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Jul 17, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
“In 1978 I left for the mission in the Congo. It was a hard moment for me. Africa, the rainforest, a new world to be discovered and loved.” This is how Sr Valeria of the Sisters of St Joseph Cuneo begins her story. She was speaking at the “Charisms for the New Evangelization” Convention being held in Turin on 17 March 2012. Sr. Valeria’s story is intertwined with that of Sr Nicoletta from the same Order. Arriving in Lolo – a small diocese on the outskirts of the rainforest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – Sr Nicoletta “discovered a place inhabited by simple folk” mostly fishermen and farmers.
On the other side of the river Sr Valeria had already begun a series of meetings for a group of New Families of the Focolare. Their “serenity, involvement and unity” fascinated Sr Nicoletta and she decided to invite Sr Valeria and the families to Lolo, so that they could share their experiences there as well.
“Then I felt I was also being strongly invited to live the Ideal of unity,” Sr Nicoletta recounts. Families in Lolo began to meet, and the monthly commentary on the Word of Life was translated into the local language. It’s power was stronger than that of many of the ancestral traditions that divide the life of men and women.
Despite the difficulty, the two sisters were also able to find time to meet and share with each other recounting the fruits of living the Gospel. The Bishop as well as their General Superior encouraged them to take things forward. In 1988 the first Mariapolis was held in Lolo with over a hundred people.
Today, even though the mission has been closed down, the Bishop has notified us that many of those families are now very actively involved in the diocese.
Since a few months the two sisters have been living together in the same community in Italy: “We help each other in living the Ideal of unity as it sheds new light on the charism of our founder, Jean Pierre Medaille. All the way back in 1650 he invited us to live the communion with God, among ourselves, and with each neighbour; a communion founded on the Word of Jesus: ‘That all may be one’ (Jn. 17:21).
“This is the New Evangelization:” explains Sr Valeria, “loving and allowing our life to say to everyone: ‘God loves you!’” She also shared about a group of teenagers from the middle school who meet once a month to move along a Christian journey together based on the Word of God. They are brought ahead on this journey by Sr Valeria, another Sister of St Joseph, a Daughter of Our Lady Help of Christians, and a Cottolengo Sister. “There’s much communion among us – she concludes – and the beauty of each charism is brought out.”
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Jul 14, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
«Some time ago I accepted a proposal, which was also a challenge: to become a caregiver to my aunt suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. Caregiver This is how I started to take care of her daily, by helping her with the meals and with the cleaning, besides offering her company.
Being near to her I have lived and am living with pain the slow and progressive deterioration of her identity. I accept her relying on me. In moments of lucidity, she asks me to be the one to understand each of her losses. By going through the sufferings, I experienced personally the void the solitude, the fears and the inhibitions. I have also discovered “the emptiness” of the institutions. In this situation I was strengthened by thinking of Jesus Crucified and Forsaken, who continued to love also in the suffering.
Three years ago, I asked the geriatrician, a specialist in Alzheimer and who takes care of my aunt, to deal with this disease together with me in a different way. Through this comparison patient-doctor-doctor-family, the desire to create an Association was born and which will be able to give a collective response to this suffering. At first there were only two of us: the doctor and myself. Then I contacted some friends and ten of them joined. Se we legally constituted an association: “New Humanity – “The house of dreams”. In fact there is the need of dreaming, but if one dreams on his own it is easy that the dream remains a dream. If you are in many, learning to share the sufferings and the needs, then that dream becomes a reality.
The purpose of the Association is to keep alive the attention on the problem of dementia and how to deal with it: Alzheimer is a disease, which we live as a real challenge to accept and to win, with the collaboration of all the protagonists: patients, families, society and Institutions.
