Last night, only two weeks following the previous earthquake, the Aztec country was again hit by a powerful earthquake (7.1 on the Richter Scale). At present there are 217 casualties, 117 of which were in the capital, but this figure is unfortunately expected to rise. Twenty-six children and 4 adults lost their lives when a school collapsed in the South-Eastern part of Mexico City. Although 11 children have been rescued, about thirty children and some adults need to be lifted from the rubble. Many buildings are destroyed and at least 4 million people remain without electricity. 72 victims are recorded in the state of Morelos and 43 in Puebla, where the little town of the Focolare, “Mariápolis El Diamante”, is located. “We were at table when we felt the strong earthquake. So far no members of our Focolare community in Puebla have been effected by the earthquake. We are all fine,” they said. Many countries in the region and the world have offered solidarity. “In this moment of great suffering, I wish to show my solidarity with all the people of Mexico,” Pope Francis said in his heartfelt appeal during the General Audience.
During a meeting in 2000, Chiara recalled her first “discovery” of Jesus Forsaken: “We understood something new about Him through an event that happened in January 1944. Through a particular circumstance, we came to realize that the greatest pain Jesus had suffered – and therefore the moment of His greatest love for us – was when He experienced the abandonment of the Father: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Mt 18:20). It touched us deeply. Being so young, so enthusiastic, but especially because of the grace of God, we felt urged to choose Him precisely in His abandonment, as the way to achieve our ideal of love. From that moment on we saw His face everywhere.” Another key moment in the understanding of this “mystery of suffering-love” was in the summer of 1949. Igino Giordani went to visit Chiara Lubich who had gone for a period of rest in the Valle di Primiero in the mountains of Trent, Italy. This small group of first followers that accompanied her was living with intensity the Gospel passage about the abandonment of Jesus. And those days in the mountains turned out to be days of such intense light that when it came time for them to leave their “little Tabor” and return to the city, Chiara quickly penned a text that has now become famous “I have only one spouse on earth, Jesus Forsaken. . . I will go through the world searching for him in every moment of my life.” Many years later she would explain: “Right from the start we knew that there was another side to it all, that the tree had its roots. The Gospel covers you in love, but it demands everything from you as well. ‘If the grain of wheat, which falls to the ground, does not die,’ we read in John, ‘it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit’ (cf Jn 12:24). This is personified in Jesus Forsaken, and the fruit that he bore was humankind’s Redemption. Jesus Forsaken! Who had experienced within himself the separation of humankind from God and from each other, and had experienced the Father far from him, was seen by us not only in all of our personal sufferings, which were never lacking, or in the sufferings of our neighbors who often were all alone, abandoned and forgotten, but also in all the divisions, the traumas, the splits, the mutual indifference whether large or small: within families, among generations, between rich and poor, at times in the Church itself; later, among the different Churches; and then, among religions and between believers and those who have no religious faith at all.” “But all of these lacerations,” Chiara continued, “never frightened us. Rather, for love of Jesus Forsaken, they attracted us. And he is the one who taught us how to confront them, how to live them, how to overcome them when, after the abandonment, he placed his spirit in the Father’s hands: ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit’ (Lk 23:46). And this is how he offered humankind the possibility of being recomposed within itself and with God, and he us showed how. He was the one who recomposed unity among us each time it was cracked. He became our only Spouse. And our life together with such a Spouse was so rich and fruitful that it pushed me to write a book, as a love letter, a song, a joyful thanksgiving song to Him.”
The words Pope Francis pronounced at the World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro in 2013, “Go out and serve without fear,” triggered in the youths of the Focolare, the desire to take up the challenge. And so, those of the city of Juiz de Fora (500,000 inhabitants), in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, launched a project that gathers the youths of different charisms. “The aim is to testify to unity in the diversities of the Church,” they said, “and be disciples of Christ and missionaries, in line with the invitation of the Latin American bishops to all Christians. Of course, there are difficulties, but this does not discourage us.” It was Archbishop Gil Antonio Moreira who gave the group – of 60 – the name of “Young Continental Missionaries”. “We come from different spiritual experiences – they explained – Renewal in the Spirit, new Communities, parish groups and the Focolare Movement. The start of the mission consists in the personal consecration to God for a year, renewable for another year. And then there are three points that help set the compass: prayer, training and mission, and putting ourselves at the service of others.” Four years after the launch of the project, numerous missions have been undertaken in the parishes of the Juiz di Fora archdiocese, with a hundred visits to the families of the rural communities at the outskirts and violent districts of the city, the asylums and orphanages, and the rehabilitation centre for minors with criminal records. “We created socio-health programmes, as in the case of the battle against dengue (tropical disease), operating wherever there were the highest death rates. In particular, we worked to ensure hygiene in the environment, eliminating rubbish and dump sites that enhance the proliferation of mosquitoes that transmit the disease, but also informing the population through brochures and posters. At the moment we are carrying out special missions in Haiti and in the city of Obidos (State of Pará), in the Educational Centre for juvenile offenders and with the “cartoneros” (rubbish bin collectors of cardboard which is then recycled). We highlighted the importance of their work for the benefit of our great home: the planet Earth. We did not miss out in supporting the youth economically and psychologically, in particularly difficult situations. Furthermore, the “supportive Christmas” project enabled us to gather nonperishable food and other essential goods, that were then donated to a charitable institution.” The Young Continental Missionaries began to settle in other places over time,and reached Obidos (State of Pará), the heart of the Amazons. “Coming in contact with the people, we saw that the call to missionary life echoed in them, and a variety of vocations came to the fore.” Surpassing the confines of Brazil, they even reached Haiti. Last 17 July, a group of six people of the archdiocese of Juiz de Fora and their archbishop set out for Haiti. The situation of that country is really challenging, 7 years after the earthquake that had devastated it: in just 24 seconds more than 300,000 buildings had collapsed among civil and institutional structures, causing the death of 200,000 people. With its magnitude of 7.2 on the Richter scale, it was the worst earthquake registered in the Americas. “Haiti is the poorest periphery of Latin America. And that is where, “Bishop Gil Antonio Moreira wrote, “my eyes and those of the Continental Missionary Youth are focusing on. With great joy we shall go to serve without fear, because the reason, and our goal, is Jesus Christ.” The youth of the Focolare concluded by saying: “Paradoxically, what assures us that we are on the right path are the difficulties we encounter, and in which we try to love a countenance of Jesus Forsaken, He is the secret of our joy and the fruits we have seen.”
The unexpected We were expecting our first child. Immediately after this news came an unexpected discovery: I had a small nodule in my breast. The tests showed that it was cancer. For me and for my husband, who is a physician, it was a terrible blow. Three days after the visit with a specialist, I had an operation. In his opinion, keeping the baby was an aggravating factor: we should have immediately proceeded with a therapeutic abortion in order to start chemotherapy. We didn’t want to give up. Trusting in God, we consulted other doctors, seeking an alternative solution. In the end we decided to have a Cesarean section in the seventh month of pregnancy, when the baby would be perfectly able to survive. Only afterwards would I start the chemotherapy and radiation. Since then, 8 years have passed and we are expecting our third child. M. D. – FranceThe stranger One day I was in the car with a man who had asked me for a ride. It was noon, and I asked him where he was going to have lunch. He answered, “I haven’t got a penny, and I have no idea how I’m going to eat.” I was overcome with suspicions and indifference. But I pushed these thoughts away, saying to Jesus in my heart: “It doesn’t matter who he is, what I do for him, I do for you.” I fished in my pocket and gave him all I had, adding, so as not to humiliate him, “Pay me back whenever you can.” A few days later, I received an envelope from a client with the exact amount that I had given that stranger inside. For me, this situation was the confirmation that the Gospel is true. A. G. – ItalyA family party We had an idea, with several other families that are friends of ours, to organize a party for the Senegalese in our city. We were all committed to making these young immigrants feel the warmth of the family. Afterwards, one of them commented: “Everything went beyond our expectations. No one made us feel different and because of this, we felt at home. We have the same God who makes us brothers and sisters.” The party had finished, but the friendship continues. G. L. – Italy We have a FatherBy chance, we met again after many years. I hadn’t seen her since my high school years. Although she had a degree in mathematics, after a very sad sequence of events she now found herself in my city without even a penny, living the life of a beggar. She was desperate, and I listened to her story. At that moment, I had nothing to give her, but I promised to help her: I told her she must be certain of this, because, “We have a Father in heaven.” We made plans to meet again the next day. In the meantime, with the help of some others, I found a temporary accommodation for her and gathered some money: at least enough to live on, to be able to eat and to bathe. After two days she contacted me again, and returning the money, she explained that she had been offered a job in a place that also provided room and board. She added, “I have to thank you, not only for the money, but because that day you gave me back what I needed most: the hope and the certainty that I have a Father who cares for me.” Franca – Italy
“In Jesus Forsaken, God’s infinite love is manifested, and is placed by the Father in the hearts of believers to bring about, right now, his plan for humanity: unity. To love Jesus Forsaken means to relive his Passion within ourselves, that continuous passage (for those of us still on our journey) from death to life, from the absence of God to his presence, which characterizes the Christian existence. This does not mean to give up or to want to suffer as Jesus did, but rather to retrace his steps along the Way he opened, and to recognize – beyond appearances – his active presence in everything that is not God in us and around us. It means saying ‘yes’ to Him and like Him, so that the Holy Spirit can break through the nothingness we have created for ourselves and increase the gift of divine agape (God’s love) which opens us up to the future, eternal life, and allows us to share in it. Jesus Forsaken, simultaneously, pushes us to go towards humanity, there where it suffers most and lives in darkness. This is how Jesus Forsaken, embraced and loved, brings love where there is hatred, life where there is death, communion and unity where there is division. Loving Jesus Forsaken therefore means hoping against every hope, nearness to God where God is not, the presence of God where there is God’s silence. And this hope is certainty in a world and in a human history which do not close in on themselves, but open themselves to the ever-new encounter with God. In Him, they open themselves to the ever-new encounter among humans, in a fraternal communion with truly universal dimensions. From Pasquale Foresi – LUCE CHE SI INCARNA – Città Nuova 2014 pp. 172-3
“Mary stood at the foot of the cross in her heart-rending stabat, which transformed her soul into a bitter sea of anguish. She is the highest expression in a human creature of the heroism of every virtue. She lived meekness to perfection; she was poor to the point of losing her Son who was God; she was the embodiment of justice, not lamenting the loss of what was hers only because God chose her; she was pure in her emotional detachment from her Son, God… In Mary Desolate, we see the triumph of the virtues of faith and hope, through the love she nourished throughout her whole life. In that moment, this love blazed forth in her active sharing in the work of the Redemption.In her desolation, which adorns her with every virtue, Mary teaches us humility and patience, prudence and perseverance, simplicity and silence, so that on the background of the ‘darkness’ of ourselves, of all that is merely human within us, the light of God living in us may shine out for the world. Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, is the perfect saint, a monument of holiness towards whom all people may look in order to learn how to clothe themselves with the self-denial taught by the Church down the centuries, and which the saints, in different tones, have echoed throughout the ages. We do not think enough about Mary’s “passion,” about the swords that pierced her Heart, about the terrible forsakenness she felt on Golgotha when Jesus entrusted her to others… Perhaps the reason for this is that Mary knew all too well how to cover her living, anguished agony with sweetness, light and silence. Yet, there is no suffering similar to hers…. If one day our sufferings reach such depths that make everything in us rebel because the fruit of our “passion” seems to be taken out of our hands and even more so from our heart, let’s remember her. This ice coldness will make us a bit like her, and the reality of Mary will become clearer in our souls: the All-Beautiful, the Mother of all because by divine will she was detached from everyone, most of all, from her divine Son. Mary Desolate is the Saint par excellence. I would like to relive her in her mortification. I would like to be able to be alone with God like her, in the sense that, even when I am with others, I feel drawn to make the whole of my life an intimate dialogue between my soul and God. I must mortify words, thoughts, and actions that are outside the moment of God, to set them into the moment reserved for them. Mary Desolate is the certainty of holiness, a perennial source of union with God, a cup overflowing with joy.” Chiara Lubich, La Dottrina Spirituale, Città Nuova Editrice 2006 (Roma), pp.183 – 184
Born from the determination to redesign a new geography that targets the bringing down of personal and planetary limits and fences, the world march of the Gen and Youth for a United World towards the 11th edition of the GenFest will be held from 6 – 8 July 2018 in Manila (Philippines). The central program will be held at the Metro Manila World Trade Center, while all the workshops will be held at the De La Salle Universityand other universities. It will be entitled “BEYOND ALL BORDERS.” Asia will thus be the continent of the future and of the youth who will host this convention. According to the data of the U. S. Census Bureau, three billion youths in the world are below 25 years of age and 60% of these live in Asia. And so, almost half of the Asian population (over 4 billion people) are under 25. “It is clear that the event could not but be held in our continent,” explained Kiara Cariaso, a Filipino and member of the organizing team. “We want the world to see not only the network of projects, camps, solidarity actions, support to lawfulness, and “no” to war and armaments, but also the solitude, abandonment and superficial relationships which millions of youth scattered around the world are already engaged in.” Aleppo, Bethlehem, Turunga, Mumbai: Genfest 2018 has been launched in various cities around the world. “Also this time the Genfest will be a milestone, essential to the journey towards a united world,” Maria Guaita and Marco De Salvo of the United World Youth’s central secretariat explained, “to share the ongoing endeavours for unity and peace, and also to gain strength and courage from one another. Many of the youths live in territories of war, conflict and social distress. This is the frontline where many have chosen to start changing the world.” “We are working various fronts: we are in the peripheries, but we engage in education, sport and solidarity,” pointed out Rafael Tronquini, Brazilian, of the Genfest Marketing Team – who has been in Manila for 5 months now, “We want to be there where we see the needs and hear our people’s cries for help at all latitudes. We could summarise the Genfest logo with the motto: ‘less is more’. There are infinite challenges and barriers but what matters is to overcome them together and take one step ahead towards unity.” y4uw.org/ https://youtu.be/C8NvjNYgNEc
https://vimeo.com/233854802 News itemsBreaking Rays: A worldwide network of communicators going back to school… together. India: The Rainbow Kids: One woman’s quest to offer opportunity where there was none. World camps to become global citizens: Youth giving their time for others. Philippines: Serafin’s dream: A dream changes course and a peacemaker is born. Nigeria – Mariapolis in Lagos and Abuja: Forgiveness and dialogue, true arms for unity in the country. Italy: Family in the digital age: Coping with technology in the house. Roberto Cipollone – Ciro, craftsman and artist: Breathing life, meaning and beauty into discarded items.
