![Living the Gospel: Mending a broken friendship]()
28 Oct 2014 | Non categorizzato
At the restaurant “Following an argument with an old friend, he, feeling offended, decided to end our friendship. I wrote him a letter asking for forgiveness, saying that perhaps, quite unintentionally, I had hurt his feelings. I didn’t get an answer back. Through some mutual friends, I came to know that he was adamant in keeping his distance: a wall had gone up between us. I started being afraid of meeting him, and sometimes on the street, I would change my direction if I saw him coming from afar. Until one Saturday evening. My wife and I decided to have dinner in a restaurant. We had already ordered our meal when, at the door, I saw precisely that person together with his wife. As soon as he too became aware of my presence, he hesitated, as if he wanted to leave. My wife and I looked at each other for a moment: we immediately understood one another. We went towards them with a smile and invited them to sit at our table. He accepted, at first he was quite perplexed, but then he was clearly happy of the invitation. The evening passed peacefully. It took so little for our relationship to go back to what it was before, as if nothing ever happened.” .R. S. – France Miracle? “During a written exam one of my classmates, considered by all as the worst in the class, asked me insistently to allow him to copy the assignment. I did not think it was right so I didn’t pass my work to him. After the class he wanted to take his revenge on me so my friends suggested that we inform the teacher about it. But instead, I had another tactic. I went to him and I asked him: ‘What would you have gained by fooling the professors? If you want, we can study together starting from the very beginning.’ He accepted. Now he is quite diligent in his studies. Everyone told me that I had worked a miracle… but I know that these are just the effects of love.” E. – Cameroun The terrorist “I’m a primary school teacher and I’m often sent to teach in the mountain villages, where communist terrorists usually hide. I had already experienced an encounter with a group of them, but I was able to hide among the rocks. But once, they kidnapped me and took me to their camp. I remember the endless days during which I underwent long interrogations. Despite my fear, I tried to answer them with much respect. To one of them who had tried for hours to indoctrinate me on the socialist ideology, I objected saying that first of all we must change ourselves if we want to change the structures of power that seem to be unjust: ‘What can change us is the love we have for one another.’ Maybe my words touched him. The fact is, after the interrogation, he set me free. From that day onwards I always continued to pray for him. Recently I recognized him in a news broadcast on television which showed a terrorist who had given up his weapons to the military, leaving his group.” N. – Philippines
28 Oct 2014 | Non categorizzato, Word of
And so a hymn of praise and gratitude wells up from the human heart. This is the first step to take, the first teaching to grasp from the words of the Psalm: to praise and thank God for his work, for the wonders of the cosmos and for human beings fully alive who are his glory and who alone in creation can to say to him: ‘For with you is the fountain of life.’ But it was not enough for the Father’s love to pronounce the Word through whom all things were made. He wanted the Word himself to take on our flesh. God, the one true God, became man in Jesus and brought to earth the spring of life. The source of every good, of every being and of every happiness came to dwell among us, so that we could have it, so to speak, within hand’s reach. ‘I came,’ says Jesus, ‘that they may have life, and have it abundantly’ (Jn 10:10). He has filled with himself every bit of time and space in our existence. He wanted to stay with us always, so we could recognize him and love him in the most varied guises. Sometimes we find ourselves thinking, ‘It must have been amazing to live at the time of Jesus!’ Well, his love has invented a way of remaining with us, not simply in one small corner of Palestine, but in all places of the earth. He makes himself present in the Eucharist according to his promise. And there we can go for nourishment to feed and renew our life. ‘For with you is the fountain of life.’ Another source where we can draw the living water of the presence of God is our brother, our sister. Each neighbour who passes by, if we love him or her, especially any in need, cannot be thought of as someone to whom we do good, but as someone who does good to us, because they give us God. In fact, by loving Jesus in our neighbours (I was hungry … I was thirsty … I was a stranger … I was in prison [see Mt 25: 31-40]) we receive in exchange his love and life because he himself, who is in our brothers and sisters, is its source. Another wellspring rich with water is the presence of God within us. He always speaks to us and it is up to us to listen to his voice, which is our conscience. The more effort we put into loving God and our neighbour, the louder this voice becomes and drowns out all the others. But there is a privileged moment when, as at no other time, we can draw on his presence within us. It is when we pray and try to go into depth in a direct relationship with the one who dwells in the depths of our soul. It is like a deep stream of water that never runs dry, that is always available to us and that can quench our thirst at any time. All we have to do is to shut out for a moment everything else from our soul and recollect ourselves, and we will find this spring, even in the midst of the driest desert. And we do this to the point of finding that union with him where we are aware that we are no longer alone but together, the two of us: he in me and I in him. And yet, through his gift, we are one like water and the spring, the flower and its seed…. The Word of the Psalm reminds us that God alone is the source of life and therefore the source of full communion, peace and joy. The more we drink from this source and live on the living water that is his Word, the more we will come close to one another and live like brothers and sisters. Then the words that follow in this Psalm will come true: ‘in your light we see light,’ the light that humanity awaits.
