28 Oct 2013 | Non categorizzato, Word of
It means entering into the hearts of the people we meet in order to understand their mindset, their culture, their traditions, so as to make them, in a certain sense, our own, and really understand what they need and be able to discern those values God has planted in the heart of every person. In a word: kindness means to live for whoever is near us.
Tender-heartedness: welcoming others as they are, not as we would like them to be, with a different character, with our political views or our religious convictions, and without those faults and habits that annoy us so much. No, we need to expand our hearts and make them able to welcome everyone, with their differences, their shortcomings and troubles.
Forgiveness: always seeing the other person as new. Even where we find our most beautiful and most peaceful relationships, in the family, at school, at work, there are inevitably moments of friction, differences of opinion, clashes. People reach the point of not speaking to each other, of avoiding one another, to say nothing of when real and true hatred towards someone who thinks differently roots itself in the heart. We have to make a strong, rigorous and thorough commitment to try and see each brother or sister as though they were new, completely new, not remembering at all how they have hurt us, but covering everything with love, with a complete amnesty in our hearts, imitating God who forgives and forgets.
True peace and unity are attained when kindness, tender-heartedness and forgiveness are lived not only by people individually, but together, with one another mutually.
And just as the embers of a fire have to be stirred every now and then, so that they are not smothered by the ashes, so too from time to time it is necessary deliberately to revive the decision to love one another, to revive our relationships with everyone, so that they are not covered up by the ashes of indifference, apathy, selfishness.
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.
These attitudes demand to be translated into deeds, into practical action.
Jesus himself showed us what love is when he healed the sick, when he fed the crowds, when he brought the dead back to life, when he washed the feet of his disciples. Actions, deeds: this is what it means to love.
I remember the mother an African family whose daughter, Rosangela, lost an eye after an aggressive young boy poked her with a stick. He even continued making fun of her afterwards. Neither of the boy’s parents said that they were sorry. The silence, the lack of relationship with that family, made Rosangela’s mother feel bitter. ‘Don’t be upset,’ said Rosangela who had forgiven the boy, ‘I am lucky because I can see with my other eye!’
‘One morning,’ Rosangela’s mother said, ‘the boy’s mother sent someone to get me to go round to her house because she felt ill. My first reaction was: “Look, now she comes to me for help. With so many other neighbours she could have asked, she asks me, after all her boy has done to us!”
‘But suddenly I remembered that love has no limits. I hurried over to her house. She opened the door and fainted into my arms. I took her to the hospital and stayed with her until the doctors saw her. A week later she was discharged from the hospital and came to my house to thank me. I welcomed her with all my heart. I had managed to forgive her. Now we are in touch again. In fact, our relationship is totally new.’
Every one of our days, too, can be filled with real acts of service, humble and intelligent expressions of our love. We will then see fraternity and peace grow around us.
Chiara Lubich
(First Published August 2006)
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25 Oct 2013 | Non categorizzato
In Focolare president Maria Voce’s message for the re-opening of the centre she urged the priests at Vinea Mea to have a new pastoral approach, in which priests are Christ for the world, going out out to the existential outskirts. Among those present were Bishop Mario Meini and Bishop Luciano Giovannetti, along with various mayors from neighbouring regions and some 200 guests from several regions of Italy.
Maria Voce highlighted the importance of Vinea Mea Centre in connection with the permanent Mariapolis of Loppiano from which its formative proposal draws its life. “Loppiano is a small living portion of hte Church and like a cross-section of a new society, showing what the world could be like if Christian love were placed at the basis of every relationship; a place in which new people are formed, people open to dialogue and communion, people capable of offering their own life as a gift to others.
“She recalled the wishes expressed by Chiara Lubich to priests in 1966, who were the first to attend the nascent school for priests: “Learn how to put everything aside, to strip yourselves of every pretext of power, in order to ensure the presence of Jesus among you. Then it will be inevitable for Jesus to bring forth a new form of pastoral ministry and a new kind of priest, priests capable of giving their lives for everyone.” She also wished them that such experiences would multiply and spread to many other countries.
Vita Zanolini and Elena Di Taranto from the architect’s studio at the Ave Art Centre described the challenges posed by the restoration project of the antiquated Franciscan convent from the 16th century, trying to render the environments suitable for the communitarian lifestyle that is the characteristic of this school for priests, while continuing to respect the continuity and memory of the historic building.
Bishop Mario Meini, bishop of Fiesole, Italy highlighted the human dimension of the priest, the fact that he must be a person with everyone else, a brother of all: “The Second Vatican Council has reminded us that the priest is ‘taken from among men’ and that his is a ‘ministry in the community’. There is need for a priestly spirituality that is not linked to a culture or to an environment, but one which gives voice to the whole world, one which is part of the flow of history today; we need priests who are the bearers of communion.”
