Oct 19, 2021 | Non categorizzato
Signing a blank cheque, making a leap in the dark … trusting in God can often appear just too big a challenge to us and we don’t find the courage or strength to try. By recognising how small we are, asking help and allowing someone to take care of us with tenderness, we can find a way to recognise the providential Love of a Father who will never abandon us. And we in turn can circulate this love in the world. Sharing Our house was half-destroyed by an earthquake, so my children and I were sleeping out in the open air and we had next to nothing to eat. One morning I had literally nothing to cook, but placing my trust in God who is our Father, I set a pot of water on the fire. Just as it was about to boil, someone arrived carrying a bag full of fruit and vegetables. No sooner had I started to cook soup than another friend knocked at the door bringing us some meat and a little rice! When my children came home from school they couldn’t believe it and asked, “What’s happened, Mum? You told us there wouldn’t be anything to eat today”. So I told the whole story to them, and even though they claim not to believe in God any more, they heard how my prayers had been answered. However, it didn’t end there. After lunch, I felt drawn to ask Jesus to send me someone in need so I could share the food we’d received with them. The very next day I met a young man who asked me if I could give him a piece of bread. I welcomed him with love, and even if he was anxious not to abuse our hospitality because he could see how poor we were, I made him sit down at our table and I served lunch to him. (Lusby – Colombia) A circuit of Love Arriving at university one day, I bumped into an old man dressed in rags, nearly blind, covered in open wounds because he kept falling over. And he was so dirty. In him, I saw the image of Christ on the cross. I helped him up and asked if he’d like to take a bath. I went into the university compound and somehow found the courage to ask the Rector, a devout Muslim, for permission to use his own personal bathroom because it was the only one with a bathtub, so that the old man could take a bath with my assistance. He was certainly surprized by my request! But he not only agreed but also personally provided the old man with soap. I then escorted the old man to his home, bought him some food and gave his room a much-needed clean up. The next day the Rector called me to his office to explain my motivation for what I had done. I told him how the choice to love our neighbour united millions of people of all religions. He was very interested in getting to know more, and he gave a contribution to buy some essentials for the old man. That’s not all. Some of my fellow students who had witnessed the whole scene put some money together to buy new clothes for him. (Bassam – Iraq) Three cows For a while I’ve been helping a boy from a poor family I’d met during our mission to the Kakuma refugee camp in the north east of Kenya, paying his school fees. Sadly the moment arrived when I couldn’t sustain this help anymore and I told him of my own financial difficulties. A little while later this same boy appealed to me again for help, which made me suffer even more because I couldn’t help him. So I took the decision to sell the one cow I was keeping at my parents’ house and use the money for his schooling. Naturally he was delighted to get back to school. One day in the parish I’ve been serving for nearly a year, a group of parishioners arrived to visit me because they’d heard my father was unwell. Among the gifts they brought were not one but three cows! I couldn’t believe my eyes. I thought of the promise of the Gospel: “a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. (Father David – Kenya)
collated by Maria Grazia Berretta
(from Il Vangelo del Giorno, Città Nuova, anno VII, n.4, settembre-ottobre 2021)
Oct 18, 2021 | Non categorizzato
“We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God”, (Rom. 8:28) is the word of life that we are trying to put into practice during this month of October 2021. In this text, Chiara Lubich helps us understand better what St Paul was writing to the Romans. God makes all things work together for those who love Him. … So things don’t work together for the good of everyone, but only for those who love God and respond to his love. God’s love for each of us is not something generic, but is instead deeply personal and special. He makes all things work for the good – that is, for salvation, true happiness and spiritual progress – of those who love him. Everything. So it is not only the Words of God or the sacraments, or the various ministries and other means he has established in the Church that work for our spiritual good. They obviously do. The Apostle clearly means something more. For those who believe in the love of God, and love him, the many circumstance that influence our existence are not simply a matter of chance, nor the result of the blind laws of nature, nor of human planning. Rather they are guided by his love; they are the many opportunities and means that God uses to bring to completion the work of our sanctification. God hides behind all the events of our lives. He is hidden, for example, behind a particular state of health, or a setback, or a sudden change of plan due to circumstances. He hides behind the particular conditions of our state in life, or a sudden spiritual trial, or a problem of any kind at work. He’s behind the fact that we happen to be in a particular place or with a particular person. For those who love God, everything, even the faults of our past life, acquires a positive meaning, because in all these circumstances we experience the love of God who wants to guide us towards holiness. … Above all, we should never stop before the merely external, material or secular aspect of things, but believe instead that every event contains a message through which God expresses his love for us. We will then discover that our life, which may seem to us like a piece of material full of knots and threads woven together in a haphazard way, is actually a marvellous design that God’s love is weaving on the basis of our faith. Secondly, we must trustingly and totally abandon ourselves to this love at all times, both in small and large things that happen in life. Indeed, if we know how to entrust ourselves to God’s love in ordinary circumstances, he will give us the strength to entrust ourselves to him even in the most difficult moments, such as when we suffer or experience illness, or at the very moment of death.