The eyes of the world we fixed on Colombia over the past few days. The Focolare also took an active role in parishes, for the preparation and unfolding of the Pope’s visit. Susan Nuin, focolarina and member of CELAM (Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano), which gathers bishops from Latin America and the Caribbean explains: “Several things emerged quite strongly. First was the attendance of the State with the president and all the representatives of government. The second was the theme of reconciliation among the people, as well as social justice: Colombia is the country with the greatest percentile of social inequality.” In one interview with AGI, director of Ciudad Nueva, Sole Rubiano, explained: “In theory everyone is in favour of peace, but not everybody recognizes the need for inclusion and equity.” In Colombia, something unprecedented has been made possible. Susanna Nuin writes: “Victims and murderers have prayed together and embraced one another. Not even in South Africa and other Latin American dictatorships have victims and murderers dealt with one another on equal terms. Institutional laws and accords are not sufficient in resolving conflict. Encounter is required between parties. Pope Francis has created a popular conscience that just wasn’t there before.” In Villavicencio with its 500,000 residents, the Pope met with 3 thousand victims of violence, (150 thousand in the city alone), military, police agents and ex-guerrillas. That was the central moment of the visit, with the prayer meeting for national reconciliation in Las Malocas Park. At the centre of the stage, above an altar, the broken and amputated Bojayá Crucifix which, in May 2002, watched the massacre of dozens of people who had taken refuge in the church. Testimonies were given by ex-Farc members, paramilitary, and by one woman who had undergone all manner of abuse. On the same day, September 8th, the Farc leader had written a letter to the Pope, asking forgiveness for “every pain inflicted on the people of Colombia.” One young woman named Nayibe writes: “For us the amputee Christ is even more Christ-like, because it shows that he came to suffer for his people.” Many called it a day that would go down in the history of Colombia. Cartagena de Indias, north of Colombia, is the home of the Shrine of St Peter Claver (1581-1654). He was declared a saint in 1888 and had been a Spanish Jesuit who dedicated himself to the tragic victims of slavery. At the suggestion of the Jesuits, after the peace accord between the government and the Farc which had put an end to the 50 years of conflict with 200 thousand dead and tens of thousands missing, it became the capital of human rights. The Pope visited the poorest neighbourhoods, stopping in at the house of 77 year old Lorenza Perez, who cooks and distributes meals to anyone in need. “I’m the poorest of the poor,” she says. “But the Pope chose my house to tell the world to have more love for those that are discarded. Susanna Nuin explains: “The Pope’s speeches had two dimensions: on conceptual, with strong and precise clarifications; and the other gestural, to express his closeness to a people that has suffered much. His departure left us with a sense of loss, but also a sense of fulfilment. His visit has instilled a new way of living in the hearts of the Colombian people, no longer from a passive stance, waiting for a peace that never comes, succumbing to a polarization that makes peaceful coexistence impossible. The young people played a fundamental role, who felt like they had been invested with a task. Yolima Martínez recalls the Pope’s appeal: “You young people have a special gift for recognizing the suffering of others.” Laura Isaza: “Peace is a process that engages all generations, but ours especially.” Manuel echoes her words: “The Pope’s visit has clarified to the Colombians that peace isn’t a political matter, but culture that needs to be built. As Focolare members we feel even more committed to listen to Pope Francis when he talks about a culture of encounter that we have to continue to build.”
Thousands of young people are preparing for the Genfest by seizing opportunities to promote universal brotherhood across the globe. Not as noisy as the wars and bombings, less worth it for the crime channels, but factual and quite effective when it comes to building a world without barbed wire borders, hatred and indifference. It’s the MILONGA Project, not a place for dancing the tango, but an international volunteer programme that does have some similarities with the Latin American dance style known as tango: with its fast pace, its warmth and generous spirit. This communication network connects thousands of social projects around the world. It’s known as the MILONGA Project. MILONGA is an acronym formed by the Italian words for: a thousand non-governmental organizations in action (www.milongaproject.org) that are all inspired by the Focolare’s charism of unity. The young men and women who belong to the project not only volunteer, but also expand their hearts as they open themselves to the rich cultures of other countries. Promoted by the International New Humanity Association and by Youth for a United world, the MILONGA Project went through a pilot phase in Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, Venezuela and Uruguay). Now, it is also active in Italy, Croatia Jordan, Philippines, Kenya and Tanzania. On August 5th, representatives from the Focolare’s permanent Mariapolises around the world, and representatives from various NGOs, met for one week at the Mariapolis in Brazil to discuss strategies for further network development, examining strategic and management aspects of the program, selection and accompaniment, monitoring and reception of participants into the project; and also to offer a quality formation process that will have a positive impact on both the individual volunteers and on the host communities. Sixty young people who participated in the pilot projects will now have the opportunity to fulfil their dream of volunteering beyond their own borders. MILONGA provides training in preparation for the arrival in the host country, with an indvidualized training program for each volunteer, as well as for the host entity in the other country. It provides a trainer that accompanies the young person through every phase of the experience – training, stay and return to one’s own country. It also ensures that the young person will be welcomed by the local Mariapolis and Focolare community and have a direct experience of the local environment. Each participant has an opportunity to interact with peers on an international level by linking up with the United World Project. MILONGA’s method emerges from an experience that has matured over years, and from the impact that the volunteer experience is having in a variety of settings. It is a rather unique style of social action, in which the fraternal bond among the different actors is the main key. Fraternity is also the key in motivating the encounter of the different communities in vulnerable situations, to bring about an experience of communion with the volunteers, and experience of dialogue and real intercultural exchange, in order to discover together solutions that do not come from above, but are as much as possible shared in a reciprocal way. “It’s not so easy to put into a few words what I experienced for a month at the Casa de los Niños (Children’s Home) in Cochabamba,” says an Uruguayan volunteer at an NGO in Bolivia. “After New Year’s I was headed for an adventure that I had been thinking about for some time, saving money and getting my heart ready. I wanted to go with an NGO that had the Focolare spirit, and I was surprised by the brotherhood I experienced throughout every moment.” “I got to know a social reality that is very different from the one we live,” says a young Spanish volunteer, “a very powerful reality that helped me, not so much to be aware of certain problems, because perhaps I already had some knowledge of them, but to recognize and accept the fact that beyond where we come from, how much money we have, where we live – we’re all equal and the same.”
After Hurricane Irma’s passage over the Caribbean where it caused death and destruction, the violent storm hit Florida, which has been declared in a state of emergency. More than 5.8 million people have been left without electricity, running water or internet. Five deaths have been confirmed. It has now weakened to a category 1 hurricane, with 136 kilometer winds, and is now heading towards Atlanta, Georgia. The local Focolare community writes: “We’re in constant contact with our community in Florida. Many have had to leave their homes and find safe places to stay. They tell us that they are trying to help people who are all alone, neighbors and parents and relatives living outside the country, and the same goes for the communities on the islands. The weakening hurricane is expected to arrive in Atlanta on Monday or Tuesday with a lot of rain and strong wind. We are seeing God’s love in all of this and experiencing how much we’re all brothers and sisters, thanks to this crisis. We’re finding that we can help each other, beyond the social divisions that are quite secondary now.”
Mary’s children interpret her in many ways, all of them beautiful, but her most sumptuous beauty can be found in the singular position she holds among women. Hers is a name that we will never finish saying, a name that will continue to fill us with happiness every time we hear it. In the Angelic Salutation that has flown through history as a source of gladness, millions upon millions have greeted her in the same manner. With every Hail Mary all of us go back to that familiar salute, in the hope of obtaining her intercession in this human experiment called life, which culminates in death, the threshold of the everlasting life. “Mary!” Just saying her name makes our heart jump for joy, like the child in Elizabeth’s womb – “and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” “Mary!” This is what shepherds and carpenters said as they came to the door of that semblance of a stall, which was the home of the Holy Family on the Nazareth hillside. “Mary” they called her, as they went on to ask a favour, because she was always willing to serve anyone and full of possibilities for everyone. And if they didn’t have favours to ask, they would show up simply because of the pleasure it gave them to greet her with that name, which was filled with beauty and wonder because it summarized all the mysteries of love. “Mary”, the feminine word for Love… Like Archangel Gabriel, Joseph, the saints, and many sinners, we continue centuries later to call her by that same name, fifty, a hundred, or more times a day. We never pin on to it noble titles, high-sounding appellatives, primacy or rank. We prefer – as she prefers – to draw her closer to us and to never draw far from her, so that we can draw near to the Spouse who shares a singular unity with her. The rush of the crowds, whirlwind of the passions and traces of the Spirit that vein human history are filled with that name, through which love travels from the depths of the earth to heights of Heaven. Humility draws closer, and love unites: this is the great tribute. We feel at home in Christ’s Church, we feel at home in the Communion of Saints in the orbit of the Trinity: because Mary is there. The Mother is there, and so the children can come in. Wherever there is Mary, there is love. Wherever there is love, there is God. Just to say the name of Mary in whatever place or circumstance, is to step into a divine atmosphere in a single breath, to light a star in the middle of the night, to unlock the healing flow of poetry in the midst of a technological plague, to make a swamp blossom with lilies. To say Mary is to restore the warmth of a family to a world that seems to have become a forced labour camp. Mary loves and hides herself in love: Real love is contemplation of the beloved. Also in this, by imitating the young woman from Nazareth, we can be contemplatives in the midst of the world, in the hovel of a country farm house or in the apartment of a city dwelling. The love in Mary was so great that she provided God to us – God who is Love. She all but ripped him from Heaven in order to give him to earth. She made the Holy One one of us, a man at the service of all. Truly, love means making yourself one with the Beloved. Mary became so one with God that he gave himself over to her so that, through her, he would give himself to all people. Ultimately, you are in the world, in a different time and place, but, being there like Mary, you are always and everywhere preparing the place for Jesus to stay. (Igino Giordani, Maria modello perfetto, (Rome: Città Nuova, 2012), 17-20.
Mexico has often been struck by seismic movements because it lies in a region where 5 tectonic plaques meet. But the earthquake which hit the nation on September 8 has been so far the most violent earthquake ever recorded (8.2 on the Richter scale). With the epicenter off the west coast, on the border with Guatemala, the earthquake was felt even as far as Mexico City. Much of the capital has remained without electricity and many people abandoned their houses going out into the dark streets. At least 15 have been found dead, although “the toll estimate is set to rise,” said President Enrique Peña Nieto. Oaxaca is the State which has been most hit. The Mexican bishops write: “God strengthens us as brothers and sisters in the faith, mobilising us towards those who have suffered because of this earthquake.” In Guatemala, one victim has been recorded.
Gen Verde’s contribution to the historical celebration.
We were truly delighted to receive an invitation to perform at the Jubilee of the Reformation celebration in Stadthagen. Here we come with our concert On the Other Side!
