Eli Folonari in the words of Maria Voce

28 Nov 2018 | Non categorizzato

We asked the President of the Focolare to tell us something about Eli Folonari and her specific contribution to the Movement, over the many years she spent alongside Chiara Lubich. “I got to know Eli better when I was asked to join Chiara’s Secretariat, which she was responsible for. I was struck by her serious and balanced approach and, I would say, by the tenderness that I discovered beneath what sometimes seemed a rather severe exterior. Eli did  all  that  Chiara asked her to do with heroic faithfulness. Chiara had entrusted her with the aspect of fellowship and communion, which translates directly into communications. This meant ensuring that everyone could be informed of everything at any time. She did this to the utmost. I saw always near Chiara, supporting her, being her friend, her sister and an adviser too in the many things that needed to be done. At the same time, I never saw her taking over from Chiara. All she did was done so that Chiara and the charism she was conveying could reach everyone without any hindrance. This, I feel, was the full achievement of her ‘design’: she enabled all those who came to Chiara to become one heart and one soul”.

A lifetime with Chiara

28 Nov 2018 | Non categorizzato

Eli Folonari was Chiara Lubich’s personal secretary for over fifty years. In a series of interviews in 2012, she described many episodes of daily life with Chiara. These interviews were published in a book entitled “The Score Written in Heaven” edited by Oreste Paliotti and Michele Zanzucchi. From your perspective, what was it like to see the birth and development of a movement that is now in 180 countries? It felt like living in a divine adventure. At the beginning, Chiara always used to say that she never intended to found a movement: the last thing on her mind was to draw up a schedule or an action plan. So what was it like to live beside her? It was like one long race to catch up with her. With Chiara, there was one surprise after another – all the work of the Spirit whose actions are always unpredictable. I am not going to say that there was a surprise every day every day but they often happened. God led her to discover a new “reality” through circumstances, an act of love or a meeting (…) Every meeting had a meaning. She felt that the people she met were waiting for something and she used to tell us this. “Let’s begin to dialogue with these people, let’s do something for them.” Her ideal was ut omnes unum sint (Jn.17:21), the fulfilment of Jesus’ testament. The whole world, beginning with the people closest to us, was contained in that “may they all be one.” What is your life like now after Chiara’s death? When she was alive, if we were dealing with rather complicated situations, just one word from her would help us understand what to do. Now we have to find the answer to these challenges ourselves, with the President, Co-president and the General Council. This encourages us to live so that we are aware of the presence of Jesus among us who enlightens us: we try to listen to one another carefully because what each person says is important and may be inspired. Now that Chiara is no longer here, there has to be an even deeper unity of thought at the heart of the Movement. If you could speak personally to Chiara now, what would you say? I would say, “Thank you Chiara for this divine life into which you drew me – this life of peaks and abysses! Thank you because not only have you satisfied my longing to give myself totally to God and to rebuild society but also because, through you, I have been surprised in ways I could never have imagined. I hope this experience will continue with others in paradise.” (da Giulia Eli Folonari, The Score Written in Heaven, Città Nuova, Roma, 2012, pp. 7-8; 167; 171-172)

Thank you Eli

26 Nov 2018 | Non categorizzato

At the age of 92 years, Giulia (Eli) Folonari passed away peacefully on november 26th 2018. She was one of the privileged witnesses of the public life, but above all of the ordinary, everyday life, of the founder of the Focolare Movement.

 

She was born in Milan, in Northern Italy, on 8 February 1926. She was the eldest of Luigi and Speranza Folonari’s eight children, a rich industrial family in Brescia. After graduating in Business & Economics at the Sacred Heart Catholic University of Milan, at the age of 25, Eli, for the first time, heard about the newly-born Focolare Movement from Valeria (Vale) Ronchetti. That same year, while spending her holidays not far from Tonadico (Trent), where one of the first Mariapolis gatherings was taking place, she decided to attend together with her siblings Vincenzo and Camilla. It was on that occasion that she met Chiara Lubich.