Our first task is a course for volunteers and the relatives of the patients with the title: “The Alzheimer’s disease and the other dementias”. Free contribution is given by physicians, psychologists, and hospital volunteers during the meetings and in which thirty persons participate,
At the end of the course, the idea of opening and “Alzheimer’s Café” was born: we wanted to live as a family together with the patients, not in the solitude of the four walls of the house, but in a coffee shop, a symbol of social life! Thus we accompanied them in the bar to share a hot chocolate or a fruit juice. Currently we accompany 35, of whom 20 are suffering from Alzheimer. One of them had not been out of the house for three years and another one did not want to participate because he did not have shoes, he accepted when we told him that he could even come in his slippers.
The news of this initiative soon spread in the city. Shortly after, even the Bishop wanted to pay us a visit to share the festive evening of our first anniversary of the Association, with us. He was interested in our activities even the Department of Social Services, who for a long time had sent us a car with a driver to transport our friends to meet at the Alzheimer’s Café.
In the summer of 2009, we had another idea. In the nearby town of Foggia there is an Institute for promoting horseracing. So we organized a visit to the old coach house and the stables. We have asked the parents of the patients to bring their wedding albums. The time was in fact the one in which coaches were used even for weddings. It was a success and the joy was great. We wanted to repeat the experience with a novelty the following year: we adopted some donkeys who were destined to be put to sleep, to stimulate the relational capabilities of the patients.
Our Association also organizes annual courses for the training of health professionals and support to the patient’s relatives. These courses are increasingly improving and are an occasion to spread the Ideal. Currently we are in 70, between patients and volunteers and we are self-supporting.
Amongst the therapeutic proposals, then we take advantage of aromatherapy and music-therapy. The whole town knows about our experience and like us many are available if we need help. We even thought of offering our service to the town community by giving a training course to foreign caregivers entitled: “Taking care of lost memory.
Read more: Association “The house of dreams” – San Severo (Foggia) – Italy
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Jul 12, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
On 28 June 2012 – 1 July 2012 a Mariapolis was held in the hills that overlook Kicevo, halfway between the capital city of Skopje and the historic city of Ohrid in the south. The guests were welcomed at a unique hotel, a centre for meetings of artists, which was decorated with different types of artwork both inside and in the beautiful outdoor park.
There were some eighty people, especially from the Republic of Macedonia, but also from Kosovo and Serbia. The majority were Catholic and Orthodox family groups, and many Muslims.
Their four days together were devoted to the Word of God and the dialogue among religions. Dialogue was the keyword at this Mariapolis, as was underscored by Bishop Anton Cirimotic from Skopje, and by Cristina Lee and Roberto Catalano from the Focolare Movement’s Centre for Interreligious Dialogue. The dialogue that the Focolare promotes is founded on its spirituality and the centrality of love. And this finds an immediate echo in other religions and cultures, thanks to the Golden Rule: “Do to others what you would like done to you.” This often requires one to take the first step towards others, without expecting any return, an up to the point of giving one’s life.
One day was dedicated especially to the family, with a series of experiences that highlighted the challenges of a globalized world as well as local ones. The family here still holds on to significant values. Together with his wife, Professor Aziz Shehu shared what the spirit of communion signified for him as an academic. Aziz is the father of Le Perle Kindergarten, and he told of how this pilot experiment had made a great contribution to Macedonian society at a time when it was so necessary to work together for true integration.
Another day was devoted to the youth: a presentation by the young people, followed by spontaneous impressions that were shared on the spot and sometimes quite personal. The young people were accompanied by a choir that formed the background to the whole presentation. There was a dance expressing authentic relationships despite diversity, which had been the experience of the Mariapolis.
One young Catholic woman confessed that she had undergone deep change during the days of the Mariapolis. Her Christianity was they type that allowed her to exclude Muslims, atheists and even Orthodox. But at the Mariapolis she had discovered that persons of different faiths and cultures could live together and that each person with his faith helps to bring some light. “I understood that God sends the sunlight for everyone. Not only for us Christians, and so I should act accordingly.”
