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26 Apr 2014 | Non categorizzato
“. . . how wise and true are the words of Pope John XXIII: ‘I must do everything: recite each prayer, follow each rule as if I had nothing else to do, as if the Lord had placed me on earth solely for accomplishing that action well, as if my sanctification depended on it, without a thought for before or after’.”
Chiara Lubich copied these words in her diary and often referred to them in public when emphasising the importance of becoming holy by doing the will of God in the present moment. She found a confirmation in the words of John XXIII. On the same page she writes:
“I often find my soul invested by two or three things in the present moment, two or three things to be done at once. This causes it [my soul] to become anxious. I often find that my desire to reach everyone, to do everything, to embrace the whole world, is interpreted by me in a mistaken way. It becomes a spiritual avidity that comes from the old self (see Rm 6:6), even though it is so tinged with zeal.”
This is no way for a Christian to live. Even someone in a shop full of edibles, eats either one or the other, but not all of them at once and never the whole store-full. We need to nourish ourselves, and content ourselves with what God wants from us in the present moment.
I’ve tried to do it these past few days. It’s been a wonderful experience. Violently severing away anything that is not the will of God in order to immerse myself only in that, I’ve experienced what it means to have a satisfied soul. It’s peace, gladness, happiness! It’s a sort of beatitude.”
Source: Città Nuova, August 11, 2010
26 Apr 2014 | Non categorizzato
On the occasion of the canonisations of Karol Wojtyla and Angelo Roncalli we offer a brief video which Chiara Lubich presented to the Holy Father in 2003, for the 25th anniversary of his Pontificate.
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22 Apr 2014 | Non categorizzato
Hitchhiking
“I was on my way home in the car with my wife when we noticed a hitchhiker. We pass him, but we felt the absurdity of having passed by pretending not to see him. We decided to go back. He is a student from Senegal on his way to Antwerp, and he had been standing on the road for quite some time already dressed in his summer clothes. He was feeling very cold and so we invited him for lunch at home. After having eaten I offered to drive him to Antwerp (25 km from our house). He was so happy and was deeply moved. When I dropped him off and greeted him, I felt that I could not just abandon him like this, in the cold. I gave him my coat, the best one that I had. On the way home I alone, I was singing”. L. H. – Belgio
Quarrels
“On a day in which I was particularly agitated, it was my wife who went to market. Hoping to release my bad mood, I left the house and spent the afternoon with our neighbours, boring myself in front of the T.V. As soon as I arrived back home, the stern voice of our little Milos startled me: «Papà, don’t you know that Jesus doesn’t want people to quarrel?». It was a healthy lesson. I ran to give my wife a kiss. The children are the real “thermometer” of unity in the family”. Stjepan – Croatia
Laziness
“Sometimes it is difficult for me to commit myself to a task because of my laziness. Like that time: I was supposed to fix the library where there was a great confusion of books on the floor, but I didn’t feel like doing anything. Suddenly it seemed as if someone was telling me within: «Be love!». So I decided to do everything for God and for those who would be using the library. When I finished, I felt a great joy in my heart and I understood that this joy was a gift from God”. T. – Brazil
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19 Apr 2014 | Non categorizzato
«… Easter is drawing closer and it seems that it was just Christmas. I have the impression that time is passing quickly and I feel in the depth of my heart – I confide this to you – that I have resigned to let it pass quickly as long as it is all love. That is, as long as at the eve of each day I can say: “Also today I have loved.”
… On this Easter that reminds us of how Jesus, after dying, was resurrected, and how we too will one day rise up with our bodies, I would like that all of you would live so that each evening you can say: Also today I have loved.
… We do not know how long we have left to live, but how bitter it would be to draw closer to death with only a few days lived in love. What regret! We would say: “I could have loved and I didn’t do it.”
So there is Easter to remind us that every day must be a resurrection for us: always up, always ready to love whoever we meet without looking whether we like them or not. Love, love, love. Never getting tired of loving. Never stopping our revolution.
This will give us great joy and will make us savour the Easter Celebration because it is the Celebration of the Alleluia.
Just as the first apostles and Christians went out to everyone to tell them that Christ was risen (and so that we will also rise), so too those who know us should be able to say that we have spiritually resurrected from a life without meaning to a life full of light and fire.»
Source: Centro Chiara Lubich
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18 Apr 2014 | Non categorizzato
The resurrection of Christ, who makes us sharers in his life, obliges us never to despair. It gives us the secret to pick ourselves up again after every fall; it is the sacred, visible, sign, of our resurrection. Ours is a religion of life: the only one in which death is victorious, and if we want it, permanently banned. Lent was – or should have been – an examination of conscience, through which we could contemplate the negative things that buzz around deep down in our souls and in our society. Many of us live a Christianity which has become routine, without thrills or surges, like a sail when there is no wind.
The resurrection of Christ has to be a reason for the rebirth of our faith, hope and love, victory of our deeds over our negative tendencies. Easter teaches us to overcome evil in order to be reborn. Each of us born afresh, united in affection with our neighbour, and every people working in harmony with other peoples. In divine grace there is the strength to remove every form of evil.
Jesus prayed, “… that they may all be one”. Love culminates in unity, and even politics as an effort that unifies is love in action, Christianity being practiced. And love is the solution to suffering and death. Where there is love there are no masters and tyrants, there are brothers who communicate goods of time and eternity with one another. So let’s love one another, replacing any hostility by seeking our brother, to help us to live. In this way we will rise again.
Igino Giordani: Le Feste , Turin International Publishing Company, 1954
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16 Apr 2014 | Non categorizzato
At the beginning of February the representative of the African continent on the International Commission of the Economy of Communion, Genevieve Sanze, received a telephone call from the Apostolic Nuncio of Ivory Coast, Mons Joseph Spiteri, informing her of her nomination as member of the Pontifical Council of the Laity. “I had absolutely no idea that this was coming,” Genevieve tells us, with the open question about what it might entail. Genevieve, who is originally from the Central African Republic, lives in a Focolare community in Abidjan in Ivory Coast. The only African among the lay members appointed by the Pope, Genevieve was chosen because of the role she plays within the Economy of Communion.
“I’m very happy with this nomination, particularly for the fact that of all the roles I play in the context of the Focolare Movement, the Economy of Communion was the one mentioned,” she explained shortly after she heard the news, sharing her feelings on the subject. “It is a great joy for me to be able to work for the Church, because I chose to do this in my life, serving the Focolare Movement and the Church.”
A few days after the nomination, Genevieve Sanze was in Kenya working for the preparations of the upcoming Economy of Communion Assembly in Nairobi in 2015. She was able to meet with the Nuncio when she got back. “It was a very beautiful and profound moment. Mons Spiteri gave me the document with my nomination, with his advice to live this service for and in the Church. Maria Voce, President of the Focolare movement, wrote to me as well: ‘I am very happy with this appointment’, assuring me of her prayers and support. I feel that it is only together, in great communion, that we can be of service to our brothers and sisters and the Church.”
The Central Commission of the Economy of Communion wrote to Genevieve: “Heartfelt congratulations on this new and beautiful challenge: from how we know you, you have all the qualities needed to face up to it”. Luigino Bruni summed up the joy of everyone: “This is the Africa that the world needs to know: wise, bright, soberly joyful, sisterly, regal, Marian.”
