Verso la Chiesa di domani
Esperienze, canti e contributi artistici attorno alla figura del sacerdote di oggi nell’aula Paolo VI ieri pomeriggio per la vigilia della chiusura dell’Anno sacerdotale.
Una nuova corrente di spiritualità
Un’unità che rende visibile il Risorto, lì dove ognuno vive: nelle famiglie, nei quartieri, nelle fabbriche, nei parlamenti. Quando il Risorto è fra noi, come da lui promesso quando due o tre si riuniscono nel suo nome, cioè nel suo amore, in qualche modo si tocca il divino, la sua pace, la sua luce, il suo amore, l’unità!
Che tutti siano uno
Come testimonia Chiara Lubich, “è stato proprio mentre si credeva di vivere semplicemente il Vangelo, che lo Spirito Santo ha scolpito a caratteri di fuoco nelle nostre anime quelli che sarebbero diventati i cardini della “spiritualità dell’unità”, una nuova spiritualità, personale e comunitaria insieme”.
[:it]La città e il dialogo per un futuro di speranza[:es]La ciudad y el diálogo por un futuro de esperanza[:fr]La ville et le dialogue pour un avenir d’espérance[:pt]A cidade e o diálogo por um futuro de esperança
I discovered Heaven!
“Today I discovered Heaven: God is Love, He loves us immensely!” This is what the 780 Gen 4 sang – children of the Focolare Movement – gathered at Castelgandolfo for their congress. They came mostly from Italy and other European countries, but in the first row were also girls from Burundi and Ruanda, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Lebanon.
Valeria from Bolivia: “Honestly, this congress is the best thing that ever happened to me. What I liked the most was learning from Jesus how to love, and now I love more than before, I don’t know how to thank God.”
Travelling to Rome would have been unthinkable for her had it not been for a variety of money-raisers by Gen4 from around the world. They raised more than 5,000 euros, which enabled her and others from outside Europe to attend the event.
Like the Gen4 boys, the girls also examined the God’s Love for his Chosen People, all the way to Jesus, who came on earth to bring us the Father’s love. A lively game lasting all afternoon helped them to discover Jesus’ presence not only in Heaven, but among us, when we love each other, in our neighbor, in his Word, and in the Eucharist.
“The answers you gave were all interesting and we felt them coming from your heart,” they wrote to Maria Voce following her meeting with them, in which she answered some of their rather demanding questions. They also wrote: “Thank you for answering so wisely to our questions! I finally know how to fulfill my dream: To become a saint you need to love everyone because Jesus in everyone! (. . .) “The congress taught me many things about Jesus, it changed my heart. I won’t be the same when I return home. I’m not the same. Whenever there’s an opportunity to help, I’ll be the first to step forward.”
There was a feast with dancing, songs, and skits as they met with the first companions of Chiara. It was a mutual gift, a moment of such intense and profound simplicity that it was difficult to say who enjoyed it more.
Having experienced the love of God, the Gen4 girls realized that they are truly sisters beyond their countries of origin, languages and culture. “I was happy being with the other Gen4,” writes Laurette from Ruanda. “We loved each other and when I reach Ruanda I’ll love everyone.”
Everywhere in the world – from California to Hong Kong – groups of Gen4 got together to follow some moments of the congress via internet. From Fontem, Cameroon, they write: “The video link-up was so beautiful! We saw that it doesn’t matter where we are: God is always with us and in Heaven at the same time. . . . We’re happy to give to our friends the most beautiful treasure we have: God! With love, we can transform our world that is so filled with hatred. This will Jesus please Jesus and we’ll meet him in Paradise. Thank you!”
The Journey, the Dialogue, and the Fragment
The first little town of the Focolare Movement, Loppiano, is one of the most beautiful places in Valdarno, Italy not only because of the people who live there or because of the message they spread, but also because of the natural surroundings and the style of the buildings and streets that betrays an architectural design which is certainly not accidental. In Loppiano even the stones “speak” and tell of a life that is helping the world to become a family, even in its outward design.
What better place then, to accommodate forty architects eager to capitalize on their professional experience in the service of universal brotherhood? Said and done: The group met from the 11th to 13th of June for a seminar dedicated to deepening understanding and relationships through a sharing that became a study, mutual enrichment, and concrete work proposals for the future.
The title itself tells the three strands along which the reflection grew:
The journey, designed as an opportunity for meeting and respect between cultures which is then expressed in living with traditional and innovative architectural forms.
The theme of dialogue drew participants into reflecting on the meaning of labor as a long process that involves the people, workers, and all those who in various ways, participate in a project.
The reflection on the fragment revealed a world that is made of fragments more than of coherent pieces, challenging the participants in the reconstruction of the details from such differentials, through appreciation for diversity as a contribution to unity.
The real “cement” in these sessions were the moments of sharing, the evenings spent together, the mealtimes, and the moments of recreation. Everything contributed to a better grasp of the specific contribution of Chiara Lubich’s charism to architecture, both at the operational level and in theory, showing that the quest just begun will only lead to more new developments, as Maria Emmaus Voce – current president of the Focolare – hoped in her message to the participants, “for the good of the city and its inhabitants, so that even the architecture in each of its dimensions, supports the realization of God’s plan, for which Chiara spent her entire life: to make humankind into one human family.”