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Ramadan

May 15, 2018 | Non categorizzato

The month of Ramadan started on 15 May and will end on 14 June. In this period of 29 or 30 days, the Muslims recall “the month in which the Koran was bestowed on mankind as a guide with clear teachings showing the Right way and a criterion of truth and falsehood” (Koran, Sura II, verse 185). During this period, prayers and acts of mercy are intensified. All those who are able shall fast from dawn to sunset, constituting the fourth of the five pillars of Islam. According to many theologians the spiritual meaning of fasts, together with prayer and meditation, sexual abstinence and renouncement in general, refer to the capacity of man to exercise self-control, patience and humbleness and remember to help the needy and less fortunate. Ramadan is thus a sort of exercise of purity against all the worldly passions, the benefits of which fall on the faithful all year long.

Palermo: Capital of a new culture

Palermo: Capital of a new culture

May 14, 2018 | Non categorizzato

20 January 1998: Chiara Lubich is awarded the honorary citizenship of Palermo

Twenty years ago, Focolare founder Chiara Lubich was awarded an honorary citizenship in Palermo by Mayor Leoluca Orlando. Today, as Palermo is named the “Italian capital of culture”, the Movement re-solidifies that bond in the name of universal brotherhood and acceptance, in opposition to the negative actions that are recorded each day in a city of many contrasts. The programme was comprised of meetings, artistic displays and workshops about dialogue among the generations, cultures and Churches of Sicily. Maria Voce devoted her speech to the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Sicily. “Arriving in Palermo at this moment in which many events concentrate the attention on the city, I could hear the words of Chiara Lubich to this city, resounding in my ears: “let us promise to have Palermo always in our heart and in our thoughts until, because of our courage and audacity and the courage of this city’s citizens, it will come to be a model for many other cities both within and beyond Italy, a veritable city on the hill.” Maria Voce went on to say: “Chiara Lubich left an indelible mark with her efforts in favour of communion in the Church, for ecumenical dialogue and for brotherhood among peoples. As far back as the 1940s Chiara expressed her longing in words  that were charged with zeal and urgency. “Look around: we’re all brothers [and sisters] – no one excluded!” This was how she exhorted us “to live out our universal brotherhood in one only Father: God who is in Heaven.” This was a plan that could be carried out in every city, but a plan that found particularly fertile ground in Palermo, a place “of encounter over the centuries among peoples, cultures and different civilizations,” a plan rooted in “the values of diversity, acceptance and solidarity.” What has this charism contributed to the Universal Church and to the individual Churches in Sicily and beyond? Maria Voce responded: “With the charism of unity, a “new way” has been opened in the Church,” a spirituality that is in perfect harmony with the Second Vatican Council. “From this spirituality of communion we have seen communion blossom within the Church among the different ecclesial Movements that enrich it, among the variety of ancient and modern charisms. We have seen how useful it is in contributing to the unity of Christians and opening dialogue with people of other religions, which represents one of the most urgent and challenging frontiers of the third millennium. And these are things that are also experienced at the level of the local Church.” “Despite the many emergencies in recent years – indeed, because of them – the Movement in Sicily is deeply focused on witnessing to unity and building it among the members of the human family wherever that family may be threatened. This is the way they respond to Chiara’s appeal when she urges all of us to “build a new culture that would be a culture of human rights, a culture of law and order, a culture of love, a culture of life and never of death.” Maria Voce went on the say: “I think I can say something has already begun towards that goal. Certainly there is still a long road ahead, but it is a goal that with the entire Movement we renew today: to do our part at creating that ‘new civilization’ which contains all those values that are often trampled on . . . and to grow more and more – as Chiara says – all our Christian brothers and sisters, without leaving out the other religions, without leaving out anyone.” In so doing,  we will truly be able to give life to a ‘culture of unity’ which Chiara more than once defined as the ‘culture of the Resurrection’.” Read full speech

International Day of Families

International Day of Families

May 14, 2018 | Non categorizzato

While preparations are underway for the 9th world meeting of families, to be held from 21 – 26 August 2018 in Dublin, Ireland, on the theme, “The Gospel of the Family: joy for the world,” the International Day of Families, instituted in 1994 by the United Nations General Assembly, will be celebrated on 15 May all over the world. Given the difficulties the family today encounters in carrying out its functions, we hope that the Day will serve to promote policies and actions in support of the family, recognizing its essential role as the “first cell” of society. “Saving the family,” wrote the politician and writer, Igino Giordani, considered by Chiara Lubich to be the cofounder of the Focolare Movement, “means saving civilization. The State is composed of families; if these degenerate, also the State falters.” And he continued: “The spouses become cooperators of God in giving life and love to humanity. Love which is from the family expands to the professions, the city, the nations and humanity.”

Conference on Antonio Rosmini & Chiara Lubich

May 14, 2018 | Non categorizzato

 A Conference will take place in Trent, Italy focusing on the Historical Roots and Intersection between Antonio Rosmini and Chiara Lubich.  This event is promoted by the A. Rosmini Centre for Study & Research, University of Trent and by the Chiara Lubich Centre. It will have a two-fold aim: it will provide an opportunity to learn more about two great figures from Trent from the last two centuries; it will also help prepare in an original and unexpected way for the centenary of the birth of the foundress of the Focolare (1920 -2008.) The conference will take place on May 24 in the Specchi Hall in Casa Rosmini and on May 25 in the Conference Hall of the Caritro Foundation.

