United in the faith that God is Love

18 Feb 2013 | Focolare Worldwide

February 17th is an historic date for the Waldensian Church in Italy. On this day in the year 1848 King Carlo Alberto signed the “Lettere Patenti’ bestowing legal rights on his Waldensian subjects. His decision was welcomed with great enthusiasm and celebrated with bonfires. The tradition of the  “Bonfire of liberty” is still practiced today and has spread to other Protestant Churches in Italy. There are many contacts between the Waldensians and the members of the Focolare Movement in Italy. Here is one experience of a priest focolarino, a Waldensian pastor and their communities recounted by them: “In our city of Turin, mutual understanding between Catholics and Waldensians began more than twenty years ago, when we began meeting one evening a month for Bible reading and common prayer, and this has continued until now. This greatly favoured the work of the Comitato Interfedi that was instituted for the Olympic Games in Turin. Seeing the great harmony that was created, this Committee remained as a permanent municipal organization. The atmosphere at these gatherings has always been very beautiful and in this context we began to talk about doing something together, about a trip to the Holy Land. It was proposed as a “Journey of Prayer and Study” and turned out to be quite a success. Our journey to the Holy Land took place on 1-9 September 2012. Each morning the priest gave a meditation on the spiritual significance of the holy places that we visited and then a Biblical reflection was offered by the pastor. A further explanation was given at each holy site by the Focolare guide who accompanied us. Our wish was: “to go back to the origins, to the times when Christian history began,” to find a unity that goes beyond the divisions that now divide us. Not to deny that these divisions exist, but to live a moment of real communion even in this tormented land. Some significant moments included: the celebration of the Holy Supper by the Waldensians in the presence of Roman Catholics and the Catholic Mass in the presence of the Waldensians, where the presence of Jesus among two or more who are united in his name became a tangible experience (see Mt. 18:20). Back home we met again to share our impressions and experiences. This experience will certainly be repeated, because during our journey we changed from being unknown and a bit suspicious, to becoming brothers and sisters more and more united in our common Baptism, the common Apostolic Creed and especially in our faith in the God who is Love whom we acknowledge together each time we recite the Our Father. Compiled by Centro «Uno»

Syria: praying for a truce

16 Feb 2013 | Focolare Worldwide

“The cannonades and aircraft flyovers make connections difficult. The situation on the ourskirts of Damascus is also becoming more dramatic. Just listen to the repeated cannon shots even at night, to realize that we have not yet gotten to the word peace! Yet, we continue to hope for it. And we pray for it. I heard from Rim who proposed the Time-Out for Peace to his students, most of them Muslims, in a centre where they are staying and learning to be tailors. The other night I telephoned Maryam from Hom, to see if there was any news from there because I hadn’t been able to reach her for some time. She agreed with me that an intervention from God was needed, so that we wouldn’t lose the faith. She has been living in a nearby village where she fled ten months ago. Her parent’s house is gone, but her elderly father doesn’t know, it would be too much for him. Maryam’s son has returned from Raqqa where he had been studying at university, becuase the situation there has also grown worse. She told me that at the end of the month they will have to leave the house they have been renting, and where shall they go? Today I spoke with Luna from Aleppo who informs me that together with Marah, Yasmina and some friends they have put up a small business from their home (marmalade, doilies and such) and they would like to find a way to sell these products. She says: ‘Many people like us are grateful if we receive help in buying bread or a few litres of gas oil for the heating, but we want to work!’ I was immediately reminded of the road blocks and the risk of being robbed, but I assured her that we wouldn’t let the idea fall by the wayside. I’ve known Luna for some time and not surprised by her determination. I aslo know her brother Nader and his family, two splendid and intelligent little boys. Up until two years ago Nader and his father ran one of the most well-known carpentry businesses in the city, with products that were artistically excellent. For nearly six months they’ve been without work. Luna tells me: ‘If we don’t find some other way to support our families, we will also have to go and knock on the door of the churches for help!’ What shameful words they teach in the schools: ‘Si vis pacem para bellum’ (if you want peace prepare for war)! ‘If you want peace prepare human beings’ I would say, human beings who think in terms of brotherhood, justice, sharing of goods, love and true freedom. “The Latin Rite bishop is saying that at least two generations will be needed for the wounds of this war are healed – and that is only if the war ends it quickly. Many here are convinced that the only reason for all of this is economical and political.” “Many would like to do something to put a stop to these senseless and malicious projects. But then there are also those – and they are not few – who joing together to pray not only at twelve o’clock for the Time-Out for peace that was launched by the Focolare Movement. They try to spread the Time-Out among friends and acquaintances during chance meetings and with people of all religions.” fonte: Città Nuova

Emerging Youth Cultures

15 Feb 2013 | Focolare Worldwide

The Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Culture dedicated to emerging youth cultures was held in Rome from 6^th to 9^th February. The dicastery’s president Cardinal Ravasi stated that the aim of the meeting was “to listen carefully to the youth issue” that exists in society as well as in the Church, wherein the difficulty in the transmission of the faith is evident.