It also has given us the opportunity to return to Germany after many years. In the month of September we will be in Boppard with our Upfront and Unplugged acoustic concert. And in Dortmund, Duderstadt and Mannheim with our Start Now Project. These are all opportunities to meet many people and to invite them to be protagonists all together in showing how we can look at the world from “the Other Side”: the side of those who believe in and live for unity. And to all the others: follow us at http://www.genverde.it/tours/
The national workshop on economy, culture, communication, education and innovation is annually promoted by New City, Polo Lionello Bonfanti, Sophia University Institute, and the town of Loppiano which is hosting the event. In response to Pope Francis’s invitation, the aim of the convention is to offer the occasion for dialogue and proposals on the foremost issues in our country: from immigration to work, poverty to social inclusion, and battles against corruption to commitment for the common good, family, youth, education and many more. The convention will expound receptiveness to counter exclusion and the quest for private interest, promote new civic virtues to find solutions to the contradictions of our time, and act on the unjust structures that produce – precisely – “victims and bandits.” LoppianoLab is thus a cultural laboratory where the seeds of a new mentality will subsequently be sown, in the conviction that the pursuit of profit cannot be the compass for every human activity. The event is open to all those who question themselves on these themes and wish to become “artisans of change.” For information write to: loppianolab.accoglienza@loppiano.it
The Park of the Nations in Córdoba, Argentina, is always filled with children and teenagers on the “Día del Niño” (Day of the Child), which is celebrated on the third Sunday of August. The Park is the perfect place to hold games, tournaments and take walks. This year a festive crowd drew the attention of the passers-by, with the unveiling of a particularly meaningful monument: the Cube of Peace. There were games, obstacle courses, music and food just before the official unveiling in the presence of representatives from the Interreligious Commitee For Peace (COMIPAZ), members of the Armenian Church, the Jewish, Muslim and Evangelical communities. Fernanda Otero, Francisco Drab and Amelia Milagros López Loforte represented the Focolare community. The unveiling concluded with some words from Auxiliary Bishop Ricardo Seirutti who blessed the monument. It was to refrain from spinning the Cube. Each side displayed a sentence which, in spite of the rather playful and carefree atmosphere, were expected to be put into practice with seriousness and effort – and perhaps a bit of fatigue. The Cube proposes six actions that can be lived every day, each of them an expression of the Golden Rule,a version of which can be found in all religions: “Do to others what you would have them do to you:” Love everyone. Be the first to love. Love your enemy. Forgive. These are concrete gestures for a life that is counter current and courageous for the building of a more empathetic and supportive society. The unveiling was not an isolated event, but the result of many months of interaction and field work, duing which the Focolare youth took the Cube to several quarters in the city, as an educational tool for teaching peace through play and theatre. In neighbourhoods on the peripheries of Ciudad Evita, San Roque, Cabildo, Müller, Argüello where people live amidst violence, with their civil rights often violated and with the children of the Sierra Dorada Foundation in San Marcos Sierras, they worked side by side with local communities and organisations who are desirous of becoming more aware of local problems and taking direct action in favour of more incisive and effective social training. The project, sustained by the Focolare Movement, the organization for the defense of the rights of children and teenagers from the Province of Córdoba, the Living Peace Programme and the Interreligious Comittee for Peace, along with other organizations and public and private entities, aims to spread peace in all parts of society, beginning with a set of best practices for working with children, but valid for adults and in all environments. Similar activities are spreading in many other countries: Italy, Spain, Egypt, Hungary and Brazil where the now famous Cube has become the protagonist of a vast variety of educational projects and seminars. In Argentina, another Cube of Peace has been placed in a public area in Concepción, in the Province of Tucumán. Still in Córdoba, three days ealier, the Cube project was declared a cultural interest by the City Council. A small monument that continually comes to life.
The multi-religious marathon, “Rome Half Marathon Via Pacis,” will start off on Sunday 17 September from St. Peter’s Square to promote peace, integration and inclusion. Promoted by the Rome Capital and the Pontifical Council for Culture, Ministry of the Holy See, in partnership with FIDAL (Italian Track and Field Federation) and with the sponsorship of the CONI and CIP, the event is open to all, to say “stop violence, racism, and discrimination of any type and origin.” There will be two race routes (21 and 5 km), with five legs (St. Peter’s Basilica, Synagogue, Mosque, Valdes Church and Orthodox Church) to underline the participation of various confessions and religious communities. Also Sportmeet, the world network of sportsmen and women, operators and professionals of the Focolare Movement’s sports world will be attending as a sole team: “Sportmeet for a United World.” Those who wish to participate with Sportmeet may write to: info@sportmeet.org (also for the possible stay in Rome).
A summer school in the Primiero Valleys (Italy) is not a novelty. Some had taken place in the past years, thanks to the initiative of the Sophia University Institute. This year’s summer school held from 25 – 30 August had a precise interreligious profile, with the presence of Shiite and Christian students. Apart from the initiative’s success, this was not an occasional event, but a 20-year friendship journey undertaken by Shiite Muslims and Catholics, within the context of the Focolare Movement’s spirituality of communion. During the second half of the 1990s, Professor Mohammad Shomali with his wife, Mahnaz, also an academic from Qom (the holy city of Shi’a Islam in Iran), were both studying in England. Along with their studies they had hoped to find a way of establishing a relationship with dynamic Christian communities. Already at that time both had felt the calling to interreligious commitment. It was in this context that the two young academics met the Focolare Movement, and a deep spiritual friendship was established, based on the central point of love as a path to reach God and the brothers and sisters around us. Besides a profound experience with the Benedictine community of the monastery of Ampleforth, the Shomalis had deepened their knowledge of the spirituality of communion and had also met other Christians and Muslims, on the occasion of international meetings held in Rome and in the town of Loppiano. After their return to Qom the relationships with the Focolare continued, and starting 2010 were enriched by academic values. In fact, to enhance a true bond between Shiite students of Qom and the Catholic Church, the Shomalis organised various group journeys to Italy, where they held meetings with the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, the St. Anselm University, PISAI (Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies), and the Focolare Movement. In 2014, a delegation of the Movement’s Interreligious Dialogue Centre spent a week in Qom to meet various academic and religious groups and establish relationships of trust and communion at both concrete and intellectual levels, going deeper into the religious Christian heritage and highlighting common values and possibilities to set up paths of dialogue. It was in this context that a bond with the Sophia University Institute was established, especially between the Rector, Mons. Piero Coda, and Professor Shomali. With subsequent encounters and lessons offered by the professor to the students of the Institute and the inhabitants of Loppiano, and in collaboration with Rita Moussalem and Roberto Catalano, Co-Directors of the Focolare’s Centre for Interreligious Dialogue, Coda and Shomali had developed the idea of creating a common academic research project with concrete works, which was named Wings of Unity. The core of this initiative is based on the quest for unity of God and unity in God and aims to focus on the perception of God in the two traditions, and in this light, on the possibility of building a true spirit of brotherhood. The finality is to create occasions for reflection in communion between Shiite Muslims and Christians and favouring the education of young generations in interreligious dialogue. As Prof. Shomali himself summarised, in these years they have gone beyond dialogue, and have attained the same way of thinking.
“I’ll be coming as a pilgrim of hope and of peace, to celebrate our faith in the Lord with you, and also to learn from your charity and perseverance in the search for peace and harmony.” This is how addressed the “dear people of Colombia” in a video message just a few hours before his departure for Bogotà. Speaking in Spanish, he cited the motto of his journey, recalling that “we always need to take a first step in any project and activity.” This “urges us also to be the first to love, to build bridges and construct brotherhood. This “urges us to be the first to love, to build bridges, to spread brotherhood. It encourages us to go out to meet the other, to offer our hand and share the sign of peace.” The Pope went on to say that Colombia is a “land rich in history, culture,, faith, men and women that have worked with determination and perseverance to make it a place where brotherhood and harmony reign, a place where the Gospel is known and loved, where saying brother or sister doesn’t sound strange, but a real and proper treasure to protect and defend.” TheFocolare community is preparing joyfully for the Pope’s arrival.YolimaMartínez reports from Bogotà: “We members of the Focolare will welcome him with great enthusiasm, so that his message may fill our land with hope. Colombia, she explains, is in a transitional phase, a phase of deep social divisions that continue to persist. “But we know, as Chiara Lubich taught us, that all of us are candidates for unity, so we believe that the words of the Holy Father will be a call to peace for everyone, to reconciliation and tolerance, regardless of anyone’s creed or way of thinking.” There great expectation in the air, especially among Christians. “The young people, summoned by the local Church, are preparing for this visit, preparing not only the logistical aspects, but also their own souls in view of this encounter. Escuela Sol Naciente in Tocancipà, north of Bogotà where the Mariapolis Centre is located, is geared toward children and teenagers between the ages of 13 and 15, to give them a global formation as individuals that are sensitive to the values of solidarity, peace and ecology. Fifteen of their students and two of their teachers will take part in the Eucharist presided by the Pope. One of them is Milena: “I’m happy to be meeting Pope Francis, because he’s one of the closest persons to the young people. He understands us and invites us to follow God and build a better society.” Laura: “The Pope’s visit inspires us to be better and to help everyone, not only the Christians, but also the people that think differently.” Andrés: “The Pope is an important figure in today’s culture, so it will be an opportunity for us to profit from his wisdom.” Yolima continues: “All the Focolare members will be at the different Eucharistic celebrations, especially in Bogotá e Medellín. Among them, Lucia and her husband, Pedro, who will approach the Pope. They will extend the greetings from the whole Focolare community in Colombia. Lucia: “We’ll have a chance to approach him for a few minutes. Our wish is to go as children of Chiara, to thank him in the name of the Movement and to assure him of our prayers.” It will be a pause in the frenzy of daily life, an invitation to stop. “In the days that Pope Francis will be visiting our country,” Yolima concludes, “we’ll be presented with the possibility of a personal encounter: the encounter with Jesus.”
As Harvey’s fury fades and tears are shed for victims whose numbers are growing by the hour, the devastation left behind by the hurricane and the growing concern over contaminated water, especially in Houston, is becoming clearer and clearer within the city which is home to hundreds of large and important chemical and oil plants There is already a mixture of pesticides, waste and solvents that can do further damage to humans and the environment even after Harvey. Last September 1st there was a choral outcry for more attention and care for Creation just as Texas was emerging from the receding flood waters. It is not only the uncontrollable forces of nature that give us pause, but also our responsibility in using the goods of the earth. With regard to the risk of contamination: it has been estimated that the millions of people from Texas’s 38 counties that have been affected by Hurricane Harvey use private water sources that are not subjected to the same controls as public water systems and are at risk of contamination. “It is time to think about the tremendous power of nature and of human responsibility to be good and wise administrators of the environment,” writes Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, known for his involvement in promoting care for the environment. “We are all called to to take part in the redemption and care of our world, working to stem the destructive force of such hurricanes through better environmental planning, or by being more seriously involved in combatting the serious problem of climate change and the way in which it interferes with our planet; or even to beomc personally involved on the field, with charitable projects that can help and support those whose lives are so drastically changed in the bat of an eye because of changes in the climate. In their joint statement on the Day of Prayer for Creation, Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew stated: We urgently appeal to those in positions of social and economic, as well as political and cultural, responsibility to hear the cry of the earth and to attend to the needs of the marginalized, but above all to respond to the plea of millions and support the consensus of the world for the healing of our wounded creation. We are convinced that there can be no sincere and enduring resolution to the challenge of the ecological crisis and climate change unless the response is concerted and collective, unless the responsibility is shared and accountable, unless we give priority to solidarity and service. Meanwhile, news has arrived from the Focolare community in Houston. Joelma, Carmina and Chiara and Kate write: “Thanks for your prayers, your closeness and your many meassages that have been arriving. Everyone in our community is safe. Some had to evacuate their homes, and others had their homes flooded, but weren’t forced to leave them. The neighbourhood where the focolare house is located was on high enough land to stay dry, but it’s like an island because all the land around it is flooded. It was hard to watch all the flooding from a house that was dry and secure, knowing that the lives of many of the people around us were in danger. Unfortunately, we just learned that the relatives of several people from our community in Corpus Christi, the first Texan city to be hit by the hurricane’s fury, were killed as the six of them tried to escape the flood waters. We’re trying to understand the best way to help right now, also because it’s still very dangerous to be out driving. Two nurses from the local community, Marga and Augie, are working around the clock at their hospital due to the shortage of staff. One young person was able to travel around and reach other volunteers, and a couple with a canoe was able to give a hand rowing through neighbourhoods.
