![From Guatemala: the focolare, a school of inculturation]()
28 Jul 2011 | Focolare Worldwide
Like all focolarine, Lina Velasquez lives in a focolare, the heart of the wider community. She lives with five others on the outskirts of Guatemala City. In her country too, people and ethnic groups have met serious conflict with much suffering, pain and, at times, discrimination. How is it living with other focolarine – a Guatemalteca ladina, which is another ethnic group, a Nicaraguan, a Mexican and a Salvadoran – a world in miniature. . . ? What helps inculturation among you? The love among us, with the measure that Jesus asks of us, that is, being to be ready to give our lives for each other, even in small everyday things. At times, out of love, it’s better to stay silent, at times it’s better to say what’s in our hearts. It helps me a lot to understand that the other person is different from me and so there is something for me to learn from everyone. I can be a person, someone who loves, not an “indigena” who wants everyone else to understand her. The inculturation among us is a witness to those who know us and a contribution to the elimination of discrimination. I feel fortunate to have a calling that unites us and that is mutually enriching. What work do you do? I’m a teacher at a school for “ladino” and indigenous children. This helps me to love everyone without distinctions, without prejudice, without the fear of being who I am. Each morning we toss the dice of love. It’s a very original toy that we use with the children: each side of the dice has a sentence, like: “Love everyone”, “Love your enemy”, “Love each other” , “Make yourself one”, “Be the first to love” “See Jesus in your neighbour”. We all try to live the sentence that comes up each day. It also helps me, because when I don’t take part, the children ask me: “Why do you say we have to do it, but you don’t live it?” One morning, we tossed the dice and the sentence that came up was: “Love your enemy”. Precisely on that day, the father of one of the students reprimanded me saying things that simply weren’t true. As I listened to him, I asked Jesus to help me forgive him and to see this “enemy” with new eyes, even if it cost me some effort to do so. The next morning that father came up to me and I greeted him with a nice smile. He was so surprised and he came closer to me and said: “Truly, I am heartily sorry and I ask you to forgive me. Today I realized that you are a real Christian person, and capable of understanding me.” From then on his attitude changed. Some of the parents don’t know me, especially when I’m wearing my traditional dress and, mistaking me for the cleaning lady, they don’t allow the children to greet me and embrace me. But the children are learning to love, even me, and they take this discovery home with them. It’s a freedom which I wish all indigenous people could experience, those who don’t wear their native dress and try to hide their origins. I’m glad to be working in this school, because I feel that I’m helping to form new people, that I’m able to love without prejudice, because they feel that they are children of God, and that each culture has great richness to offer to others. Your language is Kaqchikel. Is it still spoken today? My parents didn’t speak Kaqchikel, but my grandparents did, because they had never learned Spanish. The majority of the people in my community speak it among themselves, but never in the city because they are ashamed. Now with the Education reforms in Guatemala, the young people have begun to appreciate the language and also the precious indigenous culture. I’m doing my Master Degree on it, so that I can know it well and help my people to understand that the values I live can be a gift. I’ve realized that the spirituality of unity must reach my people in my language, so that they can understand it better.
SSA
![From Guatemala: the focolare, a school of inculturation]()
23 Jul 2011 | Focolare Worldwide
“Love brought to a social level will make us credible.” Challenged by these words of Chiara Lubich in 1984, the Igino Giordani School of Social Learning (EDES) was begun in Argentina. Since then, twelve courses have been offered every two years allowing the charism of unity to enter into dialogue with various issues in the social field in the light of the Social Doctrine of the Church (SDC). Vittorio Sabbione and Lia Brunet who were pioneers of the Focolare Movement in South America, were the principle supporters of this project, guided in the beginning by Bishop Jorge Novak. This year, EDES has begun a new phase in Mariapolis Lia (O’Higgins-Argentina) where the school is located. Between the 9th and 11th of July it examined a topic entitled: “The Social Dimension of Humankind’s Yes to God”. 
