11 Feb 2015 | Non categorizzato
Source: Centro Chiara Lubich, Video (in Italian)
VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION IN ENGLISH
“If at the basis of laws or social projects we place a mentality lacking in respect for the suffering, the disabled and the elderly, then little by little we create a false society. We give importance only to a few values like physical well-being, strength, exaggerated productivity and power, while we distort the purpose for which a nation lives; that is, for the good of the human person and society.
Health, as we know, is a precious gift which should be protected. Thus we should do all we can so that our bodies and everyone else’s, too, receive nourishment and rest, and are not exposed to sicknesses, accidents or an exaggerated amount of sports.
The body is also important for a Christian. But if there is a loss of health, we must remember that there is a Life which is not conditioned by the state of our health, but by the supernatural love that burns in our hearts.
And it is this superior Life which gives value to our physical life even when we are sick. If we consider illnesses merely from a human point of view, we can only affirm that they are misfortunes. But, if we look at illnesses from a Christian point of view, we can see that they are trials in which we must train ourselves for the great trial which awaits all of us, when we will have to face the passage to the next Life.
Didn’t the Holy Father just recently say that illnesses are spiritual exercises, sermons that God Himself preaches to us? People who are sick have a richness that others do not have; a richness of another kind. In speaking of asceticism and mysticism, the Church refers to illnesses not only in reference to the field of medicine, but as purifications that God sends, therefore as small steps towards union with God.
In addition, our faith tells us that in sickness a person participates in the sufferings of Christ. In this light, the sick person is another Christ crucified who can offer his or her suffering for what is of most value, the eternal salvation of all people.
In the frenzy of work and daily life we are tempted at times to see people who suffer only as marginal cases to help so that they can quickly recover and return to their activities. It doesn’t occur to us that they are the ones who even now can do the most, who can contribute the most.
People who are ill can positively carry out their role on behalf of humanity only if they are understood and loved. Love can help them to give meaning to their condition and to be aware of what they represent. And what holds true for the sick, holds true also for the disabled. People with a disability need love. They need to be recognized for the value that their life has: it is sacred, as every other life is sacred, with all the consequent dignity. They need to be considered as persons and, as much as possible, live normal lives among other people.
What should we say about the elderly? Every life calls for love, and the elderly are no exception. Today even the elderly constitute a problem because of the increased number of people in this age category due to the higher average life expectancy.
Thus we are aware of a tendency in society to isolate the elderly, to consider them as a social burden because they are no longer productive. We speak of the elderly as a category apart, almost as if we were not speaking of human beings. Besides the inevitable physical decline they experience, the elderly can become discouraged considering themselves as useless.
We must give new hope to the elderly. Advanced age is nothing other than the third season of life. Life that is born, develops, and declines, these are nothing other than three aspects of the one mystery of all life which derives from God-Love.
In certain Asian and African countries, the elderly are highly respected because they possess wisdom. In fact, the elderly person emphasizes which is essential, what is most important.
We remember what was said about St. John the Evangelist. At the age of eighty, while visiting the Christian communities, he was asked about the message of Jesus. He always replied: “Love one another,” as if he had nothing more to add. With this phrase he had truly focused on the central thought of Christ.
To distance ourselves from the elderly is to deprive ourselves of a patrimony. We must value them by loving them. And we must value them even when they are sick and seriously ill, when there is no more hope humanly speaking, and their need for assistance is pressing.
Before God, there is no life, no part of life, that is not worthy of being lived.
Chiara Lubich
![[:it]Chiara Lubich: «Non c’è porzione di vita indegna di essere vissuta»](https://www.focolare.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/20140211ChiaraLubich1986.jpg)
11 Feb 2015 | Non categorizzato
“If at the basis of laws or social projects we place a mentality lacking in respect for the suffering, the disabled and the elderly, then little by little we create a false society. We give importance only to a few values like physical well-being, strength, exaggerated productivity and power, while we distort the purpose for which a nation lives; that is, for the good of the human person and society.
Health, as we know, is a precious gift which should be protected.
Thus we should do all we can so that our bodies and everyone else’s, too, receive nourishment and rest, and are not exposed to sicknesses, accidents or an exaggerated amount of sports.
The body is also important for a Christian.
But if there is a loss of health, we must remember that there is a Life which is not conditioned by the state of our health, but by the supernatural love that burns in our hearts.
And it is this superior Life which gives value to our physical life even when we are sick.
If we consider illnesses merely from a human point of view, we can only affirm that they are misfortunes.
But, if we look at illnesses from a Christian point of view, we can see that they are trials in which we must train ourselves for the great trial which awaits all of us, when we will have to face the passage to the next Life.
