Elisa lives in the Focolare Centre in Welwyn Garden City, 35km north of London, in the County of Hertfordshire. It is a “garden city”, founded in the 1920s, with graceful neo-Georgian buildings, roses around the porches, tree-lined avenues. She recounts: “I was born in Northern Italy in a small village. The nearest city was Novara. I am the eldest and I have two brothers. My family was a very Christian family and gave us all solid values, such as always thinking of others. I was twenty, I had just finished studying and I was looking for a job. I studied French and English. Finding a job in a small town was difficult and I was very discouraged. Then a friend invited me to a meeting where plans were being made to go to a Genfest in Rome, a huge youth festival of the Focolare Movement at the Flaminio Stadium. It wasMay 1980. I went just to get away for the weekend. Instead I was was taken aback by the scene that met me, posters talking about a united world and tens of thousands of young people. During the first break I was in tears because I knew I had found something precious. I kept in touch with those people. I can’t put my finger on it but there was something that attracted me to the point that I went to every meeting. I started to visit the Focolare centre and gradually inside of I started to understand what I wanted to do with my life. It was to give my life to God through the Focolare. I got a job with Caritas, the social action of the Diocese. It was challenging and interesting. After three years I was asked by the Focolare to transfer to Bologna. But the priest tried to convince me not to leave. On that day, the Gospel reading at Mass said ‘Those who do not leave mother, father, fields… cannot be my disciples’. I felt as if Jesus was speaking directly to me. I left without delay. During the years 1985-1987, I attended the international school of formation in Loppiano(near Florence, Italy). And then … Africa! My first impression was like being in a film because everything was new and different. The next day I went into a chapel and I saw the tabernacle and I said: ‘You’re the same Jesus, I gave my life to you and I find you here too.’ Initially I spent one month in Fontem, Cameroon. Then I went to Nigeria and lived there for twenty years.In Lagos, in 1989, we started a project for girls who wanted to know more about the spirituality of unity. There was a religious sister who offered us accommodation in the staff quarters of her missionary hospital. Then a family gave us a house for five years free of charge. Later we found a piece of land and those same people, together with others, helped us build the first focolare house in Nigeria. Everything about that house came from providence. We started a small business making items in batik as one girl knew how to dye material. Someone in the community gave us some money in order to start it up. Everyone supported us and the project has helped countless girls over the years. In 2002 around one thousand people in Jos, northernNigeria lost their lives in a clash between Muslims and Christians. No-one could understand how it had happened because these groups had always lived peacefully side by side. Our community asked if the Mariapolis could be held in Jos even though it was still a dangerous situation. There we spoke of dialogue, peace, reconciliation because there were a lot of physical wounds and emotional hurt. People had lost their businesses, places of worship had been destroyed. There was a lady invited by her sister and was one of the people inciting the boys from her village to fight against the rebels. At the end of the Mariapolis she said she had understood that violence was not the answer. The Bishop also came to the Mariapolis and was planning to undertake a reconciliation process for a month going from village to village. I subsequently went to Douala (Cameroon) where I lived for six years. Then, in 2013, I arrived in Great Britain and am now living in Welwyn Garden City. In my first year here it snowed from February to April! While externally everything is different, nothing has changed.Wherever God wants you to be, that is yourhome.” Source: New City Magazine (UK)
