find oneself in God, where they will never be separated anymore. Since the Lord – the Trinity – has placed himself to live in you, then with his love, you love all creatures: and to love them means to unite yourself to them. […] And since God is in tranquility, one can achieve this more easily in the relaxation of the spirit and possibly of the body during this period, striving to relax by establishing peace with all creatures, forgiving and forgetting, up to the point in which no thoughts regarding the others remain to disturb us, but all gather in the house of the Lord sharing with one another. […] In this station we meet with spirited companions on the journey, who, placed in front of the dilemma: the Eternal or the world?, choose the Eternal, to the amazement of relatives and the scandal of friends. They make of the task assigned to them in time, a march of coming closer – almost an attack – on the Eternal and they tear off pieces of heaven: thus they give to the generations an idea of the Infinite. Paul, Augustine, Bernard, Francis. Thomas, Dante, Catherine… And the John of the Cross and Teresa and Pascal and Newman and Manzoni…[…] The meditation of their writings – up to the point of assimilation – sends the soul on the way to divinity. One scales the heights with them, who know the way and provide the instruments necessary. And the peak is the home of peace and also of joy, because it touches paradise. (Excerpts taken from “Città Nuova” XXIII/13 10 July, 1979, pp.32-33)
