Living Peace International Celebrates its 10th Anniversary

Feb 4, 2022 | Non categorizzato

“Living Peace”, a peace education project promoting a culture of peace and fraternity, began in 2012. It involves more than 1,000,000 young people, teenagers and children from 130 countries around the world and is inspired by Chiara Lubich’s “Art of Loving”. On 5 February 2022 an online event on Living Peace International’s Youtube channel will celebrate its 10th anniversary. “I was teaching in an American school in Cairo, Egypt, and the idea of contributing to peace and culture developed: it seemed a way of responding to the many challenges in the Middle East.” This is how Carlos Palma, focolarino and teacher, creator of the “Living Peace” project, begins the story. The initiative started on  5 February 2012 with the aim of promoting a culture of peace, fraternity and solidarity. Today, after 10 years, this peace education pathway has developed all over the world. It is promoted by the  AMU  Association Onlus – Action for a United World, in partnership with Teens4Unity and New Humanity. More than 80 international organisations and more than 1000 schools and groups take part in it, involving more than one million children and young people. On 5 February from 2.30 pm to 4.00 pm (UTC+1) on the YouTube channel of “Living Peace International” there will be an online event translated in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian, to mark the tenth anniversary of the project.  The “Dice of Peace” lies at the heart of the “Living Peace” project.  There are no numbers on the faces of this dice but phrases that suggest ways of building peaceful relationships between all. The dice was inspired by the points of “The Art of Loving”, which Chiara Lubich had proposed to the children of the Focolare Movement many years ago.  She too used a dice to explain these ideas. “Time Out” is also offered as part of this project: at 12 noon every day, in every time zone, thousands of people take a moment to be silent, to reflect and to pray for peace. Initially, this project seemed most suited to primary schools but it soon spread to secondary schools and reached universities, youth movements, associations, foundations, prisons, religious communities and art centres, etc. What does peace education mean? The UNESCO Constitution states: “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.” Educating for peace is not just another discipline to learn, but rather it means making every educational environment an instrument of peace, a pathway that tries to develop creativity and autonomy in children in dealing with problems and conflicts and learning to dialogue. Educating for peace, therefore, means promoting concrete actions for peace and reconciliation, starting from schools and reaching as many educational environments as possible. “In 2013 I was appointed ambassador for peace by the Universal Circle of Ambassadors for Peace in France and Switzerland,” says Carlos Palma. “Two years later the idea emerged to also appoint young ambassadors for peace ranging from 6 to 25 years old. Today there are 600 young ambassadors in the world who carry the ‘Dice of Peace”’ everywhere.  They are  protagonists of the most varied activities in many different areas. This project has also become a subject of study in some universities. Thanks to the young ambassadors, the ‘Dice of Peace’ has been created in braille for the participants who are blind.  In addition,  they have devised the” Peace Got Talent”  programme which takes its cue from the television series known in various parts of the world.  This gives space to young talented people to promote peace. Then came the pandemic. But in spite of this,” concludes Carlos Palma, “young people have continued and continue in a thousand ways, through the web and social networks, to promote peace and fraternity.” For more information, see this link.

