24 Aug 2020 | Non categorizzato
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)
22 Aug 2020 | Non categorizzato
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
21 Aug 2020 | Non categorizzato
“Charism and Prophecy” is the title of the new book by Jesús Morán, co-president of the Focolare Movement. It follows on his previous book, “Creative Fidelity – The challenge of making a charism a reality”. Morán offers in this text his reflection on Chiara Lubich’s “ecclesial genius”, starting from talks he gave on the subject over the past three years. We talk about it with the author. How did the idea for this book come about? Since I had several texts that had not yet been published, I thought of honouring Chiara Lubich in the centenary year of her birth and, at the same time, I wanted to make an act of love to everyone in the Focolare Movement. Since I began several years ago to use the expression, “Chiara’s ecclesial genius,” I saw that many people liked it, that is, they grasped in it a synthetic concept that could define the marvellous synergistic unity between Chiara’s person and her charism, as “all one piece”. I am convinced that Chiara, in addition to having been endowed by God with an “ecclesial instinct” is, indeed, an “ecclesial genius”, in continuity with others in the Church who have opened new horizons, always inserted in the tradition that goes back to Jesus himself. It was right to study it more deeply during this centenary. As you yourself have explained several times, the Focolare Movement, after its charismatic phase, is living its historical phase, the one you have defined as “a period of creative fidelity”. It is therefore the phase of giving Chiara’s prophecies concrete shape in the world today. What do you think is the main contribution that the Focolare Movement can make today to fulfil these prophecies in the ecclesial sphere, in the journey towards achieving “that they all may be one”? When I say that we have entered the phase of the historical foundation of the Movement, in creative fidelity to the phase of the charismatic foundation, I do not intend to dialectically oppose the two phases. In fact, the charismatic foundation has also been historical and, therefore, the historical foundation has a charismatic element. But they are two different phases, with different emphases, which touch both the foundation and the form of things. There is no doubt that today the theme of actualizing the charism of unity acquires a particular poignancy and urgency. Creative fidelity should always be exercised, keeping in mind two principles: listening to the questions that God proposes to the world and listening to what God continues to tell us in the foundational nucleus of the charism. In my opinion, one of the questions that God poses to the Church that lives and acts within history is what we could summarize as “synodality”, which implies openness, communal decisions, being close to one another, being attentive to the dignity of the person, especially the most vulnerable. The Focolare Movement contributes to this ecclesial journey with a very special emphasis, which comes from the heart of its charism, that is, a vital and concrete experience of the Triune God who has an impact on history, without which synodality is reduced to a new organizational form deprived of the life of the Spirit. And which of these prophecies still need more time and effort in order to be actualized? I think that in order to live up to our true vocation in the Church, the members of the Movement must grow in the sensus ecclesiae, to have “the mind of the Church”. Not that they do not have it, but there is a need to grow, which means overcoming, once and for all, every attitude of self-referencing and reaching the maturity that all the recent Popes have asked of us. Moreover, we need to overcome any dualism between civil commitment and ecclesial commitment, looking at the model that we have always held as Christians: the figure of Jesus, the man-God, truly man and truly God. In the light of the reflections you offer in your book, what would you like to say, from your heart, as we draw to the end of these six years in which you were co-president of the Focolare Movement? I pray that God will give us the necessary graces to update the charism of Chiara Lubich in a vital and radical way. I think that we must begin again, reborn from the heart of the charism, from what we call “the Ideal”, and from there set in motion the necessary reforms so that the Movement, also as an institution, may better reflect the human-divine life that animates it. And rebirth means purification and conversion.
Edited by Anna Lisa Innocenti
19 Aug 2020 | Non categorizzato
We are witnessing a period of great changes, transformations and contradictions that can open up new ways of seeking the common good. Through the new campaign #daretocare the young people of the Focolare Movement want to put the theme of care at the top of the political agenda, locally and globally. The new campaign of the youth of the Focolare Movement was launched on June 20th with the title #daretocare i.e. “dare and take care”, taking charge of our societies and the planet. The campaign is being constantly updated on the United World Project website What does #daretocare have to do with politics? Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare Movement, believed that there was a real vocation to politics, a personal call perceived in one’s own conscience and born out of certain circumstances, inspired by a social need that is asking for help, a human right that has been violated or the desire to do something good for one’s city or nation. But is it still valid today? 
