29 Nov 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
The narrative flows like a family story with a touch of the divine whose clarity and simplicity both edifies and arouses wonder. These are stories of the “early days” of the Focolare Movement from the lips of Vittoria Salizzoni, one of the first companions of Chiara Lubich. They are a testimony to the beginning of the adventure of believing in Love and leaving everything for Him in the full midst of the Second World War. More commonly known as Aletta, Vittoria, third in a family of eight children recounts:
“On her way to work every day my sister Agnes would pass by the friars hole, an air-raid shelter in Piazza Cappuccini (Capuchins Square) where Chiara Lubich would sometimes take refuge and read the Gospel with her friends. Agnes was totally taken by their new way of talking, by their contagious joy, and would share with me how it made her feel. But I don’t ever remember her telling me anything about their ideals. Therefore, knowing hardly anything about them really, I wasn’t very drawn to the idea of meeting the girls.
It was the persistence of a friend that led me to go and meet those young people, “but only because I was being polite.” And so on January 7, 1945 I was at Number 2 Piazza Cappucini in Trent. The first thing I noticed as I entered into that small house was a young woman standing by the kitchen sink. She was kneading some bread. She seemed like an angel standing in that room. They introduced her to me: ‘That’s Natalia, she’s making white bread with refined flour for one of us who has stomach problems.’ I was struck by the scene before me. I found it so pleasing. I felt love.
That was a decisive moment in my life. I’m not a person who decides things right away and am blunt and outspoken at times, but on that day I was totally changed. I was left speechless by the atmosphere in that place. I was enchanted by the way they introduced themselves, by their way of acting and moving about. In the adjoining room, a very modest bedroom with only two mattresses on the floor but appearing quite beautiful to me, I found Chiara intent on fixing Graziella’s hair. She was making a thick braid which she then wrapped around her head like a crown.
As I observed these peers of mine, I intuited that they had “grasped” God on an impulse. Their choice had nothing heavy or burdensome about it, nothing solemn or austere. Their life was animated by a strong momentum of enthusiasm and, being young, everything played out like a game. It was – if it can say it in this way – God as a youth. It all seemed grand and new and divine. Here there was Love. God was there and I felt Him.
One day Chiara explained to me how radical their choice really was: ‘See? Life is short, short as a flash. Bombs falling from one moment to the next and we can die. Therefore we’ve made the pact of giving everything to God, because we have only one life and when we stand before Him we want to already be all His. For this reason we’ve married God.”
This sentence went straight to the depths of my heart. I was certain that God was calling me to marry Him. It gave me wings, changed my life: I had also been called to such a beautiful adventure and to bring it to everyone.
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28 Nov 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
For the first time the Focolare’s Youth for a United World and their United World Project take part in the 8th UNESCO Youth Forum held in Paris, France on October 29-31, 2013. Five hundred young people from 150 countries took part in a workshop by and for young people, which has been meeting biyearly since 1999. The forum, which is an integral part of the UNESCO General Conference, aims at creating synergies among United Nations organizations and other organizations and public institutions that work in the youth sector.
Main topics of the 8th forum: “Young people and social inclusion: civil involvement; dialogue and skills development,” which were chosen through an online survey of the 2500 young people. In line with the UNESCO operating strategy for young people 2014-2021, recommendations were presented to the 195 member states at the 37th UNESCO General Conference which met on November 5-20, 2013. Moreover, this year the young people chose 15 action projects – IED from the five UNESCO “regions” – that were given the label Youth Forum UNESCO.
Contatti attraverso lo United World Project con l’UNESCO c’erano già stati presso 11 commissioni nazionali negli scorsi mesi. Tutti passi di un cammino di conoscenza reciproca che continua.Stella from Hong Kong, Anne Cecile from France and Joaquin from Argentina were members of the Youth for a United World delegation (youth section of the New Humanity NGO), whose attendance had been propelled by the work that is being carried out with the United World Project, launched last year at the Genfest in Hungary, promoting universal brotherhood in various environments.
At the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, the Youth for a United World reported a “revolution” in putting up the organisation of the forum with an invasion of young volunteers. The work carried out in the work groups and in the plenary session was characterized by an exchange of experiences and good practices. Among the recommendations that were accepted was one from the Youth for a United World: “the promotion of intergenerational opportunities, as a fruit of living for fraternity,” reported Joaquin.
The conference concluded with the speech by the president of the Katalin Bogyay General Conference who spoke at the Genfest in Budapest about a traditional African teaching called Ubuntu (I am because we are). The next phase of the United World Project will be held on May 1st in Nairobi and be called: Sharing With Africa. Stella went on to say: “These words had particular resonance for us,” because “such occasions allow us to see that there is a path toward a united world here as well. Different, yes, but so involved in solving problems together, like one big family.”