Many of the other impressions made the same point: a small girl from Kosovo who came with her mother and brother, only spoke Albanian. She told the audience that she didn’t think she was going to have an experience like this and to be accepted as she had been accepted. A Muslim ministry official said that he was deeply struck by how dialogue was actually lived and now was leaving the Mariapolis convinced that this is the only solution to the problems in Macedonia.
An Orthodox woman artist said she felt perfectly at home in this environment. So too for a young teenager girl who shared how she had discovered that openness to tohers helps us not only to be better Muslims or Christians, but also true men and women.
The departure of the eighty people who attended this summer gathering in Kicevo leaves one with the certainty: This experience has given them the sense that unity between diverse types of people is possible. The left with an increased awareness of being actors in building dialogue in their land.
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Jul 11, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
«I’m a doctor and I work in a state hospital. One day the police brought us a man with two bullets in his leg. This was the type of patient that no one in the clinic wants to deal with: a thief caught in the act.
He had been seriously wounded during a clash with the police who had brought him to us.
He was motionless on the bed with no one to assist him; not even his relatives showed up, according to the custom when a person has been thieving.
In most hospitals in Africa it’s the job of the relatives to bring food for the patients, to bathe and dress them, to help them with their daily material needs. In the absence of relatives the patient is totally abandoned. The medical staff is only obliged to provide medical care.
Moreover, the other patients and the medical personnel were not very happy to have this evildoer around. And so he was finding it diffult to find something to eat and, confined immobile on his bed, the smell around him soon became unbreable.
I complained to the Commissioner of Police that they had dumped such a person on us without anyone to help him. “That’s the job of the medical personnel!” was his rude reply. It came to my mind that in other countries caring for the patient does involve the healthcare staff. I explained to my colleagues that perhaps we should take an interest in this patient, but was unable to convince them.
I tried to make the other patients aware that they needed to accept this patient, though I wasn’t very successfully to tell the truth.
At one point I asked myself: “I would exhort others? And myself?” What am I doing for him? Yes, I prescribe medications for him to take. I give him a place on the ward. But this is only what I’m obliged to do. Now I have to do what I would ask others to do, to go beyond the minimum requirement.”
I removed him from his bed and bathed him. “Oh! I haven’t bathed in two months!” he joyfully exclaimed. “How good to feel the rays of the sun on my skin!” Then I paid one of the hospital workers to wash the patient’s clothes. Together with another colleague we changed his mattrass, since the one he had been using was in horrible condition. Finally, I left a bit of money for the patient himself, in case he was needing something.
This gesture of mine bore fruit. The workers, for example, began to take away the rubbish from his bedside. It raised compassion in the other patients also, who now share their food with him.
After a while he was able to leave the hospital. He was cheerful and in high spirits. He told me that he was going to give up thieving. He even followed my advice to go first to the police in order to accept the judgement of the court. He felt that he wanted to accept responsibility for his actions.”
Dr. H.L. (Burundi)
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Jul 9, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
“I’m an elementary school teacher. Often, I’m sent to teach in mountain villages. There are terrorist groups living in these remote areas, who call themselves liberators of the people. It happened that I ran into some of these terrorist squads, but I managed to escape by finding a hiding place in some rocks.
But one time, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to hide myself quickly enough. They caught me and brought me back to their camp. For days on end I was put through lengthy interrogations.
Despite the fear, I tried to answer as repectfully and truthfully. One of them in particular tried to indoctirnate me with their ideology. He wanted to convince me to espouse their cause. When he asked me what I thought, I didn’t want to comment. On the following day he repeated his speech. I objected that it was necessary to begin by changing ourselves if we wanted to transform the power structures that seem unjust to us.
‘What should change is the love we have for each other,’ I tried to explain. Perhaps my words touched something inside him, perhaps they made him recall things that he had once believed. The fact remains that after this interrogation they let me go.
Ever since that day I continued to pray for that man and his companions. Recently, to my surprise, I recognized him on television, as the news was given of a terrorist who had handed over his weapons to the military and left the terrorist group.”