Javier Baquero from Bogotá in Colombia, Cristina Guarda from Italy and Frantisek Talíř from Zubčice in the Czech Republic help us to answer this question. They are young people from the Focolare Movement and are part of the network of the Politics for Unity Movement, an expression of the Focolare for a culture of unity in politics. Javier, who today works in the office of the mayor of Bogotá tells us: “I have worked in politics since I was 13 years old and formally in government since I was 18, and I have worked with people who have integrity, who have the capacity to deal with corruption, whose actions are transparent. So maybe there are corrupt people, but they are just a few. For me the most important principle in politics is service. Because one puts one’s knowledge, skills, professions at the service of a society, of humanity, of the planet. And you don’t do it alone but together with other people. So, the principle that should guide every politician is service, an attitude of service to meet the needs of a society. #daretocare, to dare and to take care means first of all to feel and to be close to the problems of my city but that’s not enough: it is to think and to formulate public policies to solve these problems”. 
Cristina who has been in politics for the last five years adds: “Yes, I know, sometimes I feel disgusted observing the hatred created by some politicians, the conspiracy of silence, laziness or deafness in front of some complex problems. But for this reason, we and I must act and do our best. In my political action, I want to express my intense love for others by doing my best to help them live better, to lighten their worries and give them all the elements to achieve the lives they dream about”. “Politics is not bad in itself. Politics is made by politicians, who can be more or less good at it “- says František, a regional political activist. “That is why it is necessary that new politicians continue to enter this field and try to do it in the best possible way. To speak of politics as a service is what Pope Francis suggested to me when we met a year and a half ago. I think this is the recipe for good politics. The key is really to serve others. The key is my thinking: do I do politics for myself or do I do it to serve? And every time I have to make a decision – small or big – I can choose: am I putting myself first or others? And if others are put first then everything will be fine”! That’s why it’s important to network, to think and to act for the common good, to take care of everyone. To follow the events of the #daretocare campaign visit the United World Project website.
By the youth of the Focolare
18 Aug 2020 | Non categorizzato
Sophia University: teaching, research and unity What are the future prospects for Sophia University? How will it respond to the educational needs of today’s young people? We asked the Rector, Professor Giuseppe ArgiAolas, appointed on 20 February by the Congregation for Catholic Education of the Holy See. Professor Giuseppe Argiolas, who became the Rector of Sophia University Istituto universitario Sophia on 20 February, tells us about future plans for the University. Today Sophia is a university athenaeum. You have been the RECTOR of the university for a few months now. What does this mean and what changes will there be for the students? “This is Sofia’s first ‘change of guard’, and it coincides with the conferral by the Congregation for Catholic Education of the title of “Rector” to the one who was previously the Dean. It is in recognition of how Sophia has developed over the last 12 years, for which we express our gratitude. Enormous challenges have been faced. Chiara founded this University in a flash, so all the teachers, administrative staff and students who were there at the beginning and those who joined later, have done an extraordinary job. We have just set up 4 Master’s degree courses with various specializations: “Economics and management” (specialization in “Management for a Civil and Sustainable Economy”), “Political Science” (specialization in “Fraternity in the res publica. Theoretical bases and operational lines” and specialization in “Governance of common goods”), “Trinitarian Ontology” (specialization in “Theology” and specialization in “Philosophy”) and “Culture of unity” (specialization in “Pedagogy of communion for a culture of peace” and specialization in “Communication processes with intercultural and interreligious mediation”). The Doctoral School is now a consolidated reality and we are developing a post-doctoral School at the service of young researchers. Chiara Lubich saw Sophia as a global university, one single university with different locations. In Latin America we see the birth of Sophia LAC (Latin America and the Caribbean), but we are also seeing the first buds in Africa and Asia. Our task will be to consider these projects in the spirit of a unitarian Sophia that is expressed in the diversity of contexts in which it develops”. The Covid-19 emergency has had quite an impact on the lectures: how is the teaching going ahead? “Thanks to everyone’s commitment, we have been able to continue the lectures and exams and enable students to complete their academic studies using the tools currently offered by technology. We have also arranged webinars dedicated to the Pandemic which offer our contribution in terms of reflection and action on such a delicate and urgent issue, and we have started with the different