[:it]Solitudine

29 Apr 2011 | Non categorizzato

Lampedusa: An experience of sharing

29 Apr 2011 | Non categorizzato

“The guests arrived soaking wet and most of them were barefoot. A relationship of empathy and gratitude was immediately created between us. They excused themselves for everything: the traffic they caused, the queues in the supermarkets and bakeries…”

“This situation has led to a true community experience over the last number of months. Everyone is doing their part to generously help these brothers and sisters with clothes, food, etc.”

The experience is characterised by concrete acts of solidarity: “In the days previous to the disembarkments my bag with all its contents, including my cell phone, was stolen. I bought another phone and, before taking it out of its box, I met a young Tunisian man whose cell phone didn’t work. He told me, ‘My mum is desperate because she hasn’t received any news from me’. My new cell phone came to mind. ‘He needs it’, I thought and decided to give it to him. He was truly happy and soon after managed to contact his mum.

A few days after the emergency situation began, the Young People for a United World along with other members of Focolare’s local community in Sicily and in collaboration with the Agrigento Caritas Centre sent a container full of clothes and primary needs to Lampedusa

After this first stage of great dedication, a certain discouragement began to spread through the island’s native inhabitants; an understandable reaction when 90% of the population live off tourism. “Certain that God will not abandon us nor let himself be out-matched in generosity, we tried to sustain all those around us encouraging each other not to be overwhelmed by worries for the future”.

The local bishop of Agrigento, Mons. Montenegro, invited everyone to see the face of Jesus in these brothers, recalling the Gospel excerpt: “when I was hungry… when I was a stranger...” He wrote to the President of the Republic and local authorities immediately started to step in. Everyone felt a great joy and a true sense of having received more than they gave. It was an amazing experience and it still continues: some families fostered a child for a period, others opened their doors at meals times or offered the possibility to use their showers, not to mention donations of food and money. The local fishermen gave crates of fish that the guests roasted on makeshift barbeques.

This communion of experiences and of material goods is continuing and is spreading throughout Italy.

[:it]I bambini e papa Wojtyla

29 Apr 2011 | Non categorizzato

Model of Incarnate Love

29 Apr 2011 | Non categorizzato

[:it]Castel Gandolfo: credenti e non credenti in dialogo[:de]Der Dialog hat Vorfahrt[:es]Castel Gandolfo: creyentes y no creyentes en diálogo[:fr]Castel Gandolfo : croyants et non croyants en dialogue [:pt]Castelgandolfo: crentes e não crentes em diálogo[:zh]岡道福堡：有信仰的與沒信仰的展開對談

29 Apr 2011 | Non categorizzato

[:it]È cominciato il meeting GMU 2011

29 Apr 2011 | Non categorizzato

Santa Venera

28 Apr 2011 | Non categorizzato

[:it]”Pensieri” di papa Wojtyla per i giovani

28 Apr 2011 | Non categorizzato

United World Week 2011

28 Apr 2011 | Non categorizzato

United World Week (UWW) aims at fostering peaceful relationships, nurturing mentalities based on reciprocity betweens different populations and cultures, promoting respect for the dignity of each man and the identity of every community and population. UWW strives to contribute to an ever more united world, involving as many young people as possible. The idea took life in 1995 and UWW now takes place every year all around the globe.

The opening of United World Week this year on 29^th April will take place during an International Meeting for young people when, at 9pm CET, there will a live internet linkup: http://live.focolare.org/smu/. 7 days full of social, cultural and sports activates will follow. There will be a constant news feed on: www.mondounito.net.

On the evening of 30th April at Rome’s Circus Maximus Young People for a United World (YPUW) will hold a prayer vigil in preparation for John Paul II’s beatification on 1^st May in St. Peter’s Square. Among the participants in the YPUW’s International Meeting currently underway there is a delegation from the Buddhist movement Rissho Kosei Kai.

