Gospel, Family and Society

5 Apr 2014 | Non categorizzato

Lidia and Loris have 3 children who are 11, 9 and 6 years old. Each of them was born in a different city from the other because after their parents married, the family moved to Veneto, then to Alto Adige and then aruond Trentino. When her husband suggested moving back to the city of their origins in Crotone, Lidia reacted: “My first thought was the children and the wider range of opportunities they would have up north, but in the end I was convinced. Our city on the sea is truly beautiful, we know some very gifted people there and our children once adults, would choose their own futures for themselves.   We wanted to do something to improve our country, because we love it! But we immediately realized that we were never going to begin a revolution, but at least we could begin with something small. So we began with the world of schooling; me with the classmates of my children and Loris with his students. He teaches German, but his first job in Crotone was as a substitute teacher. To begin with, he contacted the teacher of the boy who had been entrusted to him, to better understand his academic problems and built a relationship of trust with him. Several times, his intervention helped to resolve serious communication problems between school and parents.     For almost 3 years we have been running a youth centre in our centre.. When we moved, Loris began the Associazione Amici del tedesco (Friends of German Association) that won a contract with the “With the South Foundation”. We offer children between the ages of 11 and 16 games and recreation, but also tutoring in Literature, Mathematics, as well as Italian and English for foreign students.     Recently the Association won a competition connected to redevelopment of property confiscated from the mafia at San Leonardo of Cutro on the Ionian Sea, Calabria. Lidia explained: “We will use it as a hostel for young people and families who are unable to pay for holidays. We have been classified as a youth training project for youths and teenagers who have dropped out of school. We are supported by the Ministry of Youth Politics.    We feel that all of this has come from God’s love, perhaps a plan that we don’t yet fully understand, but based on mutual love, because it’s actually not easy to work together. We are so different from each other and this is positive, but at times also difficult because we see things in such different ways. But then the discussions and misunderstandings pass and we begin again.   The positive results are also the result of our sons’ love for us. They put up with it all with so much patience, all our organizing and moving around. It often happens that their love is what helps us to face the challenges of the forgotten on the fringes of society. And for them it’s a source of reflection and growth. Source: http://www.famiglienuove.org/

Congo: The Gospel lived in the midst of armed conflict

28 Mar 2014 | Non categorizzato

Nord-Kivu (Nord-Kivu (DRC). The inhabitants of Rutshuru lived as if they were hostages up to the time that the rebels were defeated. Freed from their presence, about a hundred members of the Focolare Movement were able to meet after a long time, at Rutshuru (North-Kivu). For the ocassione of the Mariapolis, they also arrived from Goma and Kinshasa. They wrote us: “Now, the fear and tension on the faces of the inhabitants, are gradually giving way to a new hope”.

J. S. works in a hospital as a nurse. In her department of orthopedics she saw many cases arriving of those who were wounded during the war or urgent emergency cases. This is her experience:

“One evening we admitted a woman to our hospital. She was about to give birth to twins and she was bleeding profusely. Since it was an extremely urgent case, she was admitted directly to the operating room. The doctors did all they could to save her and her two infants. But unfortunately what they feared happened: the woman died a few days after the birth of her two children, a baby girl and a baby boy. The father said that he would not be able to raise them without their mother, and also he did not have the means necessary to do so. When the doctor came to our orthopedics department and shared to us this information, I felt a great pity for these babies. I remembered that point of the spirituality of unity that we are trying to live in the whole Movement this year: the love of neighbour; and these babies seemed to me like the suffering face of Jesus in person

I said to myself that something must be done immediately. I thought: “Five months ago I had a baby girl, so I cannot take more than one of the babies.” But I had not yet spoken to my husband, who obviously had to agree with me. So I went home and I told my parents about this proposal of mine regarding this adoption. Everyone agreed with joy! Even our little child, seeing another baby, didn’t want to be breastfed anymore… We took this as a sign of welcome on her part, towards her new little sister.

Three days later, urged on by my example, another nurse offered to adopt the baby boy. My joy was immense! Together we went to the Town Hall to legitimize the adoptions. We gave the name: ‘Hope’ to the baby girl who became part of our family”.

As a confirmation,  Mons.Théophile Kaboy, Bishop of Goma, commented during his homily at the concluding Mass of the Mariapolis: “Hatred and death will never have the last word”.

