![Swiss police already certain that the body found is that of Marisa Baù]()
1 Feb 2012 | Senza categoria
The official identification is still to be done, but the Swiss police is by now certain that the body found two days ago at Cugy is that of Marisa Baù. This is confirmed by a meeting which was held today by the case attorney with Marisa’s relatives and those responsible of the Focolare Centre of Montet. Marisa Baù had disappeared from the Centre of the Focolare Movement in Montet (Broye), Switzerland, on December 20th, 2011. The search since then did not produce any evidence (see info). Instead, Monday, January 30th, the police informed that they had found the body of a woman in an agricultural warehouse, in the close by locality of Cugy, in a place used to keep bales of hay. The farmer who looks after the farm reported that he frequently goes to that place, but only when he had to move part of the hay did he realize there was a body. The police, with the relatives, have considered to do further verifications to verify the cause of death. Now they will proceed with the autopsy and other related examinations, which could last a few weeks. The investigations will be closed if the results exclude an external involvement.
![Swiss police already certain that the body found is that of Marisa Baù]()
31 Jan 2012 | Senza categoria
It is feared that with the facts of January 30, the Marisa Baù incident has concluded differently to how everyone hoped after the last sightings in Como and Locarno.
In fact, during that evening the Swiss police had informed those responsible of the Focolare Centre in Montet, who in turn let the family know, that they had found the body of a woman similar to that of Marisa Baù. They had found it inside an agricultural warehouse situated in Cugy, a locality close by, one and a half kilometres from the Focolare Centre. The causes of death are still to be clarified and we are waiting for official identification. The circumstances of death have to be clarified by the medical-legal
14 Dec 2011 | Senza categoria
«Since Christmas is regarded by so many as one great celebration among many, more sumptuous than sacred, it is good to look back on some of the authentic sides of the event. There is an abysmal difference between the birth of a mighty earthly potentate of which the ancient world dreamt and the hidden and unnoticed birth of Jesus. And it is this contrast that marks with infinite and unforeseen originality the birth of Christ the King, born of a poor maiden in a stable cold and bare. He really didn’t look like a God. The start of his revolution in this way provides no prideful aspect, but only humility, for drawing the sons of God to Heaven, beginning with those who slept in the dirt – the slaves, the unemployed, the outsiders: the scum. With this tiny infant, love and freedom were born. This is the endless discovery. The universal love which he teaches will annihilate the system of co-existence largely comprised of political arrogance, abuse of authority, idle usury, contempt for work, degradation of women, corrosive envy as the basis of a system which is imposed on millions of slaves, people without rights, truly the living dead. Of course, for those who are grafted into this system, proclaiming such a tiny infant, is total madness, inconceivable and it could cost you your head: “You will be hated by all nations because of me.” Blessed are the poor. And blessed are those who become poor in order to help the poor. Blessed are you who are now hungry. . . but woe to you rich.” Imagine the rage, the scandal of those for whom money was the supreme good and a blessing from God. They went on killing each other only to possess a few more acres than the ones they already owned. They unleashed riots and created demagogic uprisings and were taken by swollen livers and heart attacks in order to puff up their profits. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. . . To those who strike you on the right cheek, offer the other as well. . . Give to those who ask, and ask nothing in return. . . Your ancient ancestors said: Do not murder: whoever murders will be brought before the judge. . . But I say to you: whoever grows angry with his brother will be brought before the judge. . .” The greatness of this tiny infant appeared threatening to the honor of the soldiers and the war industries; whereas not hating your brother is equivalent to putting an end to fighting, faction and violence. This greatness would turn society – poor us! – into a peaceful coexistence. Living in peace would allow us to make every day Christmas. And this is the revolution of Christ: opposed to the curse of death; continually making us to be reborn. And so the greatest commandment – he said – is to love the human person, and it is the way to love God. Love others to the point of giving our lives for them, not to the point of killing them. This, briefly, is the meaning of Christmas for humankind, granted to us in order to raise us to divinity. It changes our past way of life with the end of wars, ugly passions and greed. It is the beginning of universal love, which makes “all one” and allows for no division of caste, class, or politic. With his life and death Jesus preaches and teaches life. But evildoers don’t want life; they want death. And so they have been working with united effort today, with atomic weapons, the poisoning of the environment, anarchy in the fields of the distribution of oil and food supplies, a fitting end for humankind. Many delude themselves playing with mythologies. They love peace and come up with war treaties; they seek economic equality, as with class hatred they enliven conflict and trigger disorder and unnecessary strikes that bring harm to ordinary citizens. They awaken (. . .) the desire for a supposedly “strong” regime, believing that this will enable them to live in peace. In keeping with Christmas we celebrate with cake if it helps to inspire love; but above all we celebrate reconciliation, which puts an end to diseases of the spirit and brings you more health. We celebrate in gratitude to the Lord and to Mary who have suffered in order to teach us and help us to put an end to our suffering». In: «Città Nuova», 1974, n.24.
