“Christmas wishes to all whose lives contribute to making humanity a true family.May the life of the Word be the star which announces Jesus’ arrival and which beckons to an encounter with Him among us, in a never-ending Christmas.”Maria Voce (Emmaus) |
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It all began at Christmas 1985 when Chiara Lubich was passing through the downtown area of a big city. She was baffled and shocked by the illuminated windows, “filled with dwarfs, fairies, and Father Christmases.” But where was Jesus? The one we are meant to celebrate at Christmas was totally absent, eclipsed by the thousands of colorful lights, sleds and expensive Christmas gifts that filled decorated store windows. This is where the writing “They have dislodged Jesus!” came from: “My heart was overcome with disbelief, then rebellion: This rich world has appropriated Christmas and all that goes with it, and it has dislodged Jesus!” The Gen4 boys and girls – children of the Focolare Movement – were among the first to respond to Chiara’s appeal to bring Jesus into the world. Each year in hundreds of cities across the world, Gen4 involve friends in making small statues of the Baby Jesus, which they give away everywhere. In squares, schools, and markets – they try to find a home for Him and to warm the hearts of many on the day when He came among us. There would be many stories to tell. . . In Cordoba, Argentina, the father of one Gen4, who belongs to the Charismatic Renewal, was so touched by Chiara’s writing, “They’ve dislodged Jesus” that he said: “This was a great inspiration that this woman had, and we should not let this opportunity to give Jesus escape us. This is what today’s society needs.” He immediately set out to work in his parish, getting the NavidadSolidaria group and other people involved in the project. And so, several people from the Charismatic Renewal made 150 statues of the Baby Jesus. The Scouts made 300; the Catholic school made 300; and the Gen 4 boys and girls made 450. The total came to 1200 Baby Jesus to be given away. In Scafati, near Naples, Italy, the Gen4 wrote a letter to the Mayor, requesting permission to hand them out in front of City Hall. The Mayor met with the Gen4, listened to them and happily gave his permission, offering a donation for the first little statue himself. Many people are deeply touched by the love of the children. The Gen4 in one Tuscan region go street-by-street, door-to-door, offering Baby Jesus to families. One rather serious-looking man opened his door and when he heard the children telling him that they were Gen4 and that they were there to offer the Baby Jesus to him, he responded dryly: “Not interested, I’m an atheist!” Little Lorenzo asked him, “What does atheist mean?” And the man asked back: “And what does Gen4 mean?” “The Gen4 are people who do acts of love,” Lorenzo explained. The man was moved: “I don’t believe the same things that you do, but I also want to do an act of love!” And he quickly accepted a statue of Baby Jesus. Many people who receive a little statue of the Holy Child offer a donation to help support the Gen4 project. This year all the funds that are collected will be sent to Africa. As the poster prepared by the Gen4 states: “We Gen4 want to bring happiness into the world.” and “Jesus, living in the poor, You won’t have to suffer any longer, not as long as we are here!” Enjoy the video and have a Happy Christmas!
“The notice gives me joy and I feel honoured by the trust shown by the Pope and the Pontifical Council. This nomination commits me to ensure that my life and that of all those linked to me in the Focolare Movement is evangelised and therefore evangelising. I am aware that many will never have the opportunity to read the Gospel if not through our life.” This is what Maria Voce declared on the announcement of her nomination, which arrived on the 7th December, anniversary of the date that historically indicates the birth of the Focolare Movement in 1943. The purpose of the council is to “promote a renewed evangelisation in the countries where the first announcement of the faith has already been heard, and there are present churches of ancient foundation, but they are living in progressive secularisation of their society and a sort of “eclipse of the sense of God”, that constitute a challenge to find adequate means to reannounce the everlasting truth of the Gospel of Christ.”
“I come from a small town in the countryside and I just moved to Rome. My arrival in such a big city has also made me meet things that are very different from what I have been accustomed to. 
It was difficult for me to see children begging for some money or people immersed in dumpsters searching for something to eat. Not that this is anything new. These things can be seen on many streets and on the TV. But when you come face to face with it, something changes and you find yourself presented with your own personal measure for living the Gospel. Returning home a few nights ago, I stopped to talk with a guy. He was 23 years old, more or less my own age. He told me about his children, one of whom was about to have surgery and there wasn’t enough money. He told me about the 150 euro he had to pay each month so that he and his wife wouldn’t have to sleep in the back seat of a car. Then there were the difficulties finding employment. Just the same old stories, just the same old excuses to scrape up a few pennies, I thought. But something pushed me to continue. Therefore I told him that I’d help him to find a job, that he could come to supper with me, and that I’d put him up at my house if his landlord threw him out of his home. I hardly knew what I was saying, but the words were flowing from my heart. I said to myself: What can someone like me do? I’ve just arrived in Rome! When I returned home I prayed for help from the Father. Two days later I received an email that told of a meeting for foreign students who were seeking employment. Here was an answer, a clear sign! I immediately sent a message to the guy, informing him of this opportunity. More than once it happened that I got home late due of similar delays. And I would be interrogated by my housemates: ‘But why do you stop to talk with these people? What do you care? It doesn’t do any good anyway…’. Perhaps my answer to them was a superficial one, but what I gathered from it all was revolutionary. I changed my way of acting because ‘everything is for Jesus.’ If you allow Jesus to work on you and change you, if you choose Him as the basis for your life, especially the Jesus who suffered on the Cross for all of us, then it’s Jesus Himself who makes you another Jesus in the dark corners and sufferings of society.” (E.P. – Italy)
One day in the 1940s, at the dawn of the Movement, a bishop sent for the young girls from Trent (Northern Italy). Unaware of the reason for the invitation Chiara Lubich was pensive. The girls prayed at length before arriving at the bishop’s residence, in Piazza Fiore. They described the real revolution that was happening in their city as a result of their actions almost without being aware. They explained frankly that they were ready to destroy everything that had been built over the months if the bishop asked them to. Their thought was ‘God speaks in the bishop’. The only thing that interested them was God. Bishop Carlo De Ferrari, who belonged to the Order of the Stigmatines, listened to Chiara and her companions and smiled at them pronouncing a simple phrase which remains to this day, ‘Here is the finger of God’. His approval for and benediction of the Movement accompanied them up to his death; an example of his support was shown when the numbers of young men and women wishing to enter the Focolare leaving their homes and possessions was growing, the bishop said that this could only happen if they had the approval of their parents. This act silenced many rumours. For Chiara and her first companions the existence and importance of the Church was the only certain reality. In time the spirituality of unity saw the Church essentially and fundamentally as communion. Chiara wrote in 2000: ‘There is a phrase that Jesus says in the gospel which moves me deeply “Whoever listens to you (the apostles), listens to me” (Lk 10,16) (…) The charism brought us in a completely new way into the mystery of the Church, we were living as a little Church. Anticipating by many years the definition from the council of Church as Communion, the spirituality of unity made us experience and understand what being Church meant and how to live with greater awareness. We understood it was logical for this to happen, through the presence of Christ among us. ‘If we stay with the fire we become fire, and if we have Jesus in our midst we become other Jesus. St Bonaventure said “Where two or three are united in Christ’s name, there is the Church”, and Tertullian: “Where three (are gathered), even if they are lay people, there is the Church”. Through Christ in our midst, we are made Church, and so a real passion for it is born within us. From love a new understanding of the Church was born where we all found life: we understood the sacraments in a new way. The dogmas of the Church were illuminated for us. We felt in our element being Church, through the strength of communion of love that united us and grafted us onto the institutional reality, and we experienced Her maternal love even in the most difficult moments.’