31 Aug 2011 | Non categorizzato, Word of
“But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”
These are words of invitation that God addresses to you, and to all those who believe, to rejoice with him, to celebrate and to participate in his joy at the return of the sinner who was first lost and then found again. These words in the parable are addressed by the father to his elder son who shared fully in his life. When this elder son returns home from a hard day’s work, he refuses to enter his house where they are celebrating the return of his brother who had left them to squander his inheritance. The father goes out to his faithful son, just as he went out to his lost son, and tries to convince him to join them. The contrast between the father’s sentiments and those of his elder son is evident: on one side, the father with his immeasurable love and great joy that he wanted everyone to share; and, on the other, the son full of contempt and jealousy toward his brother whom he no longer recognizes as such. He refers to his younger brother, in fact, as “your son … who swallowed up your property with prostitutes” (Lk 15:30). The love of the father and his joy at the return of his prodigal son serve to emphasize still more the ill feelings felt by the other son who had remained with his father. These ill feelings reveal, however, a cold and — one could say — false relationship between this son and the father. We can deduce from the narrative that it is work and the fulfillment of his obligations that matter most to this son; he does not love his father as a son should. Rather, we feel that he obeys his father as a hired worker would obey his boss.
“But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”
With these words, Jesus points out a dangerous trap that you could fall into: that of a life lived for the sake of appearances, in search of personal perfection which can lead to judging others as less perfect than yourself. As a matter of fact, if you are “attached” to your own perfection, you concentrate on building yourself up to the point of being filled with self-admiration. You act like the son who remained at home, who enumerates his merits before his father: “Look, all these years I have served you, and not once did I disobey your orders” (Lk 15:29). <
strong>“But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”
With these words Jesus goes against the attitude of those who see their relationship with God as one based only on the observance of the commandments which is not enough. Jewish tradition is also very clear on this. In this parable Jesus puts the spotlight on divine Love illustrating the fact that God who is Love takes the first step without considering whether the person deserves it or not, but with the desire that the person be open to establishing an authentic relationship of communion. As one can imagine, the greatest obstacle to God who is Love is precisely the life of those who accumulate actions and deeds while God wants their hearts.
“But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”
With these words, Jesus invites you to extend the same measureless love that the Father has toward those who stray. Jesus calls you not to judge according to your own standards the love that the Father has for each and every person. In inviting his elder son to share his joy for the return of his long-lost son, the Father also asks from you a change of heart: you should welcome as brothers and sisters even those people for whom you nurture sentiments of superiority and even of scorn. This will work in you a true conversion because it will purge you of your conviction that you are “better.” It will save you from religious narrow-mindedness and allows you to welcome the salvation won by Jesus as a pure gift of God’s love. Chiara Lubich
Word of Life, March 2001, published in Living City Vol. 40 No.3, p.17.
![Living the Charism: Wisdom and Study]()
28 Aug 2011 | Non categorizzato
In 1940, Chiara Lubich in a letter wrote a striking passage: ‘I am a person passing through this world. I have seen many beautiful and good things and I have always been attracted only by them. One day (one indefinable day). I saw a light. It seemed to me to be more beautiful than other beautiful things, and I followed it. I realised that it was the Truth.’ Her ambitions at the time, as a recently qualified teacher, were to go to the Catholic University in Milan. Her thinking was: ’It’s Catholic, they’ll speak about God there, they’ll teach me a lot about God’. There was an entrance test which resulted in funded places for 33 candidates. Chiara came 34th. She felt she had missed a great opportunity. “Between the tears, a voice rang clearly in her troubled heart: ‘I will be your teacher!” Her understanding of study lies in the answer Jesus gave. Later, in 1980, Chiara explains further: ‘Already in ’44 Jesus had asked me to leave my studies behind and put my books in the attic (…) Thirsting for truth, I saw the absurdity of looking for it in the study of philosophy when I could find it in Jesus, the Truth Incarnate. I left my studies to follow Jesus (…) There was, in that episode, a prelude of what would come to be in time the Focolare Movement. We saw a splendid light, but this in our soul, a fruit of our life (..) Following that choice which God asked of me, the light came to us in abundance. It gave light to the spirituality that God wanted from us, it shaped day by day the Movement as it developed. We called this light ‘wisdom’. (…) We understood that wisdom was fundamentally our new way of studying, the studying of the whole Movement (…) Having left studying behind in ’43-’44, by 1950 I felt it was necessary to pick up the books again and study theology. I felt a need to base all the intuitions of that period upon a solid foundation.’ Now the Movement has many places where the culture of unity is developed for example, the ‘Abba School’, which explores the doctrine that pours out from the ‘charism of unity’, and is at the source of many initiatives permeating various fields of thought and life; the Marian University which aims to provide basic theological courses for the members of the Movement; various schools and courses based on the specific aims of the Movement; through the publishing house Citta Nuova with numerous publications in many languages, and the cultural magazine Umanita Nuova, and finally in 2008, the Sophia University Institute based in Loppiano (Incisa V. – Florence).
