Oct 12, 2020 | Non categorizzato
The pandemic has not only had serious immediate consequences, but has often brought to light many pre-existing personal, social and political problems. In the following text Chiara Lubich emphasises the first essential step for those who really want to change the world. A great psychologist of our time said: “Our culture rarely seeks to learn the art of loving and, despite our desperate search for love, we end up considering everything else more important: success, prestige, money, power. We devote almost all of our energy to achieving these goals and make no effort to learn the art of loving.”[1] We find the real art of loving in Christ’s gospel. Putting it into practice is an indispensable first step to setting off a revolution. It is a peaceful revolution, but one so forceful and radical that it will change everything. It affects not only the sphere of the spirit but the entire human sphere as well and renews every field it touches, whether cultural, philosophical, political, economic, academic or scientific. This revolution is the secret that enabled the first Christians to spread all over the entire known world. … It is a love not made up only of words or feelings; it is practical. It requires that we “make ourselves one” with others, that “we live the others” in a certain way, that we share their sufferings, their joys, in order to understand them, to serve and help them in an effective, practical way.
Chiara Lubich
From: Chiara Lubich, The Art of Loving, New city Press, Hyde Park, New York, 2010, p. 25-26. [1] E. Fromm, L’arte di amare, [The Art of Loving] Milano 1971, p.18.
Oct 10, 2020 | Non categorizzato
An interview with Saverio D’Ercole, creative producer at Casanova Multimedia which (with Rai Fiction) has produced the TV movie being made on Chiara Lubich. https://vimeo.com/465801717
Oct 8, 2020 | Non categorizzato
EcoOne, ecological initiative of Focolare Movement, organizes the International Meeting “New Ways Towards Integral Ecology: Five Years After Laudato Si’ ” to be held in Castel Gandolfo (Rome) between 23 and 25 October 2020. The story of our planet is a story of relations among its parts. Let’s focus on three of them: atmosphere, living organisms and mankind. 2.5 billion years ago, oxygen was not present in the atmosphere and human life would not have been possible. Then, thanks to the small contribution of countless and (apparently) insignificant simple single-celled organisms – cyanobacteria – the air was enriched with oxygen until it assumed its current composition. This is an example of a positive effect of living organisms on atmosphere, at least from our point of view. More recently, coal began to form from dead forests (about 350 million years ago) and oil from dead microorganisms (about 100 million years ago). Thanks to this processes, living organisms sequestrated carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Starting from the XIX century, mankind massively burned carbon and oil, restoring back carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, eventually causing global warming. In this case, the effect of mankind on atmosphere is negative, still from our point of view. 
On 11 September 2020 the following figure has been published in Science, a very important scientific journal, showing that – if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced – continental ice sheets will disappear by 2100 and polar ice sheets by 2300: climate will go back around 50 million years. Earth will survive but consequences on mankind can be severe in terms of extreme weather events, flood, droughts and sea level rise: we don’t have too much time to face the challenge of restoring harmonious relations among mankind and the other parts of our planet. But why are we continuing to burn fossil fuels? The reason has been explained by Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si’ of 2015 and summarized on 3 May 2019 in his address to some representatives of the mining industry: “The precarious condition of our common home has been the result largely of a fallacious economic model that has been followed for too long. It is a voracious model, profit-oriented, shortsighted, and based on the misconception of unlimited economic growth. Although we frequently see its disastrous impacts on the natural world and in the lives of people, we are still resistant to change.” EcoOne, ecological initiative of Focolare Movement, organizes the International Meeting “ New Ways Towards Integral Ecology: Five Years After Laudato Si’ ” to be held in Castel Gandolfo (Rome) between 23 and 25 October 2020 that will be broadcast in the main languages all over the world. Prominent speakers will intervene illustrating the contemporary environmental challenges facing science, technology, economics and society, with the purpose to contribute to the change advocated by Pope Francis by opening a transdisciplinary, interreligious and multicultural dialogue on the care of our common home. (More information on how to connect to the meeting will be updated frequently on www.ecoone.org).