The importance of this theme was reaffirmed by the Holy Father in his meeting with the participants, where he mentioned that for the Church young people are “an essential and unavoidable point of reference for its pastoral work.” He added that “there are decidedly positive phenomena” such as “the many young volunteers who dedicate their best efforts to others in need“.

Farasoa Bemahazaka

The experience of Fara, a youth of the  Focolare Movement in Madagascar, confirms the pope’s words. She was invited to speak on: “Forms of participation, creativity and voluntary work”. At the age of 16, Fara attended an international meeting of the Youth for a United World, having “Project Africa’ as an on-going activity. With them she experienced that it was possible to live the radicalism of the first Christians even today. Some years later she attended the Gen School at Loppiano in Italy, where she stayed for 10 months, driven by the desire to live her faith with more intensity. During this period, she understood that “each person has something to give, even through many small actions; one gives and receives insofar as one loves. This gives rise to intercultural dialogue, which begins with an interpersonal dialogue because the dialogue is not between cultures but between people of different cultures”.

At present this young African woman is studying Economics and Trade in Florence. It was here that she came in contact with the La Pira International Centre, where she carried out civil service and was able to continue to deepen relationships with and cultures of young people from all over the world. Besides, with other friends, she promoted the Association of African students in Florence that aims to keep alive the awareness of their cultural origins and at the same time promote universal brotherhood. At the beginning of the academic year, a counter was opened to help new students. It offered them assistance in dealing with bureaucratic matters and in facilitating their inclusion in Florence’s social life.

In September 2012, she participated at the Genfest and presently is an active supporter of the United World Project, which would like to show the good that advances and highlight humanity’s slow but unstoppable journey toward universal brotherhood.

Fara has made the words of Chiara Lubich her very own: “Jesus would return today to “die for these people”, to save them from all evils. But Jesus came twenty centuries ago. Now he wants to return through us. Jesus was young: he wants to return especially through young people! “.

50th anniversary of the Focolare in Africa

11 Feb 2013 | Focolare Worldwide

«An extraordinary story, a divine one, which you know well. So many years of faithfulness and commitment from many of you that made that seed grow –sown first in Cameroon. From that seed pieces of humanity renewed by love have blossomed, striving towards the realization of God’s project for the whole large African continent, and beyond». These are some excerpts from the message sent by Maria Voce (Emmaus), the President of the Focolare Movement, to the members of the movement in Africa, who are celebrating this year the 50^th anniversary of the arrival of the Charism of unityin their continent. There were 2000 persons gathered close to Fontem on the 9th February, at Shisong, in the Bamenda Region (North-West of Cameroon) the same place that welcomed the first focolarini who reached on the 12^thFebruary 1963. There were all those who consider themselves as “Chiara’s children”. They had celebrated the Cry Die (the end of mourning) for the founder of the Focolare in January 2009, in that same place. With that event Chiara was solemnly counted among the ancestors, and therefore worthy to be remembered and invoked, because “her ideal of solidarity, spirituality, sharing, and love cannot die”. There were also those who in these years have taken part in the “New Evangelization” action, an integral project started in 2000 by Chiara and the Fon (King) of Fontem, who was the first one to take the commitment, in front of his people, to living the spirit of love and unity that comes from the Gospel. It’s the Fon himself who later on got the other chiefs and noblemen involved. Last Saturday’s event at Shisong started with the Time Out for peace, and continued with the ‘Jubilee celebration prayer’, asking God to strengthen their Faith in Him, keeping in mind the ‘pioneers’ of this adventure (Chiara Lubich, Bishop Julius Peeters and the Fon Defang); to know how to start again with humility to love every neighbour, to walk towards universal fraternity, to increase the fire of charity in every community, in order to be apostles of Jesus’ Testament “That all may be one” (Jn 17,21).   Two of the first focolarini who gave so much of themselves in Africa, Bruna Tomasi and Lucio Dal Soglio, were present through their messages. The reading of their letters and those of others among the protagonists of the beginnings of the focolare (Rosa Calò, Rita Azarian) introduced the documentary: “Focolare, 50 years in Africa”, retracing this journey, interwoven with the experience of Piero Pasolini and Marilen Holzhauser.  For the occasion, a special issue of the African edition of New City was entirely dedicated to cover this topic.   Since the beginning, the Word of God was not merely an object of contemplation, but was instead immediately translated into real choices, in daily life. When the different communities were born, that special atmosphere of family was experienced, a spirit in which it was possible to share even one’s needs. Then many actions were initiated in the continent, including social programmes, schools, and health centres: from the College in Fontem, to nursery schools, primary schools and tuitions programs in Cameroon, Nigeria, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Kenya; a hospital in Fontem, medical centres in Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ivory Coast; actions against malnutrition; carpentry workshops for the youth in South Africa, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Kenya; an agricultural project in Nigeria.   From the beginning of the ’70s, many African youth discovered “Chiara’s way” and therefore a new lifestyle. Like her, Anne Nyimi Pemba (Congo) and Venant Mbonimpaye (Burundi) left everything to follow Jesus, embarking themselves on this new way of consecrated life in Africa.  They were among the first ones, like Teresina Tumhiriwe, from Uganda, Benedict Menjo and Dominic Nyuyilim from Cameroon. Dominic was present at the Shisong celebration, sharing his own experience. Many have followed them in their footsteps. Mafua Christina, Queen of the Bangwa, and Prof. Martin Nkafu, born in Fontem and lecturer of Philosophy and traditional cultures at the Pontifical Lateran University, were also present. They shared their personal experiences, followed with a array by the new generations – children, teenagers and youth– that showed how much today’s experience is in continuity with the Ideal of brotherhood that took roots 50 years ago. “A people born from the Gospel, capable of witnessing of being family beyond their belonging to different tribes, ethnic groups and peoples,” Maria Voce wrote in her message, with the wish of restarting together from this milestone –that will last for the whole year, with a celebration in Kenya at the Mariapolis Piero on the 19th May, during the Pan-African congress of the Volunteers of God, and other events in various African countries.

