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Who is Jesus Forsaken for me

Who is Jesus Forsaken for me

Feb 27, 2017 | Non categorizzato

spiritualityCA0008_baumgarten_gesu-abbandonato

Watercolour © A.M Baumgarten

My name’s Noemi, from Paraguay and I am 26. I was asked to explain who Jesus Forsaken is for me. Since I was a child, I have experienced suffering due to the loss of my mother at the age of seven, then of my grandma who raised me up to the age of 17, and of my dad a year later. Recently I was diagnosed with a chronic disease. As Chiara Lubich made us understand, Christ Crucified has never been only pain, misunderstanding, failure, solitude, etc., but also precious moments where I experienced the strong presence of God, like all the many personal graces and many more. While studying in Sophia, in one of the lessons, the professor asked us: “Do you know why Jesus Forsaken is the God of our times?” A classmate raised his hand and said: “Because he stands for pain and must be embraced.”  The professor then told us about that passage in the Gospel in which Jesus dies on the cross and the centurion exclaimed: “This man was really the Son of God!” For the Jews of his time, Jesus was cursed by God. The culture and religious beliefs had not allowed them to recognize the divinity in that man. Instead the centurion, a pagan, managed to see God where the human eyes of his contemporary fellowmen could not. «There is no pain here – continued the professor – here there is Light that makes us see and Wisdom which makes us understand who God really is: He who reveals himself by concealing himself, who empties out himself to make the other emerge, to make himself the other, because He is Love. So this is Jesus Forsaken.» This new comprehension of his identity struck me like lightning and allowed me to find the sense and passion for my studies. This was in order to offer together with the others, through diverse disciplines – all expressions of that sole Wisdom– the answers to the problems of our martyred world, because Jesus Forsaken is concrete, not just a theoretical concept and not even only spiritual. I understood that the organ of thought was the heart that was pierced on the cross and that allows us to see God and be seen by Him. Knowing him better has also helped me to understand not only who God is, but who I am: nothing. Before the Creator I cannot but be nothing since only God is. Jesus in his abandonment became the key to the interpretation of my life, my story, but also the story of my people with their miseries and wealth, along with the desire to live and commit myself for my people by exploiting the gifts He has given me. This vision of Jesus crucified and abandoned is a gift which God, through Chiara Lubich, gave not only to the Focolare Movement, but to the Church and the entire humanity, especially there where God is absent. He has shown us that the farthest from God is closest to Him, just as what happened to the centurion. Jesus Abandoned is not only the “key” to the solution of our personal problems. This is just the first step, the premise to give Him, to look for Him and love Him in the sufferings of humanity.

Word of Life – March 2017

Feb 27, 2017 | Non categorizzato, Word of

for ages 4-8 | for ages 9-14 | for ages 15-17 | MP3 Audio | Print

We can live like the first Christians and witness in our lives to God’s overwhelming love. If we, his followers, are truly reconciled among ourselves, we can speak convincingly of God’s reconciling love for the world. “Be reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20). All over the world, there are blood-soaked wars. They seem endless, and they embroil families, tribes and peoples. Twenty-year-old Gloria told this story: “We got news of a village that’d been burnt down. Lots of people lost everything. With my friends I collected some useful things: mattresses, clothes, food. We set out and after an eight hour journey we met all those people in such terrible need. We listened to them, dried their tears, hugged them and tried to comfort them. One family told us, ‘Our little girl was in the house they burnt down. It felt like we were dying with her. Now, through your love, we have the strength to forgive the men who did this!’” The Apostle Paul also experienced this kind of forgiveness, and it completely changed his life. He, the very one who was persecuting Christians,1 met God’s free-given love. It came in a completely unexpectedly way as he was travelling. God then sent him out in his name 2 as an ambassador of reconciliation. This is how Paul became a passionate and credible witness to the mystery of Jesus who died and rose again. He spoke of Jesus who had reconciled the world to himself so that everyone could know and experience a life of communion with him and one another.3 Through Paul the Gospel message reached and fascinated even pagans, those thought to be furthest from salvation: “Be reconciled to God!” he said. Despite our failings that discourage us or the false certainties that fool us into thinking we have no need, we too can meet God’s mercy. His love is so excessive! We can let it heal our hearts and in the end set us free to share this treasure with others. Like this we will give our contribution to God’s plan of peace for all humanity and the whole of creation. This plan overcomes the contradictions of history, as Chiara Lubich suggests in this passage: “On the cross, in the death of his Son, God gave us the highest proof of his love. Through Christ’s cross, he reconciled us to himself. This fundamental truth of our faith is fully relevant today. “It is the revelation all humankind awaits. Yes, God is close to all people with his love and he loves each person passionately. Our world needs to hear this proclamation, but we can proclaim God’s love if first we proclaim it, again and again, to ourselves — until we feel surrounded by this love, even when everything would make us think the opposite.… All our behaviour should make this truth credible. “Jesus said clearly that before bringing our offering to the altar we should be reconciled with a brother or sister if they have anything against us (see Mt 5:23-24) … So let’s love one another as he loved us, without being closed or prejudiced, but being open to welcome and appreciate the positive in our neighbour, ready to give our lives for one another. This is Jesus’ main command, the mark of Christians, valid today just as it was at the time of Christ’s first followers. Living this word means becoming reconcilers.” Living like this we will enrich our days with acts of friendship and reconciliation: in our own family and among families, in our own Church and among Churches, in every civil and religious community to which we belong. Letizia Magri