Luca Fiorani
Oct 6, 2020 | Non categorizzato
What does the young woman , declared blessed by the church, have to say today to young people and to all of us who are living in these uncertain times generated by the pandemic? We asked Chicca Coriasco, Chiara Luce’s famous best friend, 10 years after her beatification and 30 years after her death. Ten years ago on September 25th there were twenty-five thousand of us inside and outside the Roman Shrine Divino Amore to celebrate Chiara Badano’s beatification. On that day, holiness became something closer and more accessible for many young people (and not only) from all over the world, who saw in this nineteen year old Italian girl, someone cheerful and deep, able to live and die for God, an attainable and imitable model. Today, thirty years after her death on October 7th 1990, it is impossible to calculate how many people have “met” Chiara Luce, just think that exactly one year ago – and before the pandemic and lockdown forced on us alternative forms of encounter and communication – Maria Teresa Badano, Chiara’s mother and Chicca Coriasco her best friend, were in Argentina. For 13 days they travelled more than two thousand kilometres, crossing four regions, enabling more than 8,000 people to meet Chiara Luce Badano. We ask some questions to Chicca. 30 years after her death, Chiara Luce continues to be present and loved… How do you explain this following by so many young people that does not diminish but grows with time? Chiara knew how to bring out the best in those around her, and with me she always succeeded, as she always did with her parents. I think that this phenomenon continues to happen with everyone who comes into contact with her, even today. She never made many speeches nor do extraordinary things, but that Yes said to God moment by moment, one step at a time, in simplicity, was extraordinary: it is what then as now continues to win over and fascinate many, especially young people. Can you tell us what was the most important moment you lived with her? The pact we made on August 22nd 1990. We told each other that the first one who left for heaven would help the other one to get there, while the one who stayed would try to fill the void left by the other. Thirty years later I can say that there was probably a design that was revealed in circumstances that were unimaginable at the time and which have acquired meaning and fulfilment that continue to this day. What does Chiara Luce have to say to young people today? Every now and then I have tried to imagine Chiara living in these times… Probably the same way she lived her own life, that is, without ever turning in on herself, looking ahead with courage and determination, focusing on the beauty that is still there today, in the new occasions that this uncertain circumstances make us discover. Chiara Lubich told us that in addition to Jesus’ suffering on the cross, ours was also needed to cooperate in building a more united world: she told us “Living by half measures is too little: God proposes something great to you, it is up to you to accept it”. This was the experience that Chiara Luce and we, her friends, had. More than ever, these words of Chiara Lubich’s are very relevant and practicable today. Who is Chiara Luce TODAY for you? She is always present in all aspects of my life. I don’t know if she is satisfied with me, but I feel close to her, and I hope she will continue to help me to be faithful to my ideals, which were her own. In the new book published a year ago and edited by the Foundation, “Nel mio stare il vostro andare“, (In your staying ,our going-our translation) where many direct witnesses tell of their friendship with Chiara Luce, I turned directly to her and wrote: “Dear Chiara I would love to hug you again and share with you so many challenges, suspensions and intimate discoveries. But to tell you the truth, it has already been a bit like that all these years (…) Continue to accompany us, as you know how to do, with your ‘caresses’ and your silent presence, that there is and always has been, I’m counting on it! LOL Chicca”. What are the events that the Chiara Badano Foundation is planning in the near future? This year, due to the health restrictions imposed by the pandemic, it is not possible to visit Chiara’s bedroom. To mark the 10th anniversary of her Beatification, we have posted on the official website (www.chiarabadano.org) a video that retraces those unforgettable moments. Instead, for the 30 years since her “departure”, we have produced another video that allows us to relive, through the voice of witnesses, something of Chiara’s last days. The video is available on the site from October 7th 2020 after 4.10 am ( the time of her departure). Finally, on October 25th , the liturgical feast of Chiara Luce, we will be together with the Bishop of the Diocese of Acqui and promotor of Chiara’s Cause of Canonization, with the celebration of Mass, the Time Out at the Cemetery at 12 noon, and the award ceremony for the winners of the Chiara Luce Badano Prize. Everything can be followed via streaming on the site. Various events are also being organised around the world: the Foundation wants to be the spokesperson and channel for this light that will shine in many places on the planet.
