I was climbing the stairs to my apartment when I thought of the neighbour across from me who has major health problems. I never seemed to find time for her and this time too, I was tempted to put it off but the thought of doing it to Jesus gave me the push I needed. After visiting her and she was very happy just to have a chat, I was stopped by some other neighbours who, seeing me there, also wanted to hear my opinion on an old issue of the condominium was still unresolved. I wanted to cut them short, I still had to prepare lunch but I stopped to listen to everyone’s reasoning. At the same time, I tried to think of a solution that could bring harmony back to the building but none seemed viable to me. Maybe all I could really do was love them by listening to them. In the end, a solution emerged that was right for everyone. After saying goodbye, as if to thank me, one of them came back and gave me a medallion. But what mattered most to me was that I had built a new relationship with my neighbours.
(Fulvia – Italy)
Ten Years Later
That evening I found my wife busy doing the dishes. How could I tell her that the mitral valve that kept me alive was failing and that, after ten years, I would need surgery again? The first time there had been the anguish of the potential separation, the thought of our children whom I already pictured as orphans… then acceptance and finally peace, ready to “leave” at any moment. Then, the operation itself, which was painful but followed by a good recovery. But the greatest gift had been to feel that God was always close to us, precisely through the physical limitations that followed. Meanwhile, contrary to the doctors’ prognosis, the miracle of a somewhat stable health had lasted longer. But now, suddenly, palpitations and the feeling of exhaustion had brought me back to reality. However, I did not lose my calm. I kissed Adita and mentioned some tests that the doctor had prescribed for me. That was enough for her to understand. She looked at me with a smile. I smiled back. It was our “yes” to what God was asking of us. All we had to do was abandon ourselves to him once again.
(Hannibal – Argentina)
No longer alone
Ever since I was a teenager I’ve had a special concern for the poor, the sick and the lonely. Over the years, I’ve met many, including a woman with two children, rejected by everyone, because of mental health issues. When she passed away, the two children were even more alone, but they continued to consider me as a family member: I went to visit them from time to time and helped them as much as I could. Sometime later, one of them also passed away and joined their mother in heaven. F. remained alone, the brother whom, because of his violence, the neighbours considered as unapproachable. He never left the house and I couldn’t bring anyone with me on my visits because he wouldn’t accept anyone else. Seeing in him the true image of Jesus Crucified, I decided to go to visit him anyway. Before going, I phoned a friend and asked her to come to look for me if I didn’t call her back after 30 minutes. F.’s joy in seeing me come into his house without any fear was immense: having someone to talk to was the greatest gift he’d ever received. Since then, almost every evening, he sends me a message. I reply, trying to give him hope. Now F. is no longer alone.
(G. – Italy)
compiled by Maria Grazia Berretta
(taken from The Gospel of the Day, New City, year X– no.1 July-August 2025)
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.
A man, a husband, a father; a tireless professional, a Christian: these are just some of the qualities that describe Giulio Ciarrocchi, a married focolarino who, after years of illness, recently passed away. He was a shining example of great trust in that plan that God had in mind for him and his family.
Giulio was born in Brooklyn (USA) to father Andrea and mother Romilda. His sister Maria Teresa was already part of the family. A year later, the family returned to Petritoli, a picturesque town in the Marche region of central Italy. Giulio later studied in Fermo, a nearby city. His father, passed on his love for singing, to Giulio, which led him to compose songs as a young man. He was involved in both the choir and other activities in the village, and had many friends. This was in 1968.69, the height of the student protests. Giulio recounted: “Inside me, everything was questioned. I openly contested everything and everyone, nothing satisfied me”. At the age of 22, he met Chiara Lubich’s spirituality of unity: “It was a very strong light that opened my eyes to evangelical love,” he said. I started with the seemingly simple things, like greeting people: the other was no longer a stranger: Jesus lived in them. Previously I only related to people who had the same interests as me. Now I realized that there were also the poor and the marginalized. For example, I remember a very poor elderly woman, avoided by everyone because she always said the same things and never washed herself. Now when I’d meet her, I’d give her a lift in the car and take her where she needed to go. When she became sick I went to see her in the hospital every day until she died. Then there was a boy with a disability, rejected by his family, who had been recently hospitalized after attempting suicide. I approached him in friendship. Little by little, I helped him to have confidence in life, to reconnect with family members and to find a job. I felt such a great joy and freedom that everything else seemed to fade away”.