Chiara Lubich
Adapted from the version first published in January 2002
![Living the Gospel: Mending a broken friendship]()
27 Oct 2014 | Non categorizzato
Jánoshalma is a town of about 10,000 inhabitants in southern Hungary, where about 3% of the population belong to the Rom ethnic group and social integration is a burning issue. It was the last town that conferred honorary citizenship to Chiara Lubich while she was still alive, in February 2008. Within this context, last 7 October the Dice of Peace installation was inaugurated in Chiara’s birthplace, Trent. The Dice was installed in the park in the centre of the city facing the Town Hall, almost like a symbol of the city’s aspiration, close to the playgrounds created some years earlier with the contribution of the local Focolari community together with the Municipality, upon the request of some children who had told the Mayor that they did not have a nice playground. The proposal, launched by the Focolari Movement, was accepted by the Municipality. The building of the Dice, the sides of which are 120 cm high, with the load-bearing framework the height of a person, in a diagonal position, was the fruit of the generosity of many: the company that did most of the works, for example, offered to do it for free…. 
The originality of this huge dice is that it can be “cast,” exactly the way small dice are cast: it can be turned in various directions and inspire people to live up to the phrase which pops up… The inauguration was attended by 150 people, among which were various elementary and high school students and even toddlers frequenting the kindergartens. The representatives of the Catholic School, who for many years have used the dice in their classes, had proposed it to the entire town. There were also the gen4, children living the Focolari spirituality, who narrated to the crowd some of their experiences on how they try to love everyone. The next day, some children on their way to school, changed their itinerary in order to pass by the dice and give it a “turn.” For those who want to practice a bit of the Hungarian language, these are the first six phrases of the dice: megbocsátok a másiknak – forgive the others meghallgatom a másikat – listen to others mindenkit szeretek – I love everybody elsőként szeretek – I am the first to love szeretem a mellettem lévőt – we love one another szeretem a másikat – I love the others
![Living the Gospel: Mending a broken friendship]()
26 Oct 2014 | Non categorizzato
«Last year I was fortunate to have partecipated in a workshop of the Economy of Communion in Loppiano. There my eyes were opened: up to that moment I was still in the process of deciding on “what shall I do”, without asking myself “who am I”. I understood that work is a vocation: I had, therefore, to find my vocation, that which would make me happy.
I was concluding my university studies in biomedical engineering. In October, 2013 I graduated from the Polytechnic University of Turin, after presenting my thesis at the Polytechnic University of Lausanne in Switzerland. I spent 5 years at the Polytechnic, lessons 8 hours a day. I would study at night, spending entire days without building any true relationships with my colleagues. In certain famous environments, individualism is very strong, there is the fear of being overtaken and the professors also transmit the “anxiety of being the top”.
After many sacrifices I was going to graduate on schedule, having achieved the highest grades. There was a big probability that I would also be granted the doctorate in Switzerland with a high salary, a house by the lake and great friends who were waiting for me there. It was a fundamental moment in my life, wherein I could decide on very important things for my future.
But something frightened me: the attachment to a career and to money. I wanted to have the instruments neccesary to be able to work, I would say, “against the current”. During times of crisis, young people like me have a difficult time in finding work and I didn’t want to close myself up in my career without looking at anyone else. It was with this state of mind that I arrived at the EoC workshop full of many questions. I didn’t find all the answers, but I found an atmosphere of openness, where entrepreneurs , professors and youth were all together, all equal, as we looked at Italy today with all its challenges.
https://www.focolare.org/it/focolare-worldwide/asia/filippine/I understood that having a lot of money would have been the first obstacle to my happiness, which for me means something entirely different. This was confirmed when I went to the Philippines, before beginning my doctorate that I knew I was granted while I was on the plane! This was a social trip that I had already planned, wherein I experienced first-hand a culture that was quite different from mine.