Entitled “Neither victims nor brigands. Changing the rules of the game”, the much awaited LoppianoLab event will be held in Loppiano from 30 September to 1 October 2017. The expo, which focuses on the economy, culture, communication, training and innovation, is promoted annually by Città Nuova, Lionello Bonfanti Industrial Park, Sophia University Institute and the international town of Loppiano. Immigration, work, poverty, social integration, fighting corruption, commitment to the common good, family, youth, education and other topics will be discussed during the 8th edition of LoppianoLab.
The Drunken Man I saw a rift between a drunk man and a group of kids who were disturbed by him. They suddenly pounced upon and began to beat him. It all happened so quickly. With a lot of difficulty, he managed to get back on his feet. He was spitting blood, and lost two teeth. He became hostile and threatened revenge. Then, it was just me and that despised, badly reduced and discarded man in whom Jesus was asking to be loved. I overcame a bit of fear. What if he turned on me, infuriated as he was? I provided him with hadkerchief to stop the bleeding. Then, I tried to show some concern for him. He told me about his health problems and other woes. I got him the cigarette he was trying to get; but mostly I tried to steer him away from the idea of taking revenge on those boys. It wasn’t easy to calm him down. I was also worried that those guys might come back and there would be more violence. I sat there and listened to him until he decided to go home. O. (Italy) Sick Sometimes I go through moments of rebellion, but then the desire to believe in the love of God and of my brothers and sisters prevails. I try not to let myself be beaten by the suffering. I try not to stop and focus only on me and be a burden on others. When I lost my hair because of the chemo, my friend Bruna said: “Your hairs are counted. Give them to Jesus like flowers, as a sign of your love.” Even my illness has meaning and for that I thank God. Brigitte (Germany) Peace My father worked in a shipyard. During a strike, in the 1980s, he was clubbed to death. After that, our life changed, although I was too young to realize it. We only bring it up with my Mum when some award arrives or on the anniversary of some historical anniversary. She had instilled in us the value of peace and of never taking revenge. Now, as an adult, I know that the value to be transmitted to the new generations is precisely this treasure that comes from God, but begins in me, from me. S. K. (Poland) Surprising Serenity Perfino la bidella, che aveva cambiato modo di rivolgersi a me, è diventata oggetto di nuova stima. A una collega che mi ha chiesto come facevo a mantenermi serena dopo tutto quello che mi era capitato, ho spiegato che come cristiana trovo nella verità una forza e una fonte di pace che mi dà il coraggio di ricominciare. I giorni successivi ero sorpresa io stessa dall’atmosfera distesa che regnava fra tutti.I had forgotten to inform the school office that I was going away with the children, and when I would return. Therefore, upon our return, a series of rebukes would be awaiting. It was humiliating to admit my mistake in front of my colleagues and director, also because they were all looking on me with hostility, even the ones who had always been so pleasant towards me. But drawing strength from the Gospel, I accepted defeat, trying to tranform it into love for everyone. I imagined how I would feel if I were in their shoes, and I understood their disapproval. Even J.L. – Ungheria
“That all may be one,” Those are amazing words! I believe it is impossible to think of words more beautiful and sublime than these. They make you dream of a world different from the one around us. It stirs your imagination to wonder what society would be like if this great ideal were fulfilled. Imagine a world where people love one another and where everyone shares the same feelings, where prisons have disappeared and the police are no longer needed. Imagine newspapers that do not report bad news – which is now out of fashion – but ‘golden news’ about divinely beautiful and deeply human events. It is a world where people sing, Yes, where they play, study, and work, but everything is done in harmony, where everyone does what they do to please God and their neighbours. I think we shall only see this world in Paradise. Yet Jesus spoke those words for us here, on earth. … I opened the Gospel and found another phrase that seemed uncannily like this one, as though a secret bond exists between it and our motto. It says, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” (Jn 12:32). “When I am lifted up from the earth…”. So Jesus did not make us “all one” through his wonderful words or his extraordinary miracles. The Cross was his secret. It was His suffering that solved the problem of making us all children of God and one amongst us. Could suffering, then, be the way, the key, and the secret to bringing unity among all people? Could it be the way to transform a boring and often wicked world into one that is joyful, shining with love and a foretaste of heaven? Yes, it is. As far as we know, the saints, who were genuinely intelligent, placed great value on suffering and the cross. They attracted huge numbers of followers and often left their mark on history — continuing to do good in future centuries. When I was a small child, a priest told me, “There is an empty place on the cross.” Turning over the crucifix that was on his table, he showed me the back and added, “This place is for you!” Okay then! If this is how it is, we are ready! What are we waiting for? In any case, large or small sufferings, accepted well or badly, will always be part of our life. We do not want to be opportunists! We are Christians! Is Jesus on the cross? I want to be there too. I will accept all the little crosses in my life joyfully. Yes, joyfully, even if I shed some tears. Nevertheless, deep down in my heart, I will tell Him who is listening to me: “I am happy. By suffering with You, I can help you draw all peopleto Yourself. In this way, we shall draw closer to the day when your great desire, ‘That all may be one,’ shall be fulfilled.”
From Central and South America, to Europe, Afica and Middle East, fifty laboratories for forming people who are open, inclusive, world citizens who wish to offer the wealth of their own cultures while being open to that of others. Every three years the Focolare’s Teens for Unity hold a series of international workshops in which they can be formed in a culture of fraternity as the antidote to division, intolerance and hate. Each workshop had two phases. The first phase consisted in learning to know and respect the other’s culture as one’s own. The second, to take concrete action, especially in the most needy peripheries with the most disadvantaged people: the homeless, orphans, immigrants and Rom. In Lithuania, the teenagers of the workshops – which included groups from Switzerland – visited a hospital for the disabled and mentally ill where they managed to engage a girl who was usually unresponsive to any kind of stimulation. In the small European state of Škofia Loka, Slovenia, their goal was to engage the homeless. In Bratisslava, German and Slovak teenagers volunteered to clean the shores of the Danube, where they collected six tons of trash. There were also concerts, flashmobs, and folk festivals on several public squares of Eastern Europe which caught the curiosity and intererst of the media. Several teenagers were interviewed on national television at Mariapolis Faro. The Mariapolis in Croatia was turned into an international microcosm with 280 teenagers from 22 nations, and twelve translations for teenagers from such places as Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Venezuela. “When I talked with the guys from Venezuela,” says a girl from the Holy Land, “I found out that there are problems in every country. We’re at war, but at least we have food to eat. In Venezuela, they don’t even have any. So, I brought a basket and suggested that we put what we had in common.” Another teenager: “From now on, when someone asks me how many brothers and sisters I have, I’ll say 280!” “A group of girls arriving from the United State lost their luggage at the airport. The luggage was located and returned to them a few days later. In the meantime – used as they were to always having everything they needed – they experienced what it’s like to depend on the love (and clothing) of others. In Serbia, the workshop opened in Cardak, an hour drive from Belgrade. The teenagers were hosted at a state institute, in a wooded area where hundreds of refugees had recently passed from the Balkans: a simbol of beauty and suffering in the tormented march toward the unity of peoples, Churches and religions. They also experienced the diversity of religions – many of them Christian and Muslim – and of different traditions – among them Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Evangelical and Anglican. Some didn’t confess any particular creed, but everyone felt perfectly integrated. At Paztún, in the Maya Kapchikel region of Guatamala, the workshop from Central America gathered 160 teenagers from Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatamala, along with some teenagers from the Quiché ethnic group in Santa Lucia Utatlán. The indiscriminate chopping down of entire forests – a real wound to the land – urged them to plant on a stretch of public land, thousands of fur trees that were donated by the state.In the Southern Cone, Global Citizen took on the color of social action with projects that favored knowing one another and valuing the richness of the South American people. In the workshop at Cunaco. Educational and recreational workshops were held in Chile, along with solidarity projects. In Paraguay there were seminars, visits to Guaraní communities of Ita and a day with the teenagers from Barrio Vida, a social centre animated by the Focolare periphery of Motevideo. It included activities for children, workshops, sport tournaments and games for the public. In Argentina they shared in the life of their peers from the Island of Margherita, in the region of the Tigre, north of Buenos Aires on the Rio de la Plata.
Óbidos, on the left bank of the Amazon River, about 682 miles from the capital, Belem, is a city of almost 50,000 inhabitants. There is only one hospital, which is run by the Third Order of St. Francis and absolutely insufficient to assist the most serious cases. After an appeal of the Brazilian Conference of Bishops, for some years now a big group of doctors, nurses and common people, have undertaken journeys to bring healthcare and support to the population, especially in the river communities. The Amazon Project is now known to many. Upon reaching Óbidos in July, the “missionaries” of this year consisting of about 40 people from various parts of Brazil, gathered during the recent Run4Unity of Belém, and enjoyed the cooperation and hospitality of the local families. Preparations for this event took several months, and dispatches were made – by air and river – of 15 big boxes of medicine, dentistry material and toys. The Mayor hosted four participants, placed at the disposal of the missionaries, a boat and a coach which was used to visit the communities in the interior of the “ribeirinhas” (three communities that never receive medical care and rarely go to the city), and paid for the services of a cook during their stay. The first community encountered were the 2,000 people living in an area next to a “lixão” (dumpsite). The group stayed there for three days. Much more than the figures (8 days, 611 medical checkups and 221 dental checkups) the remarks of the protagonists, doctors and local people stand out. A woman who was treated for a strong headache, returned after a few days to breathe that atmosphere which she described as “the air of paradise.” At the end of the “treatment” her headache had almost disappeared. Eliane comes from São Paulo: “Before coming here, I gathered information on the internet. But here, things are a completely different thing, a lesson I shall remember all my life. After the trauma I underwent – referring to the recent death of her husband – I thought I would remain indifferent to any other pain. Instead, I now am full of ideas and a great desire to help!”Tiago, a youth from Óbidos is participating for the second time in the Project. Since he couldn’t buy a pair of eyeglasses, a collection was made: “Seeing so much generosity made me want to do something myself!” Ana Carla (doctor): “I realised that our reality is not the worst one! Upon listening to some mothers that their son had never been visited by a doctor made me think: I may not be able to solve the problem, but I can love, listen, give comfort, or a drug. This is already something. I don’t feel tired, but my weariness lies in having to ask: “What does your child eat?” and hear them answer: “flour.” Amanda is studying medicine: “I now see medicine with another vision: in front of me is the sick person and not only his illness. We cannot be satisfied only by prescribing a drug, we have to treat the person.” Ereh is a boy from Óbidos: “It is difficult to live in this situation. Mateus and I do volunteer work with children.” Solange (Belém): “When I heard about the Project, I was very interested and I asked my family’s permission to participate. I only received criticisms, but when I got here, I found a family environment which I didn’t expect. I was surprised to see the youths who, in the month of July, give up their holidays.” Also Marcos is a student of medicine: “I found myself in the impossibility of resolving serious situations, since I didn’t have the means to cure them, but only give relief.We must have the courage to make a hands-on experience and help the youths who have turned to stone in their city. Drug addiction is not the only vice, but there are others: remaining closed up in ourselves, in one’s own ego.” Victor (Santarém): “in the name of the entire Amazon, I thank you all who have left your zones to come to our peripheries.” The Project now proceeds with the diffusion and gathering of useful material and finances, so that more can be done next year.
To inhabit a place in just two weeks, a place that is geographically and culturally far away from your home. This was the challenge of Habitandando: to build new bridges between, and on the other hand, a young and contrasted people, whose richness and inequalities are reflected also in its territory – made of megalopolises and immense regions. However, how do you build a bridge between Italy and Colombia in just fifteen days? How can you get to inhabit a place, to become familiar with it as if it were your home? Travel as a method therefore: to get to know a place by experiencing it, using as a testing ground for generating new and challenging ideas. And even this year, the experiences were the most diverse: crossing Central Italy by car, to distinguish how landscapes change from the coast to the mountains; living at Piazza del Campo in Siena, to observe how a public space has been functioning perfectly for centuries; walking for many hours around the centre of Rome, to distinguish each epoch in the thousand layers composing the city; exploring Tor Bella Monaca, a neighbourhood in the Roman periphery where failed architecture projects add up to a fragile social condition. The travel is the method and the territory is the classroom. Each stage of the travel was devoted to a specific issue: for example, the Tuscany countryside explains territory and landscape, the Amalfi Coast shows both the antique and the modern, the towns hit by earthquakes in Central Italy show the relationship between memory and catastrophe. Having the territory as classroom allows first-hand observation of each issue, but is it’s not simply a way of going beyond the simplistic explanations by tourist guides and school textbooks. Rather, it is an occasion to incrementally build by yourself the knowledge on a given place. In fact, the participants were asked to focus on each place that they visited by writing pieces for different audiences, taking photographs with different communicative aims, developing their own explanations on specific settings and phenomena. Day by day, the first ingenuous reactions leave space to deeper reasonings. Maybe Tor Bella Monaca, the neighbourhood in the Roman periphery, provides the most interesting example: the initial skepticism (“Is this a poor and degraded neighbourhood? If only all poor places in Colombia were like this!”) is replaced by all the new ideas that it can generate. The participants’ disorientated looks of the first days were gradually replaced by more relaxed ones, once a relationship was established with the visited places and also the challenges facing them. The tension between memory and innovation were the guiding thread behind this year’s initiative, and this emerged also from the comments made at the end of the travel. For a Colombian student, Italy carries with her centuries of history but does not know how to manage such heritage, does not understand how nowadays heritage can interact with the demands of the habitat. These reflections were developed in the last days of the travel, spent in Montefalcone Appennino, It was the beginning of a think-tank which can yield varying results, but which already demonstrates what can be achieved through a new way of studying the habitat, by going out of the classrooms into the territory, inhabiting it on the move so to speak: to inhabit a place is not just to know it, but also to start imagining it differently from what it is right now. Compiled by Dialogue in Architecture
We received this message from a member of the Focolare community in Houston: “We live near downtown Houston. Many of our streets have become like rivers. Images of our neighbourhood are shown with the city centre skyline in the background. Fortunately we live on an elevated street, but the people who live below are all being evacuated. Many of the homes of our community members are destroyed. One of us who is a nurse is stranded at the hospital, along with four others, and no one can have access because the streets around the district are flooded. Emergency teams are working round the clock, taking turns to eat and rest. The saddest thing is that many of the people who are affected are elderly. There is nothing we can do to help at the moment because we are totally isolated. Thank you for your prayers.”
