26 Jan 2015 | Non categorizzato
“In reading about the lives of the saints, the idea of sanctity that seemed like a difficult uphill climb reserved only for a rare group of people, became a common heritage, and I began to understand why Jesus invited all his disciples to reach perfection, in the same way as the Father: the perfection of God himself!
It all seemed old but also totally new. It was a new method, a new spirit, like discovering the key to a mystery: one that opened out to love that had been locked up, but which now broke out like a flame and spread until it became a blazing fire.
The ascent towards that remote God now seemed easy and possible for all, since all could now find the way home together, as brothers. Those terrifying acts of penance (hair shirts, chains, dark nights of the soul, renunciation) became effortless since all was done together, with the help of our brothers, with love for Christ.
It was the dawning of a a “socialised” sanctity (terms used by the Second Vatican Council and which would become popular) no longer individualistic, where you think of sanctifying yourself and meticulously cultivate your own soul, instead of forgetting yourself. A religiosity, an interior life that issued from the ranks of religious institutes, from a sort of elitism of the privileged classes –at times so distant and even against society, in reality formed by the major part of the living Church. This sanctity now reaches out to the squares, workshops and offices, the houses and fields, as also to the convents and Catholic Action associations, since in every place, one meets people who are all candidates for perfection. In short, asceticism has turned out to be a universal adventure of divine love – love that generates light.»
«Life is a unique occasion to be lived on earth which is one with eternity. And we can make the earth a foretaste of heaven, and insert it into the life of God, to bring heaven on earth. Do not spoil it with ambition and greed and do not ruin it with wrath and hostility: deify it – extend it within the heart of the Eternal – with Love. And God is where love exists. And where every moment is used for love, giving God to others: which also means absorbing God for oneself and for the others.
This means experiencing the freedom of the sons of God, for whom the spirit is not immobilized by prejudice, divisions, oppositions, and barricades to the spirit of God. Those who live this way do not focus on sanctifying themselves but on sanctifying. They are not self-centered. They sanctify by sanctifying, given that we love through loving, and serve by serving. In this way, sanctification itself takes on a social dimension: a continual giving and giving of oneself brings about the sanctification of souls, which becomes a communitarian reality.
“Be perfect as my Father is perfect,” Jesus exhorted: and we become perfect in God’s will, united as one in order to be one with Him, through Christ.”
Source: Igino Giordani Centre
![The Eucharist and divorcees in new relationship]()
24 Jan 2015 | Non categorizzato
“We prepared ourselves for marriage certain that we would commit ourselves for the rest of our life. But already after the birth of our daughter, he started to go out alone and I, who was always exhausted due to work and maternity, aside from still being in love with him, I did not realize at once that something was wrong. What followed were 13 years of lies and quarrels, alternating with false clarifications which were followed by continuous delusions. I was exhausted and on the verge of a nervous breakdown (my weight dropped to 36 kilos) and so finally I surrendered, and gave my husband his freedom. After three years I met one of my former classmates, he too was a father and separated from his wife. Initially I tried to resist the sentiments that I felt were growing within me because, if on one hand the fact of feeling myself loved gave me much joy, on the other hand I had to face the problem of my Christian faith. They were very difficult moments. But then the doubts disappeared because, I told myself, it is true that when I got married I thought that it would be ‘forever’ but if love is no longer reciprocated, why can’t I continue with another person in that vocation of family life which I have always felt as mine? Certain of our love for one another we decided to join our two broken lives. After around two years of living together, we had a son, whom we had baptized and who we try to educate in a Christian way. For my partner – a person who is very honest and upright who considers himself as a non-believer – the problem of belonging to the Church does not exist. I, instead, continued to go to Sunday Mass and, even in suffering, I accepted the standpoint of the Church by abstaining from receiving the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. I could have gone to a church were no one knew me, but out of obedience I didn’t do it. But after awhile, this self-exclusion began to weigh on me and so I stopped going to Mass and participating in the life of the community. In fact, I felt a strong discomfort in seeing the others going to the altar while I had to remain in my seat. I felt abandoned, rejected, guilty. After a few years, thanks to my closeness to the Focolare I started once again my journey of faith. ‘God loves you immensely’, they repeated to me. Together with them I understood that Jesus died for me too, and that He, in his infinite love, had already filled up that abyss into which I had fallen and all that he was waiting for was for me to follow Him for the rest of my life. And so I discovered that, aside from the Eucharist, there were other sources through which I could meet Jesus. He hides himself in every neighbour of mine, he speaks to me through His Gospel and is present in the community united in His name. Above all, I can find Him whenever I am able to transform the suffering of not being able to approach the Eucharist, into love. I remember when our son made his first Holy Communion. I was the only parent who did not go to the altar with him: it was a suffering that I cannot even describe. In exchange I can say that it was precisely when I lost the Eucharist that I discovered the great gift that it is, just like how you discover the value of good health when you lose it. On the day that I will present myself to the Father I hope that He will look not at my failures but rather at all my small efforts to love the others as Jesus had taught us.”