![Swiss police already certain that the body found is that of Marisa Baù]()
23 Oct 2011 | Senza categoria
The Eucharist always had an important role in the life of Chiara Lubich, ever since her childhood. Both her personal life and that of her first companions – and that of the entire Movement – has been marked by the Eucharistic presence. And it could not have been otherwise, when we recall that Eucharistic Jesus is the heart and soul and very life of the Church. The action of the Holy Spirit in his charism of unity, instilled in Chiara and in her first companions a powerful attraction for Jesus in the Eucharist, to the point that they could not wait to go to Mass and share their lives with Him each day. And later, when they began travelling through Italy by train, they would eagerly gaze out over the countryside searching for church steeples, because they knew that the Eucharist, their love was there. There is a marvelous interconnection between the Eucharist and the spirituality of unity. Chiara comments on this great mystery in the following way: “Since the Lord concentrated our attention on Jesus’ prayer for unity when he wanted to initiate this vast movement, it meant that he had to give us a strong push in the direction of the only one who could accomplish this unity: Jesus in the Eucharist. In fact, just as newborns instinctively nourish themselves at their mother’s breast, hardly knowing what they are doing – ever since the beginning of the Movement we noticed that people who grew close to us began going to Communion every day. How are we to explain this? What instinct is for a newborn, the Holy Spirit is for an adult, who is a newborn into the life that the Gospel of unity brings. He is driven to the “heart” of Mother Church and he fees on the most precious nectar that it has, in which he feels to have found the secret of the life of unity and of his own divinization. Indeed, the work of the Eucharist is to make us God by participation. Mixing together our flesh that has been made alive by the Holy Spirit and Christ’s life-giving flesh, we are divinized in soul and in body. The Church could be defined as: the oneness caused by the Eucharist, because it is comprised of divinized men and women, made God, united to Christ who is God and united to one another. This God-with-us is present in all the tabernacles of the world, listening to our confidences, our joys, and our fears. How much comfort Eucharistic Jesus has provided for us in our trials when no one would grant us an audience because the Movement was under investigation! He was always there, at all hours, waiting for us, telling us: In the end, I’m the boss of the Church. And in struggles and pains of every kind he gave us such strength that we thought we should have died many times if Eucharistic Jesus and Jesus in our midst, whom he fueled, had not sustained us.”
![Swiss police already certain that the body found is that of Marisa Baù]()
25 Sep 2011 | Senza categoria
Chiara and her first companions asked themselves how they could show God that he was truly the centre of their lives. They wondered how how they could put into practice their newly found ideal: God-Love. It soon appeared obvious to them that they should return God’s love for them. Their life would no longer have any sense if it were not “a small flame of this infinite brazier burning with the flame of divine Love: love responding to Love”. And it seemed such a great and sublime gift to be able to love God that they often said: “We shouldn’t say “we must love God” but “Oh, to be able to love you, Lord! To be able to love you with this tiny heart!” They recalled a sentence from the Gospel seemed to leave no escape for anyone who wanted to live a Christian life: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 17:21). Therefore, doing the will of God was their grand opportunity to love God. And God and his will coincided.Chiara wrote: “God was like the sun. And a ray of this sun was reaching out to each one of us, the divine will for me, for my friends, for everyone. There is a single sun, different rays, but always ‘rays of sun’. A single will of God different for each person, but always will of God. Our task was to walk within our ray without ever departing from it. And we had to follow along this ray in the time that was allotted us. No wandering into the past or fantasizing about a future. It was better to abandon the past to the mercy of God, since it was no longer in our possession; and the future would only be lived once it became present.
Chiara Lubich (centre) in the mountains of Tonadico with her first companions
![Swiss police already certain that the body found is that of Marisa Baù]()
14 Aug 2011 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria
Thousands of young people from all over the world will converge on Madrid for WYD 2011. There is a lot of joy and enthusiasm among those working for this event. Everything is set to go – one has to only follow the posts on Facebook or Twitter, or keep track of what’s happening on the official website.