Methodology. The coordination team which was composed of experts, used a communitarian work approach. Topics and issues were chosen together by everyone. Texts were screened and chosen by the whole group as well. Then a final version was drawn up that was presented to the School. It was constantly a matter of thinking together enlightened by the words of the Gospel: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst” (cf. Mt 18:20). This same dynamic was applied by the students who participated in the seminar. Some of the topics that were discussed included: “Social life in the perspective of fraternity”, “Principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church”, “Humankind’s yes to God in its Trinitarian structure: Jesus Forsaken, the social question and the united world”, “Tools for implementing the SDC”. The presentations given by Bishop Agustín Radrizzani (Bishop of Mercedes-Lujan and current Rector of EDES), were much appreciated, because of how they were both deeply rooted in the teachings of the Church and steeped in the charism of unity. 
Experiences were important: the construction of housing in the Barrio Nueva Esperanza (Tucuman); efforts to integrate the work between the neighborhood parish of San Nicolás (Córdoba) and a community of gypsies; the preferential option for the poor of a teacher from Asunción (Paraguay), and the extensive work of “family listening groups” (San Martín, Buenos Aires); “Child Alert”, a citizen’s initiative born from the town’s painful loss of its dying children in Santa Fe, after which the provincial government enacted a law that was then adopted by other Argentine provinces; and the wonderful story of the Aurora School of Santa María of Catamarca, that with its craftsman training program has become a pioneer in the redemption of the culture of the native Calchaquí people “The training course was very important for evaluating our situation with new eyes,” says one Argentine youth. He adds: “It helped me to understand that change is within our reach and that we can accomplish it together.” The presence of the young brought a note of vivacity and hope to the EDES. 
The enthusiasm that was expressed at the conclusion of the seminar foretold a future that would be rich in developments and proposals. “The climate of simplicity, seriousness, research and inviting to live a new kind of society, permitted me to profit from the topics that were discussed, and instilled in me a desire to lose nothing of what I experienced here,” said a young professional career woman with a lot of experience behind her. She concluded: “It seemed beautiful to me and well done. The topics discussed were well inculturated in the Latin American reality and in tune with the DSC, especially the “Aparecida Document”. I learned so much!”
22 Jul 2011 | Focolare Worldwide
I was parish priest at the Farim Mission, in Guinea Bissau, a city to the north of the capital, Bissau, on the border with Senegal. I would go to a village for catechism classes, preparing for Baptism. What was being taught was important, but I personally had the impression that it was all too theoretical. In past years, during my stay in Fonjumetaw, Cameroon, I had seen how the Word of Life helped in the work of evangelization. And so I began to take the monthly Word of Life and, following a brief explanation, I would invite everyone to put it into practice in order to then share with each other the fruits of doing so in the coming weeks. To make it easier, I handed everyone a piece of paper on which I had written the Gospel sentence and I invited them to hang it by their bed and read it in the morning when they rose from their beds, and at night, when they went to sleep. If they didn’t know how to read, I suggested that they ask their children to help them. Over the next few weeks, more and more people had something to say. One afternoon, in the village of Sandjal, some twenty km from Farim, when the time came to share experiences, a man told what happened to him during the previous week. The Word of Life was “Love your enemies” (Mt. 5:44). “One night the my neighbour’s cows entered into my bean plantation and destroyed it. This wasn’t the first time. This is why we hadn’t spoken to each other for months. But this time I was determined to make him pay. It was high time for him to see the damage he was doing. Me, my wife and children each took up a big piece of wood and set out for our neighbor’s house. But after taking only a few short steps i recalled the the Word of Life and said: ‘Stop! We can’t go. Last week I received a small paper which said to forgive our enemies, and in a few days I have to go back to the catechism class. What will I tell them if I go now to punish my neighbour? But then he will carry on doing as he has always done!’ Let’s go home and sit down. Letting it go as if nothing had happened didn’t seem correct. We decided to go to the man, not with a threatening air, but to dialogue. We explained to our enemy what had happened and we asked him to pay more attention to his cows. Our neighbour was speechless. He fell at my feet and asked me to forgive him over and over again. From that moment we began to greet each other, and I would say that we have become friends. It was months that we hadn’t spoken! And a new joy has entered my home.” In another village, Sarioba, 5 km from Farim, the same scene, a student stands up and says: “Every Monday we have to go on foot to Farim for school. There’s a seller who lives in a village not far away, who also goes to Farim with his truck. Normally, he doesn’t carry anything on the truck. Only that this time, after we had already travelled a distance of almost one kilometre, he stopped. He was having mechanical problems with the truck and he wasn’t able to move. When we reached him, we asked him if he needed a push to get the truck running. My friends said to me: ‘Let it go, let him take care of it himself. He never helped us.’ I was thinking the same thing, but then I remembered the Word of Life. And so we decided to give hi a hand to get the truck started. The engine started and the gentleman invited us to jump on, but we told him there was no need, and we continued on foot.” Fr. Celso Corbioli, OMI
![From Guatemala: the focolare, a school of inculturation]()
20 Jul 2011 | Focolare Worldwide
After a trip of nearly thrity-two hours, Franco Pizzorno and Pierangelo Tassano from the New Humanity Movement arrived in Singida, Tanzania. The object of their trip was to attend a formation course for seventy leaders of the ‘volunteers of God’ coming from Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Ruanda, Congo and Tanzania, who are invovled in enlivening different sections fo society with Gospel values. 