Lorenzo Russo

Chiara Lubich: Unity

Jan 31, 2022 | Non categorizzato

On this occasion we dwell on the fundamental cornerstone of the Spirituality of Unity. Chiara Lubich shows us the way to obtain the grace of unity from the Father. (…) This cornerstone, which is typically ours, implies “something more” than is usually required of the more individual spiritualities, at least as they develop. The “something more”, as we know, is reciprocity and unity. Unity. What is unity? Is it possible to achieve unity? Unity is what God wants from us. Unity is the fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer: “May all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us “ (Jn. 17:21). But unity cannot be achieved through our own efforts. It can be achieved only through a special grace which the Father grants if He finds us prepared, in accordance with a precise and necessary requirement. It is mutual love, put into practice, as Jesus’ commanded… his mutual love, what he wants of us. It is not – as we know – simply spiritual friendship, agreement or mutual understanding. It means loving one another as He loved us, to the point of forsakenness: to the point of complete material and spiritual detachment from people and from things, so that we can make ourselves one reciprocally and perfectly. By doing so, we will have done our part and fulfil the conditions for receiving the grace of unity, which will not be missing, which must not be missing. … (…) We must remember that there is an added grace in our communitarian spirituality; that heaven can open up for us in every moment. If we do what our spirituality asks of us, we’ll be filled with this grace, and can do much, very much for the kingdom of God. … (…) During the next month, let us make every effort to obtain this gift always! And let us not seek it only for our own happiness, but to carry out our characteristic evangelization. You know it: “That they may be one so that the world may believe” (Jn. 17:21). The world needs faith, it needs to believe! And we are all called to evangelize. (…) May whoever observes two or more of us united (in the focolares, in the nuclei, in the units, in our meetings, or because we are together for any reason) be struck by a ray of our faith, and believe. May they believe in love because they have seen it. Let’s do this. It’s what the Lord wants from us. He wants it through our charism which has been engraved in our statutes: unity is the premise that comes before every other will of God.

Chiara Lubich

(Chiara Lubich, Conversazioni, Cittá Nuova, 2019, p. 523-524) https://youtu.be/YEth9TWpKUY

