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15 Feb 2014 | Non categorizzato
“During one of our long winter evenings, following an abundant snowfall, the courtyard of our school was completely covered in snow. I realized that neither the teachers nor the suppliers of the school canteen would be able to park their vehicles. I telephoned several companies, also a few private ones but they all responded that it would take another few days until they were able to shovel the snow, and at a considerable cost. Following a few more attempts, I accepted the offer of a neighbour who was willing to lend me his truck that had a snow plough.
As we began the job, we noticed that quite a bit of snow was accumulating along the edge of the snowplow that had to be removed manually. At that hour of the night there was nobody to help us, only the elderly woman who cleaned the school. She informed me that there was a group of boys on the other side of the building, who had gathered to smoke. They were known to be the school daredevils, frequently absent, reported for thefts, fights. They were on the verge of being expelled.
When I asked her to go and ask for their help she was a bit shocked and refused. She feared that those delinquents might do her some harm. So I decided to go myself even though I didn’t expect them to help. I had already accepted that I would be the one cleaning away the snow from the snow plough.
At first the boys were a bit confused seeing me there, but they gave me a cordial greeting. I told them that they were my only hope, and that the school they also loved, would not be functioning the next day. Before I could finish my sentence, they began to shovel the snow, and they worked for over an hour! When I thanked them for their help they said: so, we’re not as bad as some teachers think. . . .
It confirmed again that there is something positive to be appreciated in every person, and it’s only a matter of finding the right opportunity for it to come out. A more trusting and open relationship has begun among us.”
This has been the experience of Paulius Martinaitis, a Focolare volunteer from Lithuania, who is director of a high school in Vilnius.
“I learnt that offering young people an area of trust enables them to come out of those cages of transgressive behavior that sometimes imprison us with the labels we give to them.”
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14 Feb 2014 | Non categorizzato
“It was a special evening, rich in meaning;” I felt enveloped in such a family atmosphere, also in the simple fact of sharing supper together, it made me feel so at home;” “It was a spectacular performance that responded to the needs of our time;” “My only regret is that of not having invited many more people:” “We shoot short films and know a bit about acting. The directing was phenomenal. Recitation of the lines with such quick rhythms enlivened the performance. It wasn’t heavy at all, even though the themes were very challenging!” These were but a few of many comments by actors and others who witnessed the performance on the evening of December 14, 2013 in a theatre of Prato.
Directors and actors explain: “The piece we chose is quite unique: The Visitor by the French Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, with its humour and irony and originality that challenges every viewer concerning fundamental questions of life. And so it was quite adapted to creating dialogue.”
The performance which was conceived as forum theatre was organised by a Focolare Movement’s dialogue group for persons with no religious affiliation in Prato, along with the non-profit organisation La Sveglia, which has been in operation for 35 years and brought this performance to the stage.
“The crucial point of the play, which is set in Vienna, Austria, in 1938, is the dialogue between Sigmund Freud and a mysterious visitor who is taken to be God: a dialogue that was never banal and which everyone could identify with.”
The audience sat mesmerized for two hours, enjoying the passionate interpretation of every word.
At the conclusion of the performance the forum was opened, and unfolded in a family atmosphere with reflections on the piece. People spoke who were already involved in this type of dialogue, but also others who were new to the experience.
Also those directly involved in the presentation of the comedy described what it meant to them, the genesis of taking to the stage and their enjoyment of presenting it within such a context.
The outcome was truly the result of everyone’s effort: dialogue across the board! Some worked on publicity; some on the presentation of some thoughts from Chiara Lubich which were offered during the evening meal; some brought trucks for transporting props and scenery; a chef from the dialogue group prepared pasta sorrentino for the theatre company’s lunch; someone else took care of videotaping the event; others contacted the theatre and the SIAE (Italian Authors and Editors Society) for copyrights; not to mention those who contributed with their cultural expertise toward the success of the discussion at the end of the performance.