Fifty years have passed since that first quiet meeting which would produce unimagined openings between the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church and the Focolare Movement – They write from the Focolare of Istanbul -. A few weeks ago Metropolitan Gennadios Zervos said it in this way: “Up until today the full importance of that encounter has not yet been appreciated” (see Quel dialogo volute da Dio). We can have some sense of the vital force of that seed when we consider the first Honorary Doctorate in Culture and Unity that was conferred on Patriarch Bartholomew by Sophia University Institute in Loppiano, Italy, last October. That led to a project that is now a reality and enriches the formative offerings of the Institute with a permanent Chair for dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, named after Patriarch Athenagoras and Chiara Lubich. On June 13th, the actual anniversary of their meeting, several of us gathered spontaneously at the Orthodox Patriarchate in Fanar. In front of the beautiful icon of Mary we concluded the day with the Magnificat, our song of thanksgiving: “The Mighty One has done great things…Holy is His Name.” But it was also a golden anniversary at the local Mariapolis held in Istanbul. Just as Pope Francis had visited the Mariapolis in the city of Rome last year, this year the citizens of the Mariapolis in Istanbul were joyfully honored by the visit of Patriarch Bartholomew. The School of Theology on the island of Halki with its splendid park provided the backdrop of an unforgettable celebration. On Sunday, June 25th, the Mariapolites from a variety of confessions, nationalities and languages, went up to the hall where Patriarch Bartholomew gave his speech: “We are now talking about a story that is fifty years old, of a very strong bond between the Greek Patriarchate and the Focolare Movement. And we can by now call it a tradition, because Our predecessor Patriarch Demetrios had continued the relationship with Chiara and the Movement. And We have continued and brought forward that tradition for 26 years. We are very happy and it is a cause of great joy for Us that the major part of the years of this tradition were spent with Us.” We are not new to such expressions of affection and esteem from the Patriarch, but he always manages to surprise us. His joy because of the part he played for 26 years out of 50 is no formality, he told us! And speaking off-the-cuff he added: “But already before being patriarch, working beside my predecessors, I lovingly served this relationship. He went on to say: “I see that the good God has blessed you, because your number and your service have grown, because with the life and testament of Chiara that you have embraced, you give service to all humanity with the same pure heart, with the same faith, with the same love and with the same industriousness [as Chiara]. Like the blessing of Pope Francis, so too Our blessing and Our prayer is with you always that you might sow seeds of peace and of love in people’s hearts. May God always lead your steps toward good works.” His speech was followed by an exchange of gifts, which included a framed photo of Athenagoras and Chiara during one of their meetings. Everyone then sang in several languages, including Greek, the Focolare song Love and you’ll understand which was a favorite song of Patriarch Athenagoras and describes the essence of the Mariapolis: the light that comes from loving. The Patriarch invited everyone to an exquisite lunch in the adjoining dining room and the morning concluded with the official photos, selfies and conversations with Bartholomew. “Golden is the inheritance left to us by Patriarch Athenagoras and Chiara, the protagonists and initiators of the ‘dialogue of Love,’ great creators of the dialogue of the people (…) initiators of the new ecumenical Era; they taught peoples, giving them courage, strength, patience, fidelity, willingness, love and unity” (Metropolitan Gennadios Zervos).
After the rise of interest in The Day of Five Billion on July 11, 1987, the General Assembly of the United Nations decided to continue the project to increase awareness regarding the connections between population size, environment and human development. World Population Day was celebrated for the first time on July 11, 1990 in over 90 countries.
