Fragrant bread and salt are Russia’s gifts to those who arrive in its immense territory that reaches out from Europe to Asia, from the glacial Arctic Ocean to the Pacific. Alla and Valodia, dressed in traditional red and blue costumes, represented the local Focolare community in officially welcoming their president Maria Voce and co-president Giancarlo Faletti with this Russian dish. Members of the movement arrived in Moscow from all over Russia: from Saint Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk and many cities in between. Some even undertook a 42-hour train journey from Celjabinsk, crossing 3,500 km of Steppes and forest land to meet their guests. The Catholic Cathedral dedicated to the Immaculate Conception- that was used as a factory for vodka packaging during communism- hosted this historical event. Scars left by Soviet history still sting: Anatolij, one of the first Russian Orthodox to know the Spirituality of Unity has vivid memories of the socialist period and its attempts to cancel God; his younger sister in faith, Alla, recalls the blood spilt because of Orthodox Christians’ fidelity to their religious beliefs. And yet, within this seemingly impenetrable and dark curtain, touristic visits by some focolarini, the arrival of a Hungarian family and encounters in the West with some priests, helped Chiara Lubich’s spirituality silently spread in communism’s Motherland. Not all 200 participants at the event knew the story of these pioneers – it was the first time that the members of the movement spread across this large territory all met together. There were fascinating details to be learnt about the secret rendezvous’ as well as solemn memories about the persecutions told by Oleg a follower of Father Alexander Men`. Men`- who was assassinated by the regime in 1990- had founded a small ecumenical Bible study community. Many of its members came in contact with the Focolare experience. At the meeting with Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti others shared about their discovery of a Gospel based spirituality that goes beyond difference and diffidence between churches. Father Vladimir, a Russian Orthodox priest from Saint Petersburg, recalls how “his prejudices about Catholicism were cancelled by the beauty he found in the spiritual life of the Focolare that knows no denominational boundaries and that incarnates Christianity and reciprocal love in daily life”.   “In modern-day Russia where, on the one hand, freedom rules and churches begin to repopulate whilst, on the other hand, materialism and economic power-seeking conquer ground day by day, what special characteristic can Russia offer? What contribution can it give to the West?” This was one of the questions that members of the local Focolare Community asked during a moment of dialogue with Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti. “Russia tried to achieve unity without God, it tried to have a population of equals, but it didn’t achieve this goal”, Maria Voce answered, “This nation can say to the world that without God it’s impossible to reach this goal. The tragic martyrdom of those who resisted this oppression demonstrates this. The resistance was at times blatant and at times silent but it was always martyrdom”. The president of the Focolare Movement then confided, “When I arrived in Russia I found myself immerged in a deeper union with God and I remembered the expression ‘Holy Russia’- that I perhaps heard when studying Russian literature. I felt carried along by this life of holiness that is in the air here in Russia as well as in its history of Christianity. And I understood that Russia’s gift to me and to the whole of humanity can be this holiness- thanks also to its martyrs of all denominations”. Giancarlo Faletti, using the image of the golden domes in many of the Russian Orthodox churches, underlined, “God is the gold of our cities, He is the gold of the Russian Orthodox and Catholic Churches and He guarantees the journey of communion that this country witnesses in many important ways”. Many participants were openly moved, experiencing the possibility to give new meaning to those dark years and at the same time they felt the challenge to give witness to the ever old and ever new Gospel “revolution”. Eduardo Guedes – a Portuguese focolarino who passed away last January- was remembered by many as a companion in this journey; someone who, without sermon, gave humble witness to a God who does not forsake, who does not forget, but who always knows how to welcome both the disadvantaged and the powerful and to expand the desire for a more modern sainthood, open to everyone in this “Holy Russia”. by our correspondent Maddalena Maltese [nggallery id=39]