Given that the company has offered to give other performances, one viewer who is engaged in working with prisoners, proposed a presentation in a jail. Someone else suggested that La Sveglia stage other equally meaningful texts.
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11 Feb 2014 | Non categorizzato
“One day the spiritual director asked Chiara: ‘When in his life did the Lord suffers the most?”
“I suppose in the Garden of Olives”.
“No. In my opinion he suffered the most on the cross when he cried out: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Mt 27,46; Mk 15,34)”.
He left, and Chiara speaking with Dori (one of her students, and among the first to follow her, editor’s note) and later with the others, began to focus her love – and her studies – on that cry: on that moment of anguish in which Christ felt abandoned even by the Father, for whom he had become man.
“I am convinced that Jesus forsaken will be the ideal that will solve the world’s problems: it will spread to all corners of the earth.”
Year after year, this conviction would have been consolidated in all kinds of trials, thanks to which her ideal was taking root among humankind.
Thus, Jesus forsaken became Chiara’s love. And it became the love – the ideal, the goal, the norm – of the Work of Mary (or Focolare Movement, editor’s note).
One day she explained to us: “If when I am old and dying, the youth come to ask me to define in brief our ideal, I will reply with a feeble voice: Its Jesus forsaken!”.
Source: “It was a time of war…”, Chiara Lubich – Igino Giordani, Città Nuova Ed., Rome, 2007, pp. 122-123.
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11 Feb 2014 | Non categorizzato
Chiara Lubich and Bishop Klaus Hemmerle. Synod of the Laity, 1987.
‘Klaus Hemmerle is timeless, because it is was not so much he who lived, but Jesus lived in him. So I see him today as I was him while was still among us. I see him as another Jesus, but with all the qualities that stood out in his personality, ranging from the astuteness of the just to the wisdom of the elect, and ranging from a fatherlike and yet brotherly commitment, given with tremendous resolve to the portion of the People of God entrusted to him, to his freedom in following a charism from the Holy Spirit and his characteristic gift as an artist. That’s what he was like.’
Asked about her own relationship with the Bishop Hemmerle, Chiara Lubich described him as ‘a person called by God to found, together with [me as] its [overall] founder, a specific part of a Work of God. Hence it is a unique relationship known only to those who were in it, a relationship of the purest friendship, full of the charity of Christ.’ Indeed, Chiara called him a ‘co-founder’, and said, ‘He helped me to bring in being two important things within the Focolare Movement: the branch of the Bishop Friends of the Movement, who share in the spirituality of unity, and the founding of the Abba School that translates the spirituality of unity, the fruit of a charism, into intellectual thought.
‘He had many gifts and they shone out from him. When you think of him, even while he is clothed in the dignity of a priest and a bishop, it is easier to see him as an angel than as a man, because of his sublime delicacy of mind, his freedom of spirit, his deep and enlightened intelligence, his constancy of temperament, his fervour, without exaggeration, when it was necessary to defend someone, and his firmness. I and we saw him as an example because of his complete detachment from himself and from all he was involved with. Only after his death, for instance, did I learn of his musical and artistic talents.
‘He was an example in his constant attention to love for every brother or sister he came across as well as for everything that, for him, represented God’s will.
‘And an example in his passionate attachment to the Word of God such that he lived it, for instance, for five years, one Word at a time for a month in depth, in preparation for the Abba School. He had heard of the experience of doing this at the beginning of the Movement before the Spirit gave us some particular intuitions, things that proved to be of immense value for studying the charism.’
A group of Bishop Friends ot the Focolare.
And with regard to being a bishop? Chiara Luibich recalled, ‘He once confided in me that, so far as he was concerned personally, he would have preferred to have been a theologian but, I think, becoming a bishop certainly made him useful to the Church, as indeed he was to the Focolare Movement, since to his immense learning he added the authority of the Church’s Teaching Office, and in this way he provided us with some important guarantees.’
From Wilfried Hagemann, Klaus Hemmerle, innamorato della Parola di Dio [Klaus Hemmerle, a Man in Love with the Word of God] (Rome: Città Nuova, 2013) pp. 288-89.