Didn’t the Holy Father just recently say that illnesses are spiritual exercises, sermons that God Himself preaches to us?
People who are sick have a richness that others do not have; a richness of another kind.
In speaking of asceticism and mysticism, the Church refers to illnesses not only in reference to the field of medicine, but as purifications that God sends, therefore as small steps towards union with God.
In addition, our faith tells us that in sickness a person participates in the sufferings of Christ. In this light, the sick person is another Christ crucified who can offer his or her suffering for what is of most value, the eternal salvation of all people.
In the frenzy of work and daily life we are tempted at times to see people who suffer only as marginal cases to help so that they can quickly recover and return to their activities. It doesn’t occur to us that they are the ones who even now can do the most, who can contribute the most.
People who are ill can positively carry out their role on behalf of humanity only if they are understood and loved. Love can help them to give meaning to their condition and to be aware of what they represent.
And what holds true for the sick, holds true also for the disabled. People with a disability need love.
They need to be recognized for the value that their life has: it is sacred, as every other life is sacred, with all the consequent dignity. They need to be considered as persons and, as much as possible, live normal lives among other people.
What should we say about the elderly?
Every life calls for love, and the elderly are no exception.
Today even the elderly constitute a problem because of the increased number of people in this age category due to the higher average life expectancy.
Thus we are aware of a tendency in society to isolate the elderly, to consider them as a social burden because they are no longer productive. We speak of the elderly as a category apart, almost as if we were not speaking of human beings.
Besides the inevitable physical decline they experience, the elderly can become discouraged considering themselves as useless.
We must give new hope to the elderly.
Advanced age is nothing other than the third season of life.
Life that is born, develops, and declines, these are nothing other than three aspects of the one mystery of all life which derives from God-Love.
In certain Asian and African countries, the elderly are highly respected because they possess wisdom.
In fact, the elderly person emphasizes which is essential, what is most important.
We remember what was said about St. John the Evangelist. At the age of eighty, while visiting the Christian communities, he was asked about the message of Jesus. He always replied: “Love one another,” as if he had nothing more to add. With this phrase he had truly focused on the central thought of Christ.
To distance ourselves from the elderly is to deprive ourselves of a patrimony.
We must value them by loving them.
And we must value them even when they are sick and seriously ill, when there is no more hope humanly speaking, and their need for assistance is pressing.
Before God, there is no life, no part of life, that is not worthy of being lived.
Source: Centro Chiara Lubich, Video (in italian)
10 Feb 2015 | Non categorizzato
An educational agreement to be built in harmony between the families, civil and cultural institutions. This is the idea on which the project of Scholas Occurrentes (schools that respond to the needs of the population) is based, created in Argentina launched by former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, J.M. Bergoglio and relaunched today at international levels. The aim of the «Scholas is to integrate in some way, the educational efforts of all, and rebuild the educational agreement in harmony, since only with the harmonization of all those in charge of educating our youth and our children, can education bring about change. This is why Scholas seeks to integrate education with culture, sports, science; this is why Scholas tries to build bridges, to move out of the “small-scale” and seek these aspects further beyond. Today this interaction of knowledge is being actualized in all continents, » Pope Francis stressed at the end of the 4th World Congress held in the Vatican from 2-5 February. The climax of the congress, was the video link up with some disabled adolescents who participated in the inclusive scholastic programme of the 400,000 schools participating in the project. Among them was a 13 year old visually-impaired girl, Isabel, who loves athletics and asked the Pope to tell all those who suffer impairments «not to give up, because with some effort, they can achieve their goals.» Yes, because «all of you have a treasure chest inside », Pope Francis said in his video message, «a great treasure. Your task is to open the chest, bring out that treasure, nurture it, share it with others, and also receive the treasure of others.» More than 250 participants, among which, the major experts in the field of education and social responsibility, those professing different creeds and cultures, and delegations of sports organisations, as well as representatives of the world of art, show biz and culture, ITC companies that, through the most advanced technologies, help to «create a classroom where all are welcome,» as José María del Corral, Scholas Director declared. And therefore rediscover, the educational itinerary game, education in beauty, rediscovery of harmony between the “language of the brain ” and the “language of the heart” which are the educational programmes the Pope outlined in his speech. It was the spark that lit up in the hearts of the players in the game, presented at the Scholas convention, and who in the previous days had share their experiences, research studies and educational projects in which