Chiara Lubich: to love in action
Photo: www.afnonlus.org
Living the Gospel: The Fountain of Life
An Immediate Response We bought firewood and kerosene for the winter, in early summer. But it was already autmn and we didn’t have the money for the heating. One day, talking among ourselves in the family, we said: “The Eternal Father knows our needs and the important thing is trust in Him.” We hadn’t even finished saying it, when our friend arrived with an envelope full of money from a collection that had been taken. It had never happened to us before, to receive such a quick answer from God who cares for his children! I.S. – Serbia From the Dentist There was a boy in our community with very bad teeth, but being from a poor family he couldn’t afford to get them fixed. One day, we took him to a dentist, but when we got to the dentist’s office, we realized that all the patients were wealthy people. Trustin in Providence, we went in anyway. After the visit, the doctor asked us if we could afford such a costly procedure. We explained that we and our friends had held held a sale to help cover the expenses. The doctor became curious and wanted to know more. “You can pay me what you have,” she concluded. As we were leaving, she called us back and said: “You know, I’m going through a lot of problems and I thought I could do it for free, if you pray for me.” That’s what we did. Some time later the doctor told us that our presence brought a note of peace and joy to her work. G.B. – Pilippines Meetings in Jail Aware that there were many lonely people who needed someone to accompany them, we decided to go and visit the patients in a hospital, prisoners and teenagers in an orphanage. We brought toys and clothes for the orphans. Then we said: Why not use the means of communication to reach out to the most people possible? We obtained a half hour of radio time from a local radio. Many listeners were listening to our programm. When we went back to the jail, they welcomed us saying that, after listening to our radio program, they were waiting for us to come. Usually kids like us aren’t allowed into the jail, but they made an exception for us. With songs and dances, we shared our expeirences of living the Gospel, with men and women detainees, a dozen or so guards. They invited us to come back again. The local newspaper covered the news of this encounter in the jail. A group of friends – Uganda Illness When I learned that Monique had ALS disease, even though we hadn’t seen one another for two years, I went back to get in touch with her and see if there was anything I could do. We had been greatly in love, but for various reasons had drifted apart. Monique’s simple faith clashed with my agnosticism. Being at her side as she accepted the new situation with peace and serenity, I went through a complete change of mentality. A Christian would call it conversion. By the time her illness reached the terminal stage, I found myself completely changed. I’m not saying that I found the fith, but the respect for Monique had created a new space in my. J. M. – France
A brochure on Chiara Lubich
In the framework of the Cause of Beatification of the Servant of God Chiara Lubich, which opened on 27 January 2015 in the Diocese of Frascati, a practical brochure with all-encompassing contents on the figure of the Founder of the Focolare Movement has been released, and is momentarily available in Italian. The new publication aims at illustrating, in a simple communicative language, her intense life and the numberless works and initiatives she promoted. It is structured in three parts: Chiara and the charism of unity; the “great openings or dialogues in the ecumenical, interreligious and contemporary cultural fields; and her spiritual insight into the mystery of “Jesus Forsaken,” which she understood, lived and proposed as the “key” to achieving unity with God, and among peoples. The idea of preparing a biographic Profile arose from the need to divulge some of the intense work of the “collection” which the Postulation of the Cause of beatification of Chiara is doing, starting from what she said about sanctity, and of how she lived it and proposed it to all, starting from the letters she wrote in the early years of the movement. The drafting of the text was shared along all the phases of elaboration, not only by the members of the Postulation but also by experts, friends, elderly and the youth. Those who wish to receive one or more paper copies may address: Postulation of the Cause of Beatification of Chiara Silvia Lubich Focolare Movement Via Frascati, 306 – 00040 Rocca di Papa (RM) – Italia Telefono +39 06 947 981 39 – Cell. +39 389 343 9529 E-mail: postulazionechiaralubich@focolare.org
City of fellowship and solidarity
