Page 101 – Movimento dei Focolari

‘Having Maria Voce was like rain that refreshes everything, now everything is flowering again,’ said one young Algerian, summing up in a few words the visit of the Focolare President to the people of Algeria who share the Focolare spirit. In the ’90s, when the community was just beginning, Chiara Lubich, answering someone who had asked her to visit, said, ‘It’s necessary to work for this.’ After that there was a journey of dialogue spanning the years that still carries on. The visit of Maria Voce, from 9th to 14th February, was therefore an extremely important event for the Focolare community in Algeria. But not only for them. Dialogue with the Muslims in this country, in fact, is well-developed and recognized by the local Church and further afield too. This was confirmed by a visit from Mgr Ghaleb Bader, the Archbishop of Algeria. Algeria is no longer a tourist destination. The image of Islam has been obscured nowadays by many things that have very little to do with religion. Maria Voce’s visit went beyond all this. As Chiara used often to recall, dialogue is a ‘highway’ towards a united world, and this small community of Muslims, which has made Focolare spirituality its own, raises questions. How are these things possible? ‘We have to live in order to understand,’ Maria Voce said at one point. The Siberian cold that had gripped Europe did not spare North Africa. Tlemcen at 900 metres above sea level is used to the cold. But this year has been exceptional. To this city with its rich cultural and religious history (where the first focolare in Algeria was opened in 1966), on the late afternoon of 10 February, arrived the Focolare President. She was met by a welcome typical of Tlemcen, with two riders on superb Arabian horses who gave her a guard of honour, children in traditional costumes who offered milk and dates according to the custom of the nearby desert. Maria Voce joined in willingly and embraced everyone. The firing of guns made her jump; feelings ran deep. Indeed, feelings were no less on the following day, when she went to the small hall of the Mariapolis Centre. There were 130 people there, all Muslims expect for the members of the focolare, four African students, two bishops and two Dominican friars from Tlemcen, who had been specially invited. Some people had also come from Morocco and Tunisia. After the telling of a brief history of how the Focolare Ideal had arrived in the Maghreb, there was a conversation that marked the beginning of a ‘spring’: ‘The leading figures in this hour were the young people,’ Maria Voce commented on her return to Italy. They were the first to start, speaking of their experiences and asking questions. Maria Voce answered in French with great clarity. The adults present were deeply moved, feeling the certainty that the future was assured. And the answers were helpful to everyone, ‘even to bishops,’ affirmed Mgr Henri Teissier, the Archbishop Emeritus of Algiers, who is in his retirement lives in the Tlemcen Focolare’s Ulisse Mariapolis Centre. The questions revealed the difficulty of spreading the Ideal in the daily life of young people, in Algiers and in other parts of the world, with the necessary commitment to going against the tide. In her answers Maria Voce often spoke of love, the summary of Focolare spirituality: ‘If we are in Love towards the other person, there is nothing any more to separate us.’ She therefore stressed the importance of interpersonal relations: ‘The crisis in the world today, before it is about economics and politics, is about relationships.’ For this reason it is important to have ‘an unconditional love, that expects nothing in return, completely disinterested, totally Love for God through our brother or sister.’ This culminates in joy. Algerian music, in the Andalusian style, is very popular in Tlemcen and traditional dress decorated an afternoon of celebration. The words of many of the songs give praise to God and show the profound religiosity of this people. Following Algerian tradition, everything finished with a dance. Tlemcen, the international capital for Islamic culture in the year 2011-12 and host to numerous cultural and religious events, showed itself in all its beauty. The sun shone when, at the end of the visit, the moment came to see it. Fouad, the guide, himself from Tlemcen, is in love with his city. He presented it and pointed out its legacy of Muslim saints, the most famous of whom is Sidi Boumediene, well-known in all the Islamic world. At his tomb Maria Voce prayed that all the Muslims of the community in Algeria would be able to follow the example of these saints. When they left, Fouad chanted some verses of song containing the saint’s teaching: ‘All is from God, we are nothing.’ And Maria Voce rejoined, ‘Yes, but we belong to God.’ Fouad said, ‘That’s it, that’s the word: “to belong”.’ Algeria – Maria Voce visits the Focolare community (9-14 febbraio 2012)

Guatemala Mariapolis Center

Feb 17, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

Please note: The geolocalisation feature on this website – which displays cities and towns where Focolare centres are present – is only meant to be a guide. The markers on the map do not necessarily point to a specific address and they must not be relied on for navigational purposes.