Chiara Lubich
(Chiara Lubich, in Parole di Vita, [Words of Life] edited by Fabio Ciardi, Opere di Chiara Lubich, Città Nuova, 2017, p. 297)
Oct 16, 2021 | Non categorizzato
Just days before “Time of Creation” closes, some reflections and experiences on the contribution that we as citizens of the world belonging to different religions can offer for the protection of our planet and humanity, seeing creation as a point of encounter. Like “a sister, with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us “. These are the words with which the Holy Father, in describing our planet, introduces us to his Apostolic Exhortation Laudato Si. The Pope’s appeal is addressed to “all people of good will” and to believers of all faiths: “The majority of people living on our planet profess to be believers. This should spur religions to dialogue among themselves for the sake of protecting nature, defending the poor and building networks of respect and fraternity”.[1] Our home is in danger and the gravity of the ecological crisis we are experiencing requires a way forward for the common good. Digging deep, right to the essence of each faith is the way to discover, with wonder, that we are united in creation. It is the way to rediscover in the beauty of diversity that we are brothers and sisters living under the same roof. “Judaism teaches that we are God’s partners in creation,” explained Emily Soloff, Associate Director for Interfaith and Intergroup Relations at the American Jewish Committee. “We do not own creation,” she continued, “but we have a responsibility to care for and heal the world. (…) Shabbat is one day in the week when we intentionally reduce our energy consumption by completely turning off our computers, phones and other electronic devices. We don’t drive a car or shop on Shabbat. It is a day of rest.” Modernisation has gradually distanced us from seeing the earth as a manifestation of the divine, allowing man to triumph over nature. Mostafa El-Diwany, a Muslim doctor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Montreal in Canada said: “In Islam, as in the other Abrahamic faiths, the axis of being is the Unity of God; the Creator is the source of everything that exists (…). As such, every living organism and matter itself are imbued with the Sacred, and are consequently sacred. This notion in no way hinders the objective study of the physical world and humanity within it. (…) God has given men and women dignity over the rest of His creation by entrusting him with vicegerency. This is not a role that involves domination and exploitation but a position of responsibility (…)”. What appears to be an environmental crisis could therefore be seen as a spiritual crisis, an inability to reconnect with the divine and live in harmony with nature. Restoring order with creation “is at the heart of Buddhist precepts,” said Wasan Jompakdee, Co-founder Member and former Secretary General of the Dhammanaat Foundation for Conservation and Rural Development in Thailand. Recalling the work undertaken by Phra Ajahn Pongsak Techadhammo, founding monk, he said: “About thirty years ago he began to observe the disappearance of trees and soil in the mountains of northern Thailand. The high altitude reservoirs that fed the streams and rivers below were being damaged, causing the rivers to slowly dry up. (…) He took a radical step to reverse desertification, mobilising villagers to regenerate their barren land and restore the reservoirs. (…) Today, the arid yellow wastelands he protected are once again green with fruit trees. It is the logic of compassion for what surrounds us, for the space that has been given to us and that we must share. According to Hinduism, “nature,” said Meenal Katarnikar, a member of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Mumbai, “belongs to everyone, animals, people, gods and plants, and loves everyone equally. “In India,” he continues, “the rhymes of our childhood reflect our friendship with animals like cows, sparrows and crows. Every morsel with which the mother feeds the child is associated with ‘brother sparrow’ or ‘dear crow’, or ‘brother peacock'”. This brotherhood, so reminiscent of St Francis of Assisi’s “Canticle of the Creatures”, is only possible if we rediscover ourselves to be madly in love with creation. An impetus that concerns everyone without distinction, also in the Christian sphere where there are various Churches. Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I at the Halki Summit (Turkey) in 2012 said: “We Christians are called to accept the world as a sacrament of communion, as a way of sharing with God and neighbour on a global scale. It is our humble conviction that the divine and the human meet in the smallest detail of the seamless garment of God’s creation, even in the last speck of dust on our planet”[2].