Stefania Tanesini
Oct 5, 2020 | Non categorizzato
On 3rd October, during the CH Link up – the bimonthly video conference that connects the Focolare communities around the world – Maria Voce made an appeal to everyone, asking for a significant new commitment: to live relationships on the model of “Trinitarian” ones, where each person brings out the other, finding in this way “his or her deepest identity” and thus laying the foundations for a fraternal society. The video call took place a few hours after the signing in Assisi of “Fratelli tutti”, Pope Francis’ latest encyclical. It was therefore impossible not to feel called personally. Below is a summary of the Focolare president’s speech. Question: Today, Pope Francis has been to Assisi and signed the new Encyclical with this beautiful title: “Fratelli tutti”. In a tweet he wrote: “The effort to build a more just society implies the capacity of fraternity, a spirit of human communion”. Were you surprised by the Pope’s choice of this topic? Maria Voce: Not at all! Because this is the greatest need of humanity today. The Pope was able to make it resound and with this encyclical he wants to bring us all together to seek the answer, to find an answer to this need of humanity. So it seemed to me that he became the voice of this bewildered world, that he has been able to take up this pain of humanity and present it to us. So we naturally ask ourselves: “What can we do? At this point, I would like to speak in particular to all those who feel called by God to do something, to respond, and to do it by giving themselves completely, giving themselves without measure, without fear, without interruption, giving themselves completely. All those who feel they have found in the charism of unity, in Chiara’s charism, something that helped them see that it is possible, that made them have a concrete, true, and deep experience of unity on this earth. I would like to say to them all: let’s do it together, let’s do it together! Yes, we have received a gift that has allowed us to experience it. But this calling to fraternity, which for us is the call to “That they may all be one”, (Jn 17:21) is the call to unity. This calling would want people to live on earth as in heaven, as – allow me to say this – in the Trinity, where unity and distinction coexist, where each person respects the other, each person makes room for the other, each person tries to bring out the other, each tries in a certain way to lose their own self completely so that the others can express themselves completely. In doing this they do not cancel themselves out; on the contrary they manifest their true and deepest identity. A unity as great as that has only one example: Jesus who was able to completely lose his being God in order to become man and to share on the cross – in the moment of his forsakenness – all forsakenness, all pain, all anguish, all suffering, all the extremisms, all the victimizations, the wounds that people of all times, and in all circumstances, have experienced and still experience. Jesus made them his own with this love that was so great that he managed to remake, to rebuild the unity that had been broken between God and humankind, among all people and also with all creation. If we manage to have such a great love, we can witness to the world that this unity exists, that this unity is possible, and that this unity has already begun. I would like, with all those who are listening to me now, that all of us together be a first response to the Pope, one that has already begun and that we could console him and give him hope, because something has already begun. That all together, we could, we who are just a small group inspired by the charism received from Chiara Lubich, be a start, a tiny but effective particle of that leaven that can spread through humanity and can transform it into a new world. I would like to make this commitment together with all of you. I’m for it; I want to give it my all, and I invite everyone to do the same, all those who want to! Here is the CH link up.