At the invitation of the Columbian bishops and of President of the Republic, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, who received Nobel Peace Prize in 2016, Pope Francis will make an apostolic visit to the South American nation on September 6 – 11. The visit is a sign of support during the difficult peace process in a land that has been proven by years of civil war, and a gesture in favour of reconciliation. “The Pope’s presence will help discover that it is possible to come together as a nation learn how to see one another with new eyes of hope and forgiveness,” said Bishop Fabio Suescún Mutis, who heads the preperatory commitee. The symbolic dimension of the trip is provided by the Pope himself as he takes the first step, encouraging everyone to begin dreaming of and building a future of peace.
New flowering “As Christians, my wife and I decided to adopt two sisters. Unfortunately, due to bad company, both have ended up in the drug cycle. Since then, a Calvary began for us: abortions, undesired children, problems with the law. We undertook to make our home a place of peace where they are welcomed. Now, the elder one is slowly recovering and not only wants to take care of her baby girl but also the son of her sister who is still in the drug tunnel. We are witnessing life blooming again.” (M and D. H. – Switzerland) An innocent absolved «I am a lawyer by profession. Some months ago I took the defence of a Sudanese citizen accused of being a transporter of immigrants and even a member of a criminal organization. He was seen at the helm of a boat that was transporting 119 migrants, among which were women and children. In the interviews held with him in jail, I realized that he was a refugee like the others, and had been abandoned by the transporter, and had taken the courage to take the helm of the boat despite his lack of experience, to save himself along with the others. Unfortunately they did not believe his recount. On taking the defence of this youth’s suffering, I decided to demonstrate his innocence despite the fact that, due to his poverty, he couldn’t have paid my fees. Of course, I could have made use of the sponsorship of the State, which however, does not always pay and if ever, the payments are inadequate. But he was a brother, and during the trial I did my best to defend him. In the end, he was absolved.” (S. – Italy) The “agreement” «As always, dad had drunk more than necessary and there was tension at home. Since nobody said a word, I took the courage, and looking him straight in the eye, told him of the suffering and dismay he was causing us due to his vice. Then also the other brothers spoke up. Things then changed and in the family a sort of agreement was made and now dad is doing his best to be faithful to his promise not to drink. Closing our eyes had not been a way of helping him, and we had to tell him the truth, with love. And together we succeeded.” (N.N. – South America) A son’s gratitude «As time passes my gratitude towards my mom grows. After dad had abandoned us, she had continued to work hard so that we, the four children, wouldn’t lack in anything. One day she went to the funeral of her brother-in-law and returned with an eight-month-old baby in her arms. Her sister was not in the condition to care for him. This was how we were raised. I think that the goodness which now reigns in our families is a fruit of the grandeur of my mother, who did not think of herself, but always of the others.” (C. A. – Poland)
A fourth interfaith summer school is underway from August 25th to August 30th in Tonadico, Italy. The title of the course is “Interfaith Engagement in Theory and Practice.” It os promoted by Sophia University Institute (SUI) in collaboration with the Islamic Institute of England and the Risalat Institute in Qum, Iran. Forty two Christian, Muslim and Shiite students have come together for the school, and instructors include SUI president, Dr Piero Coda and Mohammad Shomali, Director of the London Islamic Centre. The goal of the school is to provide a space for sharing and reflection on the cultural and religious patrimony of Christianity and Islam, as well as future plans for dialogue and mutual collaboration in the light of current challenges.
Jesus was in the midst of his public life, proclaiming the kingdom of God was near, and he was preparing to go to Jerusalem. His disciples had some insight into the greatness of his mission. They realized he was the one sent by God, whom the whole people of Israel was waiting for. They looked forward to being freed from Roman rule, to the dawn of a better world where there would be peace and prosperity. But Jesus did not want to encourage these illusions. He said clearly that his journey to Jerusalem would not lead to triumph but rather to rejection, suffering and death. He also revealed that he would rise again on the third day. Those words were so hard to understand and accept that Peter protested and opposed such an absurd idea. He tried, in fact, to dissuade Jesus. After a firm rebuke to Peter, Jesus turned to the disciples with a shocking invitation. “Ifany want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Mt 16:24) With these words, what was Jesus really asking from his disciples both then and now? Does he want us to despise ourselves? Does he want us to devote ourselves to a life of austerity and discipline? Is he asking us to seek out suffering so as to be more pleasing to God? This Word of Life exhorts us rather to walk in Jesus’ footsteps, to accept the values and demands of the Gospel in order to be ever more like him. This means living all of life fully, as he did, even when the shadow of the cross appears on our path. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” We cannot deny it: each of us has our own cross. Suffering in its various forms is part of human life. Yet it seems beyond our understanding, the opposite of our desire for happiness. But it is precisely in this that Jesus teaches us to discover an unexpected light. It is like those times when you go into a dark church and discover how the stained-glass windows look so wonderful and bright, rather than dull and dreary as they did from the outside. If we want to follow him, Jesus asks us to reverse our value system, shifting ourselves away from the center of our world and rejecting the logic that seeks our own good. He suggests that we pay more attention to other people’s needs than our own, spending our energy in making them happy, as he did. He did not miss a chance to comfort and give hope to those he met. Following this path of liberation from egoism, we can grow in humanity, we can win the freedom that allows our personality to be completely fulfilled. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Jesus invites us to be witnesses to the Gospel, even when this faithfulness is tested by little or big misunderstandings within our social environments. Jesus is with us, and he wants us to be with him in staking our lives on the boldest of ideals: universal brotherhood and sisterhood, the civilization of love. This radicalness in love is a deep need of the human heart. We see it in key figures of non- Christian religions who followed the voice of their conscience right to the end. Gandhi wrote, as preserved in his secretary Pyarelal’s book, Gandhi:The Last Phase, vol. II: “If someone killed me and I died with prayer for the assassin on my lips, and God’s remembrance and consciousness of his living presence in the sanctuary of my heart, then alone would I be said to have had the non-violence of the brave” Chiara Lubich found, in the mystery of Jesus crucified and forsaken, the remedy for every personal wound and every disunity among persons, groups and peoples. She shared her discovery with many people. “Each one of us experiences sufferings in life that are at least a little like his,” she wrote in 2007 for an event organized by movements and communities from various churches held in Stuttgart, Germany. “When we feel these sufferings, we can remember that he made them his own. They are almost his presence, a sharing in his suffering. “Let us do what Jesus did. He was not paralyzed by suffering, but added these words to his cry, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit’ (Lk 23:46), re-abandoning himself to the Father. Like him, we too can go beyond suffering and overcome trial by saying: ‘I love you in this, Jesus forsaken. I love you; it reminds me of you and is an expression of you, one of your faces.’ “And, if in the next moment we throw ourselves into loving our brother or sister and doing what God asks of us, we will almost always experience that suffering is transformed into joy… “In the small groups where we live … we can experience greater or smaller divisions. Even in these sufferings we can recognize his face, overcome the pain within ourselves, and do everything possible to become brothers and sisters again … The pathway and model of the culture of communion is Jesus crucified and forsaken.” LetiziaMagri 1 M.K. Gandhi, Antiche come le montagne, Ed. di Comunità, Milano 1965, pp. 95-96. 2 C. Lubich, Per una cultura di comunione – Incontro Internazionale “Insieme per l’Europa” – Stoccarda, 12 maggio 2007 – sito web http://www.together4europe.org/
They were from a variety of countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Uganda, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Burkina-Faso, Madagascar, Benin and Holland. The fifty five entrepreneurs wanted to put their 30 innovative entrepreneurial projects to the test, with an international force of “mentors” (seven African, five European and one South American). The first African StartUp Lab 2017 was held last June, in the heart of the African forest in Fontem, Cameroon. It consisted of five days of learning how to practice the values of the Economy of Communion that are already being implemented by many entrepreneurs connected with the Economy of Communion around the world. The idea of a week for project development had been conceived two years earlier. In Nairobi, in 2015, during the international assembly of the EoC, several young people had shared with the first generation of EoC entrepreneurs their own dream of realizing several projects. This led to the launch of a two-year incubation period for those projects. In June 2017, during the StartUp Lab held at Mafua Ndem Mariapolis in Fontem, several of those dreams already began to move forward produce. The workshop began with Anouk Grevin, French member of the faculty of the Polytech University of Nantes, and of the Economy and Management course at Sophia University Institute, who presented the fundamental values of the Economy of Communion. Argentinean, Forencia Locascio, expert in social communication, explained the “elevator pitch” that helps to present one’s own entrepreneurial approach to any possible client or investor, in a clear and succinct manner, and in a shor time. French entrepreneur, Pierre Chevalier, presented a workshop on innovative ideas and project analysis, as well as the resources required. The image of an iceberg is perhaps the best way to explain all the effort, work and sacrifice that lies hidden beneath the surface of any successful entrepreneurial project. Topics such as budget, cash flow, sales, production cost and financial reporting were presented by Giampietro Parolin, business strategy instructor at SUI. The practical exercises on product and cost helped in understanding financial components such calculating and sales forecast. Markus Ressl, a consultant from Ressolution and an entrepreneur from the EoC, analyzed different business models with the young people. Markus Ressl, “Ressolution” consultant and EoC entrepreneur, analyzed the theory and practice of different EoC business models with young entrepreneurs. On the last day everyone was back with Locascio for a discussion on communication strategies: company names, logos, slogans and the use of communication tools with different groups of clientele. A symbolic image was presented to each person along with a certificate at the conclusion of the workshop. The symbol showed a network of people gathered around the Mafua Ndem Mariapolis in Cameroon, with a new to do economy. Their arms are raised and linked by a small cord that represents a pact of reciprocity.
