The coronavirus keeps on taking away thousands of “stories” like Sher Khan’s. But his story lives on in a legacy – being one family – and in many friends like Marta and Javed. By Anita Martinez and Dalma Tímár. https://vimeo.com/430019025
For over fifty years, the Focolare Movement’s little town in Argentina has provided training programmes for thousands of young people from all over the world: now the experience of living there has university recognition as a “vocational training programme”. Until just over a month ago, many people used to say that the experience of living in Mariapolis Lia was so rich and varied that it gave you a master’s degree, so to speak, in “life under the banner of the culture of unity”. Now the “experiencia” – the experience – as the annual course for young people is called really does have university certification. The new study programme has been drawn up thanks to the collaboration of educational teams from the Latin American Centre for Social Evangelization (CLAdeES) , the Mariápolis Lía School and the National North western University of the Province of Buenos Aires (Unnoba). The course will have the academic title “University extension and vocational training programme” and will be based upon four fundamental elements: anthropology-philosophy, history-culture, the community and the transcendent. It will take 11 months to complete and those who do so will have access to university extension and accreditation of vocational training in three different areas of choice: education, eco-responsibility and multicultural management; community leadership and development of community engagement; or art, communication and multimedia production. The training will be developed through specialized seminars, work placements and evaluation of the application of values deriving from Christian social teaching. There are also plans to integrate this course with the Latin American section of the Sophia University Institute. Mariápoli Lía, situated near the town of O’Higgins, Buenos Aires, offers young people an educational experience that integrates work, study, cultural and recreational activities, sports and specific interests. All activities are regarded as integral elements of formation. In fact, the notion of student coincides with that of citizen, therefore, it is assumed that all young people who live there are engaged in the life of the little town. A team of teachers and experts in a variety of disciplines – spirituality, anthropology, sociology and Christian doctrine – follows the young people in their learning. The 6000 young people who over the years have spent a period of time at the Mariapolis are proof of its formative value. In their later lives in a range of different environments – as managers, economists, educators, professionals, workers, parents, consecrated persons… the “experience” has remained a shining point, helping them to overcome personal and professional challenges.
Stefania Tanesini
How often does God use a person to draw someone else close to him? We should never forget him, because we too could one day become his instrument for someone. A new hope Having been in the U.S. to study, I decided to return to my country at the insistence of my parents. But I was stuck in quarantine at an institution near the border with about 500 people. I had the exact same feeling as if I were in jail. Fortunately, my phone kept me connected to the outside world. Whenever I met someone, I heard the same questions I had about what was happening. During that time I met a Salesian priest at a distance. Although he was as isolated as I was, he emanated a peace that neither I nor the others had. It was as if he was not surprised at anything. At first he celebrated mass alone in his small room, then I began to attend. In short, I returned to the sacraments and my previous life of faith, even if no longer as before. Even my girlfriend noticed that I had changed. Sometimes I think: if this transformation happened in me, can it be that it has also happened for others? A new hope is born within me: that the world that previously seemed to take it away from me can now refind its way in other directions. K., Slovakia Baby carriage I met a young Gypsy girl who was expecting a baby. She needed everything, from clothing to all the baby gear for the birth of her child. I had read in the Gospel, “Whatever you ask of the Father… he will give it to you”. That day with faith I asked Jesus during Mass for a baby carriage. Later at school, I committed myself more than ever to love my classmates and teachers. Back home in the evening, I learned from my mother that a neighbour, knowing that I help the poor, had left something for me. It was a baby carriage! I was moved by this prompt response from providence. C., Spain Blessing Working as a nurse for a month right during that period of the coronavirus, in the hospital where I served I shared the loneliness of several patients who passed to the other life without the comfort of their loved ones at their side. The strongest experience, however, was after I learned from my mother that, according to the pope’s words, even doctors and nurses were qualified to give a blessing to the deceased patients. I was able to draw a cross on the forehead and chest of several of them before filing the paperwork to confirm their deaths and send their bodies to the morgue. Joseph, Italy
Edited by Stefania Tanesini