  1. See Acts 22:4 ff.
  2. See 2 Cor 5:
  3. See Eph 2:13 f
Chiara taught us about Love

Chiara taught us about Love

Feb 26, 2017 | Non categorizzato

How important was it for you to meet Chiara Lubich, what impact did it have on you and your family, and what were the effects of your relationship with her and her spirituality? Danilo: “In the environment where Anna Maria and I were raised, traditional customs were of great importance. The family was present, but it was united more often due to social customs. Upon meeting Chiara we understood that being Christians entailed a choice, above all. That’s why we suffered a lot to free ourselves from the mentality of those times, and the attachment to our roles, circles, and professional titles. I had undertaken the career of an engineer, but to live the Gospel completely, we started to host the poor, and practice the communion of goods. All these things were a scandal, since they broke away from the customs of a bourgeois city. So my parents didn’t understand our decisions and were against them. I remember that once, I had gone to speak in a mountain town since I was also the diocesan president of the Catholic men. I was suffering and torn inside. Right after that I went to Church and found myself before a statue of Jesus Forsaken. I immediately and clearly understood that facing such painful moments is also part of our being Christians.”

Famiglia

The Zanzucchi family

In 1956, Igino Giordani (Foco) wrote that “also the married people are capable of fulfilling their calling to the perfection of charity.” What do you think about this letter? Anna Maria: “Chiara had deeply understood that also the married people are called towards sanctity. In order to live in this way, we had to detach ourselves from an idea of the family of those times, and that each of us and also our children had to make a personal choice. With great love she supported the single components of the family, and highlighted the personal calling of each one, so that we could become a family that put into practice the phrase of the Gospel, “Where two or more are united in my name, I am in their midst” (Mt, 18.20). Foco contributed greatly in bringing to light the divine part of the family, also giving value to the human aspect, since he loved his wife in an extraordinary way to the very end. He also loved our children, took care of them, making us understand the grace we were given. He felt the need to go back to the times of the early Christians, where they would say that also the married couples are consecrated people in all aspects, apart from celibacy, and all belong to God.” You were there when Chiara founded the New Families Movement on19 July 1967. What struck you most at that moment? Anna Maria:”It was during the first school of the married focolarini. At one point Chiara understood that a new reality was arising. Since the moment I had known her in Tonadico in 1953, I had felt that she had an eye on the whole humanity. Now she was opening out a vast horizon before us, entrusting us with the world of the families, painful and difficult family situations, and orphans whom she particularly loved… the engaged couples. Right from the start Chiara took to heart the youth who were preparing themselves for marriage, and what they were undergoing to increase the love for one’s fiancè/fiancèe. She wanted them to understand that love is a gift of God and that also the difficulties can find their meaning. She made them fall in love with love, that true love, and she did the same with us, married couples.” You’ve seen the New Families Movement come to life and you’ve met families throughout the world who have found in the spirituality of unity the answer to the challenges families face within their own context. What has this experience meant to you? Anna Maria: “We felt we were immersed in the reality of love which Chiara had for all families. She valued the culture and the characteristic nature of each nation and local tradition, but she also reached out to the very roots of humanity, to human beings created by God. Our experience in visiting families in different parts was an extraordinary one, because we felt we were brothers and sisters, as if we had lived a whole lifetime together. We went to the rich and to the poor. In the Philippines and Brazil, for example, we visited the slums where the streets were only a metre and a half wide and where the houses were like rooms scattered here and there. There too the ideal of unity arrived.! What is the greatest gift that Chiara brought about in your family? Anna Maria: “Chiara made us feel that we were loved and she taught us what true love was, with all its characteristics: it is the first to love; it makes itself one with the other. She made us see the beauty of unity lived with her and amongst us. She also provided us with the right conditions to have joy, fullness, strength in the face of difficulties or in the failures which occur in the life of a family. She gave us a light that was so strong that it revealed to us Jesus Forsaken as the one who generated this unity in the world, who accepted suffering out of love and who gave us this as a living reality. This has been the basis for understanding how to educate and to bring up our children.”

