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23 Mar 2010 | Non categorizzato
The city of Milan unites around the memory of Chiara Lubich who was made an honorary citizen there in 2004. It is not an easy time for the capital of Lombardy but on 17 March, two years after the death of the founder of the Focolare Movement (14 March 2008), a convention was held entitled ‘Seeds of Fraternity for a more united world’, in the prestigious Alessi Hall of the Palazzo Marino.
The Mayor Letizia Moratti and the City Council welcomed the guests and speakers. ‘Milan feels very close to Chiara Lubich’s international commitment’, the Mayor said. ‘ The awareness that dialogue and the meeting of different cultures, by themselves are enough to overcome misunderstandings between peoples; that the values of solidarity and communion are the basis upon which to build a future of peace. Her path is an example of how love for neighbour can give a concrete meaning to human activity.’ Many people in Milan today feel the urgency for a new message of hope. Mons Gianni Zappa, of the Archdiocese of Milan, pointed out the importance of dialogue in Chiara Lubich’s spirituality, while Prof Stefano Zamagni showed how the principle of fraternity breaks down traditional schemes of political and economic conflict. Maria Voce, President of the Focolare Movement, closed the convention with these words: ‘ I think Chiara managed to indentify a specific vocation for this beautiful city, the vocation to goodness, to love, to the art of loving. The fulfilment of this project is an aim that Milan must follow with great commitment so as not to betray a plan of God. We want to take on this commitment also, as a way of living out Chiara’s legacy, and offer the full availability of the people of the movement who live here. T.jpg)
he following day, in the Basilica of St Ambrose, heart of the Ambrosian Church, the Archbishop of Milan, Card. Dionigi Tettamanzi celebrated mass to thank the Lord, as he said, for the great gift that Chiara Lubich’s holy life has been for the Church and for society. The Basilica was packed with the large local Focolare community, and also with many friends and people who identify with Chiara’s dream of building universal fraternity: politicians, businessmen, representatives from other ecclesial movements and members of other churches.
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21 Mar 2010 | Non categorizzato
Church announces beatification date for Italian teen
Chiara Badano, an Italian who died of bone cancer just before her 19th birthday, will be beatified Sept. 25 at a shrine outside of Rome, said the bishop of the diocese where she lived.
March 24th, 2010
By Joeun Lee
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Chiara Badano, an Italian who died of bone cancer just before her 19th birthday, will be beatified Sept. 25 at a shrine outside of Rome, said the bishop of the diocese where she lived.
The beatification ceremony will be held at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Divine Love and will be presided over by Archbishop Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, said Bishop Pier Giorgio Micchiardi of Acqui.
A member of the Focolare Movement, Badano corresponded for years with Chiara Lubich, founder of the movement.
Born Oct. 29, 1971, in northern Italy, she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a bone malignancy, when she was 17. According to her biography, the diagnosis came after many painful examinations and operations. When she was given the news, she vowed to accept it as God’s will.
“If you want it, Jesus, so do I,” she was reported to have said during a painful therapy session, adding that “embraced pain makes one free.”
She also reportedly declined to take the morphine doctors offered because, she said, “I want to share as much as possible the pain of Jesus on the cross.”
“I feel that God is asking me for something more, something greater,” she said, according to her official biography. “I could be confined to this bed for years, I don’t know. I’m only interested in God’s will, doing that well in the present moment: playing God’s game,” she said.
Badano, who was nicknamed “Luce” or “Light,” died Oct. 7, 1990, and her funeral was attended by hundreds of young members of the Focolare Movement from throughout northern Italy. Devotion to her has spread, so the rather isolated Diocese of Acqui asked that her beatification ceremony be celebrated in Rome to make it easier for more young people to attend, said Mariagrazia Magrini, the vice-postulator of her cause.
From March 26, 2010 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
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10 Mar 2010 | Non categorizzato
‘Over the next few days the person and teachings of Chiara Lubich will be remembered in many countries throughout the world. This occasion gives us the opportunity to thank God for the great gift that Chiara is for humanity and to re-focus on the living strength of the charism of unity, which has touched the lives of people of different cultures, traditions and faiths.
Day by day we experience that Chiara hasn’t left us but is still at work, in a special way through the lives of our communities, in every corner of the world, illuminating and renewing today’s society.’ This is what Maria Voce, President of the Focolare Movement said in a message to everyone who will be attending the celebrations to mark the Second Anniversary.
A wide variety of events are being organised throughout the world, not just in remembrance of Chiara but also to share her legacy with many others in this current moment of global crisis, and of search for something new.