Recife. The Chiara Lubich Chair

27 Mar 2014 | Non categorizzato

Fraternity, in this case, is not “a romantic or solely religious value, but an appeal to the intelligence, a concrete project that accepts the risk of history,” of a country, of Brazil, which is “marked by serious inequalities, but also emerging as a country that occupies a strategic position in the world.” These were the opening words of Jesuit Pedro Rubens, Rector of UNICAP describing the significance of the Chair. Prof Paolo Muniz, Director of the Asces Faculty (the project partner) added: “These universities now turn their reflection and research to the work of Chiara Lubich who, aside from being a great spiritual leader, is also an inspirer of a new light that illuminates all fields of human knowledge.” Focolare president, Maria Voce was invited to give the opening address at the event, which was the heart of her visit to Brazil. During her presentation she described the anthropological vision of the human person that emerges from the spirituality of Chiara, which is firmly rooted in Scripture. Voce began by asking who the human person is. In answering this question, she examined the dynamic of Love in the Triune God, the reflection of this love in human life and in the cosmos and the call to be “Love-in-relation”. She recalled that “we are, if we are the other” which means “being empty of ourselves,” “total gift of ourselves.” The lifestyle that springs from this dynamic provides the “fertile ground for authentic humanism, concrete fraternity.” The Bishop of Palmares, Dom Gerival Saraiva, highlighted the social dimension of knowledge, which can be understood in more concrete terms thanks to projects such as this. The thought of Chiara Lubich has been the object of study and research in several universities, and in several different academic areas. The Focolare founder received 16 honorary doctorates and degrees, the 1996 UNESCO Peace Education Award, and the 1998 European Council’s Human Rights Award. In honour of the occasion, Cidade Nova published a new book entitled: Fraternidade e Humanismo: uma leitura interdisciplinare do pensamento de Chiara Lubich (Fraternity and Humanism: an interdisciplinary approach to the thought of Chiara Lubich).   For further reading: Opening Address by Maria Voce in Italian At the Catholic University of Recife, the Chiara Lubich Chair for fraternity and humanism – Radio Vaticana Universidades lançam Cátedra sobre fraternidade e humanismo – Cidade Nova UNICAP cria a catedra Chiara Lubich de fraternidade e humanismo – Rede Globo http://www.catedrachiaralubich.org/ Follow the journey on the  Mariapolis Journal – login required

International Happiness Day

26 Mar 2014 | Non categorizzato

On July 12, 2012, the 66th Session of the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed March 20th as International Happiness Day. UNRIC Italy has decided to bring this to the public’s attention with the help of Professor Luigino Bruni, Professor of Political Economy at the LUMSA University of Rome, and global coordinator of the Economy of Communion project which was launched by Chiara Lubich in Brazil (1991).  The project currently includes over 1000 businesses worldwide. The Economy of Communion proposes that entrepreneurs share business profits with development projects in different parts of the world, which is based on a model of reciprocity and gift. Prof. Bruni, you were one of the first to re-launch an Italian rendition of happiness that is different from the one that comes from the United States. Can you explain more about what lies beneath this vision of happiness? “The most distant origins of the notion of happiness are found in the ancient Greek and Roman culture, especially in Aristotle who had linked happiness to the virtues and had distinguished it from pleasure. It was a concept which today we would have to translate as “human blossoming” because it goes back to the idea that happiness is a general state of existence. The Greeks had understood that only the virtuous man could become happy by cultivating the virtues, even in the face of bad luck. This is where our responsibility begins, because it is possible to say that the main protagonist of my happiness (and unhappiness) is me, and not the external events which certainly are a burden on my wellbeing, but never decisive in determining my happiness.” Where does the idea of happiness in economic science come from? “Italian economists and philosophers from the 1700s placed happiness at the centre of their reflections on economy and civil life. They were thinking in Roman and Medieval terms of public happiness and then the common good. Throughout the 1800s the Italian school of economy was known for its focus on happiness as the main object of its study. Therefore, it is not surprising that Italian economists today are among the protagonists of the new movement on Economy and Happiness, which was re-launched in the 1970s. It mostly focused on the link between happiness and social relations, an obvious reference to the ancient tradition of felicitas publica.”  Which aspects would you say are most relevant for civil and economic life today? “The first element that seems of particular relevance to the state of the economy and the society today is the profound relationship between happiness and virtue. In a culture that underscores hedonistic pleasure and recreation as the values matched with happiness, the ancient Italian tradition of the felicitas publica invites us to keep in mind that no good individual nor social life exist without the cultivation of excellence and therefore the commitment to sacrifice. Secondly, in a phase of the West in which narcissism is becoming an actual pandemic, the tradition of public happiness reminds us of the unavoidable link between the good life and social relations. You can never be truly happy alone, because happiness at its roots is something relational.” Source: www.unric.org

Living the Gospel: Being generous with each other

25 Mar 2014 | Non categorizzato

The blood

The car in front of me skidded, hit a wall and overturned. I was able to brake in time. There were people helping the wounded: an elderly lady, a little boy and a youth. But no one wanted to bring them to the hospital for fear of being accused of causing the accident. So in my case, even if the sight of blood would often cause me to faint, I took courage and loaded them into my car. Before the hospital would accept them they asked for a deposit, but they had no money. So I signed a cheque and made sure that the wounded were well cared for, happy that I was able to overcome my emotions, but above all because I was able to do something for my brothers in need.

M. S.-Argentina

Beyond tiredness

Many times, when I arrive home, I feel the emptiness that the death of my wife has left and I would prefer just to remain alone, peaceful; but I felt that I had to forget myself and increase the relationship with my children. It is difficult to be both father and mother. The other evening, coming home from work, I realized that everyone was still awake: I would have wanted to rest, but instead I started to play with them, forgetting my tiredness. To my surprise, one of them, with whom the relationship has always been difficult, came to me and with affection sat on my lap. He never did this before.

S. R.-Usa

Chocolates

I brought as box of chocolates for some of my very dear friends. In return they wanted to give me an even bigger box: “For your daughters”. On the bus, while I was on my way home, a gypsy couple came in with a child who was maybe five years old. The little girl was looking at my box of chocolates longingly. In the beginning I pretended not to look at her. But I was not peaceful. “Jesus help me to understand what I should do”. Precisely in that moment the litle girl came to me and held out her hand towards the chocolate. I couldn’t refuse and so I gave them to her. But as I went down from the bus I was a little disappointed that I was going home empty-handed. But as soon as I arrived home, my wife told me that a friend passed by to greet her and left a big basket of sweets. I was speechless and very happy.

W.U. – Rome

Taken from: Il Vangelo del giorno (The Gospel of the Day) , Città Nuova Publishing House