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25 Jun 2013 | Non categorizzato
A workshop of dance, percussion, song and theatre. A new show by the Gen Verde Musical Group engages young people in workshops in which they are directly involved with the artists in the staging and performance.
On June 13-15, 2013, forty-eight young people from Tuscany and abroad were welcomed by the town of Loppiano, Italy, which is home to the musical group and Lionello Industrial Park. The young people were invited to be active players in the mounting and performing of the new show.
One young woman from Gen Verde commented: “The artistic disciplines naturally raise you to another level of communication through which deep and unexpected relationships can be born, creating dialogue in an encouraging atmosphere of sharing.”
Other members of the group went on to say: “The joy that was bursting from everyone’s eyes also derived from the discovery that you are able to give much more than you often expect from yourself. The end product was important because it was the result of everyone’s contribution.”
By the end of the day the teenagers had grasped how important it is for each person to be valued and no one excluded, they also grasped the “true” joy of sharing a common message with others.
“The mutual gratitude was unrestrained,” Gen Verde concluded, “It was difficult to leave each other after having had a little taste of what the new concert will be like.”
![Gen Verde: Youth project]()
22 Jun 2013 | Non categorizzato
The Committee made up of eight members including the Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical-Lutheran Churches met at the Saint Egidio Community headquarters in Rome on 4thjune, 2013. The main purpose of this meeting was to discuss the fruits of the past year and try to understand together the next step to take. As Chiara Lubich liked to say, trying to see “the score written in heaven.”
In many of the 152 cities linked up on 12th May, 2012 a dynamic collaboration among local movements and communities of various Churches took place. In several countries, there is a national Together for Europe committee which acts as a network that continually encourages dialogue.
Andrea Riccardi (founder of the Community of Saint Egidio), quoting Pope Francis, emphasized the responsibility to continue to go out and avoid being self-referential. It is the “culture of encounter” – emphasized Maria Voce, President of the Focolare Movement also quoting Pope Francis – “the culture of friendship and openness to others that we experience on this journey of communion that gives hope to our continent and beyond.” Returning from a trip to Germany, Maria Voce tells of meetings with important personalities who see Together for Europe as a way of uniting hearts.
Gerhard Pross, YMCA, told, how at the Catholic Academy of Stuttgart-Hohenheim, representatives of the Evangelical Church in Germany, the Catholic Church and other churches met, on the 23rd May, 2013 thanks to the invitation of some movements and communities connected with Together for Europe.
Nikolaus Schneider, Chair of EKD (Evangelical Church in Germany), Archbishop Robert Zollitsch (President of the German Bishops’ Conference), Bishop Gerhard Feige, the regional Evangelical bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm and the Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan, Serafim, in their speeches. Encouraged an open and intense exchange on ecumenical issues particularly timely for the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and in view of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. Some topics emerged:
The return to Christ as the centre point of what unites us, the re-elaboration of our common history at a local and national level that show signs of reconciliation and the importance of raising awareness to the sensitivity of the other Churches.
Rev. Christophe D’Aloisio (SYNDESMOS) presented an interesting vision of some of the Orthodox communities in Europe.
The meeting had a full agenda. Look at the “existential suburbs/outskirts”: this is one of the priorities.
On the morning of June 5th, Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity met the Steering Committee of Together for Europe: he encouraged their projects.
![Gen Verde: Youth project]()
22 Jun 2013 | Non categorizzato
«We are fine. Greetings from Damascus and Aleppo! At this moment a group of us is at a meeting of young people who have been meeting regularly since the last two months in a parish because they want know more about the Ideal of unity.
Of course, the “night” that has come over the country is getting even darker, we do not know how long we will be able to resist, both in terms of stress and economically. The prices are sky-high, the great majority of people think only of obtaining food because everything else is surplus; and for people who are used to work this is a big slap on the face because they feel that their dignity has been trampled by this war.
In many localities and districts, we live side by side with danger. When we leave the house, we wonder: will we be able to come back home? Then there are two bishops as well as two priests who have been kidnapped, and we know absolutely nothing about them. So we pray unceasingly for them, as well as for the other abducted people.
But in this “night”, we can assure you that there is a very strong light. They are the words of Jesus and the teachings of Chiara Lubich that repeat to us to live the present moment, to love, to remain united and to keep the living spiritual presence of Jesus among us.
And so the miracle happens, and it really amazes us: we live “outside of ourselves”, for the others. We only think of loving, to be continually at peace in the face of resentment or even anger that can be felt in our hearts, to improve relationships among ourselves and with everyone. This helps us to live with a certain normality. It gives us peace and many of us feel that this is our place, because it’s right here where we can bring unity and serenity. This is what people thirst for.