Chiara Lubich’s charism for Christian unity. Interview with Lesley Ellison who is an Anglican and the first non-Catholic focolarina to follow Chiara. Living the Gospel, Word of God together; loving one’s neighbour as Jesus did, to the point of dying for the other; living for unity among believers in Christ, beyond every affiliation and beyond all divisions. It is with these dimensions that the ecumenical potential of Chiara Lubich’s charism of unity is unfolding. “A completely ecumenical spirituality” is how Card. Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity described the charism in the preface to the book entitled “A Spirituality for Christian Unity. Selected thoughts.”, published by Città Nuova, which is a collection of speeches and answers to ecumenical questions given by the founder of the Focolare Movement, one hundred years after her birth. The introduction to the book is given by Maria Voce, President of the Focolare with a foreword offered by Rev. Olav F. Tveit, former Secretary General of the Ecumenical Council of Churches, now President of the Conference of Lutheran Bishops in Norway. Lesley Ellison, an Anglican focolarina, is the first non-Catholic focolarina to follow Chiara: Your experience has paved the way for many. Did you ever have hesitations? “I grew up in a Protestant family with prejudices against Catholics, and at that time in Liverpool the two communities were separated. Like Chiara, I also wanted to give my life to God. When I first heard her speak, in Canterbury in 1967, I had been visiting the focolarine in Liverpool for a year. We tried to live the Gospel but I didn’t know they were Catholic. Just as I did not know the community of people around the focolare. It was a shock to realize they were all Catholic but in Canterbury, listening to Chiara, I understood that God loves everyone, and that “everyone” also includes Catholics! I felt I had to take a step and put aside my prejudices. When I got to Liverpool a Catholic couple offered me a lift home. This was unheard of. “But I’m Protestant,” I said. “That’s all right! We love each other!” they said. This was my first ecumenical experience.” When did you feel that the Spirituality of unity could be yours? “In 1967 I went to visit the little town of Loppiano. During the visit there was a Catholic Mass but being an Anglican I could not receive the Eucharist. This rift between our Churches seemed absurd to me, so painful that inside I cried out to Jesus: “What can I do?” And I seemed to hear Him respond, “Give me your life for unity.”” Living the Gospel is the way that Chiara indicated for unity. Why, as an Anglican, did this proposal have an impact on you? “My formation as a young Anglican asked me to “listen to, read, take note of, learn and digest inwardly” the word of God. So the idea of “living the Gospel” which I heard for the first time in the focolare, was a complete novelty and gave my Christian life a new communitarian dimension”. Jesus asks us to love one another as He did, to the point of giving our lives for one another. What does this mean for you in your relationships with people of other Churches? “It’s in the word ‘as’ that I find the whole of Chiara’s charism, Jesus crucified and forsaken who is Life. This is the way God Himself wanted to dialogue with humanity, and it is the model He offers us for any dialogue with one another and with Him. For me, giving my life means welcoming the other, listening, putting aside my thoughts and judgments. But it also means offering my thoughts whilst being completely detached from them. This is what Chiara did with me and with every person she met. And this is how we try to live the relationships with one another in the Movement.
Claudia Di Lorenzi
The Coronavirus pandemic has disrupted programs, systems and procedures in all areas of human life. In every place there is a great need for creativity to find new answers to the challenges posed by this situation. Something that Chiara Lubich suggested back in 1983 is very up-to-date. God speaks in us in various ways and among these are the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. We must, therefore, serve God by following the guidance of the gentle voice of the Spirit that speaks in us. The Holy Spirit! The Third Divine Person who is God just as the Father is God and the Word of God is too! (…) The Holy Spirit is in the heart of all Christians, and therefore in my heart too. He is in the heart of my brothers and sisters. … Let’s become attentive and assiduous pupils of this great Teacher. Let’s pay great attention to his mysterious and delicate promptings. Let’s not put aside anything that might be one of his inspirations. In the early days [of our Movement] we made great progress by putting into practice the motto “Every idea is a responsibility”. Therefore, let’s remember that the ideas that come to mind in someone who has chosen to love are often inspirations of the Holy Spirit. Why does he give them to us? For our own good and for the good of the world through us, so that we can take forward our revolution of love. So let’s be attentive and consider every idea, especially if we think it might be an inspiration, as our responsibility, to be grasped and put into practice. In this way, we will have found a really good way of loving, honouring and thanking the Holy Spirit.
Chiara Lubich
(From a telephone conference call, Mollens, 1st September 1983)
Bintou Konaté, a Muslim, and her Christian friends have turned loss and suffering into an opportunity to help her community. By Stefania Tanesini, Egilde Verí, Marco Tursi. https://vimeo.com/430765602