Unity, a divine word

May 12, 2018 | Non categorizzato

is a divine word. If this word were ever uttered by the Lord God, and people were to apply it to all its possible applications, we would see the world suddenly come to a halt, like a film, and start again in reverse. Countless people would on the wide path to perdition would turn around in their tracks, convert to God and take the narrow path. Families torn apart by quarrels, chilled by misunderstandings and scorn and deadened by divorce would get back together again. Children would be born into an atmosphere of human and divine love, and new men and women would be forged for a more Christian tomorrow. Factories often upheld by slaves and steeped in an atmosphere of boredom if not of blasphemy, would become places of peace where everybody did their job for the good of everyone. Schools would break beyond the limits of science, making all forms of knowledge footstools for eternal contemplation learnt at school through a daily unfolding of mysteries that could be intuited from small formulae, natural laws and even numerals . . . And the parliaments would be transformed into meeting places for people who are motivated not so much by each one’s positions, but by the common good, without any deceiving of lands or countrymen. In, we’d see the world become more good. Heaven would be wondrously poured out over the earth, and the harmony of creation would be a framework for the harmony of hearts. We’d see… What a dream! It seems a dream! And yet You didn’t ask for less when you prayed: “You will be done on earth as in Heaven”. Chiara Lubich Source: Chiara Lubich, L’unità, compiled by Donato Falmi and Floernce Gillet (Rome: Città Nuova, 2015), originally published in Chiara Lubich, Frammenti, (Rome: Città Nuova, 1963 and 1992), p. 53-54.

Be promoters of a culture of encounter

Be promoters of a culture of encounter

May 10, 2018 | Non categorizzato

Foto © D. Salmaso – CSC Audiovisivi

“I want to raise my gaze towards the horizon and ask you to do it with me, and with trustful fidelity and creative generosity, look to the future which today has already begun.” Pope Francis is the first Pontiff to visit Loppiano, the town of the Focolare Movement close to Florence. In this first visit, the Pope launched a challenge to the community present, the universal Church and the entire humankind: “Build a shared culture of encounter and a global civilisation of alliance.” It must be a culture that responds to the divisions of these times, marked by growing poverty and the drama of forced migration. “In the changing epochs we are undergoing” – the Pope observed, “in fact – we have to commit ourselves to the tracing of new paths to pursue together, and we need men and women, youths, families, and people of all walks of life and professions who can measure up to this task.” From the front stairs of the Church dedicated to Maria Theotokos, Mother of God, where 7,000 people were present, being spiritual sons and daughters of Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare, the Holy Father proposed the challenge of a “creative fidelity: being faithful to the original inspiration and also open to the breath of the Holy Spirit, and undertaking with courage the new paths he suggests.”

Foto © R. Bassolino – CSC Audiovisivi

To do this –Francis observed – we need “humility, openness, synergy, and risk capacities.” Then we have to put “community discernment” into practice, that is, “we have to listen to God, to the point of hearing with him, the cry of the People. We need to listen to the People to the point of breathing the will to which God is calling us.” It is a demanding commitment which calls for faithfulness even when the enthusiasm of the beginnings give way – for the movements – to the quest for new paths to the actualization of the charism. In answering the questions of the Focolare, the Pope cited St. Paul and invited all to focus on two key words: parresia and hyponomè. The first expresses “courage and sincerity in bearing witness to the truth, and with the faith in God and his mercy,” the antidote for “every false fear, and every temptation to hide behind the quiet life, in respectability.” The second translates into perseverance in “challenging situations we come to face in life,” and finds its fundaments in the awareness of the love of God which “makes us capable of living with tenacity, serenity, positivity, imagination… and also a pinch of humour.”

Foto © R. Orefice – CSC Audiovisivi

The Pontiff then invited all to recall the memory of the first days, when Chiara imagined Loppiano as “a piece of new city in the spirit of the Gospel,” an expression of a people united in diversity and its heart in the Eucharist, being the source of new life. It is a people which the Pope exhorted to go forth “to cast the yeast of the Gospel into the dough of society,” especially where there is poverty, suffering and research. “The charism of unity – he said – is a providential stimulus and a powerful aid in living this evangelical mysticism of the We.” But the renewal of culture cannot but require new education. In Loppiano, which started also as a city-school with study centres like the Sophia University, the Pope exhorted the inauguration of an “educational pact” founded on dialogue and proximity, to “exercise together the three languages: of the head, the heart and the hands.” In this – he added – “it is important that there be in Loppiano, a university centre for those who seek Wisdom, but which also sets as an objective, the construction of a culture of unity”: a “frontier” academic experience. But it is above all Mary – concluded Francis– “that is the school to attend (…) to learn how to know Jesus, and to live of Jesus and with Jesus: do not forget that Mary, the first disciple of Jesus was a lay person. She is the woman of faithfulness, courage, parresia and patience.” In the city of Loppiano, the Pope’s invitation echoes the intuition of Chiara Lubich, the “foundation stone” of the Work of Mary, and resounds to consolidate a path: “Our wish” – these are the words of Maria Voce, President of the Focolare – “is that whoever visits this town can find a home, a family, a mother: Mary! It is she who educates and inspires every expression of the social life of the Focolare Movement (…) It is she who in the Magnificat indicates to us a programme of life and action and pushes us to throw open wide, the doors of the heart towards all those who suffer, seeking happiness.”  

Foto on Flickr 10 maggio: Papa Francesco a Loppiano