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Spirituality of Unity: The Holy Spirit

Spirituality of Unity: The Holy Spirit

13 Nov 2011 | Non categorizzato

Chiara wrote: ‘Right from the start of our new life, we benefitted from his actions, day after day, sometimes gentle, sometimes strong and occasionally violent; and we never realised it was him. Throughout, from the first choice of God-Love, to the light that illuminated the words of the Gospel, the revelation of Jesus Forsaken, to joy, peace and light that we felt rise up in our hearts, living the new commandment, it was none other than the Holy Spirit at work. It could be said that the whole story of the Movement could be rewritten and be attributed to the Holy Spirit. Only now we can see that he was the real protagonist of our adventure, it was he who moved everything. ‘Now that he and what he has been for us has been is revealed to us we can retrace the luminous steps, countless signs of his constant and unpredictable actions. The inner voice which led us in our new way, the special atmosphere which gave joy to our meetings, the powerful release of hidden energy, that which purifies and renews, the divine alchemy which changes suffering into love, the experiences of death and resurrection: all these, and many other surprising phenomena  which accompanied us through life, have only one name, which we have learnt to recognise, to be infinitely grateful to and feel pushed to ask his intervention in all we do each day, from the simplest task to the most demanding. He has given us the courage to face the crowds, leave our country, suffer discomforts, opposition, often with joy. But the deepest effect, the most radical, the most typical is the bond of unity between us. ‘Our mysticism needs at least two people made God through participation, between whom the Holy Spirit really moves, that is the third, God, who consumes all into one, one God: “As I in you”, Jesus said to the Father. The Holy Spirit is the gift that Jesus gave us so that we could be like him and the Father. Without doubt the Holy Spirit was in us before, as we were Christians; but here there was a new enlightenment, a new manifestation within us, which made us sharers and actors in a new Pentecost, together with those other ecclesial movements who make the new face of the Church.’

Spirituality of Unity: The Holy Spirit

Full report

8 Nov 2011 | Non categorizzato

Monday, November 7, 2011
With Catholic Dutch, Nordic Focolare communities, citizens of the Focolare town of Marienkroon: the third day for Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti in Netherlands. Joy among brothers and sisters.
Happy Birthday, Holland! Monday, November 7, 2011  The Focolare in the Netherlands celebrates its 50th anniversary.
Holland: With the Communities of Northern Europe Sunday, November 6, 2011  The president of the Focolare meets the communities of the Movement in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Holland. Discussions with some Catholic bishops. Conversation with the young people.  
A Focolare Town for Holland 4 Novembre 2011 The directors of the Focolare Movement are currently on a visit to Holland and their first stop was “Marienkroon”, center of Cistercian spirituality and now a little town of the Focolare.

   

Spirituality of Unity: The Holy Spirit

The Spirituality of Unity – Jesus Forsaken

5 Nov 2011 | Non categorizzato

Ave Cerquetti, ‘Crocifissione’ – Lienz (Austria) 1975

During a meeting in 2000, Chiara recalled her first “discovery” of Jesus Forsaken: “We understood something new about Him through an event that happened in January 1944. Through a particular circumstance, we came to realize that the greatest pain Jesus had suffered – and therefore the moment of His greatest love for us – was when He experienced the abandonment of the Father: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Mt 18:20). It touched us deeply. Being so young, so enthusiastic, but especially because of the grace of God, we felt urged to choose Him precisely in His abandonment, as the way to achieve our ideal of love. From that moment on we saw His face everywhere.” Another key moment in the understanding of this “mystery of suffering-love” was in the summer of 1949. Igino Giordani went to visit Chiara Lubich who had gone for a period of rest in the Valle di Primiero in the mountains of Trent, Italy. This small group of first followers that accompanied her was living with intensity the Gospel passage about the abandonment of Jesus. And those days in the mountains turned out to be days of such intense light that when it came time for them to leave their “little Tabor” and return to the city, Chiara quickly penned a text that has now become famous “I have only one spouse on earth, Jesus Forsaken. . . I will go through the world searching for him in every moment of my life.” Many years later she would explain: “Right from the start we knew that there was another side to it all, that the tree had its roots. The Gospel covers you in love, but it demands everything from you as well. ‘If the grain of wheat, which falls to the ground, does not die,’ we read in John, ‘it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit’ (cf Jn 12:24). This is personified in Jesus Forsaken, and the fruit that he bore was humankind’s Redemption. Jesus Forsaken! Who had experienced within himself the separation of humankind from God and from each other, and had experienced the Father far from him, was seen by us not only in all of our personal sufferings, which were never lacking, or in the sufferings of our neighbors who often were all alone, abandoned and forgotten, but also in all the divisions, the traumas, the splits, the mutual indifference whether large or small: within families, among generations, between rich and poor, at times in the Church itself; later, among the different Churches; and then, among religions and between believers and those who have no religious faith at all.” “But all of these lacerations,” Chiara continued, “never frightened us. Rather, for love of Jesus Forsaken, they attracted us. And he is the one who taught us how to confront them, how to live them, how to overcome them when, after the abandonment, he placed his spirit in the Father’s hands: ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit’ (Lk 23:46). And this is how he offered humankind the possibility of being recomposed within itself and with God, and he us showed how. He was the one who recomposed unity among us each time it was cracked. He became our only Spouse. And our life together with such a Spouse was so rich and fruitful that it pushed me to write a book, as a love letter, a song, a joyful thanksgiving song to Him.”