World Gen Day: Together for a greater good

Jan 28, 2022 | Non categorizzato

The Gen, the young people of the Focolare Movement, aim to reach holiness. They are young people like all the others: with their joys, pains, dreams, difficulties. But they know that such a lofty goal is not achieved overnight. It is built moment by moment and not alone, but together. This expressed this through testimonies of life, songs and stories on Sunday 19^th December 2021, in a World Day during which they met virtually for over two hours. Margaret Karram, President of the Focolare, greeted them and invited them to build true, profound relationships with everyone, stopping in front of others to meet them in the “here and now”. Let’s hear what they had to say, through this selection of experiences of life from the day. Unity in diversity The Republic of Indonesia recognizes several official religions: Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and traditional beliefs. The largest population is the Muslim one. This diversity makes interreligious dialogue an experience of everyday life. I am studying for a Masters in Pharmaceutical Sciences. At the university I have many friends from different islands, belonging to different religions. Some of them are very close to me, they are like my sisters. I am a Catholic Christian, the friend next to me is a Hindu and others are Muslims. During the month of Ramadan, I often accompany the Muslims to break their fast. Once I invited them to break it together in the Focolare. They felt very much loved. After the meeting, one of them wrote on his Instagram profile: “We don’t have the same background, religion, age and we don’t even come from the same country, but we have a dream: to build a better home for everyone, to hope and pray for a prosperous future. We long for a universal world, as our country’s motto says “Bhineka Tunggal Ika” – “Unity in diversity”. I live in a boarding house where most of the girls are Muslim. At first they were afraid of me, because I seemed very serious and most of them had never lived with non-Muslim people. One day I had a lot of cakes and I thought I could share them with them. The relationship between us is growing. We cook, eat, and play sports and games together. Our experience of living together has broadened our horizon and this makes us happy. Tika (Indonesia) Love beyond our strength My sister studies architecture. She had been dedicating herself to work her degree for three months, even working through the night. She had to present a project on the city: prepare the presentation documentation and the models. Junior students usually help senior ones, but due to COVID-19, my sister had to do it all by herself. At one point she asked our Mum and I for help. I happily replied: “Okay! I’ll help you!” However, I thought: “Really, I have enough to do with my own homework at the moment” and I wondered “Was it a good idea to say I would help her? It’s an important assignment for her degree, would I be able to do it right? Wouldn’t it be better to have someone who knows the subject?” However, seeing my sister in need, I thought, “If I finish my homework early, I can help her.” So, every evening I wholeheartedly helped her with her project, as if it was mine. In the end she was able to hand in the work, finished on time and was successful. She thanked me very much and was happy that this work was completed not only by her, but with everyone’s strength. However, seeing my sister in trouble, I thought, “If I finish my homework early, I can help her.” So, every evening I helped her with all of her heart in her homework, as if they were mine. In the end she was able to deliver the work, finished on time, with success. She thanked me very much and was happy that this work was completed not only by her, but with our contribution too. It would be a lie to say that when I helped my sister I was always loving one hundred percent, not complaining, but I don’t regret doing it, in my heart I felt light and happy. Also, inside me, there was a little joy. I remembered a phrase from the Gospel that says: “Whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him”, and I thought: “Perhaps God has taken up his abode in me?” Rosa (Korea) Between war and hope I study computer engineering. Ever since I was a child, I’ve tried to live the spirituality of the Focolare. For a while however, I felt far away from Jesus and Mary. I was wondering where God is and why He allows the difficulties that we have here in Syria, such as the lack of electricity, high prices and the difficult economic situation. Also, all of this had an effect on my relationship with others. I recently went to London for a month to visit my sisters and there I took part in a weekend with the Gen, the young people of the Focolare. This experience helped me to find answers and to rediscover myself by living the spirituality of unity. I will never forget the love I found among the Gen, a love that filled my heart … it was as if we had known each other for a long time. This experience impressed me a lot and as a result I felt that something was beginning to change within me. As soon as I returned to Syria there was also a Gen congress in which I took part. Due to the difficult situations of the war, it was the first time in 10 years that we were able to meet. It was a rich experience characterized by mutual love and lived as if we were all one family. Inner peace was growing in me day by day. The experiences of the two weekends with the Gen and the people I met, left a mark in my heart and helped me to once again be that positive person who looks forward with courage. There are times when, due to the pressures of life, we lose hope … as if it is the end of the world and there is nothing left. However, if we experience God, with his grace, He allows us to return to him and we discover that the difficult things we experienced were like our little participation in the sufferings of Jesus on the cross. We realize that our pains are small in the face of the sufferings he experienced to redeem us. One thing I want to say is that when we experience painful moments in life, which seem to have no end, they can turn into light, but it is up to us to ask for God’s help in prayer. He is always ready to help us and with great hope we can start over and have an ever stronger relationship with him. Paolo (Aleppo, Syria) Meeting those who suffer most After the earthquake two years ago in Croatia, we decided to take action by going to the places of the epicentre. When we asked the Parish Priest of Sisak how we could best be of help, he surprised us by asking us to collaborate with him to prepare a group of Romany children for their first communion. We agreed to go every week for a few months to the village of Capranske Poljane, where Muslim and Christian (Orthodox and Catholics) Romany people live. We held catechism classes with sketches and games with them.  From this meeting, beautiful relationships began that continue and grow even today. Through the focolarini we also met and visited a family in Petrinja, in a very difficult situation (both due to the earthquake and the socio-economic reality in which they find themselves). With the aid of the Caritas organization, we were able to buy material and tools both to repair their house and to help them get back to work. They found Hope again! During a meeting with the Gen, inspired by the example of so many around the world, I felt that I had to take a step to get out of my comfort zone. I wanted to “take to the streets” to try to love others as myself. One day we went to Sisak to talk to the Parish Priest about how to go forward with the Romany people and then we visited this family from Petrinja and brought them various basic necessities. We saw how they had used the money we had raised to fix up their living room which is now really cosy! We also brought a laptop so that the children could follow school online. I felt very much at home. There was a lovely family atmosphere. Even though I hadn’t done anything concrete for their situation up to that point, I gave what I could: myself with my good will and some of my time. I am grateful to God who gave me this opportunity to love and I want to continue to love because I have found the hundredfold of joy that I want to share with others and now I’m sharing it with you. Thiana and Peter (Croatia)

