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Jun 3, 2013 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria
“Knowing how to observe” is perhaps the first creative act for Ciro. It could give rise to the impulse of recognising the Beautiful that surrounds us, even if often hidden behind the appearances of ruin. This is how Roberto Cipollone presents himself on his website. He is an ingenious Italian artist who has his workshop at the international little town of Loppiano (Florence).
We interviewed him on his return from the inauguration of an exhibition in Japan:
How was your art received in the Land of the Rising Sun?
“The reception was splendid with the typical Asian courteousness. I visited Kyoto thanks to a Tuscan agency that collaborates in furthering relationships between Florence and that Japanese city. I was pleased to find that the set-up organised by them fully matched what I had desired. Someone commented that it seemed like Ikebana done in iron.”
How do you live the creative act?
“For me the creative process is like a kind of therapy. More than with words, I express myself through the transformation of common objects, which when arranged in a certain manner, even astonish me. This process results in something that amazes, which creates emotions.”
From where do you get your inspiration?
“I draw inspiration mostly from nature, from the material I find, where at times there are traces of life; especially objects that come from the world of farming. Naturally also from readings, from some film that I’ve seen, images that I grasped through only a glimpse…, or things that amaze you, which you then put into form.”
The locations you choose for your exhibitions are often odd…
“Until now I chose to hold exhibitions even in unusual locations: for example on the water, or in the open and in the most varied situations. And you hear the reactions of people, at times unprepared to receive an artistic message in these ways. They are positive reactions that help in changing man, who would not have lived without art.”
Certainly, there is art and art…
“Rather, it is not said that from the beginning art developed for the wellbeing of man, but I believe that man, even before eating, needs beauty. I try to greatly respect the work others have done, especially that in the farming sphere, which at times is even governed by necessity, but where beauty was not excluded, as well as the desire to pass on these values to others. Beauty understood not in terms of affectation but as message of profound values.”
The exhibition is currently underway in Kyoto from 21 May to 9 June.
For information: info@labottegadiciro.it
Official website: http://www.labottegadiciro.it/about/
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Jun 2, 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
Although I grew up in Rome, Italy, I wasn’t a church-goer, because my religion seemed very abstract to me, very far removed from my everyday life. What mattered most to me were my studies, my career, my friends, just having a good time.
Very few people around me seemed really fulfilled; instead, I saw many who were disillusioned, sad and alone. I asked myself how a person could really be happy in life.
In 1999, when I was 21 years old, while studying Humanities in Rome, I met a fellow student who was a member of the Focolare. I was touched by the way he and his friends treated me. I felt that they accepted me as I was. Moreover, I was impressed by the fact that Christianity wasn’t just a theory for them. They shared how they were living the words of the Gospel in their daily life, or how they had experienced God’s love, and this made them happy.
One particular Gospel phrase really struck me: “Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do it to me.” I could love God present in every neighbour.
At home, with my family, I just tried to listen more and to be more patient, particularly with my father with whom I’d had frequent arguments. I’d then spend more time with my mother, who was often alone at home, and tried to help her with some household chores. My family noticed that I was trying to behave in a different way and our relationship gradually began to change. Reciprocal trust developed among us; my mother would ask me for advice and she began to confide in me even if I was the youngest in the family. One night, I remember, my older sister and I stayed up late talking; we spontaneously recalled many past grudges and arguments which we hadn’t really forgiven, but had only tried to forget. For the first time we deeply forgave each other, from the bottom of our hearts. We then embraced and felt a great joy.
Living the Gospel, the world around me started to change, because I myself was changing. I felt drawn to give my life to God.
But there were also many occasions at work to live God’s words. Once, at the school where I was teaching, we had a student who had received very poor grades. My co-teachers and I decided to suggest that she take a different course which would be more in line with her interests and skills. Her father was furious with us; he accused us of discriminating against his daughter.
Some colleagues, to shift the blame, told him that I was the teacher who wanted to fail her. So she and her father came to my office and he was really angry – ready to assault me physically! Nonetheless, I was sure that I could love them in that situation by being sincere and overcoming my fear.
First of all, I tried to listen without interruptions. Later on I explained my side, and why I had made that decision for the good of his daughter. I actually spent more than two hours with both of them. Finally, he realized that racism was not behind the decision, but we had made that decision for the good of his daughter. Assuring me that she would try her best the following year, he added, “I’m an immigrant; you are one of the few who has treated me with respect and without arrogance.” Then they invited me for a cup of coffee, and we talked as if we were close friends.
