Seminarians: “In the footsteps of Chiara Luce”

24 Aug 2013 | Non categorizzato

The week-long retreat, entitled “In the Footsteps of Chiara Luce”, organised by the Gen Seminarians (Gens) of the Focolare, concluded with a joyful international feast at the Sassello parish church (August 13, 2013 – August 16, 2013).  Twenty Gens, 15 priests and 20 seminarians and youths took part in the event. They travelled from 13 countries (one from the Mariana Islands in Oceania) to spend ten days ‘In the Footsteps of Chiara Luce.’” For some it was the first encounter with the Focolare Movement.”

The president and co-president of the Focolare Movement welcomed the young people with a written message: “Dear Gens, It would take forever to share with you all that our young people are doing everywhere in the world. Together we have set out to be living gospels and to give witness through mutual love that God is the most beautiful, fulfilling and liberating ideal that any young person could meet, regardless of their calling.”

The 10 days together at Sassello were like a Mariapolis. There were also families with children, grandparents and some nuns. We attended Mass together and prayed the Rosary in our different languages after supper. A few times we had moments of common meditation and reflection. A strong relationship was formed with the Sassello parish. At the concluding mass on Sunday, there was an exchange of gifts.

The best part was the close moments spent together with the parents of Chiara Luce Badano, first in their home where they welcomed us with open hearts and told us about little Chiara’s life until the age of nine. Then they came a second time to visit us and share with us about Chiara Luce’s life and her relationship with the Focolare Movement. With them came Chicca and Franz Coriasco, friends of the young Blessed, who told us about her life as a Gen. We all realized that we could never really know her unless we went to the source of her holiness: the charism of Chiara Lubich.

Also touching were the testimonies of people who had lived with Chiara Luce: Giuliano, the barman at the coffee bar stressed her normality; Aldina, instead, led us to understand the secret through which Chiara Luce had managed to live those “25 minutes,” that is, her ongoing ‘yes’ to Jesus Forsaken, when she was informed that her illness was serious and irreversible. But the fact is that from when she was a child, a Gen 3, she had already heard talk of Jesus forsaken and she had always tried to live each moment of her life saying to Jesus ‘For you, Jesus’ or ‘if you want it, I want it too, Jesus.’”   

Some impressions; “This was a marvelous experience. Not only have I deepened my knowledge of the extraordinary figure of Chiara Luce, but I’ve also sensed the universal breadth of the church united by the personal love of Jesus for each one of us. I want to enter more deeply into the spirituality of the Movement, but also to transmit what I’ve taken in during these days” (A seminarian).

“I’ve grown in the faith and here I’ve learned that it’s important to begin again” (A young man who is “searching”).

“This was an enriching experience;” a “launching pad for a new take-off;” “normality is a path for becoming saints.”

By Alexander Duno

The Secret of True Love

21 Aug 2013 | Non categorizzato

Video:

Transcript

Erik Hendrik: According to you, what is the secret of true love?

Chiara Lubich: The secret of true love is this, the secret lies in this: that the love we speak of is what is truly understood by the Gospel. The Gospel is the good news that Christ brought on earth, so it’s a love as it is conceived in God, not on earth. It’s a love that we see being lived by the persons of the Most Holy Trinity. For example, the Father loves everyone and lets the rain fall and makes the sun rise on the good and on the bad, he loves everyone. So it’s a love that puts us in the disposition to love all our brothers and sisters, so not only our relatives, friends or the ones we like, but we have to love everyone. Therefore, during the day, in order to love them, we have to single out every person we meet.

A second requirement of this love, which does not exist on earth precisely because it comes from Heaven, is that we must be the first to love and not wait to be loved. Generally, one waits to be loved in order to love. Instead it must be like this: we must be the first to love and this is shown by Jesus, the second divine Person who became man, who died for us when we were yet sinners, which means that we certainly were not loving then.

It’s a tangible love, like that of Jesus, who gave his life. It’s not a sentimental, platonic love, but one that becomes real. It’s a love that “makes itself one” with the other, with those who suffer and those who rejoice, and participate in the suffering and helps those who suffer or participates in the joy.

If this love is practiced in the world, and the Movement lives it, … it’s the secret of the Movement. The Movement has lived it in all the nations of the world. Generally it has been reciprocated because people feel loved and get along well with us. So they ask us, “But why?” And we explain why we love. So a dialogue between us and others begins, and they are not all Christians, not all Catholic, but many times belonging to other religions, even non-believers. But even non-believers, in their DNA, have the idea of loving and the strength to love because they are created by God who is Love.

