![Father Pasquale Foresi. The Prayer for Unity]()
20 Jul 2014 | Non categorizzato
The prayer for unity is found in the seventeenth chapter of St John’s Gospel. Chiara Lubich saw the words of that prayer as her mission in life, which she immediately shared with her first companions. We present a 1979 commentary by Fr Pasquale Foresi. “That they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (Jn 17:21). “That they may all be one.” This phrase is the continuation of a previous one in which Jesus also prays for those who would believe him through the words of the apostles. It is the Word that makes us one, and of one mind through the unifying power of the Word that is Christ. The Word of God will continue, down through the centuries, through diverse cultures, continuing to make those who accept it one. Another feature of the unity brought about by the Word is this: Whereas in any school of philosophy the disciple must never stray from the fundamental intuitions of the master, Christian unity is a vital activity. It is unity of mind and heart, it is family. That all may be one. This word “all” points to the most absolute and widest universality with no exceptions [. . .]. In this verse, the word “all” is linked to the word “one”. These are the two striking features of the Church: universality (catholicity) and unity. Paul affirms this Christian calling to unity when he writes to the Ephesians: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:3-6). Pasquale Foresi, Luce che si incarna. Commento ai 12 punti della spiritualità dell’unità, (Rome: Città Nuova Editrice, 2014) 131.
![Father Pasquale Foresi. The Prayer for Unity]()
14 Jul 2014 | Non categorizzato
“I completely entrust my mandate to the Holy Spirit, and I await to discover what he wishes to show us. I would like to share with you the three sentiments that dominate my soul in this moment: gratitude, joy and new ardour. First of all gratitude to God, of course, but also to each one of you for your generous commitment during these six years so that nothing of all that Chiara left us might be lost. Gratitude for so much life, so many sufferings, so many offerings. A special gratitude to the many people who, during these years, have already joined Chiara and remain as shining beacons to give us light for our journey. Joy, in seeing the life and abundant fruits of the charism through which we experience the presence of Chiara wherever one finds her children. Today this is evident in a special way in the small and large communities that have multiplied throughout the world. They bear witness, also through the Mariapolis gatherings – about which I get beautiful news every day – to the authentic sense of family experienced when we live mutual love, where everyone feels at home: those coming for the first time, as well as the many returning. All of this urges me to make a new commitment and to respond in a radical way to God’s calling, and to serve him in his Opera, how and where he wants, leaving aside everything else so that he can truly be everything for me. I would hope that by sharing this experience, these sentiments of gratitude, joy and commitment might multiply and help us start again, all together, with no one missing, on this extraordinary adventure, conquering every fear, every indecision, every hesitation, because everything is possible for God and God loves us. With this commitment, which is also a greeting and a prayer, supported by this month’s Word of Life, I greet you with all my heart.” Maria Voce (Emmaus)
![Father Pasquale Foresi. The Prayer for Unity]()
14 Jul 2014 | Non categorizzato
Montet, Switzerland, August 15, 2001. Chiara Lubich was surrounded by 50 young people and several professors from the Focolare’s Centre for Studies who were about to give birth to the Abba School and the future Sophia University Institute. Chiara wished to speak to them from the heart, conveying to them that particular experience with Igino Giordani that lies at the foundation of the Focolare Movement: the Pact of Unity at Holy Communion. It was July 16, 1949; Chiara was 29 years old. A study on the Pact of July 16, 1949 has been published in a book entitled: Il Patto del ’49 nell’esperienza di Chiara Lubich. Download mp3 Video in italian http://vimeo.com/100116616
![Father Pasquale Foresi. The Prayer for Unity]()
13 Jul 2014 | Non categorizzato
Foresi points to some of the major aspects of the Christian understanding of God, underscoring how it also provides a new understanding of the human being. This new understanding translates into new life, not only personally but socially as well. Jesus – Foresi emphasises – is quite clear on this point: the love he asks of us regards both God and neighbour, every neighbour. The spirituality of unity strongly underscores and re-proposes one essential aspect of this love: reciprocity. If love is to be as God intends it to be, it must be reciprocal. “When Jesus was close to death and wanted to summarize all the teachings he had given during his life, he uttered the simplest words that any thinker had ever formulated: ‘Love one another’ (Jn 15:12). These words can be understood by anyone – the less educated, the scientist and the man of letters. These words are able to be translated in every language, able to penetrate every culture from East to the West. This is because love is the mystery that lies at the origins of the life among human beings. It is through the love of a man and a woman that children receive their life and the basic cell of society is born, the family. Furthermore, it is love between parents and children that permits physical and psychological growth and development. It is love that allows peaceful coexistence in civilian society. So those words of Jesus can be immediately grasped and understood by all. Nevertheless, we often fail to grasp the full depth of their meaning. Those words contain the hidden mystery of being. If people of every sort and background are able to understand them, if they are relevant to the life of families and entire populations, it is because they contain a deep reality that concerns the very essence of God. For us Christians, mutual love is what reveals the innermost being of God: God’s being Trinity; God’s being mutual love between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, each of whom is the One God. This is why the new commandment of mutual love is a call to humanity, to live according to the model of the Trinity. This is the Christian significance of the word agape.” Pasquale Foresi, Luce che si incarna. Commento ai 12 punti della spiritualita dell’unita (Rocca di Papa: Citta Nuova editrice, 2014) 46-47. From an address to Buddhist-Christian Symposium, April 2004, at Castel Gandolfo, Italy.