Maria Grazia Berretta
[1] Pope Francis, Encyclical Laudato sì, 201. [2] Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, Speech Global Responsibility and Ecological Sustainability: Closing Remarks, I Halki Summit, Istanbul, Turkey, 20 June 2012
Oct 15, 2021 | Non categorizzato
The project to defeat world hunger which was initiated by the Focolare Movement’s Youth for Unity is continuing. On Saturday 16 October 2021, hundreds of young people will gather together as a sign of their commitment to this cause. This event will be live streamed from 2.30 pm to 4.00 pm. (Italian time). “From now onwards, we commit ourselves to this goal with great confidence and enthusiasm. We feel that we are now part of the Zero Hunger generation. It’s like a dream to imagine that we are contributing to a world in which there will be no hunger in a few years time.” This is what Elena and Agnese, representatives of the Focolare Movement’s Youth for Unity said at the Food and Agriculture Organisation in June 2018. Elena and Agnese together with 630 other girls aged 9 to 14 from 16 countries sat in the large plenary hall (see video) of the headquarters of the United Nation’s FAO in Rome, Italy. The FAO had sent a very clear invitation to the Youth for Unity: “Young people, we need you: help us defeat world hunger.” On 25 September 2015, the 193 Member States of the United Nations approved 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and committed to their implementation within 15 years, (2015-2030). The second goal is Zero Hunger Fame Zero: eradicating hunger from our planet. These girls signed cards, pledging their commitment to become the first Zero Hunger citizens. That day marked the start of a global race of love from Youth for Unity with the objective of Zero Hunger. In Venezuela, for example, the situation is daunting. Poor families are more afraid of hunger than of the Covid 19 pandemic. However, thanks to a Centre for Nutrition, the young people are able to help a group of families. Also, in 2017, a network of medical professionals, psychologists, nutritionists and a number of parish priests began a project to help others to build more positive and peaceful social relationships based on the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” A different initiative is happening in Thailand where young people distribute seeds to friends and their families to plant organic vegetables and help them save money as we suffer from this global crisis. In Argentina, Fran is part of a group called ‘Corazones solidarios’, young university students who go out onto the streets every day to offer breakfast to people who are homeless. He says, “When you approach these people, their faces change, they welcome you with open arms and make a place for you in their hearts. Every morning, we leave home with bags that are full of provisions: we come back with empty flasks and happy hearts.” In Portugal, the boys from Lisbon go to a neighbourhood where there are many families who are living in difficult and challenging circumstances. A “race of love” began to provide blankets and tinned food. Some people also offered to cook pasta and rice. As soon as this was delivered, providence arrived with more food to distribute to other families. These and other testimonies will be recounted during the live streaming – suitable for children, young people and adults – on Saturday 16 October 2021 from 2.30 pm to 4.00 pm.(Italian time). The live stream will be translated into 12 languages, just access this link. The #testacuoremani charter of commitment Youth for Unity have devised eight pathways to help others learn about this way of life. These pathways can be lived by individuals or groups. There is also a charter of commitment – to use head, hands and heart – to actively promote this way of life. Head. We use our heads to study and become well informed. The more I know about the reality in which poor people are living, the more effective my commitment will be. Heart. Let us listen with our hearts to the cry of those who suffer: let us increase awareness both in ourselves and in others. I cannot defeat world hunger alone, but I can involve as many people as possible in order to reach this goal. Hands. Let us open our hands to the gift of hospitality, let us take concrete action on a daily basis to defeat hunger. Let us commit ourselves to avoiding all types of waste.