A soulmate beyond the wall

Jan 27, 2022 | Non categorizzato

A meeting capable of overcoming great obstacles; a leap in love bringing two people together and generating unity. Bella Gal, a Jew living near Tel Aviv, talks about her special friendship with E., a Palestinian Christian. A few years ago I had a really interesting and profound encounter with a Palestinian woman, a Christian, a university lecturer, at a conference in Jerusalem where she was giving a talk. Her name is E. She brought up her children alone while her husband was in an Israeli prison for 10 years. He was released due to health problems and sadly died shortly afterwards. Although she was suffering, E. never gave up on life and educated her children who are now professionals, each in their own area of expertise. Her talk was very interesting but also very sad. At the end of the speech, I left the room without waiting for the question and answer session. I could not bear to hear her story. It reminded me of my own suffering, my early childhood and my parents who died during the Holocaust. Maybe it was very selfish of me but E. gave me a very important example and lesson in “making every encounter worthwhile”. After leaving the hall, I sat down in the cafeteria. Suddenly I felt someone put their hand on my shoulder. It was E. who said to me: “I saw you at my lecture, and I also saw you leave at the end. Did something happen? Did I offend you?” Although E. had every reason to be hostile towards me, we approached each other with great compassion, realising that we had both suffered but had found our inner strength, picked up the pieces and embraced the situation. As we finished sharing and crying, E. and I immediately felt connected, and a great love and appreciation for one another. We were able to unite deeply as women and see beyond our country’s differences. Over the years, E. has also held important political offices which is a major and historic achievement for a Christian woman living in that context. Today, I can truly say that E. is my soulmate beyond the wall.

Bella Gal

An in-depth study on unity

Jan 25, 2022 | Non categorizzato

Lately, Città Nuova published the book “L’unità. Uno sguardo dal Paradiso’49 di Chiara Lubich”. It is edited by Stefan Tobler and Judith Povilus, and soon it will be published in other languages. This in-depth study, to which many contributed, will help one understand the meaning of unity, the core of the Focolare spirituality. “Unity is our specific vocation”[1]; “So, our ideal is unity and not any other”[2]. Chiara Lubich had a very clear idea about the mission of the Movement she gave life to. If “unity is the specific characteristic of the Focolare Movement”[3], then it is called to question itself on its patrimony and on how to develop it with creativity and faithfulness. How can the Focolare communities, the nuclei,  the “Word of Life” groups live unity today? How can they walk bravely and freely on a road that avoids authoritarianism and individualism,  and  allows full development of personal gifts and the pursuit of common goals? How can they walk along the difficult path of communion, that needs to safeguard its legitimate autonomy and search for identity and acceptance, integration and openness to diversity? This subject concerns the entire Work of Mary, but Chiara Lubich’s legacy is much broader: unity concerns the ecclesial world and also relationships between people of different religions, cultures, nations… The Work of Mary at the Centre  entrusted the Abbà School with a study about all this. The members of the Abbà School, who have worked on this theme for quite some time started from Chiara Lubich’s experience during the years 1949-1951. And this is what gave birth to the book“L’unità. Uno sguardo dal Paradiso’49 di Chiara Lubich” . The book is divided into three parts. “Foundations”,  the first section offers a general outlook on unity from a biblical, theological and spiritual point of view.  Chiara’s writings are marked by their profoundness and vividness. They show the divine ‘logic’ of a God, whose ‘interior’ ‘is not to be thought of as a whole in which differences disappear, but on the contrary: God is One precisely because he is infinite multiplicity’, a dynamic reflected in creation. As Chiara wrote, the Father “says ‘Love’ in infinite tones”, to show the extraordinary richness through which He manifests his infinite love. The second part of the book presents texts from Paradise ’49 that highlight fundamental intuitions on unity, thus shedding light on writings or practices that the wear of time or inactive repetition may have rendered incomprehensible or unacceptable. Does the life of unity require the annulling of one’s own personality, or does it require the “unreserved gift of self following the logic of God’s life that leads one to ‘run the risk’ of ‘losing’ one’s own life”? What does to live “in the manner of the Trinity” mean? Does unity imply putting everyone on the same level or is it rather the manifestation of plurality? Inexact understanding of expressions such as “losing”, “dying”, “annulling oneself” that can lead to misunderstandings and derivations are addressed with clarity, and the fruitfulness of a demanding, total love that leads to full self-realisation is highlighted.  Chiara affirms “that each one of us has a distinct, unmistakable personality”, which is “the word God pronounced when he created us”. So, unity appears dynamic, constantly evolving, creative; it emerges as something that needs everyone’s input, and that respects one and all. Hence, Chiara’s unique and unrepeatable contribution, as a foundress and an instrument of the charism, is apprehended. The third part of the book speaks about different disciplines that get inspirations relevant to their specific fields from the writings of Paradise ’49. This last part is the one that required more methodological attention. Since the language of Paradise ’49 is predominantly religious in nature, the question arose of how to write a transdisciplinary book around a multi-semantic word – unity – without the risk of speaking about different things and confusing languages. If a Movement and a spirituality that define themselves “of unity” gave rise to social realities and academic contributions in the most diverse fields, this means that there is a common denominator, a starting point and a stable foundation that makes it possible for everyone to recognise a common horizon in unity, even though they work in different fields and express themselves in the specific language of their own discipline. One traces only a few intuitive points in certain fields of social life and thought that will require further development. This book is the fruit of a gradual process of work carried out by the Abbà School. It began around 2017, and for more than two years, Paradise ’49 was read in the light of this specific theme. The twelve contributions are signed by the respective authors, who retained their own specific style, expertise and methodology. At the same time, it is the fruit of  communion lived  by the whole group; a way of working that  requires an exercise in “unity” – in keeping with the theme itself! It has not always been easy to welcome and understand the other in his or her diversity, due to the fact that the authors come from different countries, have different scientific backgrounds and specific disciplinary and methodological fields. The book limits itself to only some of the pages of Paradise ’49. Therefore, one cannot claim that it exhausts such a vast and demanding theme, though thanks to the depth of the reference texts, it offers a great wealth of insights and proposals.