Oct 5, 2020 | Non categorizzato
On May 8, 2004 in Stuttgart, Germany, Chiara had about 9000 people in front of her at the first “Together for Europe” event. It was a historic moment, in which she offered the key to build peace in the mosaic continent that is Europe and in the whole world: to build pieces of universal brotherhood. Universal fraternity is and has been one of humankind’s deepest aspirations, and has been present in many great souls. Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed, “I have a dream that one day people (…) will come to see that they are made to live together as brothers and sisters (…) and brotherhood will be (…) the first order of business on every legislative agenda.”[1] And Mahatma Gandhi, said of himself: “My mission is not merely the brotherhood of Indian humanity (…) but through achieving India’s freedom I hope to achieve and progress the mission of the brotherhood of man.”[2] Universal fraternity has also been the aim of people whose motives were not inspired by religion. The motto of the French Revolution was: “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” Although many countries have formed democratic governments and have been able to establish, at least in part, freedom and equality, they have not yet achieved fraternity, which is more talked about than lived. The person who proclaimed universal fraternity and showed us how to bring it about was Jesus. By revealing God as our Father he broke down the walls separating people who are the “same” from those who are “different”, the walls separating friends from enemies. He freed every person from a thousand types of exploitation and slavery and from every unjust relationship, bringing about an authentic revolution, one that is existential, cultural and political. Many currents of spirituality down through the centuries have sought to carry out this revolution. A truly brotherly and sisterly life became, for example, the bold and tenacious dream of St. Francis of Assisi and his first companions[3]. His life was an admirable witness to fraternity that embraces all things, not only men and women, but the entire cosmos, including Brother Sun, Sister Moon and the stars. The tool Jesus gave us to bring about a sense of family in the world is love, a great love, a new type of love that’s different from what we usually understand by that word. In fact, Jesus transplanted on earth the way love is lived in heaven. This love requires us to love everyone, and not just our family and friends; it asks us to love people we like and those we don’t, to love our fellow citizens and foreigners, Europeans and immigrants, people from our own church and those of other churches, people of our own faith and those of other religions. This kind of love asks us to love even our enemies and to forgive them if they have done us wrong. What I am talking about is, therefore, a type of love that doesn’t differentiate among people. It considers those who are physically close to us, but also those we speak or hear about, those whom we serve each day with our work, the ones we read about in the papers or see on television. Because this is how God our Father loves. He sends sun and rain on all his children – the good and the bad, the just and the unjust (Cf Mt. 5:45). A second characteristic of this love is to be the first to love. The love that Jesus brought to earth is, in fact, a disinterested love. It doesn’t expect other people to love us, but always takes the initiative, just as Jesus himself did when he gave his life for us while we were still sinners, and therefore, not loving. … The love that Jesus brought on earth is not platonic, sentimental love, or just words. It is a concrete love that calls for action. This is possible if we make ourselves all things to all people – to be sick with the sick, happy with those who are happy, and be worried, insecure, hungry or poor with others. By feeling what they feel, we then do something for them. When this love is lived by more than one person, it becomes reciprocal. This is what Jesus emphasized the most. He said, “Love one another as I have loved you” (cf. Jn. 13:34). This is the commandment he called his own and “new”. It’s not only individuals who are called to live reciprocal love, but also entire groups, movements, cities, regions and states. Our modern times demand that the disciples of Jesus acquire a Christian social conscience. It is more than ever necessary to love other countries as our own. This love, that reaches perfection when it is mutual, reveals the true power of Christianity because it brings about the very presence of Jesus among us here on earth. Didn’t Jesus say, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt. 18:20)? Isn’t this promise a guarantee that fraternity can become a reality? If he, our brother par excellence, is with us, how can we not feel that we are brothers and sisters to one another? May the Holy Spirit help us all to form in the world, wherever we are, zones of universal fraternity, that grow and grow by living the love that Jesus brought down from heaven.
Chiara Lubich
[1]Cf Martin Luther King, Jr., Discorso della Vigilia di Natale 1967 [A Christmas Sermon on Peace 1967], Atlanta, cit. in Il fronte della coscienza [The trumpet of conscience], Torino 1968. [2]M.K. Gandhi, Antichi come le montagne [Ancient like the mountains], Milano 1970, p.162. [3]Cf card. R. Etchegaray, Omelia in occasione del Giubileo della Famiglia francescana [Homily on the occasion of the Jubilee of the Franciscan Family], in «L’Osservatore Romano», 12 aprile 2000, p.8. https://vimeo.com/465376766