After describing the points of the Art of Loving, with the expressions that Chiara Lubich was fond of using,Maria Voce asked: “But how do you live this art which is not based on feelings or good intentions, but is practiced according to the measure intended by Jesus, which is to lay down one’s life? Is there a key, a secret that would help in making us more and more capable of living up to that measure?” Then she talked about the “culminating moment” of Jesus’s passion when he felt abandoned by the Father (Mt 27:46). Nevertheless, he placed himself in the Father’s hands (Lk 23:46), overcoming “that immense pain and with that he brought humankind into the bosom of the Father and into communion with one another.” “How can we live this mystery of the Forsaken-Risen Jesus? How are we to progress on the ecumenical journey when we clash over questions about truth? The Apostle Paul writes to the Philippians: ‘Have the same sentiments as Christ Jesus who even though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped at, but emptied himself and took on the form of a slave, being made in human likeness’ (cf Phil 2:5). With this attitude we are able to convey the truth of Christ in a way that is credible. Christ emptied himself of everything, as a gift of love.” She quoted from Pope Francis at the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for the Unity of Christians, on January 25th: “If we live this death to ourselves for Jesus, out old lifestyle is relegated to the past and, as happened to Paul, we enter into a new manner of life and of communion.” “Chiara Lubich calls this new manner of life: Jesus in our midst. She refers to Jesus’s promise to be in the midst of any who are united in his name, which means in his love (Mt 18:20). This presence of the Risen Lord amongst his own is determining for ecumenism.” From 1996, following an encounter with a thousand Anglicans and Catholics, Chiara began to talk about an “ecumenism of the people”. It was on that spirit that the journey of Together for Europe was begun, communion and collaboration among more than 300 movements and communities from different Churches. “Without authentic reconciliation,” Maria Voce affirmed, “we’ll never progress on the way towards unity. And this reconciliation characterizes the communion among the movements still today.” Finally, the president concludes: “In the light of the events in Lund on October 31, 2016 when Pope Francis and the President of the Lutheran World Federation, Bishop Dr Munib Younan, commemorated the beginning of the 500 years of the Reform, I felt I had to give a new push to the ecumenical involvement that marks our Movement.” The Declaration of Ottmaring was drawn up in the ecumenical community near Augsburg to “help us to think ecumenically, to remember that any brother or sister I meet, be they from my own Church or another Church, belong to the Body of Christ, to that body for which Christ gave his life. This is an absolute commitment we take on as Focolare Movement, and which can make us enter today into every aspect of human life. Ecumenism is a necessity of the times. It has to go forward. Because it corresponds to the need for God that everyone has, even unknowingly. If people are given the opportunity of an encounter with Jesus in the midst of Christians who love one another, their faith will be enkindled in them and their way of acting will change, they will seek justice and peace, and will work for solidarity among peoples. Only if we Christians are united will the world encounter God.See the full Italian text
“In today’s globalised and interdependent world, dialogue seems to be the only way that humankind can survive. Either we fight one another to the point of mutual destruction, or we dialogue. In fact, only openness to others and dialogue create life and bring life, because every action is then founded on having recognised one another as brothers and sisters, as children of God. I feel the Holy Spirit is at work everywhere, pushing our Churches in this direction: to dialogue so as to re-establish the unity broken over the centuries, so that Christians can give a shared witness to the world according to Jesus’ prayer: “Father, that they may all be one, so that the world may believe” (Cf Jn 17:21-22)” This wasFocolare president, Maria Voce’s, strong encouragement in her presentation. She began from her own personal ecumenical testimony up until her encounter with the spirituality of unity; “In the 1960’s, through the experience of Chiara Lubich, who had come into contact with members of the Brotherhood of the Common Life Germany, dialogue was opened to the Movement. The ecumenical community of Ottmaring was established in Germany, where Catholics and Evangelical Lutherans live together.” During the Second Vatican Council, Chiara entered into contact with several Observers from other Churches. This gave rise to the so-called “Ecumenical Weeks” in which Christians from different Churches gathered yearly to share their experiences of living the Word with particular emphasis on Jesus’s New Commandment: “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you’” (Jn 13:34). At thehistoric encounter between the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I and Chiara Lubich, on June 13, 1967, Maria Voce was head of the local Focolare community in Istanbul. “It was the first of 25 meetings that Chiara would have with that charismatic figure. Athenagoras announced that he was “her disciple” and wanted a focolare to be established in Constantinople.” Other important ecumenical meetings would follow. “Christians from the most varied Churches have wished to share the spirituality of unity and many have embraced specific vocations of the Movement. In fact, Maria Voce recalled, “you don’t dialogue with cultures, but with people. Or rather, we live in dialogue.” She continues: “God is the foundation of dialogue, God who is Love and the Father of all of us and makes us is sons and daughters in the Son, all brothers and sisters in one big family. Right from the start, Chiara took Jesus’s prayer that all be one – which we can translate as ‘making humankind into one family – as her motto in life. She invited millions of people from around the world to live it and make it happen.” So, for the Focolare, “dialogue is a lifestyle, a new culture that the Movement can and wants to offer to all the people of today.” And it has to be “sustained and substantiated by mercy, compassion and love.” Maria Voce cited Chiara Lubich who writes in 1970: “If we don’t have love and charity, we’ll never have the light of God and dialogue. Generic dialogue can become sterile, unfruitful…”[i]. Chiara Lubich continues: “The [person] near me has been created as a gift given to me. On this earth everything is in loving relationship with everything…every thing with every thing. But you need to be Love in order to discover the golden thread among beings” [ii]. Then the Focolare president described the so-called Art of Loving, which is summarized in a few points: love everyone; love always; be the first to love; and make yourself one with your neighbor (see 1 Cor 9:22). (Part 1) [i] C. LUBICH, Discorso ai focolarini,1970. Testo non pubblicato cit. in Vera Araújo, Il quinto dialogo del Movimento dei Focolari. Cosa è, cosa vuole, cosa fa, 7 [ii] C. LUBICH, Scritti Spirituali 1, “L’attrattiva del tempo moderno”, Città Nuova, Rome 1978, 140.
The annual meeting of the Zone Directors of the Movement from all over the world, as well as the people responsible for 4 of the Focolare “little cities”.
The waiting room at the clinic was packed, and a number of doctors were taking in patients. There were only two free seats, one next to a stylishly dressed lady and the other near a man who smelled really bad – his clothes let on that his hygiene was questionable. Perhaps he was there taking shelter from the intense cold out on the street. My first instinct was to sit next to the lady, since that smell was making me nauseous. All the same, I couldn’t help but think that if Jesus is present in every neighbor, surely he was also in that poor man. There was no excuse: my place was next to him, and he was the person to favor, precisely because he was unkempt, because he was someone “rejected.” So I sat there, overcoming the natural disgust I felt, with people watching in surprise. The man immediately began to talk to me. “What a nice sweater, what nice pants! How nice it would be to have clothes like that!” I must admit, when he started to touch my pants to admire their quality and spoke even more enthusiastically about my clothes, I started to feel uncomfortable. People were watching and expected me to react. At that point I gave him all my attention, treating him with dignity, without judging him, and seeing him as a brother. It wasn’t important whether or not what he was telling me about his life was plausible… I gathered that he needed someone who would listen, value and make him feel important. I tried not to mind that, as we talked, he was spraying saliva all over my clothes. I felt that this effort took me out of my comfortable life, and by doing so I’d be able to be compassionate toward that person. I proposed we meet the next day for a coffee. My new friend was surprised and happy. The many people around us obviously heard all of this. In the end, I heard my name called and went in for my medical visit. When I came out, “my” poor person was no longer there. By now the waiting room was almost empty, and only the stylish lady was left. She came up to me smiling. “I hope I’m not disturbing,” she said, “but I followed your entire conversation with that man. It seemed to me that your patience was unlimited. I would have liked to do the same, but I was not brave enough. I heard every word, and you really seemed interested in that unusual conversation. “When you went into the doctor, he got up and thanked all of us for our patience and told us: ‘He is a true friend. I had never seen him before, but he truly cared. For him, I am truly important!’ “Then he left. Tell me, why did you act that way with him?” I told her that I am a Christian, and that I would like to love and serve every neighbor, especially those who suffer most, like a father would to his son. The lady seemed surprised. She reflected a while and then told me, smiling, “If that is what living as a Christian means, perhaps I can too find myself once again in that faith I lost so long ago.” The day after, I went to have coffee with my new friend. I brought him some clean clothes. When we said goodbye, he hugged me. Through the tears he said, “It has been some time since someone treated me like a human being who needs love and affection.” Excerpted from Urs Kerber, La vida se hace camino (“Life goes ahead”), Buenos Aires: Ciudad Nueva, 2016, pp. 15–16.
Many people have continued to work after the earthquake in central Italy last year, standing by those who were affected by those who were so awfully affected by that tragedy. It was such a vast catastrophe that it tested not only the physical infrastructure, but also the very social fabric and personal resistance of an entire generation of families. The Focolare Movement has a stable organism that works in collaboration with two associations: United World Project and New Families Association, but also other groups (AIPEC, B&F Foundation, Planetary Embrace, Dialogue in Architecture and local Focolare communities in Italy). They provide expertise in channelling the aid more effectively. “Our first objective was to come up with a way of linking and knowing the different projects so that we could keep awareness high and not forget…” says Cesare Borin from the Focolare’s Emergency Aid project. The financial aid that began to arrive immediately is only one part of many other forms of aid that have solidified the assistance, which involves many people from the Movement in being close to the people who have lost everything in this dramatic event.” The project is comprised of two complimentary efforts: “RImPRESA Businesses” which consists in providing raw materials, machinery and small infrastructure to businesses and, where possible, to strengthen virtuous and ethical business processes and practices that allow for pairing with other businesses on a national level. This effort has focused on 60 small businesses in the four regions that were hit, and they are recently finishing the furnishing of 25 agricultural and handicraft businesses with equipment. The second activity: “RImPRESA GAS” promotes the purchase of products from businesses affected by the earthquake, through the creation of the Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale (GAS) that supports local tourism. Currently, there are 13 agribusinesses with a total of 90 enrolments with a total of 17,000 euros in orders. The response to the people in need was quick, like that for several families from Amatrice that had asked for a sheet metal container. In March they received 10 containers for themselves and many other families of Amatrice and the surrounding areas, at a total cost of 19,000 euros. A summer camp is being set up for the end of August in collaboration with the Italian Caritas, which will be based at Torrita di Amatrice. Activities will continue during the months of July and August with plans for a summer children’s community centre, recreational activities for teenagers from the area, and for the elderly in rehabilitation centres in Borbona. Borin concludes: “The people from these beautiful regions never ask us to rebuild their homes, but they do strongly ask that we don’t leave them all alone! Amongst the lessons learned has been the importance of never marginalising or suffocating the contribution from civil society. Alongside the competent intervention of these state agencies, we need a more vast and programmatic inclusion of social agencies and groups precisely because of their ability to make the work of institutions more efficacious also in restarting the process of production.” Contacts: emergenzaterremoto.italia@focolare.org
Entitled “Neither victims nor brigands. Changing the rules of the game”, the much awaited LoppianoLab event will be held in Loppiano from 30 September to 1 October 2017. The expo, which focuses on the economy, culture, communication, training and innovation, is promoted annually by Città Nuova, Lionello Bonfanti Industrial Park, Sophia University Institute and the international town of Loppiano. Immigration, work, poverty, social integration, fighting corruption, commitment to the common good, family, youth, education and other topics will be discussed during the 8th edition of LoppianoLab.
Established by the United Nations in 2005, with the intention of raising awareness of those who are disadvantaged, International Solidarity Day, which is celebrated on 31 August each year, reminds the international community that humanity’s innate attitude is not about hate, discrimination or indifference towards those unable to live with dignity and in freedom, but that of unconditional collaboration and support.
During the week 26 August – 2 September, in Amatrice and Borbona, the two central Italian regions badly hit by the earthquake, various initiatives will be held for children, teenages and senior citizens. These are being organised by the young people of the Focolare Movement as part of an aid program promoted by Caritas which aims to give support to the local community. 25 young organisers are expected to arrive from around Italy.
“Re”-turn, “Re”-cognize, “Re”-view, “Re”-embrace, “Re”-member. Going back to Ostiense, I have butterflies in my stomach. I look for my friends in desperation. These past months I left Rome behind with its great beauty (the kind around the train stations, that is). To console me, some have used reassuring expressions like “never mind, you’ll find the poor, the least among us, the homeless, wherever you go.”But I don’t love the poor or the least. I love Samir, Fulvio, Gian Paolo, Gabriele, Jazmin… Ladies and gentlemen, this is called friendship. Claudio treats me with the tenderness of a whisper, although he has a past that is more rough, harsh and violent than anyone. When I was an ocean away, I realized that friendship had changed him, but above all it had changed me. I talk, I listen, I sit down, and I feel truly at home. This sense of “re”-entry and “re”-turn is a bit of a taste of what they call heaven… “re”-acquired after it had been lost. I “re”-listen to their stories and absurdities. Inside myself these past months, I found some pressing questions about the sense of life paths, the paradox of decisions, disrupted plans, and trepidation about my own mission. I tend to get lost in these pretentions, but I see that my friends do not have a path, mission, choices nor even know how to tell their stories. I had become lost in all these middle-class demands, but here and now, I stop getting lost. These are my friends, and it wouldn’t be right to have something for myself that they cannot have. Ladies and gentlemen, this is friendship. As I come out of myself, out of my will, my demands, I continually ask – for them, for me – for the thread… the thread that connects everything under heaven, our stories and all the stories, in a single plan. I ask for it humbly. I “re”-embrace myself, greet myself with wet eyes and say, “Hi Paula, welcome back!”