Fabio Cardi

[1] Unity and Jesus Forsaken, Città Nuova, Rome 1984, p. 26. [2] Ibid., p. 43. [3] Ibid.,  p. 26                                                                                                                                             

Publication of the report on former French focolarino JMM postponed

Jan 24, 2022 | Non categorizzato

GCPS Consulting announced in November that it would postpone the release of the results of its independent investigation until the first quarter of 2022.   The investigation into the sexual abuse perpetrated by J.M.M., a former French consecrated member of the Focolare Movement, is taking longer than expected. This was announced in a statement last November by GCPS Consulting, the specialised consultancy firm to which the Movement entrusted the independent investigation. “The information-gathering process is continuing well beyond the planned timetable,” the statement says, “and the Commission is planning interviews with key people within the Focolare (…) also as part of a review of safeguarding arrangements. On a positive note, this shows that the process is thorough and complete (…). We aim to publish it as soon as possible in the first quarter of 2022.” Expressing regret for the delay, the appointed Commission hopes that “all interested parties understand that the scope of the work has been expanded and that the aim is to fully reflect the voices of all those who have provided evidence and other information to the Commission”.

Stefania Tanesini

Chiara Lubich: go against the flow

Jan 24, 2022 | Non categorizzato

The Word of Life for January 2022 says that the Magi arrived in Bethlehem following the star to pay homage to the Child Jesus. Today we too can pay homage to the Lord by our life choices, as Chiara Lubich suggests in this passage. You are in the world. Everyone can see that. But you are not of the world. This implies a big difference. It classifies you among those who do not nourish themselves on the things of the world, but on what you hear from the voice of God who dwells within you. The voice of God is in the heart of each person, and it leads those who listen to it into a kingdom that is not of this world. It is kingdom where true love is lived, together with justice, purity, meekness, poverty and self-control. (…) Christian life is not calm and comfortable. Christ did not, and does not, ask anything less of you if you want to follow him. The world comes at you like a river in flood and you have to go against the flow. For a Christian, the world is like a thick forest where you need to watch where you put your feet. But do you know where to put them? In the footprints that Christ himself marked out for you when he lived on earth, which are his words.

