The international ensemble Gen Verde has launched a new album which includes previously unreleased songs, new musical pieces, re-arranged tracks and some of the songs that have been released in recent years.
“Everything Speaks about You – Prayer in Music” is the title of the new album by the band born from the Charism of Unity of the Focolare Movement.
“Everything speaks to us about God: the beauty of nature that surrounds us, the that air we breathe, the people passing by, the joys and the difficulties, the moments of great happiness but also those of darkness and pain which Jesus took upon himself on the cross. This album is the result of a deep experience for Gen Verde. Every note, every word and every silence intends to express their relationship with God, the heart of all that Gen Verde is and does”, these are the words that describe the album and summarise the motive and soul of the work.
Nancy Uelmen (United States), singer, pianist and composer of Gen Verde says: “As Chiara Lubich, the founder of Focolare, says: ‘Prayer: it is the breath of the soul, the oxygen of our whole spiritual life, the expression of our love for God, the fuel for everything we do’ (Chiara Lubich, Seeking the things above). So we would like to invite everyone to take an inner journey together, guided by each track on the album, hoping that it can be an instrument of prayer in music, as it is for us.”
How did the idea for this album come about?
“For us, more than an album, it is a very special experience – Nancy emphasizes – because we wanted to go to the heart of what Gen Verde is does. It’s what inspires our music: our relationship with God. We therefore wanted to create an album about prayer and music, through songs and some instrumental pieces, to express our heart and everything that we are and do. The idea is to go on an inner journey: each track expresses an aspect of the relationship that can be lived with God and with each other. As the title states, we can find God anywhere – in nature, in our neighbours, in our own hearts – so this album is like a journey that can help us discover this presence. It is the result of an experience which is central for us”.
Gen Verde is based in Loppiano, the little town of the Focolare near Florence (Italy) and is made up of twenty focolarine from 14 different countries. They are a mix of internationality, a constant training ground in loving the culture, traditions and diverse types of music that characterise team members. For over 50 years the band has travelled around the world to give witness that peace, fraternity, dialogue and unity are possible. Now, with this new project, the journey is within each one of us to rediscover ourselves, God and others.
The album was released on 6th June on all digital platforms (Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, Amazon music, Deezer, Tidal). The physical album, which contains a booklet with the words of the songs and also meditations to help with prayer, isavailable on theMade in Loppiano website.
Come exiled brother, let us embrace. Wherever you are, whatever your name, whatever you do, you are my brother. What does it matter to me if nature and social conventions try to separate you from me, with names, conditions, restrictions or laws?
The heart cannot be restrained, the will knows no limits and by making an effort to love we can overcome all these divisions and reunite as a family.
Don’t you recognise me? Nature placed you elsewhere, made you different, within other borders, you may be German, Romanian, Chinese, Indian… You may be yellow, olive-skinned, black, bronze, copper-toned… but what does it matter?
What does it matter that you are from a different country? When this small, still-glowing globe consolidated, no one could have imagined that for such accidental outgrowths, people would kill each other for ages.
And even today, in the face of our political systems, do you think that nature ever asks our permission to express itself through volcanoes, earthquakes or floods? And do you think it cares about our disparities, appearances or hierarchies?
Unknown brother, love your land, your fragment of the shared crust that supports us, but do not hate mine. Under all the trappings, under the all the social classifications, no matter how codified, you are a soul that God created as a sister to mine, to that of every other person (there is only one Father) and you are like every other person who suffers and perhaps you cause suffering, who needs more than he possesses, who falters, who gets tired, hungry, thirsty, sleepy, like me, like everyone else.
“Unknown brother, love your land, your fragment of the shared crust that supports us, but do not hate mine. (…) In you I recognize the Lord. Free yourself and even now, brothers that we are, let’s embrace. “
You are a poor pilgrim following a mirage. You believe yourself to be the centre of the universe and yet you are nothing more than an atom of this humanity that from millennia to millennia struggles more through sorrow than through joys.
You are a speck, brother, so let’s join forces instead of fighting. Do not be proud, do not isolate yourself, do not accentuate the marks of differentiation devised by man.
Didn’t you cry when you were born, as I did? Will you not groan when you die, as I will? Whatever its earthly shell, the soul will return to be naked, equal. So come. From beyond all seas, climates, all laws, from beyond every social, political or intellectual compartment, from beyond all boundaries (man knows only how to circumscribe, divide and isolate) come, brother.