She moved to Rome in 1951, and she accompanied Chiara on all her trips around Italy, as well as South America, Asia, Australia, North America, Europe. “It was a divine adventure,” she said, “Keeping up with Chiara was no mean feat! We went from one surprise to another.” She was Chiara’s confidant and counsellor in the difficult years when the Focolare Movement (Work of Mary) was being studied by the Church. She also followed, in a particular way, all the media developments within the Movement: the birth of the St Claire Audiovisual Centre named after St Claire of Assisi, as well as the beginning, in Switzerland in 1980, of the “conference call” which soon extended to all the nations where the Focolare was present. Whilst it started off simply as a way of sharing the spiritual life, joys and sufferings among everyone, the conference call subsequently evolved, through technological advances, into that which today is a live streaming event via satellite! Still now it is referred to as CH (from the Latin Confoederatio Helvetica) in order to be true to its Swiss origins. Eli always accompanied the founder of the Focolare Movement on important encounters with the great dignitaries of our time: from Pope Paul VI to John Paul II, from Mother Teresa of Calcutta to Vaclav Havel and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras I. Her testimony as a direct witness to these events is contained in the book Lo spartito scritto in Cielo. Cinquant’anni con Chiara Lubich (“The Score Written in Heaven. Fifty years with Chiara Lubich” (Città Nuova, 2012). Giulia Eli Folonari was the Director of the Chiara Lubich Centre since its foundation in July 2008, right up until 2014. This institute aims to be a custodian of the thought of Chiara Lubich, to assure its authenticity and to help spread her charism, as well as to preserve the history of the Focolare Movement through meetings, conferences and a dedicated website. The Centre ensures that the rich patrimony of paper-based archives and multimedia documents that the founder of the Opera di Maria left behind is made available to scholars and the public in general.

Note from the Fontem focolarini

26 Nov 2018 | Non categorizzato

The wave of violence in Southwest Cameroon shows no sign of stopping. The focolarini have had to flee the little city, although they remain in the country. “How long can we hold out? What will happen next? Will we be able to still live in Fontem? We’ve kept on, even in the most adverse conditions.” With these words the focolarini of Cameroon’s little city shared their difficult decision on November 16 to not go back to Fontem – although they still remain in the country. There are just not the “fundamental conditions to be able to continue living there.” “Many things have happened,” their message continues, “especially some serious incidents that made us reflect on the choices to make… It was with a heavy heart that we decided not to go back to Fontem for the moment, in order to rebuild our strength and try to understand what God wants.” The wave of violence in Southwest Cameroon, which is where Fontem is located, unfortunately shows no sign of stopping. In the last few months, the bishops of Cameroon have several times tried to get their voices heard, raising “a cry of anguish” at the deteriorating security conditions in the English-speaking regions and calling for political mediation to avoid “useless civil wars.” The Focolare’s little city is located in a zone of continuous armed conflict. It has had to close down its education complex for some time now, although the hospital continues to work and give aid to those in need.

Sweden: “undermining” the divisions

26 Nov 2018 | Non categorizzato

From 6th-10th November 2018, 40 bishops who are friends of the Focolare Movement, from 12 different Churches and five continents, met in Sigtuna, Sweden. They brought with them the challenges and joys of their life and work. What meaning do these meetings have? What outcomes are there? Susan Gately, a journalist from Ireland, found out. https://vimeo.com/301372728

The ends of the earth

24 Nov 2018 | Non categorizzato

At a time when the Catholic Church is celebrating the Feast of Christ the King, the following text by Chiara Lubich explains the importance and meaning this feast day had in the story of the Focolare Movement right from its earliest days during the Second World War. You know the episode of those early days during the war, when we first focolarine found ourselves in a cellar where we had taken refuge from the bombs, and we opened the Gospel. Everything was dark and in the light of a candle we read the last will and testament of Jesus. We had opened the Gospel at random and read this passage from beginning to end. It was a difficult text for us because we were young and our education had reached only up to a certain point, but we had the impression that those words were illuminated for us, one by one. Now we can understand that it was the effect of the charism that had been given to us, a charism that gives a new light to the soul of the person who receives it, for the benefit, then, of all those who come in contact with it. What we understood, above all, was that Jesus had prayed for unity: “That they may all be one, Father, as you and I are one.” May they all be one. We understood very clearly that that page of the Gospel, Jesus’ testament, was the magna charta of the movement that was coming to life. Naturally, we immediately realized that it would not be easy to bring about unity; we didn’t know how to do it. One day we gathered around an altar – there were seven or eight of us first focolarine. I remember that it was the feast of Christ the King and we were struck by what was written in our missal for that feast day, which has now been changed a little in the liturgy. We told Jesus: “We feel called to fulfill what you prayed for – unity – but we don’t know how to bring it about. If you want, make us instruments of unity.” And then, knowing that it was the feast of Christ the King, we remembered that in the liturgy of the Mass on that day it said: “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession” (Ps 2:8). I remember that we, who were mere girls, but full of faith, believing that God could do anything, asked, if it were possible, that we could serve him to the very ends of the earth. Now after 58 years of life, we see that he answered our prayer, because as you know our movement is Catholic and ecumenical, and we are in contact with the faithful of 350 churches, with numerous Church leaders. … Now we see that the Lord answered the prayer of us young girls, leading us to develop this movement among the various churches, and also among other religions, and even among people without any religious affiliation, to the very ends of the earth; practically speaking to every nation of the world. Source: Centro Chiara Lubich