Dialogue and not mere tolerance
Video in Italian (2 minutes, 30 seconds) « The proposal of dialogue goes far beyond simple tolerance, which can also be considered an achievement and is always a value at risk in our society. If two centuries ago Lord Stanhope could say that tolerance, which was once invoked as a grace and then acquired as a right, “would be rejected one day as an insult,” it was because he foresaw that one day – we hope today – people would become sensitive to higher values, like dialogue, that is, not only tolerating the other person, but profoundly respecting him or her, being open to different ideas, building a relationship among true brothers and sisters. What do you think of this reflection? » Piero Taiti asks Chiara. I’m sure that dialogue goes far beyond tolerance, even though I wouldn’t totally disregard tolerance because it would be a first step in some cases, at least people wouldn’t be fighting one another. Dialogue, however, is a completely different thing, it’s mutual enrichment, it’s loving one another, it’s feeling that we are already brothers and sisters, it’s creating universal brotherhood on earth, so it’s completely different. Of course, dialogue is true if it is animated by true love. Now, love is true if it is not selfish; otherwise, it’s not love. What kind of love would it be? It would be egoism. In fact, you’ve asked me a number of questions in which you speak of a love that might nurture personal interests, even in dialogue. Such a dialogue would not be built on love, so it wouldn’t even be dialogue, it would be something else. Proselytism. Proselytism must stay outside of this door, it can’t be admitted, otherwise, there isn’t dialogue. Dialogue means loving, giving what we have within out of love for the other, and also receiving and enriching ourselves. This is dialogue: becoming “world men and women,” as our gen say, people who are open to everyone and who give what they have to everyone. I remember that when we first began to live this way of life, we followed the path of loving, and we were really convinced that love is not selfish. You must not love in order to win over another person, or to form a little group for yourself. You must not love in order to have an impact, let’s say, in the office or at school. No, you must love simply in order to love. Our motives were supernatural because of our Christian convictions. Here, we can speak of building a brotherhood, this value of universal brotherhood, but never in order to conquer others. And this is why very many people followed us – because they felt free and they saw the beauty of this way of life. Likewise, we’ll have many contacts with people of other convictions, if we love in this way. Chiara Lubich at the Meeting with Friends of Other Convictions Castel Gandolfo, February 8, 1998
WYD: Città Nuova and the YouCat App
Preparations are underway in diocese around the world, preparing young people for their meeting with the Pope. In the backpack that each young person who has registered for WYD will receive, there will also be YouCat, the aid to the Catechism of the Catholic Church made especially for youth with its question and answer format. Just recently Città Nuova Ppublishing House, which edited the Italian edition of YouCat, has released an application that can be downloaded to the latest mobile phones. It is an “app”, that is, an “application” called YouCat, which enables teens to discuss the issues contained in the Catechism and the WYD. What is it exactly? Debora Donnini asks Giulio Meazzini who works for Città Nuova and dealt with the application of YouCat for mobile phones: 
“Città Nuova decided it wanted to give a gift to the youths who will go to Madrid by offering them, gratis, the chance to download this app to phones that have the Apple operating system, Windows Mobile or Android; that is, the vast majority of the latest mobile phones. The functions that are available include a social network like Facebook with a “wall”, a wall for messages where you can share comments, create your own profile, exchange messages and text messages between users as well as create a list of friends, also “famous friends”. We, for example, put in Maritain, Blessed John Paul II, St Francis, Cardinal Van Thuan etc. So every couple of days, via this application, you can receive quotations from these well-known people. In addition, specifically with regard to WYD, through this app, you have the opportunity to receive news updates directly to your phone in different languages regarding the World Youth Day, a daily update on all the events that happen during WYD and also the possibility join a kind of “community” of those participating in the WYD, with information and comments …”. 
This responds to what Benedict XVI himself wrote in the premise to YouCat. In fact, the Pope invited youths not only to study the catechism, but also to read it among friends and to form study groups and networks. So was this meant to be your answer to this invitation from the Pope? This is precisely what we were thinking. In fact the other feature that’s available with this app, the most important perhaps, is the ability to have available on the phone, twenty per cent of the questions and answers from YouCat. It’s a way of making the message immediately available. The intent is to enable young people to discuss the content of the catechism through the phone. . . “Exactly. Just as they are accustomed to talk and share information on social networks, in this way they’ll be able to share impressions, questions – also the questions and answers and topics in YouCat. A site will soon be opening on internet – www.cittanuova.it – where more information will be provided about WYD and YouCat. I also don’t want to forget to mention the international site that all the European editors are putting up in different languages, regarding YouCat. I would add that other editors have asked us to publish questions and answers not only in Italian but also in other languages, and so there will probably soon be English and French.”
