Mar 29, 2021 | Non categorizzato
Dearest all, Easter will soon be here. It’s the greatest feast of the year and with it comes Holy Week, which abounds in the most precious mysteries of Jesus’ life. We are reminded of these especially on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and on Easter Sunday, the day of the Resurrection. For us, too, they represent central aspects of our spirituality. … So what can we live as Holy Week draws near, and during these blessed days? I think the best way to live all of them is to live Easter, to let the Risen Lord live in us. For the Risen Lord to shine out in us, we must love Jesus Forsaken and always be – as we say – “beyond his wound”, where charity reigns. Charity, then, urges us to be the new commandment in action; charity urges us to approach the Eucharist; charity leads us to live in unity with God and with our brothers and sisters. It is through charity that each of us can, in a certain way, be another Mary. … By doing so, all of us together will truly be that Easter People which some people have said they recognize in our Movement.
Chiara Lubich
https://vimeo.com/529414892 Link up, Sierre, March 24, 1994
Mar 24, 2021 | Non categorizzato
This is the journey towards the next World Youth Day in 2023. The story of a young woman from the Focolare who is collaborating in planning the event. The next World Youth Day will take place in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, in 2023 with the theme “Mary got up and went in haste” (Lk 1:39). The pandemic leaves open questions regarding the event, but the preparatory work has been underway for some time. Mariana Vaz Pato, a young woman from the Focolare Movement, is part of the local team working to organise the event.
the WYD cross
Mar 23, 2021 | Non categorizzato
Despite the violent clashes in Myanmar, through the work of the “Drop after Drop” (Goccia dopo Goccia) association, the Focolare community continues to bear witness to universal fraternity during a time of pandemic and revolution. Here is the account of the journey undertaken by the focolarini in that area at the beginning of March. (All activities were carried out in accordance with the Covid regulations in the country) Myanmar is still living through a revolution that began last February on the 22nd of the month: it is called ‘22222’. This country, made up of different ethnic groups and rich in natural beauty and raw materials, experienced the longest civil war in human history from 1947 to 2010. Among the various revolutions that have occured in the past, there was the one that took place on 8 August 1988 called ‘8888’, resulting in thousands of deaths and another in 2007, known as the ‘saffron-coloured’ revolution because of the large number of Buddhist monks who began the protest and lost their lives. During the clashes in 1988, thousands of people began to migrate towards the border with Thailand, to the province of Tak, to the town of Mae Sot, then in Mae Hong Song, and even further south, towards Kanchanaburi. Today, 32 years later, nine refugee camps are still active: millions of Burmese people who are working in Thailand are living in them. 
The focolarini who have been in the area since 1988 have begun to help many young people who they first met a few years ago in Rangoon and Bassein. “Our contact with them,” says Luigi Butori, a focolarino who lives in Ho Chi Min in Vietnam and who has been travelling in those areas for years, “went on until Father Justine Lewin, a priest linked to the Focolare Movement, arrived in Mae Sot. He helped these people who lived not only in the refugee camps, like the most famous one in Mae La with 50,000 people, but also scattered across the countryside, often close to the factories where they worked, or in the cornfields close to the town of Mae Sot. About twenty years ago we started small projects in the Mae La camp and gradually in the town of Mae Sot. The goal was to feed and clothe the people.” Beginning in 2011, a bridge of solidarity has gradually been built between Italy and Mae Sot. The Focolare community in Latina in central Italy and some students taught by Maria Grazia Fabietti, began to help the children and adults living on the border between Thailand and Myanmar. Luigi explains, “One of our Italian friends, Paolo Magli was celebrating his 50th birthday and rather than receive lots of presents, he asked for money to help these Karen ethnic groups (a population that fled Burma during the conflicts and has been forced to live as refugees on the border between Myanmar and Thailand for years, some in the Mae La refugee camp and even more in the area outside it.) This was the beginning of “Drop after Drop”. Today, this project helps more than 3300 people in three countries in South East Asia and also collaborates with the Charis association in Singapore to bring help to those affected by poverty, loneliness, disease and even the pandemic. Areas of Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar give us the ‘possibility to love concretely’: there are people there who know the spirit of universal fraternity and today do everything to help those who are excluded, marginalized, rejected, sick and alone.” “Drop after Drop” helps everyone, people from many different ethnic groups – Karen, Bama, Kachin, Thai Yai, and Xtieng and Hmong people in Vietnam. The project also assists Muslims in need who are in contact with the focolare in Bangkok. At the beginning of March, the focolarini went to Mae Sot with a van loaded with food, clothes, toys and much more, as shown in the video you can see below. (The intiative was carried out in accordance with the covid rules in the country). Donations came from Muslims, Buddhists, Christians and many people in contact with the Focolare Movement. Luigi said, “Everyone is our brother or sister. We want to live out in our own situation one of the most beautiful reflections written many years ago by Chiara Lubich, the founder of the Focolare: ‘Lord, give me everyone who is lonely: I have felt in my heart the passion for all of the forsakeness in which the whole world is drifting.’* The latest project born helps six abandoned mothers and their fifteen children in Mae Sot. We have sent two sewing machines and 15 kg of cotton fabric which can be cut and sewn to make shirts, skirts and trousers for whoever needs them. It is a joy and a celebration to see how people help each other. Universal fraternity is a reality that takes hold, day after day, and “Drop after Drop” represents just that.”