Spirituality of Unity: The Holy Spirit

The Fruit of Redemption

4 Nov 2011 | Non categorizzato

Rising from the dead, Jesus appeared to the women who went to the tomb: “Do not be afraid,” he says to them “go and announce to my brothers (…)”. In this conclusive moment he calls his disciples “brothers”. It’s how he continues to come to us today, as a brother: the firstborn. By rising he had conquered death and restored fraternity. Jesus had come into the world in order to re-establish the paternity of the Father. He descended into hell in order to conquer humanity’s enemy; now he announces that God’s children have been reinstated as brothers and sisters in the family of God.

Today’s world is dominated by fear and by egoism. And what is the result? (…) Humankind suffers because life doesn’t circulate among peoples, among the rich and the poor, among individuals, or else it circulates erratically. What promotes life is religion, science, technology, the arts and philosophy… But philosophy, art, technology, science, material goods do not circulate if they are not impelled by love; it is love which opens ways and overcomes divisions. But religion itself must be freed, it must redeem itself in every moment from the incrustations, limitations and rifts which are caused by the faults of the redeemed.

The circulation of goods does not happen as much, or as well as it should, because men and women no longer recognize each other as brothers and sisters and so they don’t love one another.

That person who annoys us on the train; the one who passes us by arrogantly or distractedly or who is alienated from us; the person we exploit in the factory or in the fields; the person we treat unfairly in the law courts or at the bank, is someone we don’t consider as a brother or sister. The persons we discriminate against because of their socio-economic status or because of their faith, don’t appear as children of our Father: at most they appear as illegitimate children worthy only of sympathy. The person bearing a firearm during the war doesn’t appear as a brother but more as a bombing device. Victims of prostitution are not considered sisters but rather as worthless merchandise. Seen in this way, society seems like a colony of lepers.

Every division, every discord, is a barrier to love flowing out. Love is God, and God is Life. And if life doesn’t flow, the waters are stagnated by death.

(…) If God’s attributes were only Strength, Honor and Fear, he would have remained alone, never generating a Son, nor bringing about creation. He would have been closed within himself, never open to others. But love is Trinitarian: it is circular: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. (…) The Trinity is Three and One: the Three love each other, and they are One; One distinguishes itself in Three persons in order to love; it is an Eternal game of Love. Made in the image and likeness of the Trinity, rational creatures discover in love an impulse to generate new life. (…) Love is the expression of God towards creation; and I return to God through my brothers and sisters.

The movement is circular, as in a river which departs from the source and flows out into the sea.

You go to God through your brothers and sisters; you go to them through God. This is how I can be truly myself; without them there would be no reason for me to exist since the reason for my being is to love.

Christ has put back into circulation all the treasures of life in the riverbed of love, with which he transmits the warmth, the light, the intelligence for reopening ourselves to the way that will lead us to unity where God is to be found.

He obtained this for us by coming among us, dwelling among us, making himself ours until, by dying, he redeemed us. Just as the Redemption freed us from divisions, it also reunited us to God. Christ has placed God in us and us in God. For this reason he commanded that we love one another, for where there is love there is God: “God is love, whoever is in love is in God, and God is in him” (cf Jn 4:16).

Il Fratello, Città Nuova, 2011, pp.29-30, 34, 36, 37-38.