Ecumenical meetings in Moscow and Bucharest, an inter-religious meeting in Hong Kong (on the 40th Anniversary of the beginning of the Movement there). On Mount Sion, in Jerusalem, where tradition holds that Jesus prayed for unity, Christians, Jews and Muslims will participate in a ceremony where 8 olive trees will be planted in honour of Chiara Lubich.
Cultural Events: The City Councils of Rome and Milan are hosting two conferences with Civil and Religious leaders present, entitled respectively: ‘Seeds of fraternity for a more united world’, and ‘Chiara Lubich – a life lived for unity’, ten years after she was conferred with Roman Citizenship at Campidoglio.
The impact Chiara Lubich’s charism has made on the world of Economy will be studied in depth at the University of Reggio Emilia. In Parma the subject will be: ‘Communicating in the era of the New Media: Chiara Lubich’s Way’.
There are also many artistic events planned – concerts and classical ballet.
There are many Masses planned, often celebrated by bishops and followed by meetings with testimonies and explanations of the spirituality of unity and of the re-discovery of God-Love, which was the starting point for everything. At St John Lateran’s Basilica in Rome Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, will celebrate a mass; Card. Dionigi Tettamanzi in Milan; Card. Archbishop Francisco Javier Errazzuriz Ossa in Santiago, Chile; H.E. Mons Pelatre in Istanbul. Also in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) with Card. Lopez Rodriguez and Hong Kong with Card. Zen. To mention just a few other places where masses will be celebrated: Spalato (Croatia), Bucharest (Romania), Melbourne (Australia), Salvador de Bahia and Aracaju (Brazil), Iringa (Tanzania) and Montreal (Canada).
Following the mass celebrated by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer at the UN, at Hyde Park (near New York), USA, there will be a ceremony to award the 2010 Luminosa Prize for Unity.
Events of every type – more than 400 throughout the world – that show how far the spirit of unity has spread, and with what gratitude Chiara Lubich is remembered. ‘What is the best way to express our gratitude?’ – Maria Voce concludes her message – ‘Let’s go ahead together, in her footsteps, living the ideal for which Chiara gave her life: universal fraternity.’
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9 Mar 2010 | Non categorizzato
Over 50 Bishops from 30 countries and 4 continents, who are interested in the Focolare spirituality, met together in Castelgandolfo from 27 February to 5 March. During the programme, rich with talks and a sharing of experiences, they looked at the challenges of the modern world and studied the social, economic and political implications of Benedict XVI’s latest encyclical Caritas in Veritate.
Among the main speakers, as well as Card. Miloslav Vlk, the convenor of these congresses, were Card. G.B. Re, Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, Card. Claudio Hummes, Prefect of the Congregation of the Clergy, Card. Annio Antonelli, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, and the emeritus Cardinals Adrianus J Simonis, ex-Archbishop of Utrecht, Holland and Giovanni Cheli of the Roman Curia.
In an atmosphere of fraternal sharing and friendship, this meeting offered a unique occasion for intellectual and spiritual enrichment. A lively dialogue followed the meditations and reflections on the problems of our times, and the witnesses of priests, in the context of the Year for Priests, committed on different fronts in a society that is completely secularised or totally indifferent to religious values.
The recently founded University Institute ‘Sophia’, based at Loppiano (near Florence), gave important contributions on exegesis, the debate between science and faith, evolution and creation, and economy, allowing a 360 degree vision on many human realities in the perspective of interpreting facts and daily news in the light of revelation.
Similar congresses have taken place or are planned in other countries:
Asia: Bangkok from 9-13 February at the same time as the visit by Maria Voce, President of the Focolare Movement.
Africa: Mid-March in Bangui, Cameroun
Middle-East, Brazil (San Paolo) in April and Columbia (Bogota) also in April.
28 Feb 2010 | Non categorizzato, Word of
The Word of Life, taken from Scripture, is offered each month as a guide and inspiration for daily living. From the Focolare’s beginnings, Chiara Lubich wrote her commentaries on each Word of Life, and after her death in March 2008, her early writings are now being featured once again. This commentary, addressed to a primarily Christian audience, was originally published in September 1979.
How often in the course of your life have you felt the need for somebody to give you a hand and at the same time realized that no one could solve your problem. Then, inadvertently, you turn to Someone who can make the impossible happen. This Someone has a name: Jesus.
Listen to what he says to you:
“Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Obviously, the expression “to move mountains” is not to be taken literally. Jesus did not promise his disciples the power to do spectacular miracles simply to amaze the crowds. In fact if you look through the whole history of the Church, you will not find one saint, as far as I know, who literally moved mountains by faith. The expression “to move mountains” is hyperbole, that is, a rhetorical exaggeration. It was intended to instill in the minds of the disciples the idea that with faith nothing is impossible.