Lorenzo Russo
https://youtu.be/xv5W3hxZInc * Reflection: “Lord give me everyone who is lonely” by Chiara Lubich – September 1949
Mar 22, 2021 | Non categorizzato
It is fairly easy to Love God and our neighbours when we are well. However, when we are sick, even physically, it can become a huge challenge. Chiara Lubich tells us how we can prepare for those moments in a way that also includes the possibility of failure. As we all know our Ideal can be defined with just one word: Love. Love is the whole of our life, love is the soul of our prayer, the soul of our apostolate, of all the expressions of our existence. Love is also the “health” of our individual spiritual life, just as reciprocal love is our “health” as a community, as the “mystical body of Christ”. When we love, everything is right with us; we are before God whole and entire, whether we are enjoying physical wholeness or whether we are ill. However, when one is healthy, it is easy to love; it is easy to love God and our brothers and sisters. It is more difficult to love when you are ill. […] [I would like] to ask you and me a question. Is it really right that someone who finds themselves in such difficult moments of their earthly life should live with such commitment the marriage of their soul with Jesus forsaken, and that we who perhaps have greater physical health, live our tension to holiness in a mediocre way? Must we always allow God to permit special trials to happen to us – trials that seem to take our breath away, in order to make us decide to love Him in a total way? […] Therefore, […] we cannot waste any time. We all have the Holy Spirit in our heart, and we know what his requests and suggestions are. He tells us that here we should love Jesus Forsaken in a suffering for example, or in an effort we have to make; here we should prefer Jesus Forsaken in a virtue, in brotherly love for example. Here, again, we should choose him in an aspect of the Movement or of the Church or of humanity… We must make a resolution to love Jesus Forsaken day by day, always, […] with 100% commitment. And. […] repeat before each action we take “For You”. If such a committed life frightens us, […] let’s remind ourselves of the words of Jesus, “Let the burden of each day be sufficient for that day” (Mt 6, 34). Let’s concern ourselves with the face of Jesus Forsaken of today, the face of Jesus Forsaken of each moment. For tomorrow, we will have other graces. In this way, we will store away full days, all completely consecrated to Jesus Forsaken. It is with these days that we will build our holiness. If then it happens that we fail, that we betray Him, that we became blocked, we know that also beyond all these circumstances His face is there. May we be able to answer to ourselves each evening, or rather answer to Jesus who questions us in the depth of our heart about how the day went: “it went well, 100%”.. With our embracing Jesus Forsaken 100% – the Risen One shines out in us and gives witness. […]
Chiara Lubich
(from a telephonic conference call, Rocca di Papa, 16 January 1986)
Mar 19, 2021 | Non categorizzato
Every day, on the eastern outskirts of Lima, Peru, the Focolare community supports people living in situations of extreme poverty by sharing many things – food, material aid, literacy skills and Gospel experiences. Huaycán is located in the eastern suburbs of Lima, Peru. It has a population of approximately 200,000 and 90% are immigrants from the Andes, people who arrived to escape from poverty. They preserve their traditions and their language, Quechua, the ancient language of the Incas. The people living high up in the hills are often experiencing situations of extreme poverty. Their houses have dirt floors and consist of just one room (beds are in the kitchen), they do not have a clean water supply, electricity or a sewage system… Many of the people are street vendors. Some women do house cleaning and some men are construction workers or scrap collectors. The community in Lima has seen that these people are living in a situation that is like the “wound of Christ” and has chosen to love them in a special way. “We first visited Huaycán in 1998,” Elsa recalls, “when Tata, Carmen, Maria and Milagros and I brought the Word of Life to a community close to the ‘Fe y Alegría School’ run by the Franciscan Sisters. Then Elba, Mario, Lula, Yeri, Fernando, Cristina and Eury… joined us. We went higher up in the hills and shared Gospel experiences with the poorest of the poor. Many of the people had poor health and were suffering from a variety of different illnesses and family life was very difficult: violence, promiscuity, unemployment, drugs and hunger were part of their everyday experience.” “At first, we would sit on the ground,” Elba says, “but then as the people began to feel more secure, they would pull out their chairs and offer them to us. In the winter, they would invite us into their humble houses. There we met Olinda, the school cook, who opened her home to meet us. She is a beautiful person – the “heart” of the community for us . We suffered together when her eldest son died suddenly.” The community in Lima community has begun several initiatives to support the many needs of these people: these include material aid, educational support for children, training and literacy for adults, psychological support, follow-up and health care and the sale of second-hand clothes. “Every year we celebrate Christmas and Mother’s Day together. We also organize trips and some of the people take part in the annual Mariapolis,” Mario recalls. “One couple followed a preparation course and then got married during the Mariapolis, in the presence of their five children and other relatives. It was a turning point in their lives, just as it is for many others when they meet the God of Love.” “With the pandemic,” Cristina continues, “many people have lost their jobs and do not have enough to feed their children. Working with some families we managed to procure food and distribute it to those most in need. One woman installed an oven, which had previously been disused, to produce bread. From March to June, we distributed 140 baskets of food and 12,720 loaves of bread. We met with the poorest community, Granja Verde, because we needed a kitchen and dining area to prepare and serve food. We began to organise what we could do: they offered a piece of land and laid a concrete floor. We provided essential utensils for the kitchen and a 2,500-litre tank for drinking water. The dining room was inaugurated on 15 November 15 2020, and started working the following day. Today we produce 100 meals a day. We know, as Pope Francis reminds us, that if we forget about the poor, God will forget about us. Huaycán, Christ’s “sore spot” is our favourite place and where we most clearly experience God’s blessing.”
Gustavo E. Clariá
Mar 18, 2021 | Non categorizzato
Considering “fratelli tutti” – as Pope Francis says – helps us broaden our horizons. “Give and it will be given to you” Father David from Kenya wrote, “I was helping a poor refugee boy I had got to know during the mission in Kakuma refugee camp in northwest Kenya by paying for his schooling but after a while I ran out of money and was no longer able to support him. I explained this difficulty to him and we said goodbye to one another. After some time, this boy sent me a message via social media asking me for help again. It was a great suffering for me not to be able to help him so I decided to sell a cow I had at my parents’ house to pay for his schooling. He was so happy to be able to go back to school again. In the new parish where I have been living for almost a year, the parishioners decided to visit me one day because they had heard that my father was not well. Among the gifts they brought were three cows. I could not believe it. It really seemed as if God wanted to say to me “a good measure, pressed down, full and overflowing will be poured into your lap”. Father David, Kenya “For my brothers and sisters in Lebanon” After the disaster of 4 August 2020 in Beirut, Lebanon, I asked myself what I could do to help this country which had already suffered so much. A few days later it would be my birthday: 40 years old. My family and friends wanted to celebrate with me, even if it was just a meal. This could be the perfect opportunity to help the people of Lebanon, I thought. So I asked all those coming to the dinner not to give me any presents but to make a donation to my project to help Beirut. At the end of the evening, I was amazed by the amount of money raised: a good 600 euros! I never imagined it would be so much, especially since there were very few guests at the dinner because of Covid restrictions. This gesture then caused a chain reaction among my friends. Emilia gave the proceeds from her graduation to another project, Francesco decided to sponsor a child in a developing country for his birthday, and then the children in the neighbourhood, when they heard about our birthday initiative, gave the proceeds of the sale of products made with recycled materials they had organised, again for Lebanon! Freely you have received, freely give… This is what we strongly believe in, always, when we receive and when we give. L., Ischia (Italy) “From a sandwich to a hundredfold for the poor”. One day I was in a sandwich shop, waiting to buy a sandwich, and I had just enough money for one. As I was coming out of the shop, I saw a lady looking at everyone who was eating. I realised she was hungry and was waiting for someone to offer her something to eat. I took out my sandwich and gave it to her. I can always eat something later, I said to myself. She was overjoyed. Then I took her to the fruit shop and asked the greengrocer if he could give her some fruit which I would pay for the next day since I had no money at that moment. The greengrocer gladly gave the lady not just one piece of fruit, but a whole bag of fruit, free of charge. I was so happy to see how a small sandwich could become a chain of the hundredfold. Mumbai (India)
Lorenzo Russo
