21 Apr 2017 | Non categorizzato
Better work “After an accident I lost a good job, and my wife’s salary was not enough for my family to get ahead. Yet Providence did not forget us, helping us to find small bits of work just at the right times so we could pull ourselves up. In the evening, together with the children, we prayed for help – not just for ourselves, but for all those in need. Six months after the accident, just when the economy in our country took a critical turn, I found a job that was better than the one I lost.” J. L. – Uruguay The next room “I was in the hospital, lying in darkness because of my health and the medicine I was taking. I didn’t know what to do to get out of it. I heard a bell ringing; someone in the next room was calling the nurse. I got up to see if I could lend a hand. All that was needed was to give someone some water. I stopped beside his bed, showing interest in his life and trying to listen deeply to his words. I don’t know how, but suddenly I felt lighter.” T. d. M. – Italy An unexpected gift “Having been married for 50 years, we have lived through – as Ecclesiastes says – times of joy and pain. One evening, in particularly tight circumstances, we were counting how much money we had left and pondering what we could buy to give the children something to eat. In that moment a friend called – he wanted to pass by after having received two turkeys as a gift to give us one. It’s so true that we have a Father in heaven who never abandons us.” T. e R. – Poland Change of plan “I travel often for work, so I have to make a detailed schedule of what I’m doing, while staying ready to change my plans. I was surprised, in fact, when I realized that something unexpected, if it’s taken from the hands of God, becomes something better than what I had planned myself. This “making space for God” is not just for when I travel, but in many other circumstances, and it is a true lesson on staying vigilant. Seeing the beautry of God’s plans, even if it costs me to lose mine, I have to say that the “invisible director” knows how to point the way to my true fulfilment, my true happiness.” T.M. – Poland
20 Apr 2017 | Non categorizzato
“Journeying together. Christians on the way towards Unity” is the title of the 59th edition of Ecumenical Week which will be held 9-13 May 2017, at the international conference centre in Castel Gandolfo (Rome), with the participation of around 700 Christian representatives of 70 Churches and Ecclesial Communities from 40 countries.
20 Apr 2017 | Non categorizzato
Gianni Caso was born in 1930, in Roccapiemonte, Italy. With much sacrifice he completed his Law studies while working as a court clerk. Because of his strong Catholic background he was invited to take charge of the Catholic Action Youth Group in Naples. After graduation, during military training, he met a focolarino who gave him a Città Nuova magazine, and in 1959 he attended the Mariapolis in Fiera di Primiero. In a passionate speech given by Bruna Tomasi, who was a member of the first group that followed Chiara Lubich, Gianni discovered a vital connection in the ideal of unity to his own vocation as a lay person. In 1968 he was a judge in the Trentino-Alto Adige Region of northern Italy where he was working in the Focolare’s nascent New Humanity Movement. He later became a member of the civil and criminal high court of Rome and moved to the international centre of the Movement in Rocca di Papa. During the 1970s acts of extreme violence were perpetrated against Italian State institutions, which turned into an armed conflict with the terrorists. During those years Gianni was appointed judge rapporteur and drafter of the appeal sentence in the first and most important of five court cases for Aldo Moro, leader of the Christian Democracy who was murdered in 1978 by an armed terrorist group known as the Red Brigade. Gianni was escorted to court each morning by an armed guard and accompanied back to his home each evening. Once home, Gianni went to Mass with his own car. One evening, instead of following his usual route, without giving much thought to it, he went home by another way (he said it was sort of an “inner inspiration”). By doing so he avoided being kidnapped by terrorists who were lying in wait for him.
Gianni Caso with Chiara Lubich
19 Apr 2017 | Non categorizzato
LIVE STREAMING from Loppiano
PULSE – THE EVENT – 1 st May 10:00-12:30 (CET, UTC 1)
PULSE – THE MEETING, 29 Aprile 2017, Replay the streaming event: part 1 – part 2
Flickr Gallery
Everybody knows that young people’s hearts beat at a faster pace. Their energy overflows on the world around them. From April 29th to May 1st their hearts will be beating even faster. This experience isn’t be advisable for anyone suffering from the fear of being contaminated by another culture, or the fear of finding similarities among cultures, or suffering from an inclination towards drama and violence. It will be an excellent experience, however, for anyone who would like to travel full speed ahead in the discovery a new world where peace is the law of the land. The Focolare town of Loppiano which, since 1973, has welcomed throngs of young people in the first days of May, will provide a space for encounter and reflection for youth from different groups and movements that include Youth for a United Word, New Horizons, Rondine, La Pira International Centre, Non Dalla Guerra, Living Peace, Sophia University Institute, Dancelab, EcoOne, Economia disarmata, Bargiana and Sportmeet. Many testimonies will be presented from Syria, Ecuador, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. Six workshops dealing with welcome and integration, social involvement, art, peace, sport and communications. Four forums on: peace and religious traditions, economy and politics, peace education and nature. Two of these will be conducted by the Living Peace International Project and by the Economia Disarmata group. The first workshop emerges from the experience of Carlos Palma, an Uruguayan who was teaching in Egypt, in 201. Through his experience with his students – and against the dramatic backdrop of conflict and war – a complete Peace Education course was born that has spread to more than a hundred countries with the participation of nearly a thousand schools, groups and associations. Up until now it has engaged more than 200 thousand children, adolescents and young people in different parts of the world. The second, the Economia Disarmata (Disarmed Economy), has for some years already been presenting peace education courses. This time it will present: “Objection to war: in the footsteps of Fr Milani” with a visit to Barbiana, guided by the writings of the Italian priest on war, peace and conscientious objection. 