Living the Charism: Economy and Work
“Love, for example, is communion and leads to communion. Jesus in us, because he is Love, brought about communion.” – Chiara Lubich
Their awareness that God shows his love through the circumstances of life, even the painful ones, gave the desire to the first focolarine who were in danger of losing their lives beneath the bombs, that they should be buried together in a single tomb with the inscription: “We have believed in love.” This awareness of being loved by God made them able to be ready to give their lives each for the other. This led to the sharing of all their spiritual and material possessions, the sharing of all their aspirations, of their fears, and their dreams.
Giosi Guella, one of the first focolarine shares about the first living conditions of Chiara and her first companions: “There wasn’t anything in Piazza Cappuccini. But, at the same time, there was everything: for us and for others. It was logical that there shouldn’t be anything: if there was something, we gave it away. We returned home with our salaries, and put them in common.” Our jobs, balancing our budget, studying, teaching, doing house chores, since they were all seen as service, became the concrete occasions to love our neighbours. Service was the rule of the community that was forming around the first Focolare and made you think of the first Christians who ‘were one heart and one soul and didn’t have any needy among them” (cf Acts 4:32-35).
Whoever adheres to the charism of unity, in one way or another communion of heart becomes a natural thing, putting into common the things one has: for some it means everything, for others something, for others what is extra. From these expressions of communion a far-reaching project has also been born, even from a theoretical point of view: the Economy of Communion, which is the mature and integral expression of a way of understanding the human person and living in service of him. Hundreds of businesses around the world belong to the Economy of Communion. In these businesses, work is envisioned as a way of nobilization of the human person. Legality and justice are daily priorities.
Chiara Lubich wrote: “The magna charta of Christian Social Doctrine begins there, where Mary sings: ‘He has put down the mighty from their thrones, he has raised up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty‘ (cf. Lk 1: 53-53). The highest and most uncontrollable revolution is found in the Gospel. And, perhaps, it is part of God’s plan that even in these times, immersed in finding solutions for social problems, it will be Our Lady who will give a hand to Christians in building, consolidating, constructing and showing to the world a new society in which the Magnificat will be powerfully echoed.”
Focolare.org App available on iPhone, iPod, iPad
Download site: http://itunes.apple.com/it/app/youcat/id448164885?mt=8 
Smartphone, iPhone, iPod, and iPad users will not be surprised by this announcement; in fact, they’ve been waiting for it. For the uninitiated, however, it can be useful to know that the frontier of new technologies, and in particular the so-called applications for mobile phones, now allow you to receive the news published on www.focolare. org on your smartphone! Glossary Smartphone (literally “smart” or “intelligent” phone) is a portable device that combines the functionality of the phone and the management of personal data. App – If you have a latest generation cell phone or iPad – as Giulio Meazzini, Citta Nuova journalist, explains in his book “Dal mare libero alle oasi protette” (From the Open Sea to Protected Oases) – the services that interest you can be accessed by using the “applications”, the so-called apps on the display that appear as many coloured icons, each one different from the other. 
The difference is by no means trivial: every app is built by a specific provider and offers a range of quick services, which are private and exclusive, targeted to the user. How the App of Focolare.org functions The app has been developed by TeamDev for Focolare.org and it can be downloaded for free at: http://itunes.apple.com/it/app/youcat/id448164885?mt=8 It is currently only available in Italian. In weeks to come it will also be available in English and Spanish. The screen allows you to enter the home page or one of the theme channels. This is version 1.0 with successive modifications forthcoming. Happy navigating to everyone! We look forward to your feedback!
New section: Living the charism
In 1968, Chiara wrote: “Love is light and, like a ray of light that passes through a drop of water, it unfolds into a rainbow of colors for us to admire. All the colors are light and they, in turn, divide into an infinity of shades. And just as a rainbow is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet – Jesus’ life in us could be said to have different colors, to be expressed in various ways, each different from the other. “For example, love is communion, it brings us to communion. Jesus in us, who is Love, could work communion. 
Love is never closed in on itself, it is diffusive by nature. Jesus in us, Love, would irradiate love. 
Love elevates the soul. Jesus in us would raise our soul to God; that’s what prayer is. 
Love heals. Jesus, love in the heart, would be the health of our soul. 
Love heals. Jesus, love in the heart, would be the health of our soul. Love gathers people in assembly. Jesus in us, since he is Love, would unite our hearts again. 
Love is a font of wisdom. Jesus in us, Love, would illuminate us. 
Love brings the many into one; it is unity. Jesus in us would meld us into one. These are the seven principle expressions of the love that we feel called to live, and this number seven signifies something infinite.”