In the years that followed, Giulio became deeply involved in the Gen Movement, the youth reality of the Focolare Movement, which led him to make the Gospel his way of life. He was drawn to the values in which he believed and to which he dedicated himself with other young people: justice, equality and friendship.
He graduated in Economics and worked in a Bank. At the age of 26 he met Pina. They married in 1976 and set up home in Ancona (Marche). After three years, they were invited to move to Grottaferrata (Rome) to help out in the International Secretariat of New Families. Giulio applied for a job in a bank in Rome and, as soon as he was successful, Pina and he and the little Francesca and Chiara (Sara was born later) moved to Grottaferrata. It was September 1979.
Giulio presenta il Familifest 1993Giulio con Chiara LubichGiulio e Pina con la famigliaUn incontro del centro internazionale Familgie Nuove con Chiara Lubichcon alcuni focolarini del focolare di GiulioGiulio con amici e focolariniCon alcune focolarine del focolare di PInaGiulio e Pina nel giorno del matrimonioGiulio con alcuni gen, giovani dei FocolariCon le figlie
While Pina, also a married focolarina, worked full-time at the Secretariat of New Families, Giulio, depending on his work, made himself available for various activities: offering assistance at international meetings; sharing, together with Pina, their life experiences and God’s work in them, not only with engaged couples and young couples, but also during Focolare Movement formation meetings for children and young people and conferences with representatives of various Churches. They often opened the doors of their home to welcome families from around the world who were visiting the Focolare’s international centre, an experience that was enriching for the whole family.
In 1993, the FN Secretariat unanimously asked Giulio, with his warm empathy and charming presence, to host Familyfest, the global event held at the Palaeur in Rome.
Pina and he were among the founding members of AMU (Action for a United World) and AFN (Action for New Families). They served on the National Office for Family Pastoral Care of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) for two years.
Suddenly, in May 1995, everything changed. Giulio suffered a stroke. He survived thanks to the timely care he received and his extraordinary determination, facing long hospital stays and exhausting physiotherapy. A few months later, he sent this message to friends:
“The day I entered this clinic, the Mass reading spoke of Abraham being invited by God to leave his land to go where He would lead him. I felt that call was for me. In all these years I had worked hard to find a sense of balance. This illness shattered that balance. I had to find a new one and I asked God where he wanted to lead me. Having to start all over again scared me. But Jesus gave me the answer and the strength to go on.”
His illness became a journey of rediscovering a relationship with the Father: “I am living a beautiful experience of relationship with God and with the community even if amid physical pain, which, however, I assure you, is truly secondary to the great gifts I have received”.
Giulio never recovered, indeed his condition gradually worsened. His life and that of his family was put to the test, but their unity, especially that as a couple, was so real and inscrutable, so joyful and fruitful that Chiara Lubich herself wanted to affirm it with the words of the Psalm: “In him our hearts rejoice” (33:21).
For seven years, Giulio struggled to continue working at the bank to reach the minimum retirement requirement, deeply grateful to his colleagues for their help and support. Then, finally, a break from work, but not from his commitment, together with Pina, to families around the world, working as long as he was able and then offering and praying until the end, certain that Pina was an expression of the unity between them.
In 2007 another challenge came. Giulio wrote: “I have received the biopsy result: it’s a carcinoma, and I’ll need radiotherapy. I repeat my ‘yes’ to Jesus. Some might say that God has targeted me, since I’ve already lived through 12 difficult post-stroke years. I, on the other hand, believe I am very much loved and I thank him for the privilege of participating in his mystery of love for the good of humanity.”
In May 2025, Giulio and Pina celebrated 30 years of illness. That’s right, celebrated. And not because everything was over now, but because as Giulio commented, “They have been years of grace”. Though his memory had begun to fade, his spiritual dimension remained vibrant. “I live in the present”, he said on 2nd February, 2025, “and I look upward. Jesus tells me, don’t worry, I’m here, right behind you”. And on 25th June, Pina’s birthday, in a moment of clarity, he said to her: “You’ve always managed so well, I hope you will continue to do so even more!” On Giulio’s final day, while waiting for the ambulance after praying three Hail Marys together, he said: “Mary most pure, help us.”
Giulio was a gift for all those who met him. Many messages of gratitude have been received from relatives, colleagues and friends from all over the world.
