From “YOU” to “WE” – Beyond Faith Beliefs
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Happy Easter!
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On 5th March the Orthodox Church celebrated the Blessed Easter. To all our Orthodox brothers and sisters around the world, we convey our heartfelt wishes for the celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord through a stanza from the ancient Troparion: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs, granting life. Italian: Cristo è risorto dai morti, con la sua morte ha vinto la morte, e a quelli nelle tombe ha donato la vita! Greco: Χριστός ανέστη εκ νεκρών, θανάτω θάνατον πατήσας, και τοις εν τοις μνήμασι ζωήν χαρισάμενος. Christós anésti ek nekrón, thanáto thánaton patísas, kié tis en tis mnímasi zoín harisámenos. Russiano: Христос Воскресе из мертвых, смертию смерть поправ и сущим во гробех живот даровав Romeno: Hristos a înviat din morţi, cu moartea pre moarte călcând, Şi celor din morminte viaţă dăruindu-le! Arabo: المسيح قام من بين الاموات و وطيء الموت بالموت و وهب الحياة للذين في القبور |
May 2013
Here is one example. Night had fallen in Rome. In their basement apartment, a small group of young women who wanted to live the Gospel were wishing each other good night. Then the doorbell rang. Who could it be at this hour? At the door they found a panic-stricken young father. He was desperate: the following day he and his family were going to be evicted because they had been unable to pay their rent. The women looked at one another and then, in silent agreement, went to the dresser drawer. There they kept what was left of their salaries. In envelopes marked “gas,” “electricity” and “telephone” was the money they had set aside for these bills. Without a moment’s worry about what would happen to them, they gave all the money to their visitor. That night they went to bed very happy. They knew someone else would take care of them. Just before dawn the phone rang. It was the same man. “I’ve called a taxi, and I’m coming right over!” Amazed that he should have chosen to come by taxi, they awaited his arrival. As soon as they saw his face they knew something had changed. “Last night, as soon as I got home,” he said. “I found I had received an inheritance I never dreamed I would get. My heart told me I should give half of it to you.” The amount he gave them was exactly twice what they had generously given him.
“Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be put into your lap.”
Haven’t you also experienced this? If not, remember that the gift must be given with no self-interest, without hoping to get it back, and to whoever asks for it. Try it, not so that you can see if it works, but because you love God. You might be tempted to say, “I have nothing to give.” That’s not true. If we want to, each of us can discover that we possess inexhaustible treasures: our free time, our love, our smile, our advice, our peace, our words that might persuade someone who has to give to someone who has not. You might also say, “I don’t know whom to give to.” Just look around you: don’t you remember that sick person in the hospital, that widow who always feels lonely, that boy in your class who failed and got discouraged, the young man who is sad because he can’t find a job, your little sister or brother who needs a helping hand, that friend who is in prison, that new person at work who is unsure of herself? In each person, Christ is waiting for you. Put on the new style of behavior that comes from the Gospel and is the garment of a Christian. It is the exact opposite of having a closed mind or being concerned only about ourselves. Stop putting your trust in this world’s goods, and start relying on God. This will show your faith in him, and you will see from the gifts you receive that your faith is well founded. It becomes apparent, however, that God does not give as he does in order to make us rich. He acts in this way so that many, many others, seeing the little miracles that happen to us as a result of our giving, may decide to do the same. God also gives to us because the more we have the more we can give. He wants us to be administrators of his goods and see to it that they are distributed throughout the community around us, so that others might be able to repeat what was said of the first Christian community, “There was not a needy person among them” (Acts 4:34). Don’t you think that in this way you too can help give a solid spiritual foundation to the social change that the world is waiting for? “Give and it will be given to you.” When Jesus said these words, undoubtedly he was thinking first and foremost of the reward we will receive in heaven. But the reward we receive on this earth gives us already a foretaste and a guarantee of our heavenly reward.
Chiara Lubich
(Previously published in June 1978 and October 2008)
Each month a Scripture passage is offered as a guide and inspiration for daily living. This commentary, translated into 96 different languages and dialects, reaches several million people worldwide through print, radio, television and the Internet. Ever since the Focolare’s beginnings, founder Chiara Lubich (1920–2008) wrote her commentaries each month.