It will be a high-speed journey of discovery (and decision-making) regarding what can be done to change the course of history, becoming links in that global network known as “United World Project” that has engaged the Young For Unity since 2012, together with other associations and groups. The idea is to link the different “fragments of fraternity” and make them part of a network. May 1st will bring the meeting to a close, but not the rhythm. Once again, the annual gathering in Loppiano will open its doors to many young people from more than 40 countries who intend to show the real heartbeat of humanity: the endless number of activities in favour of peace and brotherhood that far more silently than wars fill the lives of individuals, groups and entire populations. They will share their ideas through music, dance, word, testimony and discussions on politics, economy, art, religion, culture and social engagement in favour of peace. Afterwards, until May 7th, the 21cnd edition of the Week of Unity will begin with “Pulse – Change Your Heart; Change the World”. Ever since 1996 this project has been involving many people in large and small series of projects on all the continents, genuine showcases of authentic brotherhood. The May 7th Run for Unity will bring the United World Week to a close with a worldwide relay marathon. You can sign up at the run4unity website. #UnitedWorldWeek2017 – #4peace – #PULSE – #ChangeYourHeartChangeTheWorld – #MeetingY4UW – #PrimoMaggioLoppiano2017 – #run4unity2017
https://youtu.be/5Bc3pj_p0FY
18 Apr 2017 | Non categorizzato
November 3, 1955 If universal history is humanity’s fifth Gospel, personal events also are for each of us. Seen from God’s perspective, they appear designed to bring us from being scattered back to unity with God. Detachment from people dear to us and losing distinctions can become a way of clearing out all human factors and leave us alone with God. Thus every day takes on the value of a divine adventure, if it is used to ascend along a ray – our ray – that connects us to God’s sun. Life has been called a march toward death, but it is progress toward freedom, the peak where the Father awaits us. So it is a march towards life, one that never ends. December 19, 1956 Christian wisdom, in asking us to renounce ourselves, is not really about renouncing, but gaining. In place of human ambitions, divine ambitions ignite. It recommends we put God in place of our ego, and by doing so, lift ourselves up from the human level to the divine one, together with the Trinity. It is humility that works limitless greatness. This is why eventually, from that height, the world appears wretched, riches appear chaff and great things turn to sand. So renounce ourselves to be always to be with God, transfer the eternal into time, make the earth a paradise. Suffering becomes raw material for greatness; the cross becomes the stairs to the eternal Father. December 26, 1956 Life is a unique opportunity given us to love. October 16, 1959 In response to individualism today, people nourish their collective lives and give socialization a central role in study and education. It is a movement that helps guide us toward our brother and pushes us to ascend towards God linked together. Yet there is also a danger in doing this: that in the fury of staying with those around us, we forget how to stay with God. Our brother is valuable as a ianua coeli (gate of heaven), but if one cannot see the Father behind him, one risks substituting the desolation of individualism with the desolation of the group. It is the Father who accompanies us, helps us, enlivens us. This is why, with the delusions that rain down each day on the human experience, he reminds us that there is also a divine experience. Or better, that the communion with our brothers passes to the Father, and from the Father returns to our brother. Igino Giordani
17 Apr 2017 | Non categorizzato
“Everything that has happened in my life has been a gift from God. My last name means ‘wolf’, and my personality is a bit like one. Yet when I started to live the Gospel in the light of the spirituality of unity, my wolf life finished, and my life as Miloslav, which means ‘gracious,’ began.” Thus began the then archbishop, who continued: “In 1964 I went to the DDR (East Germany) to thank a priest who regularly sent me theology books – there weren’t any where we were. He had learned of the spirituality of unity at Erfurt. He told me how the Focolare Movement began and spoke to me of Jesus Forsaken. To tell the truth, I didn’t understand much. I do remember that he gave me a text by Chiara Lubich.” He later met Natalia Dallapiccola, one of the first focolarine, who had also moved to the DDR. The cardinal was not yet even a seminarian, but would become one shortly. “I had many opportunities to to experience that this spirituality was real,” especially with other seminarians who were hard to deal with. It was with one of these that he actually began to share the ideal of unity. “After I was ordained in 1968, I was appointed secretary for the bishop of České Budějovice, a very deep person.” The bishop, however, found it difficult to accept the liturgical reform that had come with Vatican II. “I found myself judging him, but the focolarini explained to me that I had to love him instead of criticize him. At the time, I experienced that unity was the way to understand things, and to help others understand.” After 1968, communism came to power, and Miloslav, who quite influential with young people, was sent far away to a parish lost in the mountains. “There I started to understand what I had been told about Jesus Forsaken. I placed my situation in God’s hands, just as Jesus on the cross had entrusted himself to the Father. It was my first profound encounter with Jesus Forsaken.”
Vlk worked as a window cleaner
