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Jun 7, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
Put together 21 young women from 13 countries around the world and add some sound talent, cultural richness and desire to to spread a positive Gospel message. It was an extraordinary experience for our city, a grand occasion for the young people who are passionate about music and the Christian message. It was a double appointment: Friday, May 30th a workshop with young people; and Sunday, June 1st an evening concert on the square in front of the Madonna delle Grazie Shrine, at the Nazareth Oasis. The 21 women animated by the charism of the Focolare Movement sang about this passionate love, and they did it through music, modern-day music, rich in sound, echo, expressed by many nationalities and with the words of the Gospel. In these times of “ho un dono, ve lo dono” (suor Cristina at The Voice), these young women did not hesitate to live out the Gospel command to love others in the Lord and to share the invitation to follow the Master with the sounds of their guitar, drums, bass and violins. “The music is a vehicle. We can’t claim to have great talent, but we can place our talents together and see them multiply,” the young women said. 
During the workshop, they shared about some moments from their lives – some, moments of difficulty; others, uncomplicated moments of great simplicity – in which words like unity, fraternity and sharing went from being abstract theories to pleasant ongoing realities. “Every morning before beginning the day,” they explained, “we renew the pact of reciprocal love. This also means loving the other person’s idea, which might be different from mine, welcoming the creative spark in the other as we share our ideas freely. It means beginning again, giving priority to our relationships and then to our art. Whenever I’m able to put aside my idea to open myself to someone else’s idea, a whole new world of opportunities opens.” The “Start Now” project that was performed on stage in Corato, Italy, was conceived during a trip in the Holy Land where Jews, Muslims and Christians live with each other, but often without any dialogue. “It occured to us that the Arts could be a vehicle of dialogue. Mutual acceptance of one another’s talents is a way of communicating. We hold theatre workshops in the international town of Loppiano, Italy, where we live. At these workshops, which also involve song and dance, young people from all over the world are invited to share their talents through diaolgue, and experience the values of unity and brotherhood.” 
One priest remarked: “Having dealings with these women,” one priest commented, “doesn’t leave you indifferent. Many of us realised this, both Friday and Saturday. Gen Verde wished to talk in front of many young people, telling them about ordinary moments in their lives that were rendered extraordinary by an encounter with the love of the Risen Lord who came to dwell in many episodes of their lives, not always rosey episodes. He transfigured them and made them beautiful and extraordinary, to the point that they could no longer keep it to themselves.” One song refrain says: “There’s a light in me that never goes away .” Antonella D’Introno, communications director of the event on behalf of the Youth Ministry of the city, commented: “And these women revealed to us the secret for discovering again and again the enthusiasm for what we do. You always need to fix on one person in life: Jesus on the Cross who loves us immensely.” Source: Coratolive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qy-pyzk5bY
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Jun 5, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
Everything began twenty years ago from one of the members of the parish, who was visited by a group of Romani children who insistently asked him to go and see the image of the Madonna in their neighbourhood that, according to them, cried. This was the first contact with the Rom community, and which led to some of the parishioners gathering together everyday to pray in this square together with the children. Despite a series of initiatives started together successfully, after two years the prayer group was dissolved; and it took ten years so that they could start the journey together once again. It was the Prayer and Mission Group “Ceferino Jiménez Malla” that gave the go signal, to meet every Monday to pray at the Grotto of Our Lady of the Valley, at the center of the square of the Rom neighborhood. «We had to overcome fear, prejudices, indifference, a refusal that was born from a wrong relationship with them,” Maria Teresa Sosa, volunteer of the Focolare Movement, shared, “but then the barriers fell, and we discovered that the Rom love to listen to the Word of God since, most of them are illiterate.” Then other members of the Focolare joined our group. “The experience would like to create a relationship through simple gestures of reciprocity, continued Maria Teresa, “to get to know each other by name, look at each other in the eyes, listen to one another, making ourselves one with the other. For example, to celebrate the birth of a child, or to visit patients in hospital. One of them was administered with the Sacrament of the Sick”. We also look for ways of inculturation, translating into prayers such as the Our Father, Hail Mary, or the Glory be into the Roma language. “When they listen to us pray the children say: ‘You are like the Rom’.” Another important step was that of celebrating together the International Romani Day, which they didn’t know about, so as to give visibility to the community. A journey continues, on the 8th of April every year also thanks to the media: the Rom community will participate regularly in a transmission on Radio Maria wherein they will share about their customs, a newspaper published a page on the experiences of the Rom Mission. The visibility that they gained allowed them to start a project to provide literacy in collaboration with an Teaching Institute of formation. 