A few months ago I transferred to the Focolare in Tokyo and I have begun studying Japanese. I try to love Japan as my own country, and I want to discover Japanese culture and history, its food, and its beautiful nature. Naturally, I still have my Italian “identity” but this becomes enriched in the relationship with the Japanese people. Here I find that people express themselves differently, through their silence, or with concrete deeds. It’s therefore quite a challenge to build relationships more through actions than through words.
Source: New City Philippines, April-May 2013
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Jun 1, 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
Colinas de Guacamaya is a rundown district of Valencia, an major industrial city of Venezuela. As in other parts of the world, many parents have nowhere to send their children during working hours.
Several years ago, Ofelia, a Volunteer of the Focolare Movement, started Arcoiris preschool in the garden of her own home. Here children receive personal attention and are given the basics to be properly prepared for primary school.
There are about 40 children who come to the kindergarten and their ages range from four to … fourteen! Indeed since, for a whole host reasons unconnected with their own choices, many children do not attend normal school, the decision has been made to offer them the chance to carry on learning within a preschool environment.
Some time ago there was a shootout between the police and the organized crime gang in control of the district. It was not the first time; six people had already been killed. But this time it was right next to the preschool.
Ofelia said, ‘To stop the children being frightened we got them to sing. Then, when their mothers, full of worry and fear, came to collect them I spoke to each of them, trying calm them and explaining that they had to keep control of themselves for their children’s sake. I invited them to pray together for the violence to end.’
And Ofelia went on to say, ‘The next day the children and I cast the “cube of love” and when the face turned up that said “love everyone”, the children asked, “What, gang members too?” and “Even the police?” We then asked the children to pray freely and what they said was beautiful in its innocence. A four-year-old girl asked that there should be no more guns in the world and a boy asked God to help him love more and to change the hearts of the criminals.’
Another area of work for Arcoiris is the relationship with the parents. It is very important because the children are in the preschool only for a few years and so their experience, however positive and rich in values, is temporary. Their parents, on the other hand, have a long time to form them as persons.
This year the preschool looked at the theme of ‘How can we communicate with our children?’. In the various workshops activities for the parents were run by the teachers themselves, who had generously accepted to spend a whole Sunday dedicated to this. They were aware that they were making a real investment in the future of their students.
Arcoiris is a small seed of hope in a violent suburb of Venezuela.
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May 31, 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
It was July 1991. Chiara Lubich was travelling in Brazil. She was struck by the ‘crown of thorns’, the slums or the favelas, surrounding the huge cities she visited. In response to the people’s conditions of poverty, she launched a project: the Economy of Communion. When she returned to Italy she spoke of this inspiration to several business people. Her words, recalls Luigi Delfi who was present, ‘challenged entrepreneurs to embrace the philosophy of sharing a third of their profits with those who are most poor. This intuition of hers was, for me, overwhelming.’
Luigi had had a thirty-year experience as a designer in a firm making lighting equipment. He saw a secret harmony in it because ‘to have a good light you need prisms that are distinct from one another but at the same time solidly united.’
Chiara’s proposal seemed to Luigi like a personal call. ‘It immediately grabbed me,’ he said, ‘because I come from a family that knows the value of sacrifice.’ Luigi became one of the founder members of ECIE, the first Italian business to follow the principles of the Economy of Communion.
An association at a distance grew up with Chiara, consisting in letters asking advice and swift replies on how to proceed. ‘Every step I took with the new business was considered with her,’ he affirmed. Chiara taught him how not let his characteristic of being like a small volcano of light be suffocated by egoism and how to give himself to others as he continued to be creative and effective.
Over time his firm became the most important international supplier for the motorcycle industry of lighting equipment, with contacts from Japan to the United States. Luigi’s wife and his daughter, Erika, joined his team.
The challenge is still there, especially in the current economic crisis. ‘This is the reason why today the Economy of Communion as proposed by Chiara,’ Luigi said in conclusion, ‘is increasingly necessary and is a call to each of us in the first place as persons, because it makes us able to offer our own contribution within the economic sphere.’
Source: ‘Da una scintilla un vulcano di luce’ (‘From a Spark a Volcano of Light’), by Mariagrazia Baroni, Città Nuova, 25 May 2013, pp. 38-39.