![Living the Charism: Wisdom and Study]()
25 Aug 2011 | Non categorizzato
Schoolmates is a project conceived and implemented in 2002 by Teens for Unity, a branch of the Focolare Movement, in collaboration with Action for a United World and New Humanity, which involved hundreds of schools over the past ten year period. Its objective is to allow boys and girls of various countries to get in touch and to know each other, as the name suggests, from one part of the world to the other . The one who participates in it contributes afterwards, through various activities, to increase a solidarity fund which allows to distribute various scholarships every year. In the last 12 months 376 scholarships were given out in 25 nations. The revamp of the website www.school-mates.org aims at improving communication, participation and interaction among classes and groups which adhere to the three phases of the project. One begins by committing himself or herself to live the “Golden Rule” which invites to “ do to others what we would like them to do to us”, a rule which is present in the sacred books of many religions. The second phase allows students to get to know each other by connecting classes and groups of boys and girls of different countries through the website. The project wants to offer a possibility of knowing other cultures creating a dialogue in which the differences may be source of enrichment for one another. In this phase we find one of the novelties of the website: the possibility of managing their own space in the website, for those who will have completed all the three phases of the project. In it boys and girls will be able to introduce their classes or groups, making their own country known to others historically, geographically, culturally and sharing their experiences and witness of their commitment in living the Golden rule. If the class or the group wants to get into contact with other classes or groups, that will be made possible through a reserved area. The third phase is characterised by sharing: in fact the classes and groups which adhere to the project commit themselves to contribute to the solidarity fund in order to support, every year, some micro projects of solidarity. The objective is to allow boys and girls to be able to go to school and to complete secondary school or professional formation, by giving them scholarships. Among the novelties of the new website there is also a section dedicated to teachers, educators and tutors, in order to allow them to share materials and pedagogical experiences made in various Countries and schools of different order and grade.
![Living the Charism: Wisdom and Study]()
21 Aug 2011 | Non categorizzato
Marilen Holzhauser, one of the first focolarine explained: “For us every object we have has to have a reason or purpose”. From the start Chiara Lubich and the first followers in her adventure have had their own style in living, dressing and home furnishing which was simple and moderate. They understood that beauty revealed in the mystery of a flower that consumes only what it needs and in this way its real beauty. Beauty becomes the splendour of the Truth. The harmony reflected in simplicity makes us discover ‘the beauty which will save the world’ and that world will save beauty. In the Letter to Diogneto, referring to the first Christians we read: ‘Living in the Greek and Barbarian cities, as we each have, and adapting ourselves in each place to the customs of dressing, eating and so on, we give witness to an admirable and undoubtedly paradoxical way of living.’
Dina Figueiredo, "Eucharist" - St Clare Hospital, Trent, 2004
![Living the Charism: Wisdom and Study]()
16 Aug 2011 | Non categorizzato
Video (Italian soundtrack only)
Faith in God’s love gives all of them the strength to risk everything in life in order to be faithful to this extraordinary vocation of acting like children of God, of leading a life in union with their Father in heaven, of having the Father, God‑Love as the Ideal of their life. They have placed Him foremost in all their thoughts and have given Him first place in their hearts. And by doing so, all their aspirations have been totally fulfilled. With Him they have found the fullness of joy and happiness, that happiness which today, in every corner of the world, young people are striving to have as the ideal of their lives. But they rarely find it because they often search for it in possessions, in “having” more than in “being”, in entertainment or in purely earthly goals. 
Furthermore, because our young people know that God not only created the universe and them, but that He is present throughout the course of history and guides it, they are convinced that He has wonderful plans also for each one of them. Thus while the majority of young people today consider only their immediate future, making only short‑term decisions and putting off the more demanding choices, our young people make plans for their lives but not only from their own point of view. They seek to harmonize their personal actions with the actions of God’s providence in the world. This is why they place themselves on the ray of His divine will and live it to the fullest, fully aware that they have set out, along with many others, on a wonderful divine adventure. Chiara Lubich
