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11 Oct 2012 | Non categorizzato
Faith is a fire, the more it grows the more it instructs souls. Those who keep it to themselves risk suffocating it, since it will then lack the oxygen of charity, a virtue that is expansive and not egocentric. We have not done all that needs to be done when we have found faith for ourselves; that is the start of the debt to give it to others. Religion is born in the conscience; but it does not die there. It is born, and it expands beyond the person. Closing it in ourselves, as in a strongbox, means constricting the immensity of God and of love. It is to commit an act of deformation and restriction. What follows is stunted worship, limited to our own measure, jealous of the worship that can be seen in others: a sectarian attempt to kidnap divinity for our personal use. We substitute Jesus who is ours for Jesus who is mine; brotherhood is vivisectioned. We become uncatholic, without realizing it, adopting in practice the principle of everyone for himself and me first, and the solidarity of the Mystical Body disintegrates. Just as if in the human body, a cell or an organ functioned for itself alone, unconnected to others.
But – and here lies the strength of our true personality – the person does not live for self. Indeed the person lives the least possible for self and progresses spiritually if living a continuous renunciation of self, because in serving others God is served and in this the self is served. According to the paradox of Christ, those who take most care of themselves, take least care of themselves. The greedy die of fear and starvation. It easier to be saved though others, because the salvation which comes from God abides by the rule of human works, that is, of service to our neighbours, in whom the law of love takes effect, linked as our neighbours are to God not only by faith but also by love which translates into acts. It is a faith demonstrated by facts by which we stand before God not only in a one-to-one relationship, but accompanied by our brothers and sisters, just as every child before its father, with the debt of solidarity.
An urge to reach above conducts this debt to God; an urge to breadth conducts it to humanity. The two urges are not independent of one another, but linked, like the two axes of the cross, which meet in the heart of Christ. The more the one ascends, the more the other is spread wide. The more we love God, the more we seek out other human beings, in each of whom blazes God’s image.
Extract from Igino Giordani, Segno di Contraddizione, 1933 (Città Nuova, Rome, 1964, pp.272-4 and p.321)
www.iginogiordani.info
11 Oct 2012 | Non categorizzato
«We know that God-Love is a truth of our faith, and a very timely reality. In our world today, God seems to be far off and people even reach the point of speaking of the death of God. What could be healthier and more awaited by this humanity around us – including the one that calls itself “Christian,” but isn’t completely so – than to open her up, with the help of the Spirit, to this revelation: God is close to everyone with His love, and He ardently loves each one of us? What could be more important than to tell this humanity that every circumstance speaks of this love? To make them understand that we should feel enveloped by this love, even when everything would make us think otherwise? To announce to them that nothing escapes Him, who counts even the hairs of our head? … Our world needs this announcement: that God is Love, that God loves you, God loves you immensely! Thousands of people have done it by now, they have announced it, they’ve said it in the train, at school, at home, in the stores; whenever they had the opportunity they said: “Look, remember that God loves you.” The effects were extraordinary, the people got a shock, precisely like when the apostles proclaimed: “Christ is risen.” “What? Risen?” Tell these people, say it with conviction: “God is Love and God loves you immensely!” This will start a revolution.» Chiara Lubich, “Dio Amore”, Ed. Città Nuova, Roma, 2011, pagg. 86-87. Chiara Lubich, “Dio Amore”, Ed. Città Nuova, Roma, 2000, pag. 87-88.
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10 Oct 2012 | Non categorizzato
6th Pedagogical Meeting at Padua University
How are we to educate in an age that is marked by growing disorders, religious extremism, a social, economic and cultural crisis and uncertainty of the future generations?
How are we to educate in an environment where any hope of being able to educate a human being seems to have been lost, to the point that we now refer to the human person as uneducable?
How do we move out of the darkness and into the light in order to answer the challenges of the many extreme situations that are spreading across countries and entire continents?
These are some of the challenging questions that the participants of the Sixth Pedagogical Meeting (6 October 2012) sought to provide answers for. The meeting was entitled “Night and Dawn” and was held in the University of Padua’s Aula Magna. It was a mix of life and reflection, charismatic thrust and pedagocial theory. The charismatic dimension was drawn from the thought of Chiara Lubich who links this choice to the experience of Jesus living through His abandonment on the Cross, love to the maximum degree that “indicates to us the limitless degree of responsibility and intensity required for the educational endeavour” and makes us discover “the endless responsibility contained in assistance and education.”
