Jul 3, 2020 | Non categorizzato
A first hand account from Ofelia, who herself emigrated from Venezuela to Peru with her family and now works with the Focolare community to help her fellow-Venezuelians who are suffering even more since the pandemic. As members of the Focolare Movement, we have been running a solidarity program supporting Venezuelans in Peru for some time. The pandemic has forced us to seek new strategies to reach them where they are staying. 
What we discover is that more than anything else, they need someone to listen to them. It’s not always easy because we’re not talking about one or two families, but many and the number is increasing every day. The monthly Word of Life always helps me because it encourages me to go out to my neighbours and recognize that I’m meeting Jesus in each one of them. One morning a Venezuelan mother called me in tears about her daughter who was due to give birth in the next few days but was being threatened with eviction. I listened to her for at least an hour until she began to calm down. Whenever I felt like saying something, I reflected, “The only thing I need to do here is to love her, and she needs to talk this through”. Eventually she said to me, “Good, I’ve really unburdened myself”. That was the point at which I could tell her where to find the help she needed. Initially, I thought that during quarantine, our work with the migrant community would slow down. But in fact it’s been exactly the opposite! For example, the work we carry ahead with CIREMI (The Inter-Religious Commission for Migrants and Refugees) keeps us very busy and has been a way to get to know each other better. The Commission members include some Scalabrini fathers, Christians from various Churches, the Jewish community, some Muslims, a Catholic reverend sister and a group from the Focolare Movement. As we were considering how best to reach the most vulnerable, we began to receive requests for clothing and blankets. Because of lockdown restrictions, we arranged for a taxi to transport the clothes we had collected from the local Focolare community to a place in Lima city where they could be collected. And some baby clothes arrived just in time for two families with new-born babies. We regularly work in collaboration with the United Nations Agency for Refugees and they provided us with a supply of blankets which meant we could meet the needs of even more people. It’s amazing to see how often we receive just what our people in need are asking us for. God doesn’t miss a thing! One day I received a phone call from Carolina, a Jewish Community leader. She told me some of their families were transferring to Israel, and so had clothes and other items they’d be leaving behind. She was so happy when she heard we were collecting such things to benefit the Venezuelan community that she herself paid the taxi expenses to transport them over to us. During this telephone conversation, we also asked about each other’s families, and it called to mind a phrase from the Word of Life: “It’s friendship – which can become a network of positive relationships and helps to bring the commandment of mutual love to life – that builds true fraternity”. The exchange with this my Jewish sister showed me the truth of this. It’s wonderful to see how contagious fraternity is. The people who received clothes and blankets from us, in turn sent us photos and one of them wrote, “My next door neighbour was in need of clothing, so I shared what you sent with her”. A chain of remembering the needs of others has been forged. In this way fraternity finds a way of growing – even during quarantine!
by Ofelia M. as told to Gustavo Clariá
Jul 1, 2020 | Non categorizzato
A diagnosis that left no hope and a mother who courageously chose to say “no” to euthanasia. But how could she explain this decision to her daughter who was only two and a half years old? During the last days of her life, she wrote a letter that her daughter could read when she grew up. This mother is no longer with us but her family who found help in the spirituality of the Focolare Movement throughout this experience, has allowed the publication of her words. They offer them as testimony and food for thought on a complex, painful and very topical issue. My darling, I haven’t written in a while. A lot has happened recently and, unfortunately, the situation is not good at all. My health has deteriorated in just one month. I was waiting for some results but the pain worsened very quickly. I was hospitalized for three weeks and then I completely lost the use of my legs. It is very hard to write this letter to you. I want to talk about euthanasia and that is a difficult topic. I want to leave this for you for when you are grown up and maybe you’ll think about death and ask yourself questions about dying. Next week I’ll have one last chemo treatment even though it doesn’t seem to be helping now and maybe I will have an operation that should enable me to eat because I can’t do that anymore. If this surgery doesn’t work, there’s not much more to do. The options are how and where to die. In short, I have decided that I want to die at home. I won’t go into all the painful details, but it’s where I feel most comfortable. Dad will explain everything else when you’re older. I’ll keep to