The Gospel gives no guarantee of rest

Feb 17, 2012 | Non categorizzato

The Gospel is pleasant to read; but putting it into practice provokes scandal among respectable people. The Gospel will not tolerate immobility, gives no guarantee of rest. He, the One who is the ‘sign of contradiction’, does not offer any sinecures: ‘I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!’ The history of Christ on earth, in twenty centuries, is a series of gallows, between the galleys and the pillory: we do not always see the the wave of hidden tears. All the same, in the context of that sorrow and darkness, faith is worthwhile. Believing without seeing is worthwhile. It brings to mind His warning: Fear not, O you of little faith, I have overcome the world. For a short while He disappears and we are in pain, left alone, but then he comes back. For mystics these dark nights end in a blazing eruption of sunshine. It is a trial: and whoever undergoes it with strength gains victory. It is a suffering that produces life: of a grain of wheat dying in the clods to bear fruit in the sunlight. ‘For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ.’ (2 Cor. 1:50) Those who welcome Jesus crucified, welcome suffering out of love: and just by doing that they do an act of love, and they find joy. We need training by the Holy Spirit for this. And so existence takes on the appearance of a tough drama, with apparent defeats and appalling disillusionments: but we must resist. Nothing is wasted of what we give in suffering: the fruit of resisting in rationality and faith, with virility and charity, brings benefits both to the civil realm and to the spiritual realm, in which people become, also through this, the Social Body of the Mystical Christ. We sow in tears, when we reap we rejoice.

Marisa Baù: her family’s thanks

Feb 16, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

‘The huge number of people who in every possible way have expressed how much they share our sorrow at the loss of our beloved Marisa makes it impossible for us to thank everyone personally. ‘We are now taking this opportunity to express our thanks and, in addition, our deep sense of gratitude for the warmth of feeling given to Marisa and to us.’ The Baù family

The Economy of Communion at the United Nations

Feb 15, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

The battle against poverty and the Economy of Comunionwas presented from several angles at The United Nations. The side event included international speakers that befitted the home of the UN, from: Burundi, Brazil, Philippines and US states such as Massachusetts, Indianapolis, and New York. Fifty people attended the presentation, including representatives from ONGs and UN delegates from several countries of Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and North Americ The event was promoted by the New Humanity, the non-governmental organization that represents the Focolare Movement, with general consultative status to the Economic and Social Council of the UN (ECOSOC) and the Permanente Observer Mission to the Holy See. In his introduction, the Apostolic Nunzio Archbishop Francis A. Chullikatt underscored the importance of promoting an integral human development at all levels today.

Enough wasting time, I’m changing direction.

Feb 13, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide

“My sister Maria Assunta was no longer there, swept away by sudden lukemia. I was taken by a sense of powerlessness. ‘What is the sense in living,’ I began to wonder, ‘if death can take away my dreams and achievements?’ Everything lost its meaning. I didn’t want to go on living. Those last moments spent together with Maria Assunta returned to mind. Her strength had abandoned her. Even raising her eyelids was an enormous effort that could have cost her her life. Nevertheless, as we took her home and were removing her from the ambulance on that stretcher, the voices of relatives and friends who had gathered to say their last goodbyes startled her. I saw her face suddenly change. Not only did she open her eyes, but she raised her head and smiled at each one of them. And she didn’t stop smiling until she had greeted each and every one. Then, as soon as the door of the house closed behind us, she allowed her head to fall back on the pillow. . . and went into coma. had she done it? As I reflected on the absurdity of it, I seemed to understand why. The love that spurned her on to be concerned for others and not for herself permitted her somehow to conquer death, and her eyes manifested this. They didn’t show fear of dying, but serenity that reached out to console those around her, as if to say: “Don’t worry. I’m happy.” A thought flashed through my mind: “Antò, you’re the one who’s dead. Assunta is alive!” And so I said: “Enough wasting time! Love is the only direction for my life.” I began with small things, loving the people who were near to me, in simple ways. But over time this little flame began to fade, because loving always was demanding and it didn’t always correspond to my way of doing things. On the contrary, at times I was met with derision. During that period, I had the opportunity to watch a video recording in which Chiara Lubich speaks of the suffering of Jesus on the cross when he cries: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” I felt as if I had been set free. In those few brief moments Chiara undid every knot inside me. Even though she didn’t even know me, there she was explaining life to me. She made me realize that no suffering should be despised, but loved becuase is it all contained in the suffering of Jesus. The word that can best describe the state of my soul when my sister died is “absurd.” It’s absurd to die at twenty! Yet, once I accepted this absurdity I found the sense in living again, and I understood, just as my sister had that you can win out over death. Antonio (Teramo, Italy)