Video clip “Together for Europe”
Promotional video – multilingual
United World Week 2.0
The 15th edition of World Unity Week (WUW) entitled “We are ready to bridge” started on the 1st of May, at Loppiano, with a worldwide linkup. In brief, the web has been invaded with photos, videos, notices, proposals and messages to be lived during the days of WUW. This manifestation has been carried out every year from 1996 onwards, and it always leaves its mark on the lives of many youths, involved in actions of fraternity and influencing of public opinion. This mark is made not only at the level of community but most of all on a personal level. The echoes reverberated from Syria to Kenya, from Mexico to Singapore, from Argentina to Italy, from the citadel of Loppiano to Budapest, the city of bridges.
This WUW is a fundamental stage for the Genfest that will take place at Budapest from the 31st August to 2nd September 2012, with the title “Let’s Bridge”. The central moment of the WUW was on the first day with a worldwide direct transmission on its official site and also through the contents gradually transmitted on twitter, facebook, youtube, and blog. Every day, thousands of Youths for a United World (GMU) posted on the net proposals that range from ecology to spirituality. The year of the genfest will end with the 16th WUW on 1st May 2013.
Let us now go on a worldwide tour to get to know the creative answers of many youths, from different cultures, who adhered to the invitation to participate in this manifestation.
These are some flash news:
PANAMA- On 29th April, there were 500 youths in the community of Pacora for the opening of the WUW. There were meditations from Chiara Lubich, Mother Theresa of Calcutta and Gandhi. They also presented the life of Chiara “Luce” Badano. Mons. Yovko Pishtiyski (the secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature in Panama) celebrated the Holy Mass.
BRAZIL- the GMU (Youths for a United World) of Manaus prepared a vegetable soup to take it in the early hours of the morning, to the poor in the centre of the city. Thus they spoke with many of them and shared their difficulties.
CONGO- at Kinshasa, the GMU visited a centre for disabled, and carried out a day’s programme entitled “Build bridges of fraternity.”
HOLY LAND AND ITALY- the GMU of the Holy Land and Italy committed themselves to the project-“Ways of Peace”. A group of youths from the Holy Land who were visiting the Marche and Emilia Romagna regions took part in building bridges between different religions and cultures.
ITALY-At Torino a volleyball tourney was held at night entitled “Enjoy the fluo” Volleyball. It had a particular character: the games were played illuminated only by lamps that rendered fluorescent the t-shirts, field lines, ball and net that had been treated with special varnish. 7 teams were enrolled, with around 90 participants, apart from all those who just came to watch or give support.
Sant’Anastasia (NA) – Together with the association “Lucincitta”, the GMU organised an event called “Something Bright” a musical that relates the life of Chiara “Luce” Badano. 500 persons participated at this evening event that was supported by the local council.
Poggio Mirteto (RI) – Together with the “Bloccoverde Greenaction”, the GMU took forward various interesting initiatives to improve and protect the public green spaces.
SWITZERLAND- at Montet the 3rd edition of “Journee Uni” was held, at which 120 youths from French speaking Switzerland took part. The workshops touched upon themes like the Christian answer to sorrow; the meaning of life; social awareness and how to help a friend in difficulty.
From this WUW, that revealed initiatives that existed already and gave rise to new ones, the project emerged that seeks to “count” the actions for fraternity that are held in the world. It has been called “United World project”. “We wish to create a permanent observatory that measures at 360 degrees the development of fraternity practices,” says Letizia, who forms part of the team that is organising the Genfest. The appointment that the “Youths for a United World” had at the United Nations in New York, on 30th April, has encouraged us to go forward in order that this project is recognised as fundamental in bringing peace and development of peoples.