In you I recognize the Lord. Free yourself and even now, brothers that we are, let’s embrace.
I couldn’t understand how anyone could give life to a young person, have him worn out by studies and sacrifices, in order to prepare him for an operation, in which he would have to kill strangers, unknown, innocent people and in turn, he would be killed by others to whom he had done no harm. I saw the absurdity, the stupidity and above all the sin of war: a sin made more acute by the excuses used to justify it and by the futility with which it was decided.
The Gospel, long meditated upon, taught me that to do good, not to kill was a fundamental duty; to forgive, not to take revenge. And reason itself gave me a sense of how absurd it was to engage in a conflict where victory did not go to the just, but to those with more cannons; not to justice, but to violence.
In the “radiant May” of 1915, I was called to arms. […]
So many bugles, speeches and flags! All this only deepened within me the sense of revulsion for those clashes, in which governments, entrusted with the public good, carried out their task by slaughtering the children of the people, hundreds of thousands and by destroying or allowing the destruction of the assets of the nation: the common good. How stupid it all seemed to me! And I suffered for the millions of people, who were forced to believe in the sanctity of those murders, a sanctity also attested by clerics who blessed the cannons destined to offend God in His masterpiece of creation, to kill God in His image, to carry out fratricide among baptized brothers.
“I saw the absurdity, the stupidity
and above all the sin of war…”
As a recruit I was sent to Modena, where there was a kind of university for the training of warriors and commanders. Coming from the world of Virgil and Dante, the study of certain manuals that taught how to deceive the enemy in order to kill him, had such an effect on me that, in an act of reckless defiance, I wrote in one of them: “Here we are learning the science of imbecility”. I had a very different concept of love of country. I understood it as love and love means service, the pursuit of good, the promotion of well-being, to provide a happier coexistence: for the growth and not for the destruction of life.
But I was young, and I did not understand the reasoning of the older generation, who didn’t really want to understand. They distracted themselves with parades and shouted slogans to numb their senses.
[…]
After a few weeks, having completed my training in Modena, I returned home briefly before departing for the front. I hugged my mother and father, my brothers and sisters (we rarely embraced in my family) and boarded the train. From the train I saw the sea for the first time, much wider than the Aniene River, it felt as though I had fulfilled one of life’s duties. After three days, I reached the trenches along the Isonzo and joined the 111th Infantry Regiment.
The trench. In it, from school I entered life, between the arms of death and cannon fire. […]
If I fired five or six shots, into the air, I did so out of necessity: I never aimed my rifle towards the enemy trenches, for fear of killing a child of God. […]
If all those days spent, in the bottom of the trenches, watching reeds and tufts of brambles and bored clouds and shining blue sky, had been spent working, we would have produced enough wealth to meet all the demands for which the war was being fought. Clearly: but that was reason and war is the opposite of reason.
Igino Giordani Memorie di un cristiano ingenuo, Città Nuova 1994, pp.47-53
War is a mass murder, clothed in a kind of sacred cult, as was the sacrifice of firstborns to the god Baal: and this because of the terror it instils, the rhetoric with which it dresses up and the interests it serves. When humanity has progressed spiritually, war will be classified alongside the bloody rites, the superstitions of witchcraft and other barbaric practices.
It relates to humanity as sickness does to health, as sin to the soul: it is destruction and devastation, striking both soul and body, individuals and the community.
[…]
According to St. Thomas, “All things seek peace”. In fact, they all seek life. Only the insane and the incurable may desire death. And war is death. It is not wanted by the people; it is wanted by minorities to whom physical violence serves to secure economic advantages or, worse, to satisfy base emotions. Especially today, with its cost, its deaths and its ruins, war reveals itself as a “useless slaughter”. A slaughter which is moreover useless. A victory over life which is becoming humanity’s suicide.
According to St. Thomas, “All things seek peace”. In fact, they all seek life. Only the insane and the incurable may desire death. And war is death.
[…] Saying that war is a “useless slaughter “, Benedict XV gave the most precise definition. Cardinal Schuster called it, “a slaughterhouse of men.” It means whole regions destroyed, thousands and thousands of poor people without homes or possessions, forced to wander in the desolate countryside, until death cuts them down from hunger or cold.