United World Week will draw to a conclusion on 8^th May with another planetary linkup: Follow the Light, a day of celebrations with young people all around the world. This event, the climax of UWW, will take place in the home town of the young girl, Chiara Luce Badano, who was proclaimed blessed on 25^th September last. The event can be followed on http://www.gmutorino.it/

John Paul II, Young People and Suffering

28 Apr 2011 | Non categorizzato

Rafael Tronquini

What do you remember about John Paul II in his latter years of illness. What witness did he give the Pope give you in that period?

I especially remember the last year of his life. There was so much media coverage and images of the Pope who had difficulty speaking. But his love for me and all young people around the world was incredible. John Paul II was the first Pope I knew. In 2005 I was 21 and the Pope, with his great wisdom, was like a grandfather figure for me… I would say that he was a travel companion! He said so many amazing things. In the parish youth groups he was a reference point, an example of someone who continued to love in painful situations.

I wanted to respond to the invitation he gave at the Canada World Youth Day in 2002 and so in 2007 I took part in the WYD in Cologne. It was a chance for me to really experience the unity of the Church. I will be eternally grateful to John Paul II for the proposal he launched to all of us young people to share that unforgettable meeting and when I went to visit his tomb I thanked God for the gift of his life. After that GMG I understood lots of things; I committed myself above all to following Jesus in the joys and sufferings everyday life.

The Pope tried to find God/Jesus in his pain: can you tell us something about this idea?

Jesus’ walk to Calvary, his death on the cross and his resurrection come to mind. I believe that if we love Jesus we can have this same experience of resurrection. When I arrived home in Brazil after the WYD I heard that my grandmother was really unwell. I thought: What can I do? What can I say? John Paul II came to mind and I remembered how he faced suffering. A few days later my gran died. It was the first time I lost someone close to me. Losing her and John Paul II- very different but both very much loved people- in the same year was a new situation for me. I think that, when faced with illness, we can’t expect to find answers if we don’t love. We can find God’s face in those who are ill and truly love them. Jesus who died on the cross out of love is waiting for us to offer all our pain to Him.

The day the Pope passed away my sister called me at work crying. I couldn’t understand what she was saying; I could only imagine that it was bad news. When I understood that John Paul II had passed away I too started crying but at the same time I thanked God for the impact that John Paul II had had in my life.

Do you too have the ideal of “Jesus Forsaken”? What does this mean to you?

Yes I am a member of the Focolare and Jesus Forsaken is central to the Spirituality of Unity. What does this mean for me? It means choosing him forsaken, in his nothingness, in his cry: “Why have you forsaken me?” I want to choose him in that moment when he made himself nothing, in the climax of his love for the whole of humanity. And so when I’m tired after having studied hard or after a long day at work I remember that, in that tiredness, I can find an aspect of Jesus Forsaken and this pushes me love. This also helps me overcome temptations in order to be a coherent Christian and gives me the strength to start again when I make mistakes. When evening comes I offer all my sufferings, my limitations and my failures to him because he already took all this upon himself. He is unity.

(Interview by  Corinna Muehlstedt, for Bavarian Radio – 18 March 2011)

