Mar 23, 2018 | Focolare Worldwide
Michelle Sopala
And now for the Genfest, itself! Even though it was a life-changing event in all its aspects, I can’t hide it: for me the highlight was the meeting with Chiara. I don’t know if the other 12 thousand young people in the arena felt the same, but I felt like Chiara was talking to me, and me alone. When Noel asked her the final question, «Chiara, from the bottom of your heart, what would you like to say to us young people?», her answer rang out like a war-call that still rings in my ears. With a super-astute intuition and understanding of what the young heart yearns for, she quoted St. Catherine who had told her disciples not to be satisfied with small things because “God wants them big!”. «You, young people – she said, with a conviction that went straight to the heart – don’t be satisfied with crumbs… with small joys… but aim high and seek the fullness of joy: that joy that comes from living out unity!» Hmm. For better or for worse, that’s been my experience ever since. “Unity”? A deep word that I’m still discovering after these 23 years. But that “fullness of joy”? Yep! I’ve found it! Oh! …and by the way, our performance was chosen. Take a look. Hope you like it! Michelle Sopala
https://youtu.be/LX6rNkyGjoE
Mar 22, 2018 | Focolare Worldwide
The story of Jean and Vivian is a story of love, hope and courage. They met in Aleppo, Syria, in 2000 while belonging to the Focolare Movement. Vivian is a widow with a one year-old son who is totally deaf. Jean is a carpenter and socially active. Their common commitment to living the Gospel and bringing the ideal of a united world to humanity brought them closer and, in 2003 they got married and have four children. Vivian’s first son, Marc, was the motivation behind their adventure. Because of his need for special care, Vivian went to Lebanon where Marc would later follow and stay at a centre run by the Focolare: “It’s really a foretaste of Heaven,” he says. “Living the Gospel in daily life accompanies the whole educational process. The children grow up in this oasis of peace and develop their talents while overcoming their handicap. The dream began to grow in me of setting up an institute myself, in my own city of Aleppo.” Jean supported him in his venture and, in 2005, their small centre was begun. Other larger ones would follow with larger capacity for up to ten children, all from poor families who couldn’t afford the cost. The centre was always in deficit: “Whenever we needed something,” Jean recalls, “we’d go in front of the crucifix and hand over our needs to Him. Providence arrived right on time every time.” The breakout of the war in 2011 brought much death and destruction. Jean lost his carpentry, the centre wasn’t having any financial input and many were living on help from the Church and humanitarian organizations. Many left the country and, even though Jean and Vivian were tormented at the thought, they bought tickets to go. But one thing became clearer and clearer in their hearts: they couldn’t leave “their” deaf children and destroy that dream that had come true with so much effort. “On the night before our departure, I stepped into church,” Jeans says, “I had a deep conversation with Jesus, face to face, man to man. He seemed to speak in my heart and asked me not to go: what would the children now? I felt him posing this tragic question to me. I put my children in His hands. I went home and Vivian and I decided to rip up the tickets and stay in the city forever to be a help to the people who needed us.” “We were hopeful that God would accompany and support us in all our future projects and especially in our family,” echoed Vivian, “and that’s what happened.” Now the centre is their second home, their children also take part in the life of the group and Jean works full time “This community has widened our hearts. There is no longer boy or girl, student or teacher, healthy or handicapped, Muslim or Christian. We live in the one love and beneath the same gaze of a God-Love, incarnate, living in our midst.”
Mar 21, 2018 | Focolare Worldwide
We meet Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio, at Castel Gandolfo, not far from the Mariapolis Center there. It feels like a holiday, since hundreds of people (in the end they will count close to 2,000) are flowing toward an event on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Chiara Lubich’s passing. Outside the door of the small hall where we meet, there are many festive voices. “Ten years later, as we return to Chiara Lubich, it is not a return to the past, like archeology,” says Riccardi. “It’s not even a sentimental memory, as people can have for someone who was important in the Church. “But,” he confides, “It is certainly something important in my life.” He mentions the pivotal years in Europe, when democracy was returning after a century-long interruption, when the walls and iron curtains were being dismantled. “I think that Chiara’s message is even more relevant today than it was during the Cold War or in 1989. Today, in this global world, her message speaks of the common destiny of all of us, of the unity of peoples and the human family. Yet it is not a sociologist’s typical message, but a profound one, given that Chiara was a woman who was able to summarize as well as go into depth, to analyze and communicate simply. “Today we need a message of unity, because this global world is not united spiritually. Patriarch Athenagoras, a great friend of Chiara, said, ‘The world is unifying, but there is no spiritual unity.’ “And Chiara tells us that this world can be united, rich with poor, those nearby with those far away, those native to a place with those who have just arrived. Chiara also tells us,” Riccardi adds, “that we, mere men and women, the young and the elderly, that you too, can change the world. “Chiara was a friend to great people and appreciated by great people. I think of her friendship with John Paul II, who called her his ‘peer, his equal in age.’ But Chiara also showed that the world can change through the least of us who has faith. Like Mary with the Magnificat. “She helped me to understand the value of a charism, because Chiara recognized in me, in the Community of Sant’Egidio, a charism. She had a deep sense of people and experiences of Church.” Riccardi concludes: “For me Chiara is also a very dear memory of a profound friendship. She was a friend, a friend in the small things, in the attention she gave when she invited you to her table, in the phone calls, in taking care of you. “She was also someone who saw accurately in important moments for the Church. I think of, for example, of when John Paul II met with ecclesial movements. Chiara said, ‘This was a flash of inspiration from the Pope, a point of arrival that must also become a new point of departure.’ “Today my affection is accompanied with prayerful thoughts with Chiara, for Chiara.”
Mar 13, 2018 | Focolare Worldwide
Our new Facebook profile in Portuguese is online: Facebook em Português | @ focolare.org.pt As with other languages, the Facebook profile in Portuguese will also propose, every day, the “Thought for the Day”, the Word of life, articles published on the site, but also other information, news and events – especially those in Portugal and Brazil – with the possibility of interacting with many people who believe in a more fraternal world. Invite your friends to visit and follow our page. Spread the ideas and values that can contribute to the construction of a more united world!
Mar 12, 2018 | Focolare Worldwide
At the closing of the Winter Olympics last 9 March in Pyeong Chang, a grand inaugural ceremony of the 12th edition of the Winter Paralympic Games was held, and which will last up to 18th. March. In accordance with the International Committee, the Paralympic Games are held every four years, in the same city as that of the Winter Olympics, with the participation of physically disabled athletes. As Pope Frances underlined, if “sports can cast bridges between countries in conflicts and give a valid contribution to prospects of peace among peoples,” the Paralympic Games “even more attest to the fact that through sports, one’s own handicaps can be overcome,” thanks to the “example of courage, constancy, determination in not allowing oneself to be won over by limitations” given by the athletes. “Sports appears to be a big school of inclusion, but also of inspiration for life and commitment to the transformation of society.” The first Winter Paralympics were held in Sweden in 1976. Like the summer Games, they owe their existence to the tenacity with which some doctors, especially the English Ludwig Guttmann, were able, with their methods, to help the veterans of WWII to find in sports competitions an opportunity to rehabilitate themselves and find their own role in society.