23 Jan 2015 | Non categorizzato
Giuseppe Maria Zanghi, one of Chiara Lubich’s first companions, passed away on 23 January 2015, after a brief illness, at the age of 85 years. Known simply as Peppuccio, he was for many years responsible for the Focolare’s Abba School cultural centre.
In conveying the news, president, Maria Voce remarked, “He often spoke to us about Heaven, and now he can fully enjoy it.”
We remember him with this excerpt from a 2009 interview in Città Nuova magazine.
You took part in the beginnings of the Gen Movement with Chiara Lubich. What made her later decide to tell the new generations about those mystical experiences known as the “Paradise of ‘49”?
“When you get right down to it, what is this ‘Paradise of ‘49’? It’s the written account that Chiara gave to Igino Giordani of what happened to her during the summer of 1949 at Fiera di Primiero. This was a period of intense contemplation during which God marked her soul, as with a branding iron, with the whole design of the just-beginning Work of Mary. God does that with all the mystics who are to be great founders in the Church. The striking thing about ‘49 is that with Chiara others, the group of focolarinas and focolarinos who were vacationing with, her partook in the experience of intense contemplation (by participation). They were merged into one by God’s love: a merging, however, that left their respective individualities intact.
It was a highly original experience also in terms of culture, because it concerns what I like to call the ‘collective’ subject. In actuality every culture is born from a subject and, in my opinion, today’s world is in search of the subject for the culture that must be born now. For me this is the greatest – and yet to be discovered – contribution Chiara makes to the birth of the new culture. But leaving that aside for now because much examination and study is still needed, the reality through which God opened to Chiara the endless depths of His Divine life while making her simultaneously understand many things about the Work of Mary that was about to be born. For her it wasn’t something merely to be remembered; it was actual life. And you could feel this when you were with her. You could feel that following the ideal of unity was not so much a matter of knowing a doctrine or hearing stories about someone’s experiences. No, it was entering into the very reality that Chiara had lived in ’49, and which continued.
Well, in her mind the young people of the Movement, the Gen, also had to get into this experience which was human and divine, spiritual and cultural.They had to stay there, develop it and bring it forward. That’s why, at a certain point, she began to give them something of this ‘Paradise.’”