The five days of meetings proved to be very fruitful, highlighting the importance giving a life witness to the efficacious words of the Gospel. The cultural and spiritual research, presented by the volunteers themselves, and the deep sharing of experiences, made some guidelines emerge for seeking peace and the common good of society and its different ethnic groups, particularly in the field of education. “The peoples of these nations,” say Franco and Pierangelo, “have in communion and creativity in their DNA, perhaps more than people of other continents.” “Ubuntu, a typical African term means “I am what I am because of what we are,” and this is the natural root of this culture of relationships that makes you see problems in a different light, opening a space for new intuitioins from which valid solutions can be found not only for African society, but beyond.” 
John Bosco from Uganda states: “M. lives in my city. She has AIDS and other related illnesses. She’s old and poor. I called a meeting of the executive committee from my parish to see how we could help her, and with my wife cared for her. We brought her food, medicine, we washed her clothes. . . and other friends helped us in assisting her. Now M. is a part of our community. These actions did not go unnoticed and our testimony has stimulated many others to look better upon those who are in need.” Franco e Pierangelo conclude: “We left well aware that the peoples of this continent have so much to offer to the world, and so we listened and tried to understand not so much their most compelling needs, but mostly the talents of this culture which is so different and rich. As always, we recevied much more than we gave.”
14 Jul 2011 | Focolare Worldwide
![From Guatemala: the focolare, a school of inculturation]()
12 Jul 2011 | Focolare Worldwide
Thousands of young people from all over the world in Madrid for the 11th WYD. The events will take place this summer on the streets, auditoriums, public squares, colleges, schools, and parks of Madrid. There will be concerts and exhibits, museum tours, theatrical performances, and a cultural program entitled: “Youth Festival”. Among all the events, there is one that is particularly special – as shown by the great interest of the organizing committee. This is the presentation of Chiara Badano, a young Italian girl, better known as Chiara Luce, who was recently beatified. She will be presented during a show that will weave together music, theatre, acting, and dance. It will be held on 17 August at 22:00 in the Pilar García Peña Auditorium, located in the Pinar del rey Park. Three-thousand persons will be able to attend this event which promises to be unforgettable. 
This presentation would like to manifest that “Love” with a capital “L” that gives happiness, as shown in the life of Chiara Luce who Benedict XVI called a “ray of Light” at the Angelus of 26 September 2010, the day before her beatification. It will be a feast for young people, “who can find in her an example of Christian living,” as the Pope said. Pablo Alcolea, a music professor who is actively involved in the preparation of the event, tells us that it has been an experience of God for him: “It involves a lot of work, matching the tasks to the volunteers, but it’s a beautiful opportunity to let ourselves be taken by the hand of the Father and trust in Him.” Another Spanish youth, Pablo Garrido, who is co-responsible for the music assures us: “The first word that came to my mind was “folly”. In my opinion attempting to prepare something of this caliber falls into the realm of the miraculous, but it’s very gratifying, seeing how everyone immediately got to work in building this experience of unity.” Another member of the music group shares with us how this is something very personal for him, “as if Chiara Luce herself had asked me to participate in this with my own two cents, helping to communicate her lifestyle, her ideal of living for unity even beyond time and space.” “What a fantastic opportunity,” continues Pablo Alcolea, to contemplate through music the life experience of Chiara Luce Badano.” Other events which everyone is looking to are the Gen Rosso concerts, an international musical group of the Focolare Movement whose performance “Indelible Dimension” will be held on the 16th and 18th August. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akWjPRkdgJA.