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27 Nov 2013 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria
At the opening of the Academic Year of the “San Roberto Bellarmino” Religious Science College on November 25 in Capua City, near Naples, Maria Voce held a Lecture on one of the main points of the spirituality of unity, “Jesus Forsaken, A Light for Theology”. There were Bishops of the different dioceses of the Campania region present. The president of the Focolare Movement outlined “the salient aspects”, since – as she affirmed herself – “we cannot present briefly all the wealth of the doctrine of Jesus Forsaken in the spirituality of Chiara Lubich.” Here is an excerpt of her Lecture:
«I would like to begin with a quotation of a letter that Chiara wrote to a friend way back in 1946. An emblematic quote, which says:
“Look …, I am a soul passing through this world.
I have seen many beautiful and good things and I have always been attracted only by them. One day (one indescribable day) I saw a light. It appeared to me as more beautiful than the other beautiful things, and I followed it. I realized it was the Truth.”
Jesus on the cross. He came on earth to bring back people (who had distanced themselves from God because of sin) to a full communion with Him. He took upon himself every negative aspect of their life: sufferings, distress, desperation, pains, sins…, making Himself, the Innocent One, similar to human sinners. “In order to bring the human person back to the Father’s face, Jesus not only had to take on the face of a human being, but he had to burden himself with the ‘face’ of sin”[i], said Pope John Paul II.
Let’s go back to the beginning of the Movement, in 1944, in the midst of the World War. On one particular circumstance a priest told Chiara that, for him, Jesus’ greatest suffering was when he cried out on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46). Right away Chiara concluded: if that was the peak of his suffering, it was certainly also the apex of his love for us. Since then, together with her first companions, and later with all those who would have followed her Ideal, she felt called to become the “answer of love” to that cry.
Jesus Forsaken was therefore revealed to her as “the living proof of God’s love here on earth.”
This is well stressed in a famous “song” of praise and thanksgiving dedicated precisely to Jesus Forsaken and that spontaneously sprung forth from her heart:
“So that we might possess the light, you lost your sight.
To acquire union for us, you experienced separation from the Father.
So that we might have wisdom, you made yourself ‘ignorance’.
To clothe us in innocence, you became sin.
So that we might hope, you almost despaired…
So that God might be present in us, you felt him far away from you.
So that heaven might be ours, you felt hell.
To make our time on earth happy, among hundreds of brothers and sisters and more, you were expelled from heaven and earth, from human beings and nature.
You are God, you are my God, our God of infinite love.”
This infinite love that Jesus crucified and forsaken had for every human being on earth transformed all sufferings, filled up every emptiness and redeemed every sin. Our separation from God was annulled in the re-established communion with Him and among us.
Thus, Jesus Forsaken contains the key to penetrate and give an answer to the deepest mystery that envelops the life of the human being and the whole of humanity: the mystery of pain, of suffering.
This is a great mystery that deeply touches Chiara’s heart:
“Jesus on earth… – she wrote with feelings – Jesus our brother… Jesus who dies between thieves for us: he, the Son of God, sharing a common life with others. ‘… if you came among us, it was because our weakness attracted you, our wretchedness moved you to compassion.’ Certainly, no earthly mother or father waiting for their lost children or doing everything to bring them back could equal our Father in heaven.”
From the mystery that Jesus lived on the cross, Chiara saw a light emanate, able to illuminate and to give meaning to every experience of pain and abandonment that a human person may live. She speaks of this with simplicity, confiding that, since Jesus Forsaken manifested himself to her, she seemed to discover him everywhere:
“He himself, his face and his mysterious cry seemed to colour every painful moment of our life.”
“Darkness, the sense of failure and aridity disappeared – wrote Chiara. – And we started to understand how dynamically divine is Christian life that knows no boredom, cross, suffering, only those that pass, and makes one enjoy the fullness of life, which means resurrection, light and hope even in the midst of tribulations.”»
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26 Nov 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
“It is suggestive that a city which recognizes a woman of such deep faith as Chiara Lubich, as a symbol of peace, finds itself ten years later with an administration of such diverse political leanings taking up her legacy.” With these words Archbishop Salvatore Visco welcomed the people who had gathered at the Garibaldi Theatre in Santa Maria Capua Vetere for a conference entitled Chiara Lubich, Woman of Dialogue.
“You can change the world beginning from your own city, because the facts that you have recounted here demonstrate the change that has taken place in many of you,” said Focolare president Maria Voce as she addressed the young people regarding their concrete commitment against illegality and other social ills; for their efforts in favour of the environment; for becoming directly involved in improving their cities. “This is not an abstract dialogue among people or religions,” Maria Voce pointed out, “but a lifestyle of dialogue; not an activity, but a way of being that needs to be nourished by love, mercy and an ability to forgive: because we are all brothers and sisters and children of the same God.”