learning and solidarity merge in a pedagogical strategy open to all: students with particular educational needs, dependence, poverty, care of the environment. To this regard, amongst others, were also some projects of the Focolare, such as the Udisha project in India, mobilization against gambling, with the Slot Mob project in Itay, the Living Peace project in Egypt. Furthermore, two morning sessions were dedicated to deepening the pedagogy of Learning and Solidary Service, developed in the United States in the 60s and promoted over the last twenty years by Maria Nieves Tapia of the Focolare together will many others of the many networks and ogranisations. The CLAYSS (Latina American Centre for learning and Solidary Service,) undertakes to integrate this with dialogue and research studies on fraternity and pro-social activities. The main pedagogical theories were presented at the Congress by Carina Rossa, of Education towards Encounter and Solidarity (EIS) LUMSA and Education and Unity (EDU), theories which the Scholas network is trying to implement. «The youth are the ones who will benefit», concluded Pope Francis, underlining the importance of this work which builds bridges between the youth of all nations and creeds, educating them towards peace and fraternity. He then affirmed: «We will not change the world if we do not change education ». This is a real «rescue plan» put into action, as he had said on other occasions, to limit the reject culture which leaves no room in society for a generation of children and adolescents, and continue believing that «life is a great treasure, but which is meaningful only if shared with others. » To participate in the project, consult: www.scholasoccurrentes.org The Pope’s entire speech
![Gabon: A family at the service of others]()
7 Feb 2015 | Non categorizzato
“The couple, married for 28 years and with four children, three of which remained in Lubumbashi (Congo) for their University studies, had discovered God as Love and had placed Him as their first priority as a couple and this was the spiritual basis of their decision to leave everything to follow Christ’s calling.
For some time now the Movement’s community in Gabon had been asking for a new focolare in Libreville. And this was why in 2011, we were sent as a “focolare-family.”
We decided to place ourselves at the service of the movement, leaving our jobs and moving to a new land. We had never been separated from our children for such a long time. It was not easy but the whole family agreed to our decision. Of course, there were unknown aspects we would have had to face… but we put our trust in God who is Love.
Upon our arrival in Gabon our first and foremost task was to strengthen our mutual love as a couple. And due to this, our love grew stronger and helped us to start anew in loving each other and all those we met along the way.
Here we found a really warm community, and with such helpful and generous people, despite the poverty. We travelled a lot across the country to also meet the farthest communities, and were welcomed with enthusiasm everywhere. In some villages we even found people lined up along the road, waving branches of the trees growing along the road, as a sign of their joy. The Christian families here, as in the rest of Africa, have suffered the setbacks of socio-cultural changes, which called for our positive reaction. We are helping many couples accomplish their journey of faith, and as of today, many have received the sacrament of marriage and others are still preparing to do so.
We have strongly experienced God’s providence, starting from the house for the movement’s activities which was a gift from the Archbishop of Libreville. To refurbish it, each one in the community brought what they could: a bed, mattress, pair of bed sheets, stove, fork, plate… At the same time, all the communities of Gabon went all out to concretely help us with our daily needs. Regularly, they sent us cassava, rice, bananas… often the doorbell would ring and to our surprise, we would find what we needed at our doorstep. Unity, love, and faith in the words of the Gospel helped us to overcome the unending difficulties we encountered: unemployment, illnesses, misunderstandings….
After three years we returned to Lubumbashi. Our children had all grown, also in terms of maturity. Also under this aspect, we saw that the Gospel is true. It was a great joy to see them again and we felt a deep unity with each of them.
When we left once again, they renewed their willingness to “send us out” again on a mission which consists in helping people to meet God, also through our mutual love, the warmth of the family and our unity, and the great desire of the community of Gabon to have a real focolare.”
Jeanne and Augustin Mbwambu
3 Feb 2015 | Non categorizzato
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and the Catholic Church’s year dedicated to the Consecrated Life. Two happy coincidences in which the vocation of German Evangelical Lutheran focolarina, Heike Vesper, becomes even more meaningful.
Heike recounts: “I was sixteen years old when my mentally handicapped twin brother died. That very sorrowful event gave birth to my desire for a life with true meaning. But I was certanily never thinking of a life of consecration to God… That monsastic lifestyle had practically disappeard in the Reformed Church. For Luther, every baptised Christian already had within them the call to follow Jesus in a total way and, essentially, this was lived out in work and in family. Luther didn’t see the consecrated state as a higher state, since all are called to a perfection that becomes attainable only through God’s love, through his mercy. Consecration to God was a totally foreign concept for me, therefore; foreign also because of the atheistic environment that surrounded me in East Germany.