Giulio had many gifts and many people were enriched by his life, as his daughters shared after the funeral:
“What we would like to share is his ability to recognize beauty. Not surface-level or aesthetic beauty, but the kind you discover by going deeper, when you overcome fear and embrace life with your heart. That invisible, but powerful beauty, which runs through life’s fabric, which is light in pain and joy in illness. This is the beauty to which our Dad introduced us, by involving us in his many passions such as art, photography, music, theatre, travel and the sea… passions that today are also ours and that allow us to have an open and confident approach to the world just like he did until the end. Dear Dad, we’ve often thought that life wasn’t kind to you, but the kindness you didn’t receive, you gave to your life and to ours.
In these last few years, your physical world has shrunk, yet your inner world has expanded, teaching us gratitude for every single day of life”.
La redazione con la collaborazione di Anna e Alberto Friso
This link is to a video-interview produced by the Santa Chiara Audiovisual Centre featuring Giulio and his wife Pina: Falling in love again, day by day.
The first General Assembly of the Focolare Movement without the foundress was held in July 2008. In fact, Chiara Lubich had died a few months earlier, on the 14th of March. An air of uncertainty hung over the already emotional and question-filled atmosphere as to who should succeed Chiara in leading the Movement. It seemed obvious to think of Chiara’s first companions, now elderly, but at least some of them were still capable of leading this first post-foundation phase.
During the first session of the Assembly, there was a talk from a legal perspective on a topic relevant to the Assembly given by Carlos Clariá, an Argentinian lawyer and general councillor, and Maria Voce, for many years secretary to the central delegate Gisella Cagliari. I remember that I was sitting next to the well-known theologian Piero Coda. When they concluded their talk, I told him rather boldly: “Here is our new president”. The truth was that the way she had explained things had impressed me greatly.
Maria Voce (Emmaus) was elected on the third ballot, not without a certain “suspense”. A new stage was beginning for the Work of Mary and I, too, was elected as a councillor.
One afternoon, after the elections, as we were leaving the Mariapolis Centre in Castelgandolfo, Emmaus approached me and said more or less these words: “I thought of entrusting you with the aspect of studies and culture in the new council. You are a man of thought, and I always liked the annual reports you wrote when you were responsible for a region in Latin America.” During the following six years, my relationship with her was very simple.
At the 2014 Assembly, Emmaus was re-elected, and the participants placed their trust in me as Co-President. Since then, our relationship has strengthened enormously, without losing its simplicity. I remember that in the beginning I felt a certain apprehension at the idea of having to work side by side with a president who belonged to the generation immediately following the first one, but this feeling was short-lived. I always perceived great respect and appreciation from her, which gave me a lot of freedom. I would arrive with a bunch of new ideas, and she would support me with her wisdom and experience. In our joint presentations we would prepare the essentials together and would complement each other in a simple way. I once told her, “As opposed to what you might think, I only feel confident in expressing some creative ideas when you are by my side.” We made long and important visits to India and China, where I witnessed her ability to penetrate the most intricate situations and relate to very different key personalities.
Maria Voce, Emmaus, will go down in the history of the Focolare Movement as the first president of the post-Chiara Lubich era. If we think that when she took up her role, many of Chiara’s first companions were still alive. We can understand the “spiritual resilience” with which she carried out her work in those early years; not because they were difficult people, but simply because they were the first ones, the arms of the foundress, people who in some way had been part of the founding charism.
Emmaus will go down in the history of the Focolare Movement for having been the president of the “new set-up”, the first innovative-organisational step of the Movement in the post-Chiara era, in creative faithfulness to the charism. In her first mandate, while Chiara’s absence was felt and could have caused discouragement, Emmaus travelled the world to strengthen the members and adherents of the Focolare communities in their commitment to a more fraternal and united world – in line with the charism of the foundress. In her second mandate, she began to prepare the Movement for the inevitable “crisis” phase appearing on the horizon, which Pope Francis identified as a great opportunity. And the Argentine Pope held her in great esteem. He pointed this out to her on every occasion. This demonstrates another of her characteristics: her ecclesial spirit.
I have always admired in Emmaus her simplicity, her inner freedom, her determination and her ability to discern, in which she was greatly aided by a legal background that she made her own.
Maria Voce will go down in the history of the Movement as “Emmaus”, to evoke the centrality of Jesus in the midst of his people. This was an absolutely non-negotiable principle for her.
Thank you, Emmaus, for saying a solemn “yes” at the most difficult time in our still short history. Mary will have taken you into her arms, presented you to her Son and together they will have carried you to the bosom of the Father who was the perennial source of your inspiration.