“I had only been married a short while when my husband fell gravely ill. At the same time I discovered I was pregnant.” This is how one Nigerian woman’s story begins. Far from her own family and alone, she asked her husband’s family for help, but only found closed doors. “We lived through hell,” she said. Fortunately other doors opened soon after: those of Casa Alba. And for her, like many other young women in difficulty, a new day began. “I don’t know how I would have survived otherwise. Now, thanks to God, things have gotten better.” Casa Alba is one of the Focolare Movement’s projects in Nigeria. For many years, it was once just called a “gen house” (for “new generation”, the young people of the Focolare). Only later did Chiara Lubich propose naming it “Alba” (“dawn”), with the hope that it might become a true house for many vulnerable girls from all over Nigeria. Here many – some were living on the street – have been welcomed and learned a trade. Both sewing work (which became a course in itself) and batik (the art of dying fabric), which at first were just a way to earn some money, have become a true recovery project. Spiritual and ethical training are also integral parts of the program. In May Casa Alba celebrated its 25th anniversary at the Mariapolis Center of Onitsha – an entire weekend with a concluding mass outdoors. Four hundred people were invited, many of whom donned typical brightly colored African coloring, decorated with batik techniques. Auxiliary Bishop Denis Chidi Isizoh, celebrated the mass. “Focolare means fire,” he said during the homily. “It is the fire of encouragement, of evangelization, of love.” He described the times he had met Chiara Lubich personally, when he worked with Cardinal Arinze at the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. “A French scholar once wrote, ‘I think therefore I am.’ No African would ever say this. Africans would say ‘We are, therefore I am.’ I am a person because I belong to a community, to a group. This is what the members of the Focolare Movement tell us: when we are united like a community, that is when we find ourselves.”Let’s go back for a moment. Some time ago Elde de Souza, who directs Casa Alba, visited Bishop Denis to inform him of funding difficulties that the project was having and that activities would have to be suspended. In response, the bishop renewed his faith in the program and relaunched it. Instead of its closing, he proposed celebrating Casa Alba’s 25th anniversary in grand style. “The Focolare in Nigeria is too quiet!” he said. His proposal was too good to ignore, and the entire community mobilized. Everyone, old and young, got to work. Bishop Denis’s enthusiasm is contagious. “Nigeria is a happy place. We are happy people. Yet some are not, and are in really difficult situations. This is what life is about,” he says, concluding that we are all able to unite our sufferings to those of Jesus on the cross. At the celebration, all the Casa Alba “girls” are present. Some are teens; others are already grandmothers. The celebration is a chance to retrace paths and stories. “It changed me and my life.” “Before I had a short temper, but here I calmed down.” “It is wonderful to hear how this small seed produced so much fruit,” says Mama Regina, 83, one of the early teachers. The next day, the newspaper of the archdiocese (which has 2 million Catholics), called the anniversary “a colorful spectacular.” “The Focolare Movement has dried the tears of hopeless young people, who today live above the poverty line thanks to the skills acquired at Casa Alba.” The event was covered on radio and television, and the regional newspaper printed a call to raise funds to relaunch the project. A new day is beginning for Casa Alba as well.
Eugene: My name is Eugene, and this is my wife Ann. We have been married for almost nine years, and have two children; Erin is seven and Anica is almost five. We come from the Philippines and we are here in Italy for a year, to make an experience in the school of families in Loppiano. I am an engineer by profession, and before coming here, I was working in the supply chain department in a power generation company.Ann: I have a degree in Information Technology. When we got married, I was then working in the IT industry. I had what I could say was a successful and flourishing career, and I was going up the corporate ladder. But it was a job that demanded much from me; at a certain point, I felt that to love Eugene and to make our desire of starting a family a reality, I had to put my family above my career. We talked about it together. Around that time, the global financial meltdown was being felt. We had doubts about being able to raise a family with only one income. It was a big risk. But we felt strongly that it was what God was asking from us, and we said our yes, trusting that God would always take care of us. I left my 10-year IT career and became a housewife, and Eugene became the sole provider for our family. Soon after, we found out that we were going to have our first baby and we were very excited. Erin was born. It was a joyful an exciting moment for us. But our joy was short-lived. Two weeks later, on December 6, we had difficulty feeding her. We brought her to the hospital, and the doctor told us that she had sepsis and meningitis, which was potentially fatal. December 7 was a special day for us. We started the day renewing our ‘yes’ to God’s will, believing that everything was part of His great love for our family. Very early that morning, the doctor called to inform us that the infection was apparently at an advanced stage and that Erin was in a very critical condition. That afternoon, we had Erin’s emergency baptism at the neonatal ICU. Eugene: The next day, Erin’s pulse started to drop. She was pale and weak, and her eyes were not responding to movement and light. At once, the doctor advised us to transfer her to a better-equipped hospital, which, naturally, was also more expensive. At first, I was worried because we could not afford the rates of that hospital. But Ann helped me make a leap of faith, and we agreed to do everything for Erin and worry about the expenses later. That morning, I couldn’t accept what was happening to our family. I asked God, “WHY?” but later, entrusting everything to Him, I gave Him my ‘yes.’ In the ambulance on the way to the new hospital, I was asked to stimulate Erin by touching her and singing her favorite lullaby because her pulse was dropping. It was hard to understand why our young family had to go through all this. But we continued to believe that there was a reason for everything, even if we could not understand it at that moment. Once again, Ann and I said our ‘yes’ to His will. Arriving at the emergency room, we watched as Erin was pierced with needles, connected to tubes and surrounded by machines. We watched her go into a seizure. We could not help but cry, seeing everything that was being done to her and realizing the gravity of her illness. I was at a loss and couldn’t understand why our baby had to go through all those painful medical procedures. That day was December 8, the feast of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. We went to the hospital chapel and entrusted Erin to our Lady. Ann: The doctors told us right away that Erin’s condition was very critical, that the infection seemed to have already reached her brain and that she had meningitis. They also told us that upfront that in cases as grave as this, they had only seen two outcomes in the past—either the patient did not live, or the patient survived but with a handicap. They assured us that they would do everything they could, but that we could only hope and pray. Various tests were run on her the entire day. Again, Erin had to undergo the ordeal of being pierced many times with needles while tubes and machines were connected to her arms and feet. Transfusions were ordered for platelets, fresh frozen plasma and red blood cells. She resembled a small Jesus being crucified, suffering and helpless. It was hard to see her go through this, but we also felt how special she was to Jesus, who had chosen her, at such a tender age, to be an innocent victim like Him on the cross. There was really nothing we could do but be there for her, staying “at the foot of her cross” as Mary had done when Jesus was on the cross. Eugene: While Erin was going through physical pain, Ann and I underwent a great deal of emotional pain. Many times, Ann and I would look at each other, assuring one another of our love and unity in this suffering. Though we couldn’t understand why we had to go through this, we continued to believe that it was part of God’s great design for our baby and our family. Absurd as it was, we still believed that this suffering was the immense love of God for us. That night, Ann and I asked ourselves if we were ready for anything: for the possibility of raising a handicapped child, even for the possibility that she would not make it at all, and we would lose her. I asked God, “Are You asking me to give You even my only daughter?” Ann remembered Abraham, who continued to trust, even when he was asked to sacrifice Isaac. She also remembered Job, who remained faithful even when he had lost everything, peacefully saying, “The Lord gives, the Lord takes away.” It was not easy to accept these harsh possibilities, but together, we accepted His will, realizing in that moment that Erin was not ours; she belonged to God. Ann: We prepared ourselves for the worst. But as days passed, we found each day giving us more and more reasons to hope. Erin responded remarkably to the treatment that was given to her. Her color returned, and her skin quality improved. Her eyes started to respond again. She became more mobile. Her cranial ultrasound showed that her brain was normal despite the gravity of the infection. All other tests done on her showed normal results, without a trace of the infection. Soon, the doctors and the nurses were calling her “a miracle baby.” Day after day, she became better and stronger. We watched our little woman bravely fight to live, and as we went through the experience with her, we re-learned important things in life which we might have started to take for granted. In a way, she was teaching us to “BE” more rather than to HAVE or DO more. She was teaching us what life was all about. Eugene: It was Christmas time, and in the midst of the many uncertainties, I was reminded of what Chiara Lubich affirmed one Christmas–that God alone is the source of joy and complete happiness. I also read the Pope’s message–that Christmas is a reminder of that little family of Nazareth, a seemingly unfortunate family that had to go through a lot of difficulties when Jesus was born. As we lived the experience with Erin, it was like a real-life meditation, a constant chance to meet Jesus and choose Him again and again, sometimes on the cross, sometimes in the resurrection. We were not always strong. But what sustained us was the presence of Jesus in our midst, with the Focolare community, and also the support of our family and friends. We felt God’s concrete love through the many people who came forward to help us–practically, financially, emotionally, spiritually–and through countless others who prayed for Erin and for us. Ann: Erin stayed in the hospital for 23 days. We had many celebrations in the hospital: my birthday, Erin’s first month, and our first Christmas as a family of three. But if there was anything worth celebrating and being grateful for, it was the gift of a new life for Erin. We went home on December 29, just in time for the New Year. During her first year of life, we continued to go to different doctors for follow-up check-ups, with consistently normal results. Just before she turned one-year old, she passed her neurological evaluation with flying colors, exceeding her neurologist’s expectations. Now, Erin is seven years old, living life spiritedly with our second daughter Anica who is almost five years old. We are here in Italy for one year to make an experience in the school for families in Loppiano. Like most parents, we also have our concerns, challenges and worries about our children. But we have already entrusted them and their future to God to whom they belong in the first place. We realize that as parents, we are only stewards with a role to accompany these children as they grow up, helping them to correspond to God’s beautiful plan of love for their lives.
The World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (September 1) was instituted by the Orthodox Church in 1989. Since then, many other Christian Churches have joined the celebration, including the Catholic Church in the wake of Pope Francis’ Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ on the care of our common home. The protection and safeguarding of the environment, the care and attention given to all people and to the environment which they inhabit, with particular regard to the poor and marginalized members of society, will be the central theme of the various initiatives and joint prayer meetings that will take place in different countries.
Praying does not consist specifically in dedicating time to meditation during the day, or in reading some passages of the Holy Scriptures or the writings of saints, and in trying to think of God or of ourselves for our own interior renewal. This is not the essence of prayer. Neither is it only the recitation of the rosary or morning and evening prayers. These are certainly expressions that help us to come in contact with God and express this intimate reality, which however never coincides completely with it. At most, a person can do all this during the day and may not have even prayed for an instant. In fact, there’s a substantial difference between prayer and prayers, which I shall try to explain, starting from the prayer that is mostly unconscious, but not less essential because of this. When, at night, we look up to watch the starry sky, we see a universe of unending beauty which enchants and amazes us in its silent obedience to a law: the law of life and harmony which from the beginning created it and sustains it in every moment: This law alone testifies to the Creator. The same goes for the stars in the sky, and the plants and flowers that “know” when it is time to blossom, when to bear fruit and die. A profound rapport thus binds all living creatures to God, a relation that – I dare say – is also a profound prayer because, with their beings and their sole existence, they unconsciously recognise and follow that law, “narrating the glory.” (Psalm 18.2). But this hidden prayer finds its highest expression – because it is free and conscious – also in man. It is that prayer which arises when man, even before entering into a dialogue with God, acknowledges him as the Father who created and sustains his being, on par with the entire universe. The relationship with God therefore stands out in its reality as the vital and together healing fundament all in one. And so, a relationship which man is called to establish daily with him, or to request from him, as some masters of the spirit do, in an original interpretation of the Our Father: “Give us today our daily bread,” is the request. Prayer, in order to be such, firstly demands a relationship with Jesus: to go with him, in spirit beyond our human condition, our worries, our prayers, though beautiful and necessary, and establish this intimate relationship with him. […] Let us now see some other ways through which this relationship can develop. I shall start from a type of prayer which apparently may not seem to such, and this is the prayer of offering. This is experienced by those who, prostrated by physical or spiritual sufferings, are unable to do anything, even to speak, and who offer to God, even if for the span of just an instant, all their existence. This type of prayer may thus be considered as the deepest type, since it embeds the soul in that point where our contact with God is immediate and direct. But also work can assume the type of a prayer of offering. I am thinking particularly of those who, during the day, are overcome by physical fatigue, and are almost unable to gather the necessary energy to dedicate themselves to prayer. Well, also they, if in the morning place an intention to offer their day to God, will feel that they are living in a continual dialogue with him, and in the evening, in the silence of even a brief moment of reflection will find union with him. And in the end, this is what humanity today is particularly sensitive to, the fact that the entire universe and all that it does, can be transformed into an immense, unceasing prayer that lifts up to God. Pasquale Foresi, from “Luce che si incarna” ( “Incarnated Light ”)– Ed.Città Nuova, Rome 2014, p. 31-32-33.