Chiara Lubich

(Chiara Lubich, in Parole di Vita, [Words of Life] a cura di Fabio Ciardi, Cittá Nuova, 2017, pp 110-112)

Mexico: Virtual Visits to Christian Communities

Jan 20, 2022 | Non categorizzato

While the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2022 is celebrated in the Northern Hemisphere from 18^th-25^th January, it also takes place elsewhere in the world at different times. Here is the story of an ecumenical project, “Virtual Visits to Christian Communities”, which started a year ago in Mexico to promote unity between the different Churches. “Mexico is a country with a Catholic majority. Through living the spirituality of unity, we have discovered a yearning for Christian unity and for several years we have been building beautiful ecumenical relations”. These are the words of Dolores Lonngi, wife of Pablo, both volunteers in the Focolare Movement who have been looking after the ecumenical dialogue of the Movement in Mexico for years. Together with their daughter Ursula, a focolarina, last February, they launched the project “Virtual visits to Christian communities” with the aim of extending ecumenism beyond the ‘Week of Prayer for Unity’ and starting a journey of fraternity and communion of experiences. From the beginning, the objectives of this project were getting to know how each tradition lives and expresses its faith in the society in which it is immersed and identifying ways to collaborate for the good of the whole of society. Ursula, how did these virtual visits take place and where did you start from? “To carry out the project, we set up a Central Commission, made up of the Ecumenical Officer for the Anglican Church of Mexico and President of the Country’s Interreligious Council, the Secretary of the Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue Commission of the Mexican Episcopal Conference, a teacher of “Ecumenical Theology” at the Pontifical University of Mexico and one of Ecumenism at the Anahuac University of the city of Querétaro, a priest of the Confraternity of Ecumenical Missionaries and ourselves. The first visit was to the Anglican Church and then we moved on to the Eastern Catholic Churches. They all shared real “pearls” with us: history, ministries, the witness of faith and charity of young people and adults. There were various Anglican priests and the Anglican Bishop Emeritus of Uruguay, Mgr. Miguel Tamayo, who spoke of the meetings of Bishops of various Churches promoted by the Focolare Movement. In each of our “virtual visits” we had a moment of dialogue in small groups, which gave us the opportunity to get to know each other better and to build friendships with people from different Churches “. Pablo, what were the highlights and what kind of turnout was there? “In the program of the year there was a moment of prayer on the occasion of Pentecost (the period in which in the southern hemisphere we celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity) and another seven Virtual Visits to different Churches, the last Thursday of each month, as well as an ecumenical festival of biblical readings and songs at the beginning of Advent. In order to disseminate the initiative on social media and with the aim of generating an ecumenical community, we opened WhatsApp, Telegram and Facebook channels, which in the first months of the project reached more than 10,500 people from Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, USA, as well as several cities of Mexico. Dolores, what’s your impression of this experience? “We were surprised by the great response that this initiative had and we are happy to have contributed in our small way to the growth of the spirit of unity in and among our Churches. We realize that in this way we can realize what the Second Vatican Council already proposed in n.5 of the Unitatis Redintegratio: “The attainment of union is the concern of the whole Church, faithful and shepherds alike. This concern extends to everyone, according to his talent, whether it be exercised in his daily Christian life or in his theological and historical research. This concern itself reveals already to some extent the bond of brotherhood between all Christians and it helps toward that full and perfect unity which God in His kindness wills”.

Maria Grazia Berretta