A few months later, in the spring of 1977, I got acquainted with young people from the Focolare, a movement that had begun in the Catholic Church and was open to dialogue with the faithful of other Churches, religions and people of non-religious convictions. I felt strongly drawn by their evangelical choice and even became invovled in their many foramtive and social activities that were offered to us, or that we ourselves produced. Our animators were a bit older than us, the men and women focolarini. They had made a total choice of God and lived in community. Their way of life greatly fascinated me, but I saw it to be too high a calling for me, and unreachable.
At one point a misunderstanding arose between the Focolare and my pastor because of a personal decision one of us had made. It was nothing serious but enough to make me realize that it only takes a small thing to reawaken ancient prejudices and reopen wounds that had seemed to be on the mend. It was a very strong experience in which I perceived God to be calling me to offer my life as an example, and that I could do this through the focolare. I felt both happiness and shock in front of this call. I didn’t feel up to to facing up to the diversity between our churches for 24 hours a day. For two years I tried to to silence God’s invitation, but every once in a while it would forcefully resurface.
Once, when i Chiara Lubich was visiting Germany, a group of Evangelical Lutherans posed questions to her. Her answers loosened the knots within me. Her words made me realise that entering the focolare would mean living the Gospel with the help of sisters who were animated by the same radical intention: trying to live Catholics and Evangelical Lutherans together; that meant choosing as our model Jesus in the moment of his abandonment by the Father when crying out a ‘why’ which, left unanswered for him, has recomposed unity between God and men, between the peoples, between the different Churches, between us.
Then and there I didn’t think that all of this meant consecrating myself to God, but only responding to God’s call to witness with my life that unity is possible. That passion for unity marked me in heart and soul, and gave me wings even in moments of darkness and trial.
When I found myself living in the focolare in Leipzig, I often attended the Lord’s Supper at my brothers and sisters of the Christusbruderschaft. One day, one of them asked me how we could stay faithful to our churches and live such an intense spirituality with the Catholics. That’s when I understood the great value of Chiara’s great mandate: Jesus forsaken. By loving him, who became division for us, not only do we find the strength to no longer feel divided within ourselves, but to be unity for the others. In Him we discover the importance of living with Jesus spiritually present in our midst, drawn by our mutual love. This presence is not linked to any sacrament, but to the life of the Word.”
2 Feb 2015 | Non categorizzato
“Chiara Lubich’s spirituality invites us to be open to communion first of all in our own families and, once there’s unity in our own families, to open ourselves to other families. No family is an island. We all feel the need to share our spiritual and material possessions, our time and our abilities, so that a network is built that is doing something that helps the world that is waiting for a love won’t give up, and always begin again.”
Anna and Alberto Friso sounded quite delighted as they remarked on the opening of the Cause of Beatification of Chiara Lubich last January 27, 2015 in Frascati, Italy. They knew the foundress of the Focolare Movement personally and for twelve years were in charge of the New Families Movement, one of the Movement’s first family associations. They took on that role just after marrying and travelling from Padua to Rocca di Papa to take part in a family conference with their first newborn son.
“We were very struck that a consecrated woman could have the family so much at heart and that her ideal could also be applied to our vocation as a married couple,” they recalled. Not only: “Chiara was a modern woman, pretty but not flashy, elegant but not affected, with an appealing and harmonious way of expressing herself,” the Frisos noted. “We were coming from the province, two simple working people, clumsy. With great simplicity and firm conviction she told us that Jesus was also counting on us, as individuals, but also as a family.” Lubich was indeed convinced that her spirituality was especially suited for families, because in its original design, it was a small community of people united by love.”
Currently, Alberto and Anna take care of the non-profit “Action for new families” group, which provides adoption at a distance in the world’s southern hemishpere. When they were in charge of the New Families they would meet with the foundress regularly: “She listened to the problems and the projects, but mostly she gave us the courage without which it would have proven difficult for two poor creatures like us to carry ahead a movement made of so many families, and on the global level. She offered guidelines, affirmed and dreamt with us. But most often she expressed her trust and confidence in us married people.”
Members of the Pontifical Council for the Family the Friso’s had also been invited by Chiara to give attention to separated couples, divorced and remarried people, which she described as “the face of Jesus crucified and forsaken.” Chiara’s charism continues to announce God’s divine love for each and everyone,“a conviction not only found in Scripture, but in the proofs of personal experience, from our own lives. It’s an announcement that turns out to be efficacious also for those who have perhaps lost hope or faith, or think that separation is already inevitable. If God loves me, if he gave his life for me, then I should – I can! – respond to that love by loving the person next to me. And who are more next to one another than a married couple, their children and other family members?”Alberto and Anna argued: “If we sincerely place ourselves on a ray of love that draws on the Absolute, then everything becomes possible: acceptance, service, listening, disinterested love, free-giving and forgiveness. . .”