A first step: to try to respond to the socio-cultural unease at the “macro” level by taking charge of the unease that is found at the “micro” level, that is, in daily life. So it was for one Italian teacher in a northern suburb of Paris who chose not to apply for a transfer but to continue his efforts where he was working in a multi-cultural environment with students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. It was often a hard commitment, which carried a cost (such as the car that had been smashed up by kicking, since it had been identified as one belonging to a teacher). But his commitment also gave hope and possibility to students who had felt rejected, instilling in them that strength that comes from knowing that someone believes in you.
Other experiences and approaches were shared by another teacher working in one of those notorious neighbourhoods in Palermo, Italy – including Brancaccio where Fr. Puglisi had been murdered. By opting for the least this teacher was required to reinvent himself every day, to place himself in the game again with passion and professionalism, to transform unexpected events into occasions for fraternity. It was an all round commitment, with the support of the “Peace Project Network” that involves thousands of teenagers and several institutions in offering answers to the search for meaning with concrete solidarity projects and activities of all kinds,
Texts of the presentations, including those of the EdU International Commission and Prof. Tiziano Vecchiato (President of the Zancan Foundation) will be available in a few days at: www.eduforunity.org.
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9 Oct 2012 | Non categorizzato
On Saturday 6 October the annual meeting of the Focolare Delegates came to an end. It had been going since since 13 September at the Movement’s international centre in Rocca di Papa, just outside Rome. About 300 people attended. Among them there were delegates from the Centre of the Movement, including those with an overview of the larger geographical areas where the Movement is present.
It was a month of intense work. The Delegates assessed the Focolare’s current situation worldwide and considered future developments. The programme was a mix of plenary sessions, topic-focused meetings (Church, young people, society) and groups from geographical areas. The Movement’s life was reviewed, its involvement in the lives of many peoples, sharing their aspirations and hopes, their trials and difficulties, such as in Syria or other countries afflicted by violence, conflict and natural disasters. Special consideration was given at how ‘fraternity’ is at work in the world, via the United World Project launched at the Genfest, and assessed in detail by the Focolare. A conference to study the thought of Chiara Lubich was announced. It will be held on 14 March 2013 at the Sapienza University of Rome, on the fifth anniversary of her death. Space was dedicated especially to the topic of communication, highly relevant in a digitally networked world. Benedict XVI’s choice of theme for the next World Communications Day: Social Networks: portals of truth and faith; new spaces for evangelization was highlighted in this context, and consideration was given to the new media and their impact upon society in a conference held by the Italian sociologist Gennaro Iorio, the Chilean psychologist Paula Luengo and the Italian economist Benedetto Gui. There was also an overview of the media used by the Focolare Movement, going from the publishing house Città Nuova in Italy and its sister houses throughout the world, to the Focolare press office, to the Focolare information service and its internal news magazine, to its website and social networks, which are working together in an attempt to achieve coordinated communication.
In a live broadcast transmitted across the world on Saturday 6 October, Focolare President Maria Voce said, ‘The news brought by the Delegates and what we have been told directly have shown God at work in the year that has just finished. We are sure that he will do even more in this coming year, if we put ourselves at his service, recognizing him and loving him in each brother or sister.’
This year has been dedicated by the Roman Catholic Church to the ‘New Evangelization’, and the Focolare Movement is in harmony with this as it seeks to understand and live more deeply the point of Chiara Lubich’s spirituality of love for our brother or sister. The Other, Another Me is the title of Maria Voce’s talk to the Focolare this year. It is based on the biblical invitation to ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ (Mk 22:39).
This is the basis of Maria Voce’s words in a greeting via the internet to the members of the Movement: ‘May this year see a huge expansion of love in the world.’ We must seal ‘this pact of mutual love, not for ourselves but for the sake of humanity which needs a flood of love, which needs a torrent of love, which needs to meet Jesus.’
In the meantime, on Sunday 7 October, there was the solemn opening ceremony in the Vatican of the Synod of Bishops on the theme of The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith, to which Maria Voce has been invited as an observer.
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6 Oct 2012 | Non categorizzato
Pope John XXIII signs the bull convoking the Second Vatican Council on 11 October 1962
The year 2012 brings with it a very special anniversary. Fifty years ago, on 11 October 1962, John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council. Thirty years later, 11 October 1992, the same date was chosen by John Paul II for the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Again on 11 October there is the beginning of the Year of Faith, announced by Benedict XVI in his Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith explains it in these terms: ‘This year will be a propitious occasion for the faithful to understand more profoundly that the foundation of Christian faith is “the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” Founded on the encounter with the Risen Christ, faith can be rediscovered in its wholeness and all its splendour. “In our days too faith is a gift to rediscover, to cultivate and to bear witness to” because the Lord “grants each one of us to live the beauty and joy of being Christians.’