The Holy Father has chosen as the theme for WYD 2011 a phrase from the Apostle Paul: “Planted and built up in Jesus Christ, firm in the faith.” (Colossians, 2:7). Here are some passages from his message for WYD2011 dated 6 August 2010. But the entire document is worth a read.
Dear Friends,
(…) Now we are looking forward to the next World Youth Day, to be held in Madrid in August 2011. Back in 1989, several months before the historic fall of the Berlin Wall, this pilgrimage of young people halted in Spain, in Santiago de Compostela. (…) i would like all young people – those who share our faith in Jesus Christ, but also those who are wavering or uncertain, or who do not believe in him – to share this experience, which can prove decisive for their lives. It is an experience of the Lord Jesus, risen and alive, and of his love for each of us.
(…) Many young people experience a deep desire for personal relationships marked by truth and solidarity. Many of them yearn to build authentic friendships, to know true love, to start a family that will remain united, to achieve personal fulfilment and real security, all of which are the guarantee of a serene and happy future…. In thinking of my own youth, I realize that stability and security are not the questions that most occupy the minds of young people. True enough, it is important to have a job and thus to have firm ground beneath our feet, yet the years of our youth are also a time when we are seeking to get the most out of life. When I think back on that time, I remember above all that we were not willing to settle for a conventional middle-class life. We wanted something great, something new… Part of being young is desiring something beyond everyday life … Is this simply an empty dream that fades away as we become older? No! Men and women were created for something great, for infinity. Nothing else will ever be enough. Saint Augustine was right when he said “our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you”. The desire for a more meaningful life is a sign that God created us and that we bear his “imprint”. God is life, and that is why every creature reaches out towards life. Because human beings are made in the image of God, we do this in a unique and special way. We reach out for love, joy and peace.
(…) You are the future of society and of the Church! As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians of Colossae, it is vital to have roots, a solid foundation! This is particularly true today. Many people have no stable points of reference on which to build their lives, and so they end up deeply insecure. There is a growing mentality of relativism, which holds that everything is equally valid, that truth and absolute points of reference do not exist. But this way of thinking does not lead to true freedom, but rather to instability, confusion and blind conformity to the fads of the moment. As young people, you are entitled to receive from previous generations solid points of reference to help you to make choices and on which to build your lives: like a young plant which needs solid support until it can sink deep roots and become a sturdy tree capable of bearing fruit.
In order to highlight the importance of faith in the lives of believers, I would like to reflect with you on each of the three terms used by Saint Paul in the expression: “Planted and built up in Jesus Christ, firm in the faith” (cf. Col 2:7). We can distinguish three images: “planted” calls to mind a tree and the roots that feed it; “built up” refers to the construction of a house; “firm” indicates growth in physical or moral strength. These images are very eloquent.
(…) Dear friends, build your own house on rock, just like the person who “dug deeply”. Try each day to follow Christ’s word. Listen to him as a true friend with whom you can share your path in life. With him at your side, you will find courage and hope to face difficulties and problems, and even to overcome disappointments and set-backs.
(…) “Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 150). Thus you will acquire a mature and solid faith, one which will not be based simply on religious sentiment or on a vague memory of the catechism you studied as a child. You will come to know God and to live authentically in union with him, like the Apostle Thomas who showed his firm faith in Jesus in the words: “My Lord and my God!”.
(…) “Each believer is thus a link in the great chain of believers. I cannot believe without being carried by the faith of others, and by my faith I help support others in the faith” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 166).
(…) The victory born of faith is that of love. There have been, and still are, many Christians who are living witnesses of the power of faith that is expressed in charity. They have been peacemakers, promoters of justice and workers for a more humane world, a world in accordance with God’s plan. With competence and professionalism, they have been committed in different sectors of the life of society, contributing effectively to the welfare of all. The charity that comes from faith led them to offer concrete witness by their actions and words. Christ is not a treasure meant for us alone; he is the most precious treasure we have, one that is meant to be shared with others. In our age of globalization, be witnesses of Christian hope all over the world.… if you believe, and if you are able to live out your faith and bear witness to it every day, you will become a means of helping other young people like yourselves to find the meaning and joy of life, which is born of an encounter with Christ!
(…) The decision to believe in Jesus Christ and to follow him is not an easy one. It is hindered by our personal failures and by the many voices that point us towards easier paths. Do not be discouraged. Rather, look for the support of the Christian community (…) Dear young people, the Church depends on you!
Benedictus PP. XVI
Vatican, 6 August 2010.