Links:
1) http://www.loppiano.it/default.asp?s=2&o=343&c=0
3) https://twitter.com/genfest_it
4) https://www.facebook.com/genfest.it
5) http://www.youtube.com/genfest2012
6) http://giovaniperunmondounito.blogspot.it/
7) http://giovaniperunmondounito.blogspot.it/2012/05/semana-mundo-unido-panama.html
8) http://giovaniperunmondounito.blogspot.it/2012/05/settimana-mondo-unito-ways-of-peace.html
9) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btj28QqfR4A&feature=plcp
10) https://www.facebook.com/events/229922083782415/
11) http://giovaniperunmondounito.blogspot.it/2012/05/poggio-mirteto-bloccoverde-greenaction.html
12) https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.292443110844466.73272.100002363386774&type=1
13) http://giovaniperunmondounito.blogspot.it/2012/05/congo-smu-2012.html
Cartoon character created for Economy of Communion website
We are proud to present Formy (from the Italian “formica” meaning ant) the new EoC mascot. Formy came about from the precious collaboration with cartoonist Vittorio Sedini who, for many years, kept many readers of Città Nuova amused with his comic strips that are witty and full of wisdom. As of today, Formy will be a regular feature on the site aimed at children, adolescents, teachers and educators, which will be published at the same time as our newsletter.
Formy is a further initiative of the Economy of Communion and Youth Project, which began a couple of years ago, aiming to raise awareness of the EoC in the younger generations. Through the comic strip, Formy will endeavour to explain the EoC in a simple and direct manner, but not only to children …
The EoC website has issued the challenge to make the cartoon character, and the Economy of Communion principles it represents, known in the environments that we work in.
Charisms: “Words” Which Evangelize
“Ecclesial Movements and the New Evangelization” was the title given to a four-day gathering of members of the Focolare Movement who are involved in the communion and collaboratioin at various levels with with the many charisms that enrich the Church.
The representives were mainly from Italy, but also included people from Europe: Spain, Switzerland (for the first time), Germany, and the Czech Republic. An international touch was given by the news from Brazil and Argentina of the growing activity that is spreading everywhere among the laity and the desire tobe active in the Church and the world. This reaffirmed the value of the charisms with their specific gifts, as signs of the times and answers to the needs of every age. Another example is what happened in Central America when directors of ecclesial movements met in Guatamala City.
Among the main topics was the upcoming appointment that has been placed on the Catholic Church’s agenda for October 2012, the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the theme: “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith” which will also be examined through the study of the Lineamenta, the working document that introduces the Synod.
Reviewing the points of the Lineamenta shows the involvement of the ecclesial movements as wide promoters of evangelization and so they are reproposed in some passages:
“. . . The springtime of the movements are the visible sign of a religious sense that has not been snuffed out” (n. 8). “(. . .) The freshness and the energy that the presence of groups and ecclesial movements have managed to instill in this task of transmitting the faith is to be recognized and taken as a gift from the Holy Spirit” (n. 15).
Guatemala, March 2012: Maria Voce had a meeting with leaders of various ecclesial movements
The Lineamenta also evidences the central importance of being a “people” that announces the Gospel: youths and families, the chorus of the faithful, personal and global witness, capable of spreading a communitarian style that reaches beyond its own confines, in order to open to dialogue with all the people in the world: believers and unbelievers; carriers of a life steeped in the Gospel, within all the scenarios of the world.
The scenarios could not exclude that of politics. And to conclude the first day a moment was given to taking a look at Europe, at an event in which Catholic Movements and Movements of other Christian Churches have been the main promoters: “Together for Europe” (www.together4europe.org). Then through slides and videos with Igino Giordani there was a reflection on: “Igino Giordani – Politics As Prophecy”, Giordani’s vision of Europe, who though he lived during the post-war years when Italy was all to be remade, saw the need for expanding Europe’s gaze beyond the Alps to seeing Europe in its unity, including, in those difficult times, even Russia.
More insights for reflection on the Ecclesial Movements: “Words” that Evangelize, were offered through a selection of Chiara Lubich’s writings that were chosen to help understand that each Movement in the Church is a word of the Gospel translated into life.
The result was a renewed understanding of Church as a beautiful “garden” and of the need for the many “Words”, the many charisms, to live in communion with each other, in order to then overflow and have a positive effect on the civic level, overflowing with the fascinating beauty of the Gospel as it becomes life.