This is something about love.

Learning Fraternity: the countdown has begun

14 Aug 2013 | Non categorizzato

Preparations are underway for the “Learning Fraternity” Convention that will take place in Castelgandolfo, Italy on September 6, 2013 – September 8, 2013 in response to two major educational challenges of the day: “Educating and Globalisation” and “Education and Relationships.” Promoted by New Humanity the convention workshop is directed to anyone in the field of education: families, schools, catechists, group leaders, researchers, and also the students themselves who will be attending from several countries of Asia, Africa, America and Europe. The convention is sponsored by the Italian National Commission for UNESCO “in consideration of the high value of the project” inasmuch as it is related to the promotion of educational, cultural and scientific activities carried out by this institution on the international level. Learning Fraternity is a project that has gathered many “good practices” from around the world that focus on spreading teaching practices that are based on universal brotherhood. This happened in Slovenia where a group of young experts in the field of communication promoted an educational project in media for small students from the Sunray Kindergarten. In Mexico, Santa Maria College youths from different social backgrounds study in the same classrooms in an atmosphere of brotherly love. In Northern Ireland where the ethnic and religious coexistence has for decades been a situation of high uncertainty, for over twenty years now two Catholic and one Christian Reformed school have formed a “circle of schools” to promote fraternity among their students. The underlying principles of the convention are drawn from the Ideal of unity and brotherhood promoted by the Focolare Movement which has been involved for many years in the spreading of universal brotherhood also in the field of education. Over the years a variety of projects have begun and this event is seen as an opportunity to appreciate the fruits that have emerged, in the world of youths, in social projects and in cultural renewal. An analysis of the information will be promoted by New Humanity (NGO official partner of UNESCO) and social expression of the Focolare Movement in several cultural and social environments, the international New Humanity Movement, the Education and Unity Association, the NGO Action for a United World (AMU) and the Teens4Unity Movement. For more information and constant updates on the numerous “good practices” that are continuing to arrive from around the world, click here to connect with the official website of Learning Fraternity.

The Gift of Grace

12 Aug 2013 | Non categorizzato

With unending imagination God put a woman amongst us so that there might be grace amongst us – Our Lady whom everyone can call My Lady (Madonna). And thus He placed love with beauty amongst us. In her, amongst all creatures, a woman was given highest rank and a woman was entrusted with the largest task ever before entrusted to human creature: the task of generating the element of reunion between humanity and the Godhead. For an abyss had opened between these two that human yearning was never able to overcome.

The Author of human society placed a woman amongst us as a font of piety, joy, inspiration and nobility. And since this woman is a virgin she teaches to be pure and induces the fallen to be purified. And since this virgin is a mother, she is the font of grace for us, the fresh spring water of poetry, the bond of goodness and kindness. If you take away the Mother, human society will become gloomy as, like orphans we no longer find her maternal caresses and good help. Her joy can never be replaced by the pride of those who deny her, or by the foolhardy theories of dominators whose interest it is to remove both Mother and Father so that they can look at others as mere rivals to be subdued.

With this feast of the Assumption, Christendom re-echoes in mid-August that Christmas feast which honours the Son in midwinter. And it introduces into the weariness of life a thought of beauty, a virginal poem that overcomes selfishness and remembers the duties of solidarity.

For those who are not influenced by blind pride, politics or false knowledge there remains the revolutionary Messianic assurance of this young woman, by whose activity we are nevermore orphans. This Virgin is the Mother of all and her maternity sustains millions of the tormented and desperate still today.

Igino Giordani in: Le feste, International Publishers Association, 1954

Unity: A Crazy Dream

10 Aug 2013 | Non categorizzato

“In the beginning it was the love for God overflowing from our hearts that made us spill our rediscovery of the Gospel to many others. How could this happen again today? By trying to be faithful to the way of life that the Holy Spirit suggested to us back then. Above all to be authentic Christians who first live what the Gospel teaches, people of whom it can be said what was said of the early Christians: ‘Look! See how they love one another. Each of them is ready to die for the other.’” Then, we should be Christians by being people who love everyone without distinction. And our love for everyone should be practical and concrete. We should be Christians who first live this kind of love and then talk about the Gospel to everyone.