I arrived right at the moment of the strongest typhoon in the world, supertyphoon Yolanda, in Novembre 2013. The Filipino people, even if they are often struck by similar tragedies, had that dignity that made me also feel that … I had everything I needed to be happy! I understood the difference between “poverty” and “misery”. “Poverty” is what I saw in the Philippines, whereas “misery” is poverty without trust, without hope, which I saw in the faces of many of my Italian friends due to the (economic) crisis. Here in Europe depression and the psychologists enter into the picture… It’s true, there is a crisis. But we still have a roof over our heads and even daily meals. The dignity that I discovered in the Philippines is a lesson that will be useful for my working career.
Because of this, I gave up a career in Switzerland and now I am working in Loppiano, in a company of the Economy of Communion that was started to form young people not only on a relational-social level but also through work. Here I don’t work as an engineer, but I do manual labor, since automatic equipment does not exist. I work with clay, using my hands. And I feel that, in order to be a good engineer, after years spent studying, I also need to know what an ordinaruy labourer does. Maybe for some it seems like I am wasting my time, but I would like to be that engineer who, when he looks at the labourers, knows that he is looking at persons with their dignity, and who puts them at the center of his own work». (Maria Antonietta Casulli, 25 years old, Italy)
![Living the Gospel: Mending a broken friendship]()
21 Oct 2014 | Non categorizzato
Give a response, along with the entire Focolari Movement, to the demands of the Church and humanity. Experiment on new roads to go towards all, fully aware of their own identity and the specific contribution they are called to give: «The existential periphery is also our sick, the elderly, those who have abandoned the ministry… the periphery is the Church itself when it does not comply with God’s will.» This, in short is what emerged from the “five intense days, full of communion and great joy,” in the words of some who described the experience they lived at the centre of Castelgandolfo in the assembly of the priests-focolarini. The programme consisted of the approval of the priest-focolarini statutes and mission, a one-day retreat and the report on the past six years and new prospects. There were also work group sessions on specific themes and the election of the new director. The last day was dedicated to the goals targeted for the next six years, and the dialogue with Focolari President, Maria Voce, and Co-President, Jesús Morán. The morning meditations with selected thoughts of Chiara Lubich, helped to go deeper into the specific calling of the priest-focolarino. Particular focus was given to the figure of Fr. Silvano Cola who had helped Chiara to found this branch of the Movement, when it still had to be defined. In 1965, during a first meeting with the diocesan priest-focolarini, Chiara had summarized her views on the priest-focolarino, as one who would always strive to achieve the prayer of Jesus, “Father, that all may be one,” and that «he will not rest until this becomes a reality in his parish […]. And therefore must not be content […] only with the good members of the parish who go to Church, but try to maintain a relationship with all […] and who must keep moving, and not be stagnant.» Chiara spoke about focolarini who set their lives in conformity with the Church and explained that the «priest-focolare is like that salt which has to penetrate into the diocese to make it a tasty soup, meaning to say, a “fully ‘salted’ diocese.” But if this salt remains an end in itself, it would be a nonconformity to one’s vocation. When the report on the past six years, was presented, the priorities targeted in the previous Assembly were analysed, among which was the relationship with the new generations, family life with the elderly and sick priests, and the spread of the spirituality of communion within the Church. The dialogue which followed testified to the commitment of all and mainly questioned three aspects: education, community life, and the need to go out. They were reminded of the keywords of the targets advocated by the general Assembly: go out together, and be well prepared and strongly fine-tuned to what Pope Francis said to the Focolarini in the audience of 26 September. Then followed the work groups and plenary session, during which the agenda for the next six years was laid out. 
Imbued with this reality, the assembly voted and the votes converged on Antonio Bacelar from Portugal, who said he accepted «with God’s grace, and was ready to give my life for each of you». It was a very touching moment. Fr. Antonio confided: «What I desire deeply is to discover more and more the meaning of our Marian priesthood. A lot of queries will arise like “how will things go?” We shall let God guide us, with Jesus in our midst we shall find the way. Humanly speaking, I should be overwhelmed but with you all by my side, it will be an extraordinary adventure.» To end, he remembered a citation of St. Teresa of Avila which Bacelar himself recalled the day before: «If we love, we shall accomplish much in a short time, without effort.»
![Living the Gospel: Mending a broken friendship]()
19 Oct 2014 | Non categorizzato
Audience with Pope Paul VI (1975)