the point – I want to tell you why I have decided not to die through euthanasia. I have been thinking a lot but in the end I have decided that I will ask God to accompany me on this journey and, if it means facing death, then that is the way it is – there are no shortcuts and this is no time for cowardice. I am convinced that God teaches us something in that moment of passage and that we must face it just as we face the passage of birth. I am writing to you because I wonder if you will ever think about these things and since I have spent so much time analysing everything from different points of view, maybe one of my ideas could help you. Everything started with me thinking that if death is imminent, why should we wait so long for it? If there is no hope of recovery, why should we let human beings suffer and leave them to a game where there is no one to join in with them? I have learned that it’s because this is a process – a preparatory process – and without it we would not be able to take the next step and go where it will take us. We should let God guide us because he knows everything. Lately, I have been thinking about those people who have not been able to take this step in the right way. To me it seems as if they were lost in limbo, between our earthly existence and the afterlife, unable to move forward towards heaven or return to earth, to their loved ones. So I finally realized the road to euthanasia isn’t for me. I am afraid to die in pain and I pray to God to be merciful and forgiving when the time comes. Hopefully, he’ll take me away, freeing me from pain and from my body. And this is the part that concerns me, the part that I alone will have to face. This is where I find myself today my love: the path ahead is difficult. And yet, I have the support of so many people who help me and my family. I receive lots of spiritual help from a priest friend but there are still moments of fear and dismay – although, I must say, there are not as many as I thought there would be. I feel supported by a strength without knowing where it comes from. I see clearly that my days are ending – nonetheless, I don’t feel downhearted. It is not easy, obviously, but fear is not part of my day.”
Edited by Anna Lisa Innocenti
Jun 29, 2020 | Non categorizzato
In recent months, many people, including influential ones, have pointed out that one of the effects of the pandemic is that we have all been confronted with what is essential, what is valuable and what remains. Many of us have lost relatives or friends and have experienced the nearness of death. The following writing by Chiara Lubich touches on these two topics so close to what we are experiencing in the world today. …The very beginning of the divine adventure of our Movement … is set in a specific circumstance: the war – the war with its bombs, its destruction and death. … I don’t think we will be able to live our Ideal with perfection and in an intense way unless we always bear in mind that atmosphere, that environment, those circumstances. Even today, after more than 40 years, the Lord doesn’t leave us short of opportunities. The frequent “departures” of members of our Movement … are a constant reminder that “everything passes”, that “everything crumbles” and this is the necessary backdrop to understand what really matters. We are greatly impressed by what these brothers and sisters of ours who are “about to depart” constantly say to us. Just as when it is dark, you can see the stars, so they, in their particular situations, could see further. Because of a special light, they perceived the absolute value of God, and they declared that he is Love. We too, if we want to make of our life a real Holy Journey, while we are on this earth, then like them we should have clear ideas: we should consider everything that is not God as transitory and fleeting. However, our faith and our Ideal don’t stop at the goal of death. The great proclamation of Christianity is “Christ is Risen” and our Ideal calls us always to go “beyond the wound” so as to live the Risen Lord. And so we are called to think above all of “afterwards” and it is about this “afterwards”, this mysterious but fascinating “afterwards”, that I would like to speak today. I find that I often ask myself, and maybe you do too, “Where are all the members of our Movement who have died? … These thoughts go through my mind because, here on earth, until recently I knew where they were and what they were doing. Now I don’t know anything about them. Certainly, faith gives the answers to these questions of ours and we know them. But there is one expression of Jesus that recently has given me light and comfort, great comfort. It is what Jesus said to the good thief: “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”[1] Today, straightaway, immediately after death. … So what should we draw out from these thoughts? Let’s try to live in such a way that the word “today” can be said to us too. “Today you will be with me in Paradise”. We are familiar with the words, “To those who have, more will be given”.[2] If here on earth, out of love for God, we are Paradise for our brothers and sisters; if we are joy, comfort, consolation, help for individuals, for our Movement, for the Church and for the world, the Lord will give us Paradise.