“My country, Lebanon, was under Syrian control for many years. This is why serious tensions developed between the two countries. And it only got worse when a large number of Syrian refugees arrived: almost two million people. Compared to our 4.5 million inhabitants, it was almost half the population. “When the war began in Syria, some families from the Focolare community in Aleppo came to Lebanon to get away from the war for a while. After that, when the situation worsened in their country, they were no longer able to go back to their homeland and were taken in at a Focolare center. Within that hostile atmosphere, helping them was a decisive choice that went against everything. It meant that we had to make an effort to erase all the prejudices that the Lebanese have about Syrians. “We wanted to give witness to peace and love between us. We started by visiting them, building strong bonds with them. Parents, teens and kids – we all lent a hand so that these families wouldn’t feel alone in such difficult times. We spent the days together, organizing evenings and trying to lighten their load, listen and understand them. “While we could not resolve the problem between countries, we could at least build an oasis of peace around them. They didn’t have anything, having had to leave their country without bringing their things or clothes. We put what we had in common, collecting clothes in particular. These we offered them sensitively, since it was not easy for them to accept material help. “Their living conditions were hard. They were unemployed, in enemy territory, and often hoping to hear news about relatives or friends. We young people went to the beach together to try to ease the tense atmosphere. We started hanging out a lot, spending a lot of time together. We read the Word of Life so we could share our life experiences. We started to feel like we were part of the same family. “A year later, these families had to look for someplace to live. They were stressed and had a lot of financial difficulties. Yet together we believed in God’s providence. Searching with them for houses and work, we were quite aware of the difficulties we would face. We went into houses searching for somewhere for ‘our Syrian friends’ to stay, and we would get harsh reactions. For example, the apartment owners would charge extremely high prices in order to turn them away. “On their last day before leaving the center, one family still had not found a house or furniture. One of us reminded everyone that we had to have faith that God would intervene. To our great joy, the next day we found a house that didn’t cost anything, and someone else who was moving gave us their furniture, too. We also found schools for their children that cost very little. We started a French school with a group of teachers, which allowed the Syrian children to start school. “Now these families have left Lebanon and moved to Canada, Belgium or Holland. They wrote us to say that they felt so supported and at home in Lebanon. One family said, ‘Without the support of the Lebanese families, we would never have been able to start all over again so easily.’“When they departed, they left what they had for other families who would come after them. Now we have three residences available that we use to help Syrian and Iraqi families who are in Lebanon before emigrating. We try to be always available to love them and safeguard these relationships of peace.”
I have found you in so many places, Lord! I have felt you throbbing in the perfect stillness of a little Alpine church, in the shadow of the tabernacle of an empty cathedral, in the breathing as one soul of a crowd who loves you and who fills the arches of your church with songs and love. I have found you in joy. I have spoken to you beyond the starry firmament, when in the evening, in silence, I was returning home from work. I seek you and often I find you. But where I always find you is in suffering. A suffering, any sort of suffering, is like the sound of a bell that summons God’s bride to prayer. When the shadow of the cross appears the soul recollects itself in the tabernacle of its heart and forgetting the tinkling of the bell it “sees” you and speaks to you. It is you who come to visit me. It is I who answer you: “Here I am, Lord, I desire you, I have desired you.” And in this meeting my soul does not feel its suffering, but is as if inebriated with your love: suffused with you, imbued with you: I in you and you in me, that we may be one. And then I reopen my eyes to life, to the life less real, divinely drilled to wage your war. Chiara LubichEssential Writings New City Press 2007 p. 91
After a violent 12-year civil war, Burundi is currently undergoing a political crisis that has generated great divisions among the institutions and citizens. There have been numerous demonstrations against the government and many young people were arrested. Homicides and abductions followed and many left their own villages and even the country. The gen, the youth of the Focolare, undertook to “live for their own people”, recognising in every difficulty of the suffering person, the countenance of Jesus crucified and forsaken, to love him concretely. “We went to help the many wounded- recounted Lewis – during one of the visits to a hospital in the capital we washed the clothes of the sick and shared our meals with some of them. We visited the children of an orphanage, and played and shared the afternoon with them, trying to make them happy. We took the occasion to give a hand also in the cleaning.” Many of the gen who are university students organised a “Peace conference, at the Burundi University, with the participation of many. “The hall which was full, confirmed how people really aspire for peace. Our musical group called the “Smiling Gen” performed, and was greatly applauded by all. Particularly the song “I Believe” (see the video) composed by them, encouraged our country’s youth to go against the current, and become aware of the suffering of others, with the invitation to do their share in changing the world. When we shot the video clip, we had to make an effort to go beyond the adverse situations around us and believe that despite all, peace is really possible.” To make their commitment more visible and effective, together with the local focolare community, the youths gave rise to the “Project for Peace in Burundi”which includes a series of initiatives in favour of peace and reconciliation: «Through theme conferences, radio programs, charity events, art, poetry and song contests, and a grand closing event, all, of which were diffused by the social media, we try to involve as many people as possible to join us in building peace in our country.” https://youtu.be/Q2fobgsqI7c