But the bridge must also be created also on the side of the Argentinian community: in a secondary school that is found near the gypsies and with whom they have no relationship at all, a teacher tackled the topic of prejudice towards ethnic minorities, while some journalism students made a report entitled “Creoles and Rom, the start of a dialogue” (in this context the term “creoles” refers to the Argentinians). In March, at the start of the school year, a project began to save seats in the classroom for Romani children, who are often discriminated, and group participated in the day of their welcome into the school. There are many initiatives, from sewing lessons for the girls to catechism for the children, and it would be impossible to name all of them that are being done in this place. “Our desire,” she concluded, “is to create a national network of bridge.” On June 5 and 6, Maria Teresa is in Rome for the worldwide Meeting of the episcopal promoters and the national directors of Pastoral work among the gypsies, upon th einvitation of Cardinal Vegliò, president of the Pontifical Council of Itinerants and Migrants.
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Jun 4, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
The first thing Giorgio La Pira did in the morning was to buy the newspaper. Then, back in his office, he would open the Gospel next to the day’s news. For the ‘Saintly Mayor’ of Florence the two texts weren’t distant from each other – in fact the opposite was true. His work was that of applying the Gospel concretely to human and social affairs, with far seeing and creative actions that responded to the questions of the existential peripheries of his city, and then of the whole world. A job that is repeated today in the many social projects that bear his name. One of these, which has just blown out 35 candles on its birthday cake, is the Giorgio La Pira International Student Centre, which on 25th May celebrated its birthday, together with many friends who came for the occasion to the Auditorium in Loppiano. Guided by the journalist Maddalene Maltese, the participants leafed through, as with a family album, the many photographs that tell the story of these years at the service of a vast range of young people. Towards the end of the seventies, in Florence, as in many other parts of Italy, there was a new phenomenon: many foreign students arrived, particularly from Africa, Asia and Latin America. But Italy wasn’t ready for this influx at any level – legislatively, culturally or even on a human level. Inspired by the work of Giorgio La Pira, the Archbishop of Florence Cardinal Benelli intervened and asked Chaira Lubich to give him a hand. A few days later three young men of the Focolare Movement presented themselves to the Cardinal and went to visit the building in the heart of Florence that would begin to welcome these students. The rest is history. The man in charge of the Diocese of Florence today is Mons Giuseppe Betori, and in his address he underlined the prophetic dimension of Cardinal Benelli and Chiara Lubich’s idea, which made the La Pira Centre a beacon in the world of dialogue with diversity, and in particular with the suffering, the last, the forgotten. While the Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community in Florence, Joseph Levi, found in the style of dialogue and reciprocity, the real richness that this experience offers the city and the growth of its social fabric in the spirit of fraternity. The many personal stories collected are a witness to this, like that of Jean Claude Assamoi from the Ivory Coast: “The Centre was a help to me at a difficult time in my life, taking me in together with other students. Later I became a collaborator as a teacher in the field of global education (…) and just like me, many other African students that have followed my path, have moved to other places developing work relationships between their own countries and the ones that have welcomed them which mirror the dialogue and unity which was built in Florence”. The peripheries that La Pira loved, and which today Pope Francis invites us to get to know, are the heart of a prophecy that each day becomes more tangible, up-to-date, fraternal.
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Jun 3, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
“The situation in Bangui, the capital of CAR, is generally improving. In other parts of the country the situation varies. Our communities are located in relatively calm areas, but since last December there is one area of the city where small reprisals and killings continue. It is the Muslim quarter and surrounding areas. People are unable to return to their homes and are taking shelter in refugee camps around the airport, in churches and at the central mosque.” “The morning of May 28th began like any ordinary weekday. In the afternoon there were more clashes in some hot-spots. Then an armed group stormed the church of Our Lady of Fatima, opened fire on the people who were taking refuge there, and took forty hostages. Fifteen died at the church and many were badly wounded. Of the forty hostages, 39 corpses were recovered. . .” “The people are fed up. Thursday, the 29th was the feastday of the Ascension of Jesus. Barriers were set up on the main roads and in all the quarters of the city to prevent the flow of traffic. The day after, at four o’clock, we were awakened by a deafening noise. . . Thousands of people were banging pot lids in a peaceful protest that lasted until seven o’clock. You can still hear gunshots in other parts of the city, at times sporadic, at times intense. Perhaps they’re trying to contain the protesters.” 
“The protest is asking for the government’s resignation and the removal of foreign troops. Six months later, they are being accused by the population of not having successfuly disarmed the hot spot areas of the city. This is interpreted as a plan to maintain military and political disorder on the part of countries belonging to the troops that should be restoring the peace, but instead are continuing to illegally exploit our resources.” “On the day of the massacre at Fatima Church, we tried with great anticipation and fear to obtain news about the people of our community, especially the ones living in the areas that had been hit. Willy, a young boy whom we knew, has been killed and there are others who were lightly wounded. Everyone else fled and took refuge elsewhere. We’re trying to support one another by telephone, and some young people recently came by for some comfort and relief.” 