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10 Jul 2014 | Non categorizzato
Education rhymes with peace: the next World Forum organized by the Schengen Agreement for Peace will be held in the spring of 2015 in Cairo. This is thanks to the project Living Peace, which has its own “operatiions centre” in Cairo. The announcement was made during the last Forum in June, on the occasion of the awarding of a medal “Peace Prize Luxembourg 2014” to Carlos Palma, founder of Living Peace.
It was one of the projects presented, along with the “best practices” in the course of “Learning Fraternity“, an international meeting organized in September 2013 by the various educational agencies of the Focolare Movement, including AMU an organization accredited by the Ministry of Education in Italy. Experts in the field, teachers, young people and families met to discuss the issue of globalization and how it is necessary to begin thinking about education from a global and solidarity perspective.
Presentations were made of the current and future activities of the New Network Peace Project, which began in Italy in 1990, and that in April 2013 saw the signing of a protocol of national cooperation with AMU. There are about 5,000 students participating in classes on an ongoing basis – while about the same number participate in individual initiatives. They carry out activities such as training courses for parents, students and adults, art competitions, sports activities that highlight the values of loyalty and respect of the opponent, the twinning of Italian and schools from other countries, visits to drug recovery communities or for people with disabilities. The main objective is to create a network that not only raises awareness among young people, teachers and families on issues such as multiculturalism and integration, but also promotes discussion among people and values their talents.
The journey that began with “Learning Fraternity” continues: in this context, Amu is organizing for the next school year in Italy paths of active citizenship divided into four strands (Globalization and Fraternity, Inter-culture, Economics and the Culture of Giving, Environment and being a responsible consumer). Globalization and Fraternity is also the central theme of the Campus of Global Citizenship that will take place over the course of a day around April/May 2015 in the international town of Loppiano (Florence), for 1st and 2nd year secondary school students and their teachers. There are other projects already under way, both in Italy and abroad, and other newly launched ones in the wake of the previous ones. Such as the twinning of “A school in the Andes” to support the educational centre of Bolivar in Peru, or the project “Schoolmates”, in which boys and girls participate in a worldwide network between school classes – a mutually enriching experience, sharing cultures, languages, traditions and initiatives that are already up and running.
The projects and initiatives are numerous: we invite you to continue to follow them over the summer, to get to know more about them and to consult them on the “Education for Development” section of the AMU site.
![Father Pasquale Foresi. The Prayer for Unity]()
6 Jul 2014 | Non categorizzato
“God loves me immensely,” “God loves us immensely.” Saying such a thing – never mind preaching it – in the 1960s would have been a quite novelty, even subversive. Everyone knew it, but in a certain sense it was no longer very present in the personal or communitarian life of good Christians. This discovery of God’s immense love for us, which has marked the beginnings of the spirituality of unity and the experience of Chiara Lubich and her first companions, is presented by Foresi as the foundation of the Christian life, the life of prayer and in the personal calling to a specific vocation. This truth also nourishes and permeates social relationships. It equips us to bring God into our world, to everyone we meet. “I remember the deep impression this message left in me too. I perceived the fundamental importance, the complete novelty, I would say, the absolute novelty. Nevertheless, many years later, there is the need to ask how conscious of it I really am. How I fully have understood the significance of these words: “God loves me immensely.” Our understanding of God and his action in our lives is often in fact determined by our own limited perspectives. We measure according to our own limited feelings and express it according to our own personal categories and thinking. It can then happen that feeling imperfect and therefore far from God’s love, we transfer this perception onto God and end up believing that he could never love us, or, at most, could only love us partially. But this is not the case. God loves us always, infinitely, and his love is near to us and holds us up at each moment of our journey. If we wanted to sketch images of some of the features of God’s love, the first to stand out would be a familiar one in Holy Scripture, and one found in many spiritual authors: God loves us as a bridegroom loves his bride. Like a man hopelessly in love, he loves us beyond the valor of the one he loves. He loves her to the point of seeing everything in her as beautiful, positive, understandable, even her defects which, when he does notice them, are overlooked and sublimated by love. But there is one image that also expresses God’s love for us. It is the image of the mother who is always ready to welcome her wayward child, no matter the sorrowful situation he or she may be in. She never reproves but only welcomes and forgets. Because this is what maternal love is: inextinguishable and essential. When you begin to draw on such love, even if only for a moment, everything is transformed. The life we’ve been given, the world around us, every circumstance happy or sad: everything acquires the mark of God’s personal love for me whom he wants to be holy as he is holy (see 1 pt 1:16). This is the foundation of the entire Christian life: this love of God for each one of us, a love to which we should respond and completely return.” Pasquale Foresi, Luce che si incarna. Commento ai 12 punti della spiritualità dell’unità, (Rocca di Papa: Città Nuova Editrice, 2014) 29-30.