And even though you can’t always talk about it with your tongue, you can always allow your heart to speak by showing personal interest in others, calling them by name, for example, greeting them in a way that makes them feel that they’re important to you, that you aren’t indifferent to them, that a bond already exists between them and you, even if it’s only one of silent respect.

If they are able to capture these silent words, then they cannot but make an opening in their hearts. Then there will be no need to wait; say a few words, but say something. Begin, for example, from your own experience with Jesus; talk about him.

Let’s try to fill our days with these types of gestures and words that perhaps we’ve never performed or spoken before. We will bring Jesus’ charm to the world and many people will find themselves falling in love with Him. Then the Kingdom of God will spread beyond our expectations. It will grow so much that you will be able to look ahead as Jesus did when he invited everyone to universal brotherhood as he prayed: “may they all be one (Jn. 17:21).”

It might sound like a crazy dream, but it is a dream that might come true because it’s the dream of God.”

A clear message for Latin America and the world /2

9 Aug 2013 | Non categorizzato

What was your impression of the first Latin American Pope’s meeting with CELAM? What do have to say about that meeting?

I think it was historical. Moreover, it was also the first time a Pope ever met with the whole Coordinating body (all the bishops of this four years and all the rest of us who work in coordination). I would characterize the meeting with two words: “paternal” and “fraternal: paternal, because the Pope acts in the name of Peter, as bishop of Rome, the paternal dimension of the Church and, at the same time he was a brother bishop with brother bishops.

This is what he had said he wanted to do, and he did it. All of his gestures and everything he expressed moved in this direction. Moreover, we must not forget that he is the son of the Latin American episcopate. His speech was quite strong, but spoken with paternity and fraternity, accenting some things that he has already been saying, in which, justifiably, he places on guard against a few temptations. He offered a snapshot of what realities that there are in the contemporary Church, he proposed a profile, a figure of a bishop as servant, paternal and maternal together. He said that pastoral service, if he had to define it, would be Mary Mother, the Church as Mother.

He also spoke of the important need for bishops to conduct, but adding that it is necessary that bishops guide, but not by “imposing.” He used just that word. He proposed poverty to the bishops as a lifestyle. He also mentioned the importance that poverty has, in a psychological sense, for not having an aristocratic mentality. I believe that the message given yesterday to the bishops at CELAM was from someone who knows the inner workings and walks with the Latin American Church at his back. As when he said: “I can say this and I must say it! We’re behind in certain things, but let us move forward, let us improve, let us change and renew ourselves.” And his message was also one of great hope. The Pope always speaks of conversion. He says: Let us permanently place ourselves in the processes of conversion. I believe that this is all a great witness that Francis is giving to humankind, that is, that no one in Christianity can give lessons to others without placing himself in the conversion process.

What are the prospects for reception of the Aparecida Document in the aftermath of this encounter with the Pope?

I think there has already been a certain reception of the Document over these past years. It is obvious that all of Latin America has been mobilised. The Pope has without a doubt reawakened a new sensibility for what happened at Aparecida. Let us hope that it will become more and more of an “itinerary” that all peoples can follow, and that they take the steps that the bishops saw and evaluated there. I believe that the most important step that Francesco is helping us to take is rightfully that of a deep pastoral conversion, that is, to place ourselves on the path of following Christ. This means assuming the Gospel in our attitudes, in our gestures, in our speech, in all our practices and it means transforming reality. If there is anything that this Pope possesses as a special gift, it is being absolutely aware that the Gospel offers us the unique opportunity not only to recreate our good Christian conscience as good Christians, but also to transform social, political and cultural reality.

Is there anything else you would like to say about the Pope in Brazil?

I believe that it was a giant leap for the Pope with the young people, because he offered them the Eucharist and prayer as their pathways for following Christ and, thirdly, he pointed them in the direction of helping their neighbors. I think that this is the path for the young and for the entire Church, being able to work for others, for our brothers and sisters, for those in need. Another beautiful thing about the Pope was when he said at CELAM that God is everywhere, not only in the Church, in the temple, in religious institutions. This being able to read God’s presence as he passes through human history is fundamental for us Christians, I think, otherwise the same thing could happen now as happened at the time of Jesus: not everyone recognized him.

*  Dr. Susana Nuin Núñez, Uruguayan member of the Focolare Movement, Consultant of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Executive Secretary of the CELAM Press and Communications Department.