“Ever since the crisis began we have been trying to help those around us who have stayed behind, especially families and children. We offer concrete assistance through the help of the Youth for a United World and the adoption at a distance programme of the New Families Movement. Here at our place we are inviting young people to think about peace, with the help of Youth for a United World and the local Focolare community.” Monica concludes: “We are certain that God has a loving plan for our land as well; and, in the midst of the serious difficulties we are going through, we try to be witnesses of his love for everyone around us.”
![Gen Verde. Music and Faith]()
Jun 2, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide
The Mariapolis is one of the traditional gatherings of the Focolare Movement, where people of all ages and walks of life gather for a few days to experience the brotherhood that is born from the life of the Gospel, even when – as in Myanmar – they are not all Christians. At the conclusion of the Mariapolis in Myanmar they write: “Heartfelt greetings from the nearly two hundred people who have attended the sixth Mariapolis in Myanmar! The majority have travelled great distances to reach the seminary located in the mountains of the country’s eastern lands: a 12-hour journey from Yangon; 20 hours for people traveling from the south, including some who walked for three hours before reaching the buses that transported them for another 10 hours. There were Catholics, a small representation of other Christian denominations and several Buddhists.” The message continues: “Tauggyi’s refreshing climate, compared to the 40 degree temperature (104 degrees F) of Yangon, made us feel like we were in a small paradise. But it was especially the temperature of our mutual love that increased as we performed personal daily acts of love of giving and receiving.” Some focolarini from Thailand and a few seminarians who are on holiday had arrived before the Mariapolis began to help with the preparations. 
“I’m in charge of a mothers association in my village. Before coming here, there was a problem because some of the members were arguing among themselves. During this Mariapolis, my thinking changed and I decided to ask forgiveness of the mothers when I return, as a sign of love.” “Even though I belong to the Baptist Church, I believe that I am here because of Mary, Our Mother,” declared 19-year-old Eden Htoo. “I will do my best to make this seed of reciprocal love that has been planted in my heart to grow, and I will share it with others.” 
Michael admitted that he felt “encouraged to have more respect for people of other religions.” Eighteen-year-old Paulina: “I liked the statement: “If you want to be loved, you must first love.” I have never tried to apologise after having fought with a certain person, I thought it would have been too hard a blow to my ego. But now I realize that it is also important to apologise. Before I detested people who hated me, but now I’m going to try this: the more they hate me, the more I’ll love them.” Among those who attended was also the local Ordinary, Archbishop Matthias U Shwe, who had met the Focolare Movement as a seminarian through some of the first focolarini who visited Myanmar in 1966: “He surprised us when he arrived several hours before the Mass and conclusion. He encouraged us and urged us to return again next year. We left happy and desirous to take the experience of unity that we had lived in the Mariapolis to our local environments.” 
Jun 1, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria
The Lord is great! One day, as I was on my way to work, I met a lady on the train whom I knew by sight because she went to the same church as mine. We greeted one another and started a conversation. She said: “I see that you are married. Do you have children?”. “I answered yes, that I have two very beautiful girls of whom I am very proud of. When it was my turn to ask her about her children, she burst into tears in front of all the passengers, much to my great embarrassment. I asked for pardon, at which point she started to share her situation with me: “Yesterday, after examining the results of the analysis, my gynecologist told me that I could never become a mother. For me, being married for nine years already, this is a very great suffering”. I listened to her with great empathy, then I encouraged her not to lose hope but to continue to have faith in God. I said that I would pray for her too. Three weeks later, I saw the same lady after Mass: she was radiant, as she waited for me to share the beautiful news: “I am three weeks pregnant. The Lord is great!”. After nine months Emanuel was born, a beautiful baby boy. W.U. – Rome Translation work I needed money and I was able to find a job: doing translations. One day a friend confided in me that she was passing through a difficult moment financially. So I offered to share the work that I was doing with her. On the same day I was offered another job that would allow me to earn double of what I had shared with my friend. E. M. – Azores The classmate One day, my classmate started to throw his books and notebooks in the air, cursing God: “Why aren’t you there when I need you? What are you doing up there?”. I didn’t understand why he was doing this, until I learned that his mother had to undergo an operation for cancer. I stayed near him, sharing this great suffering of his, and finally, together, we asked Jesus that the operation would go well. Our other classmates prayed with us too. Our class was transformed: this episode made us more united. The operation went well and we all thanked God. J.S. – Germany