A national conference will be held on February 10 in the city of Loreto, Italy. The title of the conference will be “The City: is it a place for fellowship and solidarity?” The event is organized by the Città per la Fraternità organization which was started in 2008 and inspired by the thought of Chiara Lubich and by the life of the Focolare Movement. It currently brings together some 140 large and small municipal administrations, in spreading the spirit of unity in the local authorities. Every year the Association presents the Chiara Lubich International Fellowship Award, which is assigned to one or more municipalities. The Award is given for a project that succeeds at applying one or more aspects of the principle of brotherhood in the public sphere, and is able to show the participation of citizens in building a culture of active and inclusive citizenship. The conference will include the participation of civil and religious leaders. In the afternoon, Elena Granata, an urban scholar at the Politech University of Milan and Marco Luppi, history scholar at Sophia University Institute (SUI) will give presentations that deal with the topic of living fellowship and solidarity and to do so in a city environment
Our Genfest: “Yes to you”
Inspired by our experience of Genfest 1980 , Andrew Basquille, Eugene Murphy and I, all students at University College Dublin at the time, started to dedicate more time to playing music together and entered a period of sustained creativity that resulted in the composition of many songs both individually and collectively. “Yes to You”, the song that we performed at the GenFest in 1985 dates from this time. Here’s how it came to be written. Chiara Lubich visited London in 1981 and most of the Focolare Community in Ireland travelled to Great Britain for the event. One afternoon, as a group of us took lunch together close to the venue where Chiara was speaking, I started to play simple chords on the piano and developed a nice melody using a slightly unusual C / Dm / G progression (on guitar I wouldn’t have naturally played such a sequence). A volunteer, Joe McCarroll, a gifted songwriter in his own right, joined me and sang the lines “So many times that I’ve said maybe” to the emerging melody. I continued with the line “So many times that I said no” and continued with the melody when Andrew joined and completed the lyric which then became the verse. Over the next two days between Andrew and myself we completed about 3 verses but didn’t know where to go for a chorus. This was eventually added – melody and lyric together – by Eugene who stamped his musical sophistication on the song by taking the chorus to Am and then to a beautiful minor / major interplay in E that reflected and emphasised a new level of conviction in the choice – “Yes to you”. We were the asked to perform the song at the Genfest and spend months practising it. On the day we waited patiently for our turn to sing but began to realise that the show was running behind time. Sure enough, we were informed that our intervention had been cut and, bitterly disappointed, I started to pack up my guitar accordingly, months of effort and practice gone down the drain. But then, very suddenly, the decision was reversed and we found ourselves taking our positions on a vast stage without a sound check and unable to make eye contact with each other. I didn’t have time to take my own guitar and was given a Spanish guitar with nylon strings, a type I was not used to playing! So we played “Yes to you” at Genfest 1985 completely out of our comfort zone, forced to depend on the strength of our relationship with each other and our desire to have Jesus in our midst. My experience at Genfest 1985 was one of validation and verification – validation of my choice to live for unity and verification that it was possible. I had many experiences of large scale events – festivals, football matches, concerts – but at Genfest there was no hatred, hostility and enmity like when rival factions meet at soccer games and the fleeting alcohol / drug induced euphoria that’s common at festivals and concerts was replaced by a deeper, more lasting joy.
Padraic Gilligan
The massacres in Afghanistan are continuing
A martyred country without peace, the terrorist groups compete with one another to claim the attacks. Three attacks in a week have provoked a great number of victims among the civilian population: reports talk of about 150 deaths in Kabul and Jalalabad, with over 400 wounded. In Kabul the first target was a hotel, and the second target was the Higher Council for Peace, which was not hit since the terrorist made himself explode at a checkpoint. In Jalalabad they attacked the headquarters of Save the Children, the international organization that has been operating in that area for many years. According to the UN data, last year in the country, 17 humanitarian operators lost their lives, 33 were wounded and 48 were kidnapped. Pope Francis spoke of the attacks during the Angelus of 28 January: “Up to when – he asked himself – will the Afghan people have to bear with this inhuman violence? Let us pray in silence for the victims and their families, and that those in that country will continue to work to build peace.” The Focolare Movement expresses its solidarity with the Afghan people, in the hope that a peace resolution may soon bring serenity to the country.