Beatification of John Paul II

27 Apr 2011 | Non categorizzato

The beatification of Pope John Paul II is by now imminent and together with the whole Church we feel enveloped by an immense joy and profound gratitude. Joy and gratitude for the gift She is giving to us in recognizing the holiness of this great Pope, expressed in his well-spent and consumed life, up to the last moment, for God and for us human beings. The extraordinary richness of his teachings continues to amaze, as well as his witness of love which has aroused gratitude worldwide both in Christians and faithful of other religions, and in people with no religious faith. On occasion of the 25th anniversary of his pontificate, he had confided to us the source from which everything derived: the intimate secret of that relationship – as successor of Peter – which connected him to Jesus: “Twenty-five years ago I experienced the divine mercy in a particular way. Christ said also to me, as he once did to Peter: ‘Do you love me more than these?’ Every day in the depths of my heart the same dialogue takes place between Jesus and Peter. In the spirit, I fix my eyes on the benevolent gaze of the risen Christ. He, despite knowing my human frailty, encourages me to respond with trust like Peter: ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you’.”[1] Today, this event of the Church makes us penetrate into the dimension of that “something more” lived out by John Paul II day after day, with heroism. Together with all the other Movements, we have experienced the special love of John Paul II in his recognition of the role they have in the Church, an expression of its Marian dimension. Already in 1987, in speaking to the Roman Curia, he had highlighted the importance of this dimension: “The Church lives in this authentic ‘Marian profile,’ this ‘Marian dimension’ …. The Immaculate Mary precedes all the others, including Peter himself and the Apostles. … This link between the two profiles of the Church, the Marian and the Petrine, is profound and complementary. This is so even though the Marian profile is anterior not only in God’s design but also in time, as well as being supreme and pre-eminent, richer in personal and communitarian implications …”.[2] Opening wide the doors to the novelties brought about by the Holy Spirit in the historical meeting in St. Peter’s Square of the ecclesial movements and new communities on the vigil of Pentecost 1998, John Paul II acknowledged that the two profiles “are co-essential as it were to the Church’s constitution. They contribute … to the life, renewal and sanctification of God’s People.”[3] Beyond the important public events, Chiara Lubich was connected to this great Pope by a personal and deep relationship: the private audiences, often granted with lunch invitations, his presence in many public events of the movement, personal letters and phone calls on special occasions, were “milestones in our movement’s history,” urging Chiara to express herself like this in 2005, at the moment of his death: “I too can personally bear witness to his saintliness.”[4] “He made himself so ‘nothing,’ that sometimes, coming out of our audiences with him, we felt an intense direct union with God alone. Therefore the Pope led you to God, like a true mediator, annulling himself when he has reached this aim.”[5] “We are filled with awe and gratitude for so great a love. At the same time, we are grateful to God for having been able to be close to him, to help him as sons and daughters, and, as a ‘sister,’ as he referred to me in his last letter.”[6] “The Focolare Movement’s experience,” wrote Chiara on that occasion “during these last 27 years is proof of that ‘greater love’ dwelling within John Paul II’s heart. This ‘greater’ love of his called for our love in return; thus the Pope entered into the depths of each member of the movement’s heart. Simple human words, therefore, cannot express who he was for us.”[7] How can we forget the visit of the Holy Father to the international Centre of the Movement at Rocca di Papa on August 19, 1984? On that occasion he explicitly acknowledged the presence of a charism in Chiara’s spiritual experience. He affirmed: “In the Church’s history there have been many radicalisms of love …. There is also your radicalism of love, of Chiara, of the focolarini …. Love opens the way. My wish is that this way, thanks to you, may always be more open for the Church!”[8] And how can we forget some of his expressions about us? During his speech at the Familyfest in Rome, on May 3, 1981, he improvised saying: “Our spirituality is open, positive, optimistic, serene and conquering… You have even conquered the Pope… I said that I wish all of you to be Church. Now I want to say that I wish the Church be you.”[9] And in 1983, on March 20th, during the New Humanity Day: «Many times, when I am sad, what comes to me is… ‘focolarini.’ And I find a consolation, a great consolation!”[10] During his numerous trips as a pilgrim all over the world, he had learnt to recognize our “focolarino people,” as he used to call it, drawing – as Chiara once said – comfort and support from it. In the course of his long pontificate, more than once we felt a special love from him, the profoundness of his paternal glance and nearly his predilection. We remember with gratitude the warm affection shown to Chiara and to a number of us in many circumstances, but also his determining role in recognizing the particular charism given by God to the Church and to humanity through Chiara. An aspect of particular spiritual affinity between Chiara and John Paul II can be recognized in feeling and living the Church as communion, the expression of God’s love for all people. From here came his proposal, expressed in the apostolic letter Novo Millenio Ineunte, for the Church of the third millennium: to live the spirituality of communion in order to bring the Risen Jesus back in the heart of the world.[11] So, in this moment in which we celebrate with immense joy the beatification of John Paul II, we feel once more strongly called by him and by Chiara, with one voice, to fully live the spirituality which God has given us.  

Maria Voce