 Giovanna Pieroni

Interreligious friendships in England

Interreligious friendships in England

Feb 25, 2017 | Non categorizzato

2017-02-09-Birmingham_03Birmingham is a multi-ethnic city of central England where the presence of different religions and cultures has become a breeding ground for dialogue. The city itself is a laboratory of interreligious relationships based on mutual respect and the discovery of each other’s values. Catholic Archbishop Bernard Longley, along with the council of religious leaders of other faiths in Birmingham, is directly involved in the interreligious field and more than once has expressed the desire that the Charism of Unity might bring a contribution in the Church and in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue. In October 2015, he made a house available to the Focolare in the diocese of Birmingham. Now, members from the community in Welwyn Garden City carry out many initiatives on a bi-monthly basis. They began with the Gen Verde international band’s “Start Now” project and continue carrying out many other initiatives. 2017-02-09-Birmingham_04Last January, a Volunteer from the Focolare Movement, who is an expert in the field of education, ran the first of 4 workshops in a Sikh school for 70 children between the ages of 7 and 8. The theme was values. “The Sikhs feel a strong bond with us,” she recounts. “They say that like you, we try to model a society based on the fusion between the human and the divine. They find a harmony in the Movement that helps them to deepen their values and put them into practice.” The project is the culmination of a long friendship. For years the Sikh community guided by Bhi Sahib Bhai Mohinder Singh has been constantly linked to the Focolare community in Birmingham. The friendship and mutual esteem is deepening. “Bhai Sahib Ji often tells us that Chiara Lubich is his inspiration,” a Focolare member writes. “He keeps a photo of her on his desk.” 2017-02-09-BirminghamSikhs and members of the Focolare recently took part together in an interreligious conference. Bhai Sahib Ji presented a project for promoting forgiveness and reconciliation. The event was an opportunity to strengthen friendships between members of different religions and beliefs, who now continue to stay in contact. IMG-20170121-WA0000 Still in January, Dr Mohammad Shomali, Founding Director of the International Institute for Islamic Studies in Qum, invited several men and women focolarini to speak to a group of thirty Muslims at a mosque in on one of the quarters of Birmingham. His desire was to “put together the people he esteems and loves the most: his community and the Focolare.” The Church’s dialogue with Islam was discussed, and the Spirituality of Unity was proposed, along with the presentation of a few experiences of living the Word. Many Muslims remained enthusiastic and want to stay in contact with the Focolare. “They invited us back on Sunday for the ‘Visit My Mosque’ event,” they report.   They conclude: “Over the  past weeks in which we have made many new friends of other faiths, we remembered a letter that Chiara wrote on November 23,1980 where she said: ‘…and if there is a mosque, or a synagogue, or some other non-Christian house of worship – know that that is where you belong…’ It’s a project about building the universal family, also among the faithful of other religions.”