This past March 25th was the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, which gave rise in concrete terms to the “community of peoples” which Robert Schuman had already so clearly envisaged. In fact, on the 7th May 1950, he had suggested to Konrad Adenauer a “solidarity in coal and steel production”, which would make any form of war impossible between France, Germany and other countries that would have joined. It was an extraordinary step to reconcile peoples shattered by the most terrible conflict ever experienced.Europe had been devastated and over 35 million people had died. There was not only physical destruction but social, political and moral destruction too. There was absence of law, public order and public services. At the time, it would already have been an achievement to secure borders and maintain the peace agreements. How, then, could they imagine such a deep healing of wounds as to bring together many opposing peoples into one European people? Who inspired Schuman, Adenauer, De Gasperi and others? We would like to believe that God gave the ideas and the strength for Europe. God had shown his love for people to the point of dying a terrible and shameful death for them. He had identified himself with all the pain of humanity, including those resulting from violence and wars. Today too, God urges peoples to be reconciled and become a single universal family. The founders of Europe had their own experience. They did not allow themselves to be crushed by the absurdity of evil, by inhuman dictatorships, by conflict and the Shoah. Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare Movement, spoke of the culture that arises from profound reconciliation: “…every person can give his or her particular contribution in each field, whether it is in science, the arts, politics, communications or other areas. Each will be more effective if he or she works together with others united in the name of Christ. It is the incarnation that continues, the complete incarnation that encompasses all the members of the Mystical Body of Christ. This gives rise to and extends what we could call the “culture of Resurrection” in the world: the culture of the Risen Lord, of the new Person and in Him, of a new humanity.[1] If this was to some extent the adventure of Europe’s founders, we can – and I would say we must – aspire to continue their work. All of us are called to this. The unity of European peoples is a path to be followed simultaneously in the fields of education, culture and spirituality; and also in politics, economics, social structures and communications. Here, therefore, are some further steps that could be taken: First, we Christians are asked not only to be reconciled but also to pursue a path of shared witness, one that has recently seen historic meetings at Lund, Sweden; in Lesbos, Greece; in Cuba. All of us have the task to enable steps towards full and visible communion, knowing how decisive this will be for the unity of Europe and to better serve humanity. We also want to extend our vision to the whole of Europe – from the Atlantic to the Urals – and this means mutual recognition of values and contexts that allow collaboration between North and South, East and West. Wars, totalitarian regimes and injustices have left wounds that need healing. If we truly want to build European unity, we must be able to recognise that what we are today is the outcome of a shared history and a European destiny that we must fully own. If, then, as a result, relationships can be renewed between the European Union and European countries that are not part of the Union, this would already be an important step ahead for peace, especially in the Middle East. In Europe, there is a great need for citizens to be fully engaged in the life of their cities and of the whole continent. This means, in other words, giving new life to democracy, which began in Europe but today needs a new dimension, one that is more incisive, more engaging, more suited to our times. Furthermore, in a European context that is both multicultural and multifaith there is great need for a new capacity for dialogue. Dialogue can be founded on the “Golden Rule” which says, “Treat others as you would have them treat you”[2] (Cf Lk 6:31), a rule shared by the world’s major religions and accepted by those who do not have religious beliefs. Additionally, it will be necessary to review and apply the motto chosen for the European Union “unity and diversity” also at the level of institutions. It would be a gift for peoples in other continents who are seeking ways to unite. The founding fathers never envisaged Europe as closed in on itself, but instead they saw it open to the unity of the entire human family. It is particularly meaningful to be able to reaffirm this here in Malta, the southernmost European state, set by its very vocation, food and language, in the Mediterranean. From being a watery graveyard this sea must become once more “Mare nostrum” for a united Europe, Africa and Middle East. Many ongoing international crises give us a clear picture of the long road ahead in order truly to reach this goal. Chiara Lubich also said, “What is needed, then, is patient study, what is needed is wisdom. Above all, we mustn’t forget that ‘Someone’ is following our history, Someone who desires – if we collaborate in good will – to fulfil His plan of love for our continent and for the entire world.”[3] We can conclude that it is certainly worthwhile spending our whole lives for such a high goal. My wish is that this Forum may contribute to establishing: “Europe – a family of peoples” which, according to Pope Francis, is “A Europe capable of giving birth to a new humanism based on three capacities: the capacity to integrate, the capacity for dialogue and the capacity to generate.”[4] Maria Voce President of the Focolare Movement Malta – St John’s Cathedral, 7 May 2017 ____________________________________________ [1] Chiara Lubich, 23rd September 2006, “Jesus Forsaken and the Collective and Cultural Night”, to the Ecumenical Meeting of Bishops. [2] Lk 6:31 Do to others as you would have them to do you”. [3] Chiara Lubich to the European Movement in Spain, Madrid, 3rd December 2002. [4] Address of Pope Francis, Conferral of the Charlemagne Prize, 6th May 2016.