Source: Città Nuova
22 Jan 2015 | Non categorizzato
Live streaming from Loppiano, 26 October, 5.00pm (Italian time) IUS president Piero Coda explained the official reason for conferring the doctorate saying that the Patriarch is well known as a convincing and active protagonist of the ecumenical journey toward full unity among Christians, and in the dialogue with people of different religions and convictions. Moreover, he has distinguished himself in his promotion of peace and justice, respect for the natural environment, in conformity with the vision of humanity, history and the cosmos that is guarded and actualised by the spiritual and theological tradition of the Christian East. The history of the fraternal relationship between the Focolare Movement and the Orthodox had its origin in the extraordinary encounter between Chiara Lubich and Patriarch of Constantinople Athenagoras I. “It was June 13, 1967,” Chiara recounted, “He welcomed me as if he had always known me. ‘I’ve been waiting for you!,’ he exclaimed, and he wanted me to tell him about the Movement’s contacts with Lutherans and Anglicans.” Chiara and Athenagoras had twenty-five meetings. The relationship continued with Patriarch Demetrius I, and the contact continues in the same spirit with the current Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. Meanwhile the spirituality of the Movement was also welcomed by Christians of the Ancient Oriental Church, and dialogue was developed with Syro-Orthodox, Coptic Christians, Ethiopians, Armenians and Assyrians. The honorary doctorate adds another important piece to relationship of harmony and friendship with the Focolare Movement, and will be part of the events celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Focolare town of Loppiano. download invitation www.loppiano.it
22 Jan 2015 | Non categorizzato
Video of the recent trip to Mae Sot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_jVpNjD1-g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ye7Au–vIc&feature=youtu.be It all began with a simple snack thrown into a rubbish bin and the surprise of the children who discovered that there are people who do not even have anything to eat: “Teacher, what are poor children?” they asked. This was how, in 2013 the students of the kindergarten and first grade of the primary school “G. Giuliano” in Latina managed to gather a truckload of goods to send to their peers in the Mae Sot Orphanage, in the north of Thailand . Then in April 2014, other 30 boxes full of toys were sent. Those who built this bridge are children: the school children of Latina and those of Mae Sot. The bridge will endure and will not break! Also read: Thailand calls and Latina reaches out From Latina to Thailand, a dream comes true
20 Jan 2015 | Non categorizzato
Her life was nurtured by the concept of sanctity rooted in the Gospel. Chiara Lubich had written: «We will find sanctity in Jesus, it will flourish in us because of love … If we aim to reach sanctity for its sake alone, we will never achieve it. We must Love, and nothing else. We must forego everything, even our attachment to sanctity, and aim only to love.».
The importance of this ecclesial event is underlined by the choice of the cathedral of Frascati (Rome), as the venue where Bishop Raffaello Martinelli chose to initiate the “Process of documenting the life, virtues, signs and renowned sanctity” of Chiara Lubich. The diocese of Frascati is the diocese where the International Center of the Focolare Movement is established, and where Chiara Lubich spent most of her life, and where she died. Her body lies in the Chapel of the Centre intself, in Rocca di Papa.
The opening ceremony for the “Cause of beatification and canonization,” also called the Prima Sessio or Postulation, will take place on Tuesday , 27 January, 2015; and will start at 4 p.m. with the recital of the Vespers. There will be a reading of the Introductory Decree of the Cause and the nulla osta or permission of the Holy See, the designation of the Relator by the Bishop and the appointment of the diocesan tribunal and those of the postulation commission. From this moment on Chiara Lubich may be called Servant of God.
The ceremony will be broadcasted live on the internet.
In a letter to the Focolare Movement, Maria Voce communicated the news with great joy, and wished all those who live the spirituality of unity to be «living witnesses » of what Chiara lived, announced and shared with all, in the common commitment to «become saints together.»
The procedure for the initialisation of the Cause began on 7 December 2013, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Focolare, when President Maria Voce announced the decision to present a formal request to the Bishop of Frascati, Martinelli, through which she also stated that this was also the desire of many members of the movement, and aimed at boosting their spiritual and moral commitment for the good of mankind. In the months that followed the documents needed to carry out the canonical proceedings were gathered.
The fact that Chiara Lubich continues to be a light in these 5 years after her death is proven by the constant flow of people, to visit the places where she lived and where she has been laid to rest: more than 120,000 people from different continents and religious faiths, Cardinals, Bishops, scholars, politicians, the youth, members of associations and movements, people of non-religious cultures, children, adolescents and adults in search of hope.
We will become saints, Chiara further explained «if we put our mutual charity at the base of our sanctity (above all else, even before sanctity itself) – as the premise or principle, as the means for our sanctification and as its objective.»
Live streaming event: 27 January at 4.00pm (Italian time) : http://live.focolare.org
Press release
Chiara Lubich, Cause for beatification and canonization