[…] The material gains from a victorious war can never compensate for the damage it causes; so much so, that it takes several successive generations to painstakingly rebuild the full sum of spiritual and moral values that were destroyed during an excess of war frenzies[1]. ” […]
[…]
2uman ingenuity, destined for far nobler purposes, has today devised and introduced instruments of war of such power as to arouse horror in the soul of any honest person, above all because they do not only affect armies, but often still overwhelm private citizens, children, women, the old and the sick, as well as sacred buildings and major monuments of art! Who is not horrified at the thought that new cemeteries will be added to the countless ones of the recent conflict and new smoking ruins of towns and cities will pile up more mournful wreckage?» [2]. […] […]
There are places in the world where fraternity is cultivated with a purpose. One of these is MilONGa, a project that has established itself as a key initiative in the field of international volunteering, aiming to promote peace and solidarity through concrete actions.
MilONGa offers a concrete alternative: to experience solidarity firsthand through experiences that transcend cultural, social and geographical boundaries.
Its name, which stands for “Mille organizzazioni non governative attive” (Thousand Active Non-Governmental Organizations) is much more than a project. It is a network that connects the youth with organizations in various parts of the world, giving them the opportunity to actively engage in social, educational, environmental, and cultural initiatives. Since its beginning, the program has grown by weaving a global community that recognizes common values: peace, reciprocity and active citizenship.
What distinguishes MilONGa is not only the diversity of its destinations or the richness of its activities but the type of experience it offers: a deep immersion in local realities, where each volunteer comes not to “help” but to learn, exchange, and build together. It is a comprehensive training journey that transforms both those who experience it and the communities that welcome them.
The countries where these experiences can take place are as diverse as the youth who participate, covering various latitudes: Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Peru in America; Kenya in Africa; Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Germany in Europe; Lebanon and Jordan in the Middle East.
In each of these places, MilONGa collaborates with local organizations committed to social development and building a culture of peace, offering volunteers service opportunities that have a real and lasting impact.
Behind MilONGa is a solid network of international partnerships. The project is supported by the AFR.E.S.H.,initiative co-financed by the European Union, which allows it to strengthen its structure and expand its impact. It is also part of the New Humanity ecosystem, an international organization committed to promoting a culture of unity and dialogue among peoples.
A Story that Leaves a Mark
Francesco Sorrenti was one of the volunteers who traveled to Africa with the MilONGa program. His motivation was not just the desire to “help,” but a deeper need to understand and connect with a reality he felt was distant. “It was something I had inside me for years: a deep curiosity, almost an urgency to see with my own eyes, to try to get closer to a reality that felt far away,” Francesco recounts about his experience in Kenya.
His experience in Kenya was marked by moments that transformed him. One of these was a visit to Mathare, a slum in Nairobi. “When one of them told me: ‘Look, this is where my parents live. I was born here, my children were born here. I met my wife here and we will probably die here,’ I felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness. I realized that before doing anything, it was necessary to stop. That I wasn’t there to fix things, but to observe rather than turn away.”
He also experienced moments of joy while working with the children at a local school. “The joy of these children was contagious, physical. There was no need for many words: just being there, playing, sharing. It was then that I understood that it’s not about doing great things, but simply about being present,” he shares.
Two years after his experience, Francesco still feels its impact. “My way of seeing things has changed: I now value what really matters more and have learned to appreciate simplicity. This experience has also left me with a form of strength, an inner tenacity. You carry a kind of resilience, like what I saw in the eyes of those who, at dawn, wanted to do everything even if they had nothing.”
Meetings that Multiply Commitment
In April 2025, MilONGa participated in the international congress “Solidarity in Action, Builders of Peace” held in the city of Porto, Portugal. The meeting, jointly organized by AMU (Action for a United World), New Humanity and the Focolare Movement of Portugal, brought together young leaders from around the world linked to the Living Peace International and MilONGa programs.
For three days, Porto was transformed into a laboratory of dialogue and action, where young participants exchanged experiences, shared good practices, and built common strategies to strengthen their role as peace agents. MilONGa played a key role, not only through the active participation of its volunteers but also by creating synergies with other youth networks engaged in social transformation.
One of the most significant moments of the congress was the collaborative workshop space, where participants imagined and designed concrete projects with local and global impact.
MilONGa is defined not only by what it does but by the horizon it proposes: a fairer, more united and more humane world. A world where solidarity is not a slogan but a daily practice; where peace is not a utopia but a shared responsibility.