A young man who is doing his military service and works in the office, in a place that is often attacked, told us that during one of the last, very strong attacks, while escaping with his colleagues to go to the shelter, he realized that one of them had been shot and had fallen to the ground. For a moment he doubted: “Should I go back to love this brother or should I continue to run?” In his heart he heard a clear voice telling him: “Don’t be afraid, I’m with you.” He went back, took off his shirt to stop the blood flowing down the leg and under the blows waited for the ambulance to arrive.
In this moment that we feel united to you all, I want to thank for every bit of help that reaches us in various ways and that moves us every time. They are a sign of that family atmosphere that accompanies us always. They are very precious, and they allow us to let Jesus in our neighbour feel that love that each one of you has for Him, to console Him, to give Him the strength to endure and not despair.
If we are here it’s because you and so many others with you are living for us. Therefore a huge thank you, thank you and a special greeting from everyone here, from Syria.»
Maria Voce, on behalf of the thousands of people connected via internet, answered, «We are also here because you live for us, and we continue to be united and bringing everything ahead together, praying and sustaining you in every way we can!»
Anyone who wishes to send concrete aid to Syria through AMU (Action for a United World), may find the bank coordinates on the website AMU-Syria Emergency.
19 Jun 2013 | Non categorizzato
Life, Love, Light, or rather, life, love, light. This trinomial that has been connected to the name of Chiara Luce Badano since the day of her beatification is still running on the Web thanks to a website officially dedicated to the young woman from Sassello (Italy) – www.chiaraluce.org. The site is being visited and appreciated by people of all ages. In recent days the site has been added to with new graphics, content and services.
Among the novelties, the long-awaited section entitled LOVE, which regards the spirituality that Chiara Luce lived, some updates about the projects that are being brought ahead by the Chiara Badano Foundation, the section on “At Sassello” regarding the Centre of Spirituality at La Maddalena, a small hamlet in Sassello, which was the birthplace of Chiara Luce. The “Publications” link provides news editorials, CDs and DVDs. The languages have also increased with the addition of Portuguese. The common denominator of the site is the desire to spread the message of this young witness of the Gospel to “make her bright light shine on the lampstand.”
Chiara Luce is also on Facebook . Her Facebook page is widely appreciated with over 54,000 contacts. But beyond the numbers, the life and depth of Chiara Luce continues to uplift and to spread: “I’m feeling a bit down,” one person writes, “and then you appear with that candid expression on your face and that genuine smile of yours, your eyes filled with love. And like magic my heart is calmed. Thanks.”
16 Jun 2013 | Non categorizzato
When we let ourselves be stripped of our faith in God, we are subject to the worst possible swindle. But even where we have not been stripped of our faith in God, we have sometimes lost him just the same because we have forgotten him. And we frequently pay the price for these long stretches of forgetfulness, as basically we have forgotten our being human. We are in a house we no longer recognize as our own, and indeed it has become a jail. We are with others, who we no longer see as brothers or sisters, and the link between us is composed of secret mutual exploitation. We go to a school, read the papers, observe what science produces, and the truth has become twisted for us, so that we end up not knowing the object and doubting the subject, and are treated and treat others as mere figments.
This forgetfulness is summed up in our forgetfulness of God. If we recognize God, we become free with respect to the people of this earth. These people then become our brothers and sisters, and the only attitude we owe them is love. Rediscovering the human person, we come back to seeing the person’s dignity. In a person’s limitations we see the greatness, even while realizing the wretchedness. He or she may collapse, but will remain God’s offspring. The wretchedness belongs to the individual, but the greatness of the individual is conferred by One who is greater. This One wants us in our trials to grow as ourselves, to use misfortune to exercise the great virtues, justice, charity, piety; to value death as giving life, financial poverty as giving spiritual richness, to such a point that our heritage should be the heritage of the spirit, and that our dignity does not depend upon our financial condition, but upon our strength of character, our heroic resignation, our victory where, for us and in us, evil leads back to good.
If we pass through wretchedness and become wretched also in our souls, if we react to the negative and become ugly, if we collapse prostrate in despair and utter exhaustion, we foolishly squander our efforts, soiling our tears without dignity, starving our soul. Heroic love transforms pain into joy, our sufferings into tools for spiritual exercises: misfortunes place before each of us the demand for holiness, and, that is, for perfect humanity, made perfect by grace.
Excerpt from Igino Giordani, La rivolta morale [The Moral Revolt], (Rome: Capriotti, 1945)
www.iginogiordani.info
13 Jun 2013 | Non categorizzato