Chiara Lubich
(Taken from a telephone conference call, Rocca di Papa, 10th May 1990) [1] Cf. Lk 23:43 [2] Mt 13:12
Jun 27, 2020 | Non categorizzato
All Christians, like the original disciples, have a mission. It’s to bear witness humbly, first with their lives and then with their words, to the love of God that they themselves have found. This way it can become a joyful reality for many, indeed for all. In a society often marked by the search for success and selfish autonomy, Christians are called to show the beauty of fraternity, which recognizes others’ needs and sets reciprocity in motion. The bill that was immediately approved I work as a surveyor for the city prefecture, and also participate in a human development project in a poor neighbourhood. Thinking about the precarious conditions of the people living there, I realized that when it came to widening a street or demolishing some buildings, the leftover material was often simply just used to level the ground. Why not use it to improve the homes of the poorest people? However, a special municipal law was needed. My manager liked the idea and, after visiting the location and realizing the need, made the necessary contacts on the spot. Once the city prefect accepted our proposal, a bill was presented and immediately approved. Thanks to this, the mayor is now authorized to donate materials that are being discarded for technical reasons to social welfare institutions. These materials are precious for those who live in the shacks, who have no possibility of improving their situations. A., Brazil Knowing how to forgive The civil war in my country caused grief and suffering in my family. My father and brother were among the victims of the guerrilla war. My husband was still suffering the consequences of a beating. As a Christian I should have been able to forgive, but only pain and resentment grew inside. It was only thanks to the witness I received from some genuine Christians that I was able to pray for those who had hurt us so much. When peace returned to the country, God put my integrity to the test when we moved back to my hometown from the capital. It had been at the mercy of the government and guerrillas for 12 years. The children had particularly suffered, so we organized a party that many people attended. I realised that among the authorities present there were some that had been involved with the guerrillas. Perhaps there were even those responsible for the death of my parents among them. Overcoming the initial rebellion inside me, I felt a great peace in my heart. I went to offer them a drink too. M., El Salvador The nuances of pain Back in Italy after an overseas experience as a doctor in Cameroon, I was drawn to people suffering from incurable illnesses and debilitating chronic diseases. Some deep convictions had emerged in me over the years. The first concerns the infinite nuances of pain, which is never monotonous. Every pain, like every person, is unique. Another strong impression I had was that the small daily moments of waiting were all part of the great expectation of the “final appointment”. But the most important thing I understood was: these patients, stripped by suffering, seemed to me like living building blocks in the construction of humanity and its values. Outwardly you see exhaustion, but also transparency; they are bearers of a particular light, the light of God. He seems to become incarnate in those disjointed existences. Often he seemed to dictate the final words of the dying. More and more I have become convinced that – as Simone Weil says – humanity, if it were deprived of such people, would have no idea of God. C., Italy
by Stefania Tanesini
(from Il Vangelo del Giorno, Città Nuova, year VI, n.3, May–June 2020)
Jun 26, 2020 | Non categorizzato
It will be convened from January 24 to February 7, 2021. Due to the health emergency caused by Covid-19, the General Assembly of the Work of Mary (Focolare Movement), scheduled for September 2020, will now be convened from January 24 to February 7, 2021. This postponement has been approved by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life. The ordinary General Assembly is convened every six years; it is extraordinarily convened when matters that require its deliberations arise (General Statutes Art. 73, 75). What happens during the General Assembly The General Assembly is entrusted with four main tasks (SG, Art. 74): 1) it elects the President, the Co-President and the general Councillors; 2) it deliberates amendments to the General Statutes of the Work of Mary, which are then submitted for the approval of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life; 3) it deliberates amendments to the Regulations of the different Branches of the Movement and to the Regulations of the General Assembly itself; 4) it deliberates on topics gathered by the Centre of the Work of Mary; these topics will be presented in a well-structured manner on behalf of the President, the General Council, a section, a branch or a movement. Every member of the General Assembly may propose for discussion other issues that relate to the life of the Work of Mary. Chiara’s premise Chiara Lubich wrote a premise to the General Statutes to give meaning to all its contents and therefore also to the General Assembly: “The premise to every other rule – continual mutual love, which makes unity possible and generates the presence of Jesus among those gathered in His name, is for the members of the Work of Mary the basis of their life in all its aspects: it is the norm of norms, the premise to every other rule”. (SG, p.7).
Focolare Communication Office
Jun 25, 2020 | Non categorizzato
Anna Moznich from AMU – Action for a United World explains the educational peace project, Living Peace International. https://vimeo.com/416354861