The Focolare’s New Ecumenical Commitment

The Focolare’s New Ecumenical Commitment

Feb 22, 2017 | Non categorizzato

StefanKiefer

Maria Voce with the Vice-Mayor of Augsburg Dr Stefan Kiefer. Photo Maria Kny – © CSC Audiovisivi

Why was such a Declaration necessary? The need was born from within because of the fact that we’re here in Ottmaring where the ecumenical testimony is so obvious with two communities who live here permanently – one born inside the Catholic Church and the other inside the Evangelical world. Each of them includes members from different Churches. This also urges a concrete commitment on the part of the Movement, that it spreads around the world, that it doesn’t remain here. To whom is the Declaration addressed? It’s a commitment made in the name of the Movement and therefore addressed primarily to the Movement, to remind it of the value of ecumenism, that is, of the value of giving witness together to what already unites us in order to accelerate the march and overcome the obstacles. In the Movement we’re all called to live this, and now we want to take more responsibility in doing so. There can’t be a single person in the Focolare who, after hearing this Declaration,  can think in good conscience before God that the task of ecumenism only regards those lands with Christians from different Churches, but not their country, that it is of no personal concern to them, because they’re fine in their own Churches and not interested in such things. What should change in the Movement starting tomorrow? I think we need a change of heart, to begin to think ecumenically. We need to begin thinking that any neighbor we meet – whether they’re from my Church or another, belongs to the Body of Christ, to that Body that Christ gave His life. He and she are therefore my blood brother and sister. So, whatever interests them interests me. Whatever makes them suffer makes me suffer. Perhaps it will only be a matter to pray for it, when we can’t do anything else. But praying is not enough. It is necessary to be interested in all Christian brothers and sisters. With all the opportunities for contacting people today, it will be easier and easier to meet and talk, to welcome people that are not from our Church. And we can only welcome them as our brothers and sisters who belong to the Body of Christ. Only if we welcome them in this way, will we then be able to accept those who do not belong to the Body of Christ in the strict sense, because they don’t share in the Baptism that is unites Christians.
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Photo Maria Kny – © CSC Audiovisivi

A commitment of the heart that becomes a public witness? Today it no longer makes any sense for Christians to present themselves fragmented. They already have little impact, and we’ll influence less and less if we aren’t united in bearing witness to the one Gospel, the command to love one another. If we Christians don’t know how to give this witness, the world will never be able to meet God, because it won’t be able to meet that Jesus who is there wherever two or more Christians are united in mutual love. If they do meet them, then the faith will be born in them. They’ll change their attitudes, their behaviors, the search for peace will change along with finding just solutions and the commitment for solidarity among peoples. What is the main point of the Ottmaring Declaration? The appeal made at the meeting on October 31st in Lund, Sweden. It was an extraordinary event that perhaps we haven’t fully grasped it. As a Movement we’ve seen the need to bring out the spirit of Lund which was summarized in the Joint Declaration that asks for us to grow in mutual trust and in common witness to the Gospel message of God’s love for the human family. This is our absolute commitment. We saw an important gesture being made in Lund by the leader of the Catholic Church and the World Lutheran Federation. But if it remains only at that high level, if it doesn’t descend into the concrete life of the community, it will remain only a nice historical memory that will never have any impact on today’s world situation. Therefore, the Movement is committed to carrying on the legacy of Lund and spreading its spirit? Certainly. And then we want our Declaration to reach the leaders of the Churches, to give them more reason to hope by finding out that there are people in the world who want to live this way. Ecumenism is a need of the times. We can’t ask whether or not it’s moving forward. It must move forward. Because it responds to people’s need for God, even when it’s unconscious. One useful response is to be united at least among us Christians. Anything less would be a serious omission. You moved right into action, handing the Declaration to the Mayor of Augsburg and to the leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the city. We began on the local level. Lund was at a very high level, with the highest authorities. We can bring the Ottmaring Declaration down to the local level of today, down to what can be done right away. Read the Ottmaring Declaration    

Taiwan – 1st Buddhist-Christian symposium

Feb 21, 2017 | Non categorizzato

The convention is being promoted by Providence University in collaboration with Dharma Drum Arts, the Sophia University Institute of Italy, Fu Jen Catholic University of Taiwan and other academic institutions in Taiwan and abroad. Among the participants are, the Arts and Sciences Professor of Dharma Drum, and likewise professors of Sophia in Italy, professors and scholars of various universities of the USA, monks and scholars from Thailand, Japan, South Korea and other religious groups. Since 2004, the Foclare Movement has been holding Buddhist-Christian symposiums every two years in various cities. The Symposiums amongst Buddhists (Mahayana and Theravada) and Christians have always been important steps in strengthening mutual trust on the basis of respect for the others, and in preparing to work together on this meeting in Taiwan.