The country in difficulty was my own

9 Feb 2013 | Focolare Worldwide

“Always in search of something that would make me truly happy, I had tried everything. Here I have come to see that the happiness I longed for was never to be found in material things. There was another truer and deeper happines still to be discovered.” When Daniele De Patre arrived at the  Pag-Asa Community Centre he began to experience something that would profoundly change his life. The faces of those people and those poor environments, often seen on television, suddenly became tangible.

In Tagaytay, in the Philippines, homes are constructed with only one room, dirt floors and without running water. Families do not have access to community health care services and there are no employment opportunities.

In this rural area many children are left to themselves and often have no legal identity, so that they are excluded from the most basic social services such as education, health care and economic assistance. They are left at the mercy of inhuman work and criminal activities.

With support from Azione per Famiglie Nuove the Pag-Asa Community Centre carries out numerous activities in the fields of health, education, professional training and provides ongoing support for 400 minors. The clinic is equipped to offer medical care for permanently disabled patients, and this is where Daniele was a volunteer worker, and where he came to know of a new theraputic approach, one based on continual interaction and a relationship of mutual exchange between patient and caregiver. While translating the letters that the children had written to their supporters from around the world, Daniele felt that he was drawn into their world. He perceived their joy, the hardships and hopes of these young children, which he then saw face to face when he personally visited the barrios.

Life in Teramo, Italy, where Daniele comes from, was just a distant memory now, as were those 26 years spent in working and going out with his friends. “Seeing situations of such deeply rooted poverty,” he admits, “was hard to accept. But slowly, slowly I also discovered a solidarity and generosity among the people, that the country in difficulty seemed perhaps to be my own because of its indifference, isolation and closed spirit. . .”

“Once,” he tells, “we reached such a muddy barrio that it was impossible to climb the hill wearing our flip flop slippers, so Heero and I left them at the bottom of the hill at the end of the road. When we came back they were gone, but two days later we found them again at the community centre.” Then he countinued, “I’ll never forget that day on which we went to visit one barrio and it was raining so much that we lost our way, but three children then ran up to us under the rain and were so happy to guide us in the right direction. During those months at Tagaytay Daniele found in each act of generosity what he had been searching for: “Life is far more than what can be measured with numbers.”   

Everything he had in his wealthy life in Teramo was free and taken for granted. Here it had to be obtained under much difficulty: food, clothing, medicines and everything else. “I would like to place my stone,” he writes, “into the building of a world in which me and my brothers and sisters can eat the same way, have the same kinds of schools, the same clothing and time for play without having to sit and beg for alms, to have a roof over our heads, and a bed to sleep in at night, so that finally a more just world will not remain forever just a utopian dream.”