Indeed, the purpose of every miracle of Jesus, directly or through his followers, has always been for the sake of the kingdom of God, promoting the Gospel or the salvation of humankind. Moving mountains wouldn’t serve this purpose.
The comparison with the “mustard seed” is used to show that what Jesus requires of you is not faith of a particular size, but a genuine faith. The characteristic of genuine faith is that it is rooted solely in God and not in your own strength.
If you are assailed by doubts or reservations about your faith, it means your trust in God is not yet total: your faith is weak and not very effective, and still depends on your own strength and on human ways of reasoning.
On the other hand, one who trusts in God completely lets God himself act and … for God nothing is impossible.
The faith Jesus wants from his disciples is, in fact, that attitude of total trust which allows God himself to manifest his power.
And this faith, which can therefore move mountains, is not reserved for certain exceptional people. It is possible, and it is a requirement, for all believers.
“Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
It is thought that Jesus said these words to his disciples when he was about to send them out on a mission.
It is easy to be discouraged and afraid when you know you are a little flock, with no special talents, facing crowds of people to whom you have to give the truth of the Gospel. It is easy to lose heart in front of people interested in anything but the kingdom of God. It seems an impossible task.
It is then that Jesus assures his disciples that by faith they will “move mountains” of indifference and apathy in the world. If they have faith, nothing will be impossible for them.
This expression can be applied, furthermore, to all circumstances in life, as long as they are about the progress of the Gospel and the salvation of people.
At times, when faced with difficulties we cannot overcome, we may even be tempted not to turn to God. Human reasoning tells us, “Give up; it’s no use anyway.” It is then that Jesus urges us not to be discouraged but to turn to God with trust. In one way or another, he will answer us.
Some months had passed since the day when, full of hope, Lella first reported to her new job in the Flemish-speaking area of Belgium. But then a sense of dismay and loneliness took hold of her.
It seemed as though an insurmountable barrier had gone up between her and the other young women she lived and worked with. She felt lonely and like a stranger among people she only wished to serve with love.
It was all because she had to speak a language that was neither hers nor the language of those she spoke to. She had been told that everybody spoke French in Belgium, and she had learned it. But meeting the people, she realized that the Flemish only studied French in school and generally spoke it unwillingly.
Many times she tried to move this mountain of segregation that kept her apart from the others, but in vain. What could she do for them?
One evening she noticed that Godeliève was very sad. She had gone up to her room without touching her supper. Lella tried to follow, but she stopped in front of her door, shy and hesitant. She wanted to knock… but what words could she use to make herself understood? She stood there a few seconds, then gave up and left.
The next morning she went to church and sat at the very back, her face in her hands so that no one would see her tears. It was the only place where there was no need to speak a different language, where no explanations were needed, because there was Someone who understood beyond words. This certainty of being understood gave her courage, and with her soul in anguish, she asked Jesus, “Why can’t I share the crosses of the other girls and tell them what you yourself made me understand when I found you: that every suffering is love?”
She remained in front of the tabernacle as though expecting an answer from the One who had brought light into every darkness of her life.
Then her eyes fell on the Gospel of the day, and she read, “Take courage [that is, have faith], I have conquered the world” (Jn 16:33). These words were like a healing balm on Lella’s soul, and she felt great peace.
When she went back for breakfast, she met Annj, the girl who took care of the housework. She greeted Annj and followed her into the storeroom; then, without a word she started to help her prepare breakfast.
The first to come down was Godeliève. She came to the kitchen for her coffee quickly, to avoid seeing anyone. But there, she stopped; Lella’s peace had touched her soul in a way that was stronger than any words.
That evening, on the way home, Godeliève caught up with Lella on her bicycle and, trying to speak in a way Lella would understand, she whispered: “Your words aren’t necessary. Today your life said, ‘You too should love.’” The mountain had moved!
By Chiara Lubich
8 Feb 2010 | Non categorizzato
The new bishop of Islamabad and Rawalpindi in Pakistan has just being ordained. His Diocese reaches as far as the borders of Afghanistan – where pastoral visits are often high risk. Mons Anthony Ruffin participated for the first time at the periodic meeting of Bishops, friends of the Focolare Movement, in the Far East. Last year in was held in Macao and this year it is being held in Bangkok in Thailand. The meeting started on the 9th of February and continued until the 12th. The thirty bishops reflected on the theme ‘To communicate God who is Love – new evangelization today’, and looked at two areas in particular: on one hand the challenge of the encyclical Caritas in Veritate and the need of communication in this age of globalization and on the other Inter-religious dialogue in the light of God who is Love. Paolo Loriga