The protagonists of a dream at Sophia University
David belongs to Catholic Action. He is 24 years old and claims that Sophia is one of the most correct choices he has ever made. As student representative, he presented his colleagues. Currently 80 students enrolled in specialization and doctoral courses at the Institute. Vanessa is from Lebanon. She has known the Focolare Movement since she was a child, but at a certain point her search for the meaning of life and for God became deep concerns. At the suggestion of a focolarino friend, she decided to attend Sophia in a last attempt to rediscover that God whose existence she was now doubting. Sophia turned out to be quite demanding, but there she also realized that she was not alone in her search. Twenty-four year-old philosophy graduate Emanuele from Italy, has been at Sophia University for two years. He explains how Sophia allows anyone, regardless of whether or not they belong to the Focolare Movement, to have access to the basic foundations of the charism of unity that stem from that unique experience of Chiara Lubich in the summer of 1949 when she received intuitions from the Lord concerning the Work of Mary that would come to life in the years that followed. “At Sophia,” he says, “the universal dimensions of Chiara’s charism come to be understood by people who do not belong to the Movement.” Lorenzo describes himself as an “abnormal” student, since he’s already 47 years-old and has a stable job. He discovered Sophia when he was invited to speak in a debate where the Economy of Communion had been mentioned. This new proposal for the economy put everything into question for him. He thinks it could be the same for many other people like him who have already graduated or begun careers. 
Lia, who in her second year at Sophia, posed a question to the President of the Focolare and Vice Chancellor of the University Institute, a question about the educational approach used at Sophia which joins study to life. Maria Voce responded: “A difficulty can be seen as an obstacle or as a challenge that can take you a step ahead. The challenge of living together with others allows you to bear witness to universal brotherhood that is the foundational idea of the Movement and of Sophia. How can one ever give witness to mutual understanding, overcoming different visions, if not through concrete experience? You came here because you were drawn by a project that uses a different approach, one that has fascinated you; otherwise, you would have gone somewhere else. This project is rooted in an extraordinary light, in a ‘dream’ that comes true through much effort. You have been chosen for this and it is an important experience for you. You are experiencing the construction of brotherhood. The effort should not frighten you, nor can you try to make the experience easier, because you are dealing with something very great.” Everyone – including the president – was aware of the effort involved. She herself stated: “We need to be open to believing that we are rooted in a dream that began in God, was transmitted through Chiara, and this demands seriousness from those who wish to make it come true. It is a great challenge for great souls.” By Aurora Nicosia See Flickr photo gallery
USA: Everyday life stories
Miguel: We are members of a very large Catholic parish near Denver, Colorado. We arrived there from Argentina about 3 years ago. We didn’t know anybody, not one single person in the area; we arrived in the middle of a “snowy” winter, when people – understandably so –tend to “socialize” less. The fact of us being retired didn’t help.
It was a new chapter in our lives, but, as always, a new opportunity to practice the “art of Christian loving”. We sensed immediately that it was going to be a matter of taking the initiative – be the first- to reach out to “strangers”: fellow parishioners, neighbours, etc, in an attempt to get to know and build more permanent relationships with them. So Raya and I said to each other: “We have to be pro-active and creative in trying to create opportunities to do this, not just for ourselves, our “survival”, but to contribute a little “to change our little corner of the world” for the better.
Many of our parishioners were well acquainted with one another and had enjoyed for many years well-established social networks that seldom allowed for newcomers. Our first effort was to deliberately hang around after Mass in order to start a conversation with someone. Our second effort was to meet and greet these folks each week for the next 18 months. I consciously did this by always asking them something they may have shared with me in our previous conversations, and almost everyone always seemed to feel valued
Miguel: I joined a Catholic men’s association where I found myself helping others install big Christmas trees in the parish, , and driving 60 miles to take food baskets to migrant workers in the Colorado corn fields. In most of my conversations, I would first try to talk about what the other guys would feel comfortable with: daily life, Denver Broncos or mountain hikes; trying in other words to make myself “one” with them as the “art of loving” suggests. But then, whenever the opportunity allowed, I would also try to share something from my spiritual life and my experience in trying to live -not just think- in the spirit of the Gospel. Gradually, I could sense their “respect” and friendship was growing, and within less than 18 months, Raya and I were nominated for the Parish Council.
Raya: A few months later, we were asked by the Church to host a new “small faith community”. Since in all the 80 or so existing small church groups, we had not found any who emphasized the practical side, the connection between Scripture and daily life, we knew that we wanted to focus our group exclusively on this topic so we agreed to host these weekly meetings.
Miguel: About 50% of our time together in the group consists in the sharing of real-life experience in the art of loving so that the abundance and diversity of opportunities to love our neighbors can be universally appreciated. After a while people in the group also started sharing their own experiences of living the Word. One, for example: George, a computer engineer, shared one day: “Since I saw this new approach to the Gospel I realized that I had to change my relationship with my customers and colleagues, by being more attentive, 100% present in each moment, in dealing over the phone with anxious customers whose computer systems were not working, or by taking without the usual ’lamentations’ more complex jobs which my colleagues or boss would send in my direction.”
