6 April 2012 – Colombia: Meeting with the young people
Meeting of the young people with Giancarlo Faletti, co-President of the Focolare Movement, and a linkup with Maria Voce in Colombia
With Him, it’s a perennial Easter
Zenit: We are nearing Easter. While the world is breathing an atmosphere of fear because of the threat of terrorism, what answer may come from the mystery of Good Friday and the Easter Resurrection? Chiara Lubich: Every day is Good Friday. Looking at the news, in front of the killings and assassination attempts, one after the other, in those pictures of inhuman violence, in the cry of those sufferings, resounds the cry of abandonment which Jesus cried out to the Father on the cross: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?, his greatest trial and the darkest shadow. But it’s a cry which didn’t remain without an answer. Jesus did not remain in the abyss of that infinite pain, but, with a huge and unimaginable effort he re-abandoned himself to the Father, overcoming that immense suffering and in this way he brought people back in the bosom of the Father and in the reciprocal embrace. We know the deepest causes of terrorism: resentment, suppressed hatred, the desire of revenge smouldered for years by oppressed peoples because goods are not shared equally and rights are not recognized. What is lacking is communion, sharing and solidarity. But we know that goods don’t move if hearts are not moved. Therefore, what we need to create everywhere in the world are spaces of brotherhood, that brotherhood which was won back on the cross. From that cross Jesus gives us the highest, divine and heroic lesson on what Love is: a love which makes no distinctions, but loves everyone; which doesn’t expect return, but always takes the initiative; that knows how to make itself one with the other, knows how to live the other; that has a measure that is infinite: it knows how to give its life. This love has a divine strength, it can produce the most powerful Christian revolution which must invade not only the spiritual realm, but also the human one, renewing every expression of it: culture, politics, economy, science and communication. Zenit: Where does the Focolare Movement get its strength from? Where does this ardent love come from? Chiara Lubich: From a great discovery which is at the heart of the charism of unity: that commandment that Jesus defines as new and his: “love one another as I have loved you,” when it is lived-out with radicality, it generates unity and brings about an extraordinary consequence: Jesus himself, the Risen One, is present in our midst, as he promised “where two or three are gathered together in my name,” that is, in his love, as the Fathers of the Church say. A writing at the beginning of the Movement, tells us the surprise for the first discoveries: “Unity! We feel it, we see it, we enjoy it, but it’s ineffable! Everyone enjoys his presence, everyone suffers with his absence. It’s peace, joy, love, ardour, atmosphere of heroism and utmost generosity. It’s Jesus among us!” And with Him, it’s a perennial Easter! Source: Chiara Lubich Centre – read full interview
Holy Week 2012
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| “After the resurrection, Jesus remained another 40 days on earth with his followers. Could it be that he wanted to show his desire to remain among us, to help shoulder our responsibilities and to share in our difficulties, joys, sufferings, victories and failures…?
And if this is so, wouldn’t our constantly renewed reciprocal love, that allows him to continuously rise in us and among us, be the best way to live in a perennial Easter? From Guatemala, where the mysteries of Holy Week are lived very intensely, may my warmest wishes reach all the friends of the Focolare Movement around the world so this may be so!” Emmaus (Maria Voce) |
Visit to Latin America: Mexico
Visit of Giancarlo Faletti in Mexico
The Way of the Cross 2012: Focus on the Family
This year Pope Benedict XVI has given the task of writing the reflections for Good Friday’s “Way of the Cross”, to be held on April 6 at the Colosseum, to Italian couple Anna Maria and Danilo Zanzucchi, married focolarini with 5 children and 12 grandchildren, who were among the first married couples to follow the spirituality of unity promoted by Chiara Lubich. As well as being consultants on the Pontifical Council for the Family, Anna Maria and Danilo were directors of the New Families Movement for about 40 years and still actively continue to give their precious contribution to this branch of the Focolare Movement. In the pastoral year dedicated to the family, during which the VII International Meeting of the Family will take place (Milan, 30 May – 3 June, 2012), the reflections that will accompany the traditional Holy Week appointment will therefore focus on the family. It’s the first time that the Holy Father has entrusted this task to a married couple. For further information: Press Area: Married couple Anna Maria & Danilo Zanzucchi to prepare reflections for the “Way of the Cross” Meditations by Danilo and Anna Maria Zanzucchi Articles of interest CNS: Meditations by Danilo & Anna Maria Zanzucchi Washington Post: Elderly married couple writes pope’s Good Friday talk
Preparing for Marriage
Marco and Maria come from the province of Milan, Italy. They have been engaged for five years, and both work. They plan to be married in 2013. But first they want to get to know each other better, to share some quality time and above all to enter more deeply into their decision that will last forever. Giuseppe and Paola will get married in July. “There’s so much to be done,” they say, “but our desire is above all to start off by getting to know each other better as a couple.” On 15 – 18 March 2012, 120 couples from throughout Europe gathered at the Mariapolis Centre in Castelgandolfo, Italy, for a marriage preparation course orgranized by the New Families Movement. This is the 36th such course, which wants to offer an experience that “There is Only One Love” as the title proclaims, the love of God in which human love is all contained, as Chiara Lubich wrote in a letter to her sister who was engaged in 1944. “At first it bothered me that he was always thinking too much,” recounts Maria, “I also noticed the cultural differences, but now I feel that they enrich me. I see where I can improve. . .” The couples talked, telling about themselves, their plans and their dreams. They confront their feelings both between themselves and with the other couples, willing to go all the way in discovering and living “a beautiful and pure love, as Chiara Lubich described at a congress in 1991 – a love so strong that it pushed them to leave their families in order to be joined in marriage.” Rev Fr Paolo Gentili, Director of the Office for the Family at the Italian Conference of Bishops, gave a presentation in which he highlighted the significance of the marriage sacrament: “In a world that lives of use-and-toss relationships,” he explained, “saying a yes that is forever offers the glimpse of a love before which all others are like broken shards of glass in front of a fine diamond.” “Faced with the fragmentation and fragility of couple relationships today,” underscored Gentili, “planning on marriage, built on the rock of Christ, permits you to rise up again from those small and great falls that will certainly occur, keeping you faithful to the horizon of Love.”