Sophia University Istitute: the new web portal goes online
Four years after opening, Sophia University Institute (Loppiano, near Florence) has renewed the graphics and the contents of its website.
With the recent development of its educational programmes and the introduction of new specializations (there are three new courses: in political science, economy and management, and trinitarian ontology), the site now reflects Sophia’s objectives better: to offer today’s women and men the tools to understand and contribute to rewriting the complexity of the present world.
‘We wanted to create a platform that communicates in the clearest way possible what we do at Sophia,’ explains José Luis Bomfim, the Brazilian designer responsible for the project. ‘The pages we’ve created are cleaner and we try to give more accessible information so that the user can navigate more easily and find richer content, and to give more tools for keeping up-to-date with the main events organized by the Institute. We’ve also upgraded its integration with Facebook and Twitter.’
What’s new. Among the various new things there is a Media Gallery with more videos and images that describe the life of the Institute better and a page of News and Events that soon will offer online registration and the chance to receive an email reminder of an appointment on the following day. There will also be the possibility of downloading the events calendar via Google Calendar and the like.
A lot of space is given to the academic programme and to the stories of students and ex-students (using multimedia applications) so that it is easier to understand what is special about Sophia as an experience of study and of life.
A page has also been given to the new synergy with the publishing house Città Nuova. It is possible to foresee the digital version of the Review Sophia as well as several series of books co-published by the Institute and the publishing house which will be on sale online via Città Nuova’s website.
Mary, experience of Paradise
“The greatness of Mary is a reflection of the greatness of God: his image and likeness, as should be expected in a creature who wanted only to be the actualization of God’s will. A greatness that is utterly one with simplicity. Nothing is complicated in her: everything is straight and clear and simple. No need of fancy words and clever gestures to approach her. It is enough to say what you think, that she says what she thinks, wholly and completely truthful.
This is why she is free. Free from the endless precaution and carefulness that people use as they come together with their fellows, bearing their burden of fear and calculation, of fantasies and desires. She does not even scare Herod, or the Praetorian Guard, or even the unleashed masses: she does the Father’s will, what does anything else matter? If God is with her, who is against her?
This is her way of being a creature, someone who has understood life and lives it: she did not pass years cultivating illusions and waiting for the right occasion, and wailing over delusions, waking every morning with a new agony only to torment herself in the evening with a new defeat. She gathered from her existence the most beautiful thing that existence can give: faith in the Eternal One; the decision to live minute by minute in union with the Eternal One; and in that union, in that shared life, persons and things appear in a limpid light, and being loved they lose their spectroscopic complications.
In her bearing there is no sign of personal complacency, of self-love, of pride or of boredom: she received from God and from Jesus on earth and from Joseph the greatest love and she shared it out around her. To define her conduct, it should be enough to say that she loved everyone, she loved each one, she loved always: the servant of God in the person of the children of God.
Outside Nazareth few people knew her; and inside Nazareth few people spoke about her. Her day was bound by silence. But, usually, the person who keeps working, stays chaste, does normal duties, is not talked about: the newspapers are stuffed full of tales of housebreakers and killers, of people who violate the laws of modesty, of order, of freedom. In the news the main roles are given over to divas and demagogues, the twisted and the criminal – two or three hundred names most often repeated – more than millions of mothers and workers, of nuns and missionaries, the humble masses who keep society going.
And Mary was the prototype of this full, real life: if as a result of the passion of Jesus she suffered the most atrocious pain, as a result of the mission of Jesus, to which she had linked her existence on this earth, she had the delight of the most exquisite joys. Her love for God and other people fed her with ecstasies: and among those reconciled upon the earth she was, as later she was among those who sought her in heaven, a giver-away of joy: cause of our joy (causa nostrae laetitiae). Joy was God in her: God who gave meaning and value to what happened in her: suffering too.
And there is beauty in this: that in Mary and with Mary, who put Jesus in circulation, therefore God Almighty, existence can become a foretaste of paradise: a blessed experience coming from the divine that is worth the effort, indeed worth the joy, of living.”
from: Maria modello perfetto, Città Nuova, 2001, pp.214-219.