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6 Feb 2014 | Non categorizzato
On the 25th of January, 2014, the 14° edition of the annual sponsored volleyball marathon organized by the “Youth4unity”, the young people of the Focolare Movement of Switzerland, was held.
160 sports enthusiasts full of enthusiasm met in six gymnasiums belonging to the schools in Zurich Oerlikon, and not just to engage in sports. In fact, with what they have gathered from the sponsors, they are able to support, already for the third time, the Koz Kazeh (Rainbow) Foundation of Cairo.
This foundation takes care of Egyptian youth and teens who have to work to support their families and who can only study during their days off. Recently they are able to take advantage of professional training courses and special support programs for teenage girls.
Aside from the social commitment, having fun and games has marked the volleyball mMarathons that take place in Zurich. The motto “Take care; respect the one next to you; each person is important”, was the guiding thread of the tournament, making it a friendly and fair competition.
“In the game there is no battle for competition, as is the usual practice in other tournaments, because we play for another reason”, Gabriel (18) from Zurich who is participating for the first time in the Volleyball Marathon affirmed.
Aside from this, Volleyball Day has involved around twenty people who voluntarily collaborated behind the scenes for the success of the tournament.
The team “Abracadabra” was able to raise the highest amount totalling 2,376 Swiss Francs (around € 1.942,1 ) thus winning the “cup challenge”. The winning teams “D’Choncheflicker” (League A) and “Oerlikon one” (League B), each won a big basket of food items for a dinner together.
The “time out” (a minute of silence to pray for peace) and the letter that arrived for the occasion from the Koz Kazeh Foundation, helped to strengthen the relationship among the young people of Zurich and of Cairo.
The total amount collected for the 2014 Edition of 12,074 Swiss Francs (€ 9’869,30 ), has already been sent to support the microprojects in Cairo.
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5 Feb 2014 | Non categorizzato
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The day before the publication of the book, L-Arti tal Imhabba (The Art of Loving) Marisa and Mario from the Focolare community on the island comment: “We had the opportunity to present a book by Chiara Lubich translated into Maltese, and it’s made us very glad!” The book was presented in a crowded hall on January 17, 2014 in the presence of speakers from five fields of expertise: Professor Marie Alexander from the Malta University Linguistic Institute; Natalino Camilleri, General Superior of the Christian Doctrine Society (M.U.S.E.U.M.); Father Karm Debattista, well-known in Malta in the fields of music and communication; the Reverend Canon Simon Godfrey, Chancellor of the Anglican Church and Dr. J. Mifsud, lawyer, journalist and television presenter. 
The speakers highlighted how the art of loving proposed by Chiara Lubich, is drawn directly from the Gospel and summarised in five points: loving everyone without discrimination; being the first to love; recognizing the presence of Jesus in every neighbour; becoming all things to all people as St. Paul says; and loving one another. The commitment to such a way of life is a constant daily effort, but it produces a spiritual disposition that is the first step towards a peaceful revolution capable of changing individual hearts and building a civilization of love. Rev. Simon Godfrey and Dr. J. Mifsud also highlighted the parallelisms between Pope Francis and Chiara Lubich. Following presentations by the speakers, a family, a young woman and a young boy recounted experiences of living the art of loving, and the Cube of Love was introduced. At the conclusion of the evening many expressed their joy at 
having discovered a new way to face daily life: “The message is simple, beautiful and strong,” said Fr. Silvestro, “within the reach of anyone.” Others appreciated something else: “Dostoevskij writes that beauty will save the world,” Stephanie recalled, “and today we have seen a moment of beauty and harmony, because what was being said today pertains to God who is Beauty.” Miriam commented: “There was neither believer nor unbeliever: in love we all felt like a family and were free to speak freely.” Ezio: “I knew this book in Italian, but here I discovered its value. I want to become better at living the art of loving and, with my heart and mind, find many ways to render it more beautiful, more efficacious, more intense, diffusive, more creative and never taken for granted.”