scientific disciplines by initiating dialogue on an interdisciplinary, international and intergenerational level. The new academic year starts as normal in a presential form and at the same time online, for students who will not be able to go to Sophia because of the international restrictions imposed due to Covid-19”. What plans are there for the future? How do you see Sophia in 10 years? “Sophia has managed to maintain its charismatic drive and be innovative whilst remaining faithfulness to the Charism. I think that we need to continue along this path: remain faithful to the Charism with its inherent specificity to read the signs of the times. This is what Pope Francis told us with three keywords – “Wisdom, Pact, Going Out” – which he addressed to us in our meeting with him last November, giving us a clear reference for our future. So I would like to develop Sophia on three fronts: didactics – going forward in the direction undertaken but with great attention and sensitivity so as to respond adequately to the educational needs of young people; research – valuing the development of the various disciplines and fostering an ever more marked interdisciplinary approach, indispensable in current scientific research; relationship with other agencies of the Focolare Movement and with other university and cultural institutions so that the service we offer for the common good may be ever more incisive. We will try to do this, together, in unity, with all the passion that we can express. The founding phase has finished, in some respects, and the consolidation and developments phases are just beginning. What must not cease is the charismatic thrust, this must continue, indeed it must always accompany us as the Guiding Star on the journey we have just begun and which we are called to travel together with many companions and with “joy, vision and decision”.
Lorenzo Russo
17 Aug 2020 | Non categorizzato
The presence of Jesus, the Risen Lord, in the midst of two or more people gathered in his name, is one of the cornerstones of Focolare spirituality. The movement, in fact, feels called to “generate” this presence in all areas of human life. But what can you do when you find yourself alone? Chiara Lubich suggests spiritual training. In today’s world we often come across people who are honest and good but who don’t feel the need for a religious belief. Some of them would even like to have faith but being immersed in a world that should be Christian and often isn’t, they don’t find the strength to go further. They wait and categorize themselves as people who are searching. Perhaps, without realizing it, they are waiting to meet Jesus one day. And here … we note the absolute timeliness, relevance and urgency of our spirituality and the point of the spirituality that we sum up in the words: Jesus in our midst. … Jesus himself shows that he does not belong only to the past. Being faithful to his promise, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age”,[1] his presence is living, shining and loving here today among his brothers and sisters. It is our duty to bring with us this presence of his. We can do so by keeping his commands that are summed up in the new commandment and by living it according to our model, Jesus forsaken. However, keeping his commands – and he told us this – means bearing a yoke that is easy and light[2]. But can it always be like this? Generally speaking, yes. But there must be two or more people united in his Name. But what about when we are alone? Or when our love for others is not reciprocated? We know that by embracing Jesus forsaken in such moments we can stand firm, in peace and even joyfully, and we can continue to work, pray, study and live with fullness in our hearts. Yet there can be times in which it seems difficult to describe the Lord’s yoke as being easy and light. There are periods in life, for example, when our health breaks down and this has an influence on our soul too, closing us in on ourselves and making it almost impossible for us to relate to our brothers and sisters. … There might be sudden deaths or accidents that leave us aghast, when we feel that no one can understand us. We might be diagnosed with an illness which we think might be fatal … and so on. These are all painful circumstances that God allows in order to work on us by means of the cross, which is indispensable in the Christian faith and which Jesus himself experienced. What should we do in these situations? We should try to be glad, at least with our will, that we are a little bit like him forsaken, and cast all our anxiety into the heart of the Father[3]. We should keep on offering up our suffering, supported by the grace of the moment, which will not be lacking, until God brings our troubled soul back to the fullness of peace. Let’s keep in mind, however, that we must always love our brothers and sisters, just as much as we can of course. We can also confide in them, at least in general terms, saying, for example: “I’m going through a difficult time”. You can say this out of love, to maintain the communion-fellowship amongst you. Moreover, communicating is always the best remedy in any situation. In this way, Jesus in our midst will keep us afloat at those times too and he will show us that always, and whatever happens, his yoke can be easy and light.
Chiara Lubich
(Taken from a telephone conference call, Rocca di Papa, 24th April 1997) [1] Mt 28:20 [2] Cf. Mt 11:30 [3] Cf. 1Pt 5:7