A very keen reflection was given by philosopher Aldo Masullo who defined dialogue as: “the way for overcoming the desperation of solitude, for war is born of desperation; whereas peace is founded on faith that is rooted in authenticity.”
Nasser Hidouri, Imam of the Mosque in the municipality of San Marcellino, testified to the life that comes from “not fearing our differences” and from “not being conditioned by the problems that are created by a violent minority,” mindful that “the questions that remain unanswered for us today, will be inherited by our children tomorrow.”
Alberta Levi Temin of Jewish-Christian Friendship and survivor of the Nazi round-up in the ghetto of Rome when she was a child shared her vision of humanity: “a pyramid with three sides at its base comprised of religions, peoples and cultures all leading to the top where God is equally distant from each one of them.”
Then there was the testimonial of Antonio Casale, Director of the Centro Fernandes [Fernandes Centre] for welcoming immigrants, especially from the African Sub-Sahara: “More important than the beds, meals or medicine we provide is the human dignity that we try to restore to each individual.”
In the problematic economic and social situation of the region, the voice of anti-racket entrepreneur Antonio Diana, whose father had been murdered by the Camorra, had a positive message: “You can do business without adapting to the customs of corruption and without falling into compromise,” being willing to pay the price.
An evening event that showed the fruits of 360° dialogue helped to convey hope to the participants for a better future that is based on what each one accomplishes in the present.
On November 24, 2013, two thousand people from Focolare communities gathered in Naples. They came from Campania, Puglia and Basilicata, with some people from Albania. First there were some opening words from the Mayor of Naples, Luigi de Magistris. Then there was an open dialogue with Maria Voce and co-president Giancarlo Falleti. Some of the topics of discussion included: involvement in politics and civil life; making decisions in crucial moments when you are young; launching and prospective for the Movement as it reaches out in service to humanity and in contributing to the fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer: that all may be one.
On November 25, 2013, Maria Voce presented the keynote address on Jesus Forsaken, A Light for Theology for the opening of the academic year at the St. Robert Bellarmine Institute of Religious Sciences. Bishops from several diocese of Campania also attended.
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22 Nov 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
Gabri Fallacara and Severin Schmid are welcomed at the headquarters of ACER-MJO Movment by the president
Cyrille Sollogoub.
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22 Nov 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
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One hundred and twenty five leaders of 46 movements and communities of different Churches and 13 European countries – from Russia to Portugal , Denmark to Slovenia, were present at the meeting which took place in the historic setting of Montmartre.
The theme that had been chosen was: “Yes” to the poor and marginalized, as was expressed in the message of Stuttgart 2007. The many contributions revealed how much the Communities and Movements are linked to the commitment to and with the most needy. It is not just acts of solidarity, but of friendship and brotherhood.
An intense moment was spent with Jean Vanier, founder of L‘Arche Community. He opened the gift of his experience with these words: “Jesus says: “The kingdom of God is like a wedding feast” – but everyone is too busy – and the king who had issued the invitations sends his servants to seek the crippled and the lame in the hedgerows and at the crossroads – this is what I have tried to live in my life.” Jean Vanier is dedicated in particular to the mentally handicapped “the people most oppressed.” “They have changed me, I have seen that the Kingdom of God is theirs.” There are now 140 communities, ecumenical and interreligious, in which “fragile and strong” live together.
The prayers of Catholics and Evangelicals, which introduced the work of the first two days, were followed by that of the Russian Orthodox with its choir .
In the days of lively exchange on the path taken so far by Together for Europe, with the big events in Stuttgart 2004 and 2007 and in Brussels in 2012, thought was given to what could be the next step to take. Recalling the expression of Chiara Lubich, “the score is written in heaven” you could sense in the reciprocal listening to one another that the most valuable experience of this journey together is the deep communion that has developed between Movements of different churches. And it is precisely this “common witness of Christians” which has led to initiatives that Europe needs today, in the political and social fields, “so that the world may believe.”
At the same time, a further contribution is foreseen for 2016, in the form of a congress, which will probably take place in a city in Germany, in order to make visible the path of communion so far.
There was an solemn atmosphere when the new stage was entrusted to God in prayer and the commitment of mutual love renewed.
In May 2014, the Steering Committee will meet again in Dillingen in Germany to receive the prestigious “St. Ulrich European Award” which is 2014 has been awarded to “Together for Europe”.
In Paris there was also a chance to live the “culture of visiting each other”: we went to the Chapel of the metro station in Montparnasse, which is entrusted to the Community of Sant’Egidio , to pray together and learn about their work in the heart of Paris.
And even before the beginning of the meeting, there were those who went to meet the Emmanuel Community, and those who visited the headquarters of Acer-Mjo (Russian Students’ Christian Action – Orthodox Youth Movement).
Gabri Fallacara