People travel for various reasons: curiosity, thirst for knowledge, spirit of adventure, or in search of oneself. This was not so forGianni Ricci who has indeed travelled far and wide and who is the co-author with Delfina Ducci, of an unedited book published by New City, The long journey tto “making yourself one.” He “lived on the road” so to say, with aim of bringing solace to humanity’s infinite forms of suffering. Born in Ripalta Cremasca, in northern Italy, in a simple but dignified family, he was raised with authentic Christian values. At the age of 20 he met Chiara Lubich’s spirituality of unity which revolutionised his idea of Christian life, so much so that he made the Focolare way of life his very own. In 1964 he left for Loppiano (Florence, Italy), the newly born town of the Movement, to which he faithfully dedicated twenty years of his life. After Loppiano, he accepted God’s will which led him first to Turkey, where he helped the newborn community to grow, then to the Lebanon, the Holy Land, Algiers, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Tunisia and Morocco. “How many sudden changes I underwent! I am now in Turkey. There is nothing that can stop me from reaching sanctity. There is so much to do here,” he said. Gianni Ricci, the soulful globe trotter, took note of all he encountered, sometimes foregoing the difficulties, especially in relating with such diverse peoples. Though he saw the tragedy of the wars that caused deep wounds in the population, smothering hopes in a possible future stability and peace, he did not seek solutions or possible solutions in history books. He simply lived alongside the people he met, with a free and open heart towards an “infinite” humanity, that speaks the same language of the heart and of suffering. «At the end of January 1986, with Aletta (focolarina of the early times) he travelled from Istanbul to Ankara and from there to Beirut, in Lebanon. The airport was half-destroyed by bombs! Lebanon was devastated by civil war (…). The check points were severe, the authorities suspected everyone and everything. Each check point was guarded by different factions. After eight days, Gianni left again for Istanbul. Along the 120 km that separated Beirut from the confines with Syria, they had to pass through 13 check points. At the first one they risked their lives. He stopped in front of a guardhouse where a soldier armed to his teeth asked to see his documents. He showed them and was able to leave. After a few steps a boy warned him to go back, making him note that the guard was pointing his gun on him and had not given the order to proceed. He didn’t press the trigger, thanks to Allah,” he said.It is not a political narration, but solely a “humane” one. The humanity he speaks about has no colour, language, passports, confines, laws or customs. In every place he was assigned to, Gianni undertook to nurture the relationships with the local Churches, Islam, the Hebrew world, with the aim of sustaining all the people he met, to defeat the fear and uncertainty of the future, the tensions provoked by war. A chain of memories in a perspective of unity – this is the “logic” that still drives Gianni, a stupefied observer of God’s works. The citations were taken from “The Long Journey to “making yourself one.” Experiences in the Middle East, Città Nuova, 2016.
fty years have passed since that first quiet meeting which would produce unimagined openings between the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church and the Focolare Movement – 
This past March 25th was the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, which gave rise in concrete terms to the “community of peoples” which Robert Schuman had already so clearly 