Who like me, while wanting to give the best of themselves, has found it a little difficult at times? We wanted to treat the people around us well, but we spoke badly; we wanted to help, but our egoism got in the way. That’s why several of my friends and I came up with a solution. It all began with two of us who were finding it hard to always give the best of themselves, and they realized they needed to find a way to support one another’s efforts, since it’s easier to love and respect others when you know that there’s someone else on your side that’s trying to do the same. A “pact” was beginning to be born that would help each of us to be more constant with the challenge of giving the best of ourselves in our relationships with other people. But that promise didn’t end with us. In fact, they told others about it, and those people found themselves in the same predicament. At that point we took the promise too, and really put our selves into it. We even found a “sign” that would help ut remember the daily “pact” and that would support us: a wristband of white twine. We interiorized the “pact” and made it part of our life. Since it helped us so much, we decided to spread it around the city, telling everyone we knew about our experience with it. This set off a chain reaction and the news about the “pact” began to spread all over Italy. In recent months we’ve received so many pictures and expriences of people who have accepted the challenge; so now we’d like to invite everyone who would be interested to put on a white wristband and take the challenge with us. If you’d like more information, or would like to tell us about yourself , the good things that have happened when you tried to give the best of yourself in every moment, write to us at: ilpattobraccialetto@gmail.com Some of your testimonies will be published in our Teens Magazine. From: Teens online
The words Pope Francis pronounced at the 
MILONGA’s method emerges from an experience that has matured over years, and from the impact that the volunteer experience is having in a variety of settings. It is a rather unique style of social action, in which the fraternal bond among the different actors is the main key. Fraternity is also the key in motivating the encounter of the different communities in vulnerable situations, to bring about an experience of communion with the volunteers, and experience of dialogue and real intercultural exchange, in order to discover together solutions that do not come from above, but are as much as possible shared in a reciprocal way. “It’s not so easy to put into a few words what I experienced for a month at the Casa de los Niños (Children’s Home) in Cochabamba,” says an Uruguayan volunteer at an NGO in Bolivia. “After New Year’s I was headed for an adventure that I had been thinking about for some time, saving money and getting my heart ready. I wanted to go with an NGO that had the Focolare spirit, and I was surprised by the brotherhood I experienced throughout every moment.” “I got to know a social reality that is very different from the one we live,” says a young Spanish volunteer, “a very powerful reality that helped me, not so much to be aware of certain problems, because perhaps I already had some knowledge of them, but to recognize and accept the fact that beyond where we come from, how much money we have, where we live – we’re all equal and the same.”
The Park of the Nations in Córdoba, 
A summer school in the Primiero Valleys (Italy) is not a novelty. Some had taken place in the past years, thanks to the initiative of the 
Besides a profound experience with the Benedictine community of the monastery of Ampleforth, the Shomalis had deepened their knowledge of the spirituality of communion and had also met other Christians and Muslims, on the occasion of international meetings held in Rome and in 
It was in this context that a bond with the Sophia University Institute was established, especially between the Rector, Mons. Piero Coda, and Professor Shomali. With subsequent encounters and lessons offered by the professor to the students of the Institute and the inhabitants of Loppiano, and in collaboration with Rita Moussalem and Roberto Catalano, Co-Directors of the Focolare’s Centre for Interreligious Dialogue, Coda and Shomali had developed the idea of creating a common academic research project with concrete works, which was named Wings of Unity. The core of this initiative is based on the quest for unity of God and unity in God and aims to focus on the perception of God in the two traditions, and in this light, on the possibility of building a true spirit of brotherhood. The finality is to create occasions for reflection in communion between Shiite Muslims and Christians and favouring the education of young generations in interreligious dialogue. As Prof. Shomali himself summarised, in these years they have gone beyond dialogue, and have attained the same way of thinking.
The 
As Harvey’s fury fades and tears are shed for victims whose numbers are growing by the hour, the devastation left behind by the hurricane and the growing concern over contaminated water, especially in Houston, is becoming clearer and clearer within the city which is home to hundreds of large and important chemical and oil plants There is already a mixture of pesticides, waste and solvents that can do further damage to humans and the environment even after Harvey. Last September 1st there was a choral outcry for more attention and care for Creation just as Texas was emerging from the receding flood waters. It is not only the uncontrollable forces of nature that give us pause, but also our responsibility in using the goods of the earth. With regard to the risk of contamination: it has been estimated that the millions of people from Texas’s 38 counties that have been affected by Hurricane Harvey use private water sources that are not subjected to the same controls as public water systems and are at risk of contamination. “
It is time to think about the tremendous power of nature and of human responsibility to be good and wise administrators of the environment,” writes Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, known for his involvement in promoting care for the environment. “We are all called to to take part in the redemption and care of our world, working to stem the destructive force of such hurricanes through better environmental planning, or by being more seriously involved in combatting the serious problem of climate change and the way in which it interferes with our planet; or even to beomc personally involved on the field, with charitable projects that can help and support those whose lives are so drastically changed in the bat of an eye because of changes in the climate. In their joint statement on the Day of Prayer for Creation, Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew stated: We urgently appeal to those in positions of social and economic, as well as political and cultural, responsibility to hear the cry of the earth and to attend to the needs of the marginalized, but above all to respond to the plea of millions and support the consensus of the world for the healing of our wounded creation. We are convinced that there can be no sincere and enduring resolution to the challenge of the ecological crisis and climate change unless the response is concerted and collective, unless the responsibility is shared and accountable, unless we give priority to solidarity and service. 
Óbidos, on the left bank of the Amazon River, about 682 miles from the capital, Belem, is a city of almost 50,000 inhabitants. There is only one hospital, which is run by the Third Order of St. Francis and absolutely insufficient to assist the most serious cases. After an appeal of the Brazilian Conference of Bishops, for some years now a big group of doctors, nurses and common people, have undertaken journeys to bring healthcare and support to the population, especially in the river communities. The 
They were from a variety of countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Uganda, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Burkina-Faso, Madagascar, Benin and Holland. The fifty five entrepreneurs wanted to put their 30 innovative entrepreneurial projects to the test, with an international force of “mentors” (seven African, five European and one South American). The first African StartUp Lab 2017 was held last June, in the heart of the African forest in Fontem, Cameroon. It consisted of five days of learning how to practice the values of the 
The workshop began with Anouk Grevin, French member of the faculty of the Polytech University of Nantes, and of the Economy and Management course at Sophia University Institute, who presented the fundamental values of the Economy of Communion. Argentinean, Forencia Locascio, expert in social communication, explained the “elevator pitch” that helps to present one’s own entrepreneurial approach to any possible client or investor, in a clear and succinct manner, and in a shor time. French entrepreneur, Pierre Chevalier, presented a workshop on innovative ideas and project analysis, as well as the resources required. The image of an iceberg is perhaps the best way to explain all the effort, work and sacrifice that lies hidden beneath the surface of any successful entrepreneurial project. 
After describing the points of the Art of Loving, with the expressions that 
Many people have continued to work after the earthquake in central Italy last year, standing by those who were affected by those who were so awfully affected by that tragedy. It was such a vast catastrophe that it tested not only the physical infrastructure, but also the very social fabric and personal resistance of an entire generation of families. The Focolare Movement has a stable organism that works in collaboration with two associations: United World Project and New Families Association, but also other groups (AIPEC, B&F Foundation, Planetary Embrace, Dialogue in Architecture and local Focolare communities in Italy). They provide expertise in channelling the aid more effectively. “Our first objective was to come up with a way of linking and knowing the different projects so that we could keep awareness high and not forget…” says Cesare Borin from the Focolare’s Emergency Aid project. The financial aid that began to arrive immediately is only one part of many other forms of aid that have solidified the assistance, which involves many people from the Movement in being close to the people who have lost everything in this dramatic event.” The project is comprised of two complimentary efforts: 
“RImPRESA Businesses” which consists in providing raw materials, machinery and small infrastructure to businesses and, where possible, to strengthen virtuous and ethical business processes and practices that allow for pairing with other businesses on a national level. This effort has focused on 60 small businesses in the four regions that were hit, and they are recently finishing the furnishing of 25 agricultural and handicraft businesses with equipment. The second activity: “RImPRESA GAS” promotes the purchase of products from businesses affected by the earthquake, through the creation of the Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale (GAS) that supports local tourism. Currently, there are 13 agribusinesses with a total of 90 enrolments with a total of 17,000 euros in orders. The response to the people in need was quick, like that for several families from Amatrice that had asked for a sheet metal container. In March they received 10 containers for themselves and many other families of Amatrice and the surrounding areas, at a total cost of 19,000 euros. A summer camp is being set up for the end of August in collaboration with the Italian Caritas, which will be based at Torrita di Amatrice. Activities will continue during the months of July and August with plans for a summer children’s community centre, recreational activities for teenagers from the area, and for the elderly in rehabilitation centres in Borbona. Borin concludes: “The people from these beautiful regions never ask us to rebuild their homes, but they do strongly ask that we don’t leave them all alone! Amongst the lessons learned has been the importance of never marginalising or suffocating the contribution from civil society. Alongside the competent intervention of these state agencies, we need a more vast and programmatic inclusion of social agencies and groups precisely because of their ability to make the work of institutions more efficacious also in restarting the process of production.” Contacts: emergenzaterremoto.italia@focolare.org
“Re”-turn, “Re”-cognize, “Re”-view, “Re”-embrace, “Re”-member. Going back to Ostiense, I have butterflies in my stomach. I look for my friends in desperation. These past months I left Rome behind with its great beauty (the kind around the train stations, that is). To console me, some have used reassuring expressions like “never mind, you’ll find the poor, the least among us, the homeless, wherever you go.”But I don’t love the poor or the least. I love Samir, Fulvio, Gian Paolo, Gabriele, Jazmin… Ladies and gentlemen, this is called friendship. Claudio treats me with the tenderness of a whisper, although he has a past that is more rough, harsh and violent than anyone. When I was an ocean away, I realized that friendship had changed him, but above all it had changed me. I talk, I listen, I sit down, and I feel truly at home. This sense of “re”-entry and “re”-turn is a bit of a taste of what they call heaven… “re”-acquired after it had been lost. I “re”-listen to their stories and absurdities. Inside myself these past months, I found some pressing questions about the sense of life paths, the paradox of decisions, disrupted plans, and trepidation about my own mission. I tend to get lost in these pretentions, but I see that my friends do not have a path, mission, choices nor even know how to tell their stories. I had become lost in all these middle-class demands, but here and now, I stop getting lost. These are my friends, and it wouldn’t be right to have something for myself that they cannot have. Ladies and gentlemen, this is friendship. As I come out of myself, out of my will, my demands, I continually ask – for them, for me – for the thread… the thread that connects everything under heaven, our stories and all the stories, in a single plan. I ask for it humbly. I “re”-embrace myself, greet myself with wet eyes and say, “Hi Paula, welcome back!”
I had only been married a short while when my husband fell gravely ill. At the same time I discovered I was pregnant.” This is how one Nigerian woman’s story begins. Far from her own family and alone, she asked her husband’s family for help, but only found closed doors. “We lived through hell,” she said. Fortunately other doors opened soon after: those of Casa Alba. And for her, like many other young women in difficulty, a new day began. “I don’t know how I would have survived otherwise. Now, thanks to God, things have gotten better.” Casa Alba is one of the
Eugene: My name is Eugene, and this is my wife Ann. We have been married for almost nine years, and have two children; Erin is seven and Anica is almost five. We come from the Philippines and we are here in Italy for a year, to make an experience in the school of families in Loppiano. I am an engineer by profession, and before coming here, I was working in the supply chain department in a power generation company. Ann: I have a degree in Information Technology. When we got married, I was then working in the IT industry. I had what I could say was a successful and flourishing career, and I was going up the corporate ladder. But it was a job that demanded much from me; at a certain point, I felt that to love Eugene and to make our desire of starting a family a reality, I had to put my family above my career. We talked about it together. Around that time, the global financial meltdown was being felt. We had doubts about being able to raise a family with only one income. It was a big risk. But we felt strongly that it was what God was asking from us, and we said our yes, trusting that God would always take care of us. I left my 10-year IT career and became a housewife, and Eugene became the sole provider for our family. Soon after, we found out that we were going to have our first baby and we were very excited. Erin was born. It was a joyful an exciting moment for us. But our joy was short-lived. Two weeks later, on December 6, we had difficulty feeding her. We brought her to the hospital, and the doctor told us that she had sepsis a
Who like me, while wanting to give the best of themselves, has found it a little difficult at times? We wanted to treat the people around us well, but we spoke badly; we wanted to help, but our egoism got in the way. That’s why several of my friends and I came up with a solution. It all began with two of us who were finding it hard to always give the best of themselves, and they realized they needed to find a way to support one another’s efforts, since it’s easier to love and respect others when you know that there’s someone else on your side that’s trying to do the same. A “pact” was beginning to be born that would help each of us to be more constant with the challenge of giving the best of ourselves in our relationships with other people. But that promise didn’t end with us. In fact, they told others about it, and those people found themselves in the same predicament.