For the Roman Catholic Church the issue is fundamental. This was shown by Benedict XVI’s decision to create, on 20 September 2010, the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization. Circumstances and issues come together in the first major event of the Year of Faith, namely, the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops from 7 to 28 October 2012. Its focus will be: The New Evangelization for the Transmission of Christian Faith.
Three theologians were asked for their reflections on the theme of the Synod:
Piero Coda, wrote a short piece entitled Vatican II and the New Evangelization – a Single Kairós. In it he considers roots of the new evangelization in the decisions of the Second Vatican Council.
Julie Tremblay wrote a piece called The Quality of Our Faith. It emphasizes the essential condition for the Synod’s theme of new evangelization: living the Gospel in a new way.
The Anglican theologian Callan Slipper in his piece The ‘New Evangelization’ from an Anglican Perspective emphasizes how the direction taken by the Roman Catholic Church is of interest and helpful to other Churches which share the same difficulties. An ‘exchange of gifts’ between the Churches could be extremely useful in this context.
To read their reflections in the original Italian, go to Nuova Umanità online
The editorial is introduced and edited by Antonio Maria Baggio in the three monthly cultural journal Nuova Umanità.
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5 Oct 2012 | Non categorizzato
‘We have been living in an apartment block for fifteen years. There are four staircases and a hundred and twenty dwellings. When we got married, we wanted to build up good neighbourly relationships with everyone and possibly to share the joy of the kind of life we lead based on the Gospel. But working all day long we never saw anyone. However, after the birth of our children we met other parents and their children in the park and the yard for our building. We had the idea of inviting some of them for an evening meal, and after that there were times to get together for parties and outings. The atmosphere finally began to change and become a lot warmer.
‘At times relationships just take off, overcoming any natural reservations, and we try not only to give but we also to find the courage to ask. One day Marco was rewiring our flat, but he realized that he wasn’t able to do everything. With a bit of humility he went to ask for help from our neighbour opposite, and he helped willingly and with unexpected kindness.
‘One very hot and sticky Saturday in August we got home at about midnight. The children were fast asleep in our arms. In front of the red lights of the lift there were two couples already waiting. They didn’t seem to have the least intention of letting us go first, despite our “burdens”. We had had a bit of an argument with them about how, in their opinion, our children shouldn’t play in the yard. They got into the lift. While we were waiting for our turn, the lift broke down and the alarm went off. The stairs were practically deserted, because in the heat everyone had left town. What could we do? Call the fire brigade or service manager, and then put our children to bed and keep ourselves to ourselves? Basically they hadn’t treated us very well. But the air in the lift was getting hotter and hotter… Marco ran to the place where the motor was and with tremendous effort managed to force the lift up to the next floor, freeing those who had been stuck in it.
‘One evening we went out to eat with our neighbours. At one point, their parents, who also live in the same building, called them to tell them that water was coming out of their flat. We all rushed back. The door of the washing machine had opened and water was gushing out in a continuous stream. The result was that their whole place was under two centimetres of water, to say nothing of the water that had already escaped through front door. Things looked tragic when we thought of the possible damage to the flat bellow; they had only just put down some parquet flooring. We offered to let our friends’ children sleep at our place. The men began to brush the water off the balcony and the women soaked it up with buckets and rags. We worst was avoided – fortunately.
‘Another evening, when we were in the living room, we heard a terrible cry from the floor below. To begin with we thought we ought to keep our noses out. But then Marco went down. The door into the flat was wide open. Marco entered cautiously. The eighteen year-old son was pinned to the ground by two of our neighbours. His father was staggering about and seemed utterly lost. His mother was desperate and, as she gasped for air, she said that the boy had wanted to throw himself off the balcony. Another neighbour was holding a bandage to his face where the boy had punched him. The boy carried on shaking and shouting with wild eyes and foaming at the mouth. We did what we could, especially comforting the parents and waiting together for the ambulance that was coming to take the boy to the hospital. He had overdosed on cannabis.‘This too is the kind of thing that can happen in a building like ours.’ (Anna Maria and Marco, Italy)
Taken from: Una buona notizia. Gente che crede gente che muove – Città Nuova Editrice, 2012
And what about you?