Raya: Eventually, I began to notice the power of this kind of sharing in helping to inspire others to live more authentically. One lady immediately realized that being a good neighbor was something that she and her husband could easily do—after all almost everyone has a neighbor or two. So, she recounts, “We took the initiative and went together to speak with a couple with whom we had only a casual encounter before. We soon discovered that the wife was about to undergo cancer treatment, and that the husband was quite anxious about it. We volunteered to prepare meals for him while she was in the hospital, we brought her flowers when she returned home, and afterwards I was able to share with them information gathered from my own workplace regarding many positive outcomes reported for her very kind of treatment.”
Miguel: But just having group meetings as you may all know is not sufficient to create a community – we also need to experience a sense of “family” among the members by relating one on one-personally- with each other and repeatedly. So whenever, our regular meeting schedule was interrupted, we would encourage group members to do something individually with another group member and to keep in contact with one another through telephone conversations at least once monthly. In addition, Raya and I regularly tried to model this individual caring for each of the members of our group by-for example- becoming empty of our own concerns when we would spend time with them, so that we could be 100% attentive to learning about theirs. We also encouraged others to share about their personal relationship with God, their deepest aspirations, and their honest struggles with the challenge to love others. All this, in the attempt to unite deeply, spiritually everyone in one group striving for a common purpose.
Raya: Striving to love our neighbours in this way always seemed to bear some kind of tangible fruit and the need to aim for this was always present. Sometimes, just before a meeting, Miguel and I would differ on how we were going to proceed. We also knew we had a responsibility to always practice what we tried to teach, so working to always love each other as “neighbours” – not without effort – also became an important prerequisite for each meeting. The more we practiced living the Art of Loving, the more we began to see tangible fruits from our efforts. In myself, I noticed an increased sense of peace and well-being whenever I put the needs of another ahead of my own. My relationship with Miguel also was enriched.
Our efforts were reciprocated. Our neighbours began offering invitations to us, and some of the group members began sharing experiences of observable behavioural change. The importance of “practicing what we preach” became abundantly clear.
Miguel: Once one member shared : “I was brought up in a solid and even intellectual Christian tradition but here there is something “different”, a new approach related to ‘real every day life’ – a way by which I can concretely contribute to make of this world a better place: at work, family, wherever … Now I am also involved a with the formation of a teenagers and young adults groups, in my church.
Our faith community helps me not to feel alone, it gives me the strength of a “group” to start each day and to practice the art of loving…”.
See also: Expo 2013 website
Towards Pentecost 2013
In these first days of Pope Francis’ pontificate we can find strong signs of the charismatic profile of the Church. What do you think of this?
«First of all I’d underline two words: service and poverty. Pope Francis spoke about these, but he especially bore witness to them with gestures and facts: poverty to express a simple lifestyle, a greater sharing of goods with those most in need and a greater protection of the creation that God put at the disposal of humankind. A particular point then is his capacity to create occasions for dialogue and communion with the people he meets during the audiences, among whom children and the sick, as well as the workers of the Vatican City State whom he invites to his morning Masses. These and other gestures express the attention Pope Francis has in favouring, so to say, the horizontal value of the Church which is the charismatic value. This dimension is inherent to his truly institutional person, which offers a more complete vision of the Church, containing teachings and love, hierarchical interactions and relationships in pursuit of simplicity and “tenderness.” We are often used to considering the hierarchical aspect of the Church as if it were a pyramid, with an exaggerated oligarchy. Instead, Pope Francis makes the reality of the Church as communion come to light, certainly with a centre, around which converges all the gifts that God has granted her through the charisms.»
Maria Voce
This coming May 18th, the Pentecost vigil, Pope Francis will encounter the Movements and lay associations at St. Peter’s Square, in the context of the events of the Year of Faith. How are you preparing for this? What do you expect from this meeting?
«More than expecting something we would like to be able to offer something. We would like the Pope to feel that these thousands of people only longed to bear witness to the vitality of faith, the richness of God’s gifts and the capacity to respond to the most important challenges of the present moment through the different charisms which movements and associations carry within themselves. As Focolare Movement, we would especially wish that the Pope feels that we are totally at the service of the Church, to be instruments of unity among her various constituents, starting among the sons and daughters of old and new charisms, at the service of a Church as communion which is what humanity hopes to see today.»
Source: Focolare Information Service