Hungarian Father Dom Imre Kiss, who is responsible for the Vinea Mea Centre, described the formation method and program of courses of formation for priests. “We are a single community, but we live in small focolares suitable in size for a family in which mutual love becomes practical and deep, and where you can learn what it means to say that “the spirituality of communion renders enivironments suitable for the lifestyle that constitutes what is specific to this school for priests: the new communitarian dimension of the Church.”
Stefania Tanesini
Photo gallery on Flickr
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23 Oct 2013 | Non categorizzato
Going out to the peripheries and making contact with today’s humanity. This was the commitment of 211 delegates who attended an annual gathering at the headquarters of the Focolare Movement in Rocca di Papa, Italy, during the period 26 September – 19 October 2013.
During a live Internet broadcast which linked more than 10,000 connection points all over the world, Focolare president Maria Voce greeted everyone with in a personal message, inviting members of the Movement to focus their energies on the “peripheries of the world”, not only those linked to material poverty, but also those places that are poor of God. This is a process that the Focolare had begun for some time now and which marked the origins of the charism in Trent, Italy, and the life of founder Chiara Lubich.
Today again the Focolare Movement feels the imperative to focus less on itself and more on the least, aiming towards communion. “We feel urged on by Jesus,” Maria Voce reiterated as she spoke to the Focolare members all over the world, “ who continues to suffer in today’s world, that world which at times assails us with its doubts and desperation, but which longs to encounter the One who alone can give meaning to its existence”.
But in order to reach out to the world we need “to go outside our comfort zone and immerse humankind in the flame of evangelical love.” This love is what transforms us all into the one family of God’s children in relationships that are real and true, and where each one is ready to give one’s life for the other, a love that becomes reciprocal. This is the point of the spirituality of unity that all the members of the Movement will deepen during the year.
Representatives of Focolare communities in war-torn countries were also present at the meeting. In these environments so greatly tested by armed conflict and division, the evangelical proposal of mutual love as the way to peace becomes a prophecy for a future of reconciliation. “We would meet not to defend ourselves, but to forgive those who hurt us, to encourage one another to love more,” affirmed the representatives of the Focolare in Syria. Strong words were accompanied by personal experiences of daily life, in spite of the darkness of the “Syrian night,” always striving to carry on in the hope that “only good can win over evil.”
The delegates concluded their gathering with the wish to return home “with an open heart to spread the experience of communion”. In the hope that “the Gospel lived by many will bring a new advancement of the Kingdom of God in the world”.
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22 Oct 2013 | Non categorizzato
The big hall of the Argentinian Little City of O’Higgins was transformed into a circus setting: the characters, through their performances, the choreography and the visual projections accompanied by musical themes, demonstrated the complex reality that society faces today. A program without intermissions, that sought to transmit a deep and incisive message through art.
Which one? To aim high, this is what was proposed by the theme song of the Festival, to have faith in the power of working together, with each one giving his own contribution, to believe that the barriers of individualism can be broken so as to be able to transform society in the different environments wherein the young people live their lives day by day, to struggle for a “culture of giving” based on a disinterested service, for a culture of fraternity and of forgiveness that breaks all the schemes of a humanity fossilized and frivolous that suffers, to believe that great ideals are not a utopia, but a reality that can come true by bringing about a true revolution of Love, through one’s daily actions.
At the heart of the preparation of the event were the 80 young people present this year in the Mariapolis Lia. The starting point was the question they asked themselves regarding what message to give to the numerous young people who come every year for this festival. The proposal was that of “showing everyone how society could be, if reciprocal love was the fundamental law of all our actions”. At the end of a critical reflection on contemporary society, they unmasked one of its most frequent illnesses: individualism.
From there came the choice of the slogan that helped them to bring ahead the propsed initiative, with the idea of risking one’s life for great ideals: “You are capable of doing great things… Let’s break with all stereotypes! A slogan that echoes the invitation of Pope Francis at Rio de Janeiro precisely to the Argentinian youth: “Hagan lío” (to make noise).
And so with a hundred young people coming not only from Argentina and from its farthest provinces, but also from Uruguay and Paraguay, the rich two-day program opened the way to participation through various workshops, the tour of the little city, a recital for peace with different invited musical groups and the band of the Mariapolis Lia. The work done together led to the search for solutions to the problems that were raised during the initial challenge.