Nelda, from the Philippines.
From: “Una buona notizia”, Ed. Città Nuova, Rome, pp. 56, 57.
A book that offers a positive contribution to the New Evangelization, in view of the October Synod. It contains 94 brief stories from around the world.
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Jul 8, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria
“Our story,” recounts Lucia, “began 42 years ago when we decided to share life journey. But the more we got together, the more we saw that we didn’t think alike, especially when it came to religion: I had faith, he didn’t. At first I didn’t worry about it. I didn’t think it would influence our future together. Instead, we had the first clash came when I became pregnant. We had to decide whether or not to continue the pregnancy.”
“I was too young,” continues Tonino, “to think about becoming a father and husband. I was still a student, I had many plans for the future, and now I found myself having to make a decision that would change my life! I grudgingly accepted Lucia’s determination to continue the pregnancy and to marry with a civil ceremony. The pregnancy went well, but as soon as the child was born, I once again felt crushed by the enormous responsibility to the point that I just ran away from everything and everyone.”
“Suddenly I found myself all alone – even though my parents never abandoned me – with a little girl to raise. The following years were marked by suffering, especially when he asked for a separation.”
“I wanted to live my life,” Tonino confirms. “I obtained the separation and then the divorce. I was free again. But many times I found myself thinking of them, and this is how I began to retrace my steps. I returned to courting my ex-wife again and to visit my daughter. We soon felt the need of a house for us to live in, the need for intimacy, to rebuild the family. I also accepted to celebrate the new marriage in church.”
“At that stage, those years of anguish were a thing of the past,” recalled Lucia. “We were living a new life and also our second child, Valentina, was born. It was very peaceful phase of our life due to the fact our economic situation had become more stable and also due to my gradual acceptance of living with someone who was different from me.
After a few years, the Focolare Movement suddenly entered into our family and turned everything around! Invited by a teacher, Valentina came to know the Gen3, the children of the Focolare. It was the beginning of a different path, first for her and then for us.”
“Taking Valentina to the Gen4 meetings was my job,” says Tonino. When I went to pick her up, she was always very happy and, as soon as she got into the car, she would ask forgiveness for being late (she always made me wait at least a half hour) and then begin to tell me about the beautiful evening. Contaminate by her enthusiasm and by the festive welcome that everyone in the Movement always had for me – even though I had no religious reference – I have also become a part of this family. Initially I joined the group for the “friends of dialogue”, comprised of persons with diverse convictions.”
“A while later – curious that a Catholic movement had accepted my husband the unbeliever – I also began to attend. And as my knowledge of the Focolare’s spirituality grew deeper, many of my questions found answers.
We have done some road together: many barriers have been knocked down. I’ve learned to listen, without fear of losing myself, to give space and listening, both inwardly and outwardly, so as to accept and understand others.”
“Our diversity – not only religious – “stresses Tonino, “has not in fact impeded the course of our life together. Valentina’s decision to become a focolarina, didn’t find me unprepared, since I have come to share so much with her. The relationship between us was minimally affected; on the contrary, it was strengthened, unlike for Lucia who, at least at first, didn’t accept it so well.”
“It wasn’t so easy for me to accept Valentina’s decision at first,’’ Lucia admits. “I would have liked her to have had other experiences first: a boyfriend, for example, a job; in order to compare the two choices and be able to make a more serene decision. But she felt strongly that this was her path. She’s already been in a focolare for eight years and more convinced than ever. I’m glad I went along with her decision. Even though she’s consecrated to God, she’s never neglected her relationship with all the family.”
“I thank Chiara Lubich and the entire community that I belong to,” Tonino concludes, “because you have given me and all those who share my same idea, the opportunity of strengthening this desire for unity through following a path based on the basic values of brotherhood and love for neighbour.”
Compiled by the international Centre for Dialogue Among Persons of Non-Religious Convictions