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May 30, 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
Leonardo Barquilla, Jesús Lozada, Augusto Blanca
It was entitled “Misa trovera del Abandonado”: it’s composer, Dr Jesús Lozada, Cuban poet and writer, wished to express with the rhythms of trova and with deep and inspired texts, his filial love and gratitude for Lubich. The trova is a traditional Cuban rhythm, associated with the figure of the trovadores, travelling musicians. Through his writing, Lozada expressed his understanding of Jesus’ cry on the cross: ‘Why have you forsaken me? ‘. This is one of the pillars of the spirituality that derives from the charism of unity, and that can “enlighten economics and politics, theology and philosophy, science and art”.
Augusto Blanca, a noted Nueva Trova composer and songwriter, set the words to music, while Leonardo Barquilla did the musical arrangement for the choir and orchestra.
This was the basis that lead to an experience of artistic sharing, wherein Lozada involved some of the most significant musical personalities on the Island. They were engaged in several days of work, to give the best of themselves, guided only by a great love and devotion.
The concert was held on the 24th May in the beautiful Dominican church of San Juan Letrán, in the Vedado district. The audience – more than 300 people – included the Apostolic Nuncio in Cuba, Archbishop Bruno Musarò, representatives from the ecumenical sphere, delegates of some embassies, and many artists. The event’s multifacetedness was grasped by Maria Voce, president of the Focolare Movement, who in a message send “wished all those present to experience that atmosphere of true fraternity that Chiara had always promoted and in which the Focolare Movement is engaged. Thus, even through music, we can help forge bonds of esteem and collaboration throughout the world”.
The program displayed an ensemble performance by 16 musicians of the National Symphony Orchestra directed by maestro Leonardo Barquilla, together with the international renowned Exaudi choir, directed by the soprano Maria Felicia Pérez. Her voice, one of the most beautiful of Cuba, was moving in the interpretation of “Maria de la soledad”, which expressed the pain of a mother on the death of her son. A rousing standing ovation sealed this artistic fellowship; the musicians involved expressed their determination to continue the artistic sharing embarked upon.
Cuban journalist, Germán Piniella, commented in one of the leading newspapers on the Island: “The merit of this first mass composed by a Cuban trovadore, is the ability to move both believers as well as those who are not. After all, both can share the artistic sensibility in front of an artistic fact of this significance, following the saying that “giving is better than receiving”; something that every honest mind can accept”.
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May 29, 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
The commitment within the Constituent Assembly that would have decided the fate of post-war Italy, a commitment to peace and the support for the most needy, the commitment to ecumenism: these are some of the affinities between the two figures of Giordan and La Pira deeply linked by harmony and friendship, which were highlighted at the conference “Igino Giordani and Giorgio La Pira: virtues and politics” held on the 25th May in Florence. There were about 250 people, including some of Giordani’s family members and many young international students from the La Pira Centre, dedicated to the mayor who governed Florence from 1951 to 1964. The centre, which was entrusted by cardinal Benelli from its very inception to the Focolare Movement, has become an important place for dialogue and fraternity within the Tuscan capital city.
Giordani was one of the most important politicians and intellectuals of post-war Italy, but also “co-founder” of the Focolare Movement. He is known within the movement as “Foco”. He did his utmost to promote a politics based on service to the community and fraternal dialogue. “It’s an initiative that could undoubtedly appear today as daring,” said Alberto Lo Presti, president of the Igino Giordani Centre, in his speech. “Though, of course, – he continued – it wasn’t to a lesser extent during the parliamentary experience of Giordani, at the height of the cold war. What led him to such daring was the encounter with the ideal of unity of Chiara Lubich on the 17th September 1948. An ideal that Lubich gave to the world, and that Giordani knew also how to convey within politics”.
The promotion of peace and European integration were among the cornerstones of Giordani’s parliamentary career, as analyzed by Prof. Bagnato, professor of the History of International Relations at the University of Florence: “The essence of his pacifism – he recalled – lies in his vocation to dialogue on an international level, as well as on the internal and relational one”. It’s a vocation that led the Honourable Giordani to promote numerous initiatives (such as the first bill for the objection of conscience and a parliamentary understanding to defend peace), working both with members of the party, as well as with those who were then diametrically opposed.
The event, which saw the participation of the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, opened with the greetings of the Archbishop of Florence, cardinal Betori. What followed was a succession of presentations by various scholars – from Prof. Luppi, professor of Contemporary History at the Sophia University Institute, to Prof. Monticone, historian and former national president of the Catholic Action. The event also hosted the Florence May Festival Orchestra.
At the end of the event, one of the young students present shared: “I find completely relevant and necessary, now as never before, the desire that marked Giordani’s way of understanding politics: ‘There is a need for saints in Parliament! “.