Then they leave once again, but with the desire to put into practice in their daily life the departure from individualism, an answer to the words of Francis: “I want you to make yourselves heard (…), I want you to go outside, I want the Church to go out to the streets, I want us to defend ourselves against all that is worldly, the opposition to progress, to all that is comfortable, from all that is clericalism, from all that makes us closed up within ourselves. The parishes, the schools, the institutions are made to go out…”.
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16 Oct 2013 | Non categorizzato
2013 will be remembered as a good year for two of the Focolare’s English publications. New City (Philippine Edition) was awarded a special mention for Interreligious Dialogue by Christian Media (ICOM), which has its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The North American Living City magazine received an honorary mention in the category “Best Coverage of Vocations to Priesthood, Religious Life or Diaconate” for an article written by Sarah Mundell. The award was conferred by the Catholic Press Association of Canada and North America (CPA).
From vocations of the Catholic Church to the great frontier of inter-religious dialogue. An article in Living City and two in New City were particularly appreciated. The article in the American magazine was written by Sarah Mundell, following her interview with David Rider, the protagonist of the story, entitled: “Man of the cloth . . . and tap shoes” (LC June 2012). During the award ceremony the CPA described the article as “expressively written, fascinatingly original.”
New City Philippines magazine dealt with the fragile peace process in Mindanao (No 1/2013) and education for a culture of dialogue (No 6/2012). The award that was conferred during ICOM’s world congress in Panama City (September 28, 2013-October 5, 2013), gave recognition to the commitment of New City in easing the tensions of cultural and religious conflicts, recounting factual accounts of daily life in which there is a sense of reciprocity, mutual respect and solidarity.
The awardees. Jose Aranas is third from left.
The Panama event brought together journalists and professionals from around the world who have had opportunities to study the problems of the American continent. It was in this context that the International Journalism Awards were conferred, on October 4, 2013 at the University of Panama.
In accepting the award, Jose Aranas, editor-in-chief of the Focolare’s magazine published in the Philippines, spoke about the cultural and religious context of his country, the only country in Asia with a Christian majority. He stressed how the articles leading to the conferring of the award were above all experiences of Focolare members from different religions who strive to live in the light of the Golden Rule that is present in one form or another in many sacred texts: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Mt. 7:12).
15 Oct 2013 | Non categorizzato
October’s Word of Life invites us to “be the first to love every person we meet, telephone, write to or live with. Our love should be practical and concrete, persevering, generous and patient. Waking up during the night “I work in a school, whereas my wife, Betty, stays at home with the children. They often wake up in the night and begin to cry. This is a burden for me. I try to hide beneath the covers, even covering my head so I don’t hear the noise. I tell myself that my wife should go and care for them alone. Considering that Betty continuously has to get up from bed each night to care for the children and reflecting on love of neighbor, I suddenly realized that my wife and children are my first and closest neighbours. Up until then my love had been only partial: I loved only when there were no difficulties involved. Then I decided to begin immediately. And that very night, when the children began to cry, I ran to help them sleep again. It was difficult, but I managed well. I did this for some time, until the little ones have ceased to awaken during the night.” B. – Uganda Refugees “I’m a Muslim who escaped from Bosnia, where I left behind my Catholic husband. Two of my cousins had already fled to Split. One of them was expecting a baby; they asked me to help her and that’s why I’m in Dalmatia. I did everything I could to improve this situation. During that period, one day another woman came to stay in the small apartment,. She was ill and elderly. I was without strength. I missed my husband and family in Tuzla. . . When I couldn’t see any way forward, the woman who had welcomed us into her home invited us to a gathering in which I heard talk of the Gospel for the first time. I realized that by loving others I could change myself and the situations around me. So I went in search of other refugees in the city and a small group was begun that continued to grow. Together we were able to help each other to find medicines, send letters to relatives and care for the children. Now there are 87 of us. We feel like a true family, even though we are of different ethnic backgrounds, nationalities and religions.” T. – Bosnia A seed of unity “While in hospital for a little surgery, I read a book that my fiancé had given me. It contained experiences of people who were trying to live the Gospel. They were very beautiful, but I said to myself: “It’s impossible to really live like that.” Then she invited me to meet some of those people, and as I spoke with them I understood and saw that it was possible. From there a new path was opened for us. We married with the intention of forming a family that would be open to others. First I wasn’t religious even though I belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran Church, whereas Anna is Catholic. As I began to reflect more, I understood that in order to love my Church I should give a witness there. This is what I did. I made connections and now belong to the parish council. We’d like to show to our children and to everyone the beauty of the Christian faith by being a family that is a seed of unity.” D. J. K. – Germany Soure: Il Vangelo del giorno (The Daily Gospel), (Città Nuova Publishing House, Rome. October 2013)