Lorenzo Russo
Oct 14, 2021 | Non categorizzato
A guarantee of love.The certainty that everything in life makes sense. In this sentence from the letter to the Romans (Rom. 8:28), Saint Paul, reveals to us how much every human experience, from the most beautiful to the most complicated, is part of a greater plan, a plan of salvation. The key to accepting this idea is to entrust ourselves to the Father and trust him. The road to happiness I played the violin on the street, not to make money, but because I had realized, playing during the holidays, that it makes people happy. So why not broaden the circle? One day a lady who from her dress, even though’ respectable, looked very poor, listened to me for a long time, apologizing for not being able to put even a coin in my violin case. She was shy when I suggested that she take what she needed, but in the end she accepted some coins: “I’ll buy bread”, she said and left in tears. The next day I played on the same street but put up a sign: “For those in need”. Many took a few coins, but many left banknotes. As I was about to leave, the lady who had given me the idea appeared. I told her what had happened and that if she would accept it, the sum raised was for her. She told me about the financial turmoil that had reduced her family to poverty. Then I met her sick husband and an unemployed daughter who is now my wife. Making others happy is the way to happiness. (O.A. – France) Trust in God On the occasion of the baptisms of our daughters, we usually had very simple parties, wasting nothing, welcoming friends and relatives to our home. Since we always received money as a gift, we allocated a part for a project in favor of newborn babies in an African country. I remember the baptism of our third child: at that time both my wife and I were out of work so it was difficult to decide whether or not to send the money we received (250 euros). Then we trusted in God and sent it. A few months later we heard that they had prayed for that very amount; moreover, that money, which arrived just when they no longer had anything to breastfeed babies, was enough for three months … We were very moved! At that time, not only did we lack for nothing, but my wife, who needed some clothes just then, received a gift of a coat, a dress, a jacket, two skirts and three times as much money! (D.P. – Italy) Memory of a friend A characteristic of my friend Urs was his strong communication skills: with a smile and with stimulating words, he shared personal experiences of his relationship with God. At work, on the train, in a hospital room, during sports or on vacation … every opportunity was good to establish relationships that were not superficial. Many remember his ability to listen, to be close to people, especially to those who suffer. He was an animator in Zurich, of a group of young people involved in an initiative in favour of drug addicts. Thanks to him over 30 of them have recovered and several have approached a life of faith. At the end of his life, when suffering due to a cancer, Urs did not let himself be discouraged. He repeated, “Everything is the love of God, everything, absolutely everything”. And despite such an uncertain future, he was calm and confident. He had two other friends in the same condition and they supported one another. He said: “I have given everything to God without ifs and buts… and he has fulfilled his promises in me: the hundredfold already on earth. I am happy”. These words sum up what he meant to us. (F. – Switzerland)
compiled by Maria Grazia Berretta
(Taken from Il Vangelo del Giorno, Città Nuova, year VII, n.4, September-October 2021)
Oct 12, 2021 | Non categorizzato
Although this father could finally afford to buy a house for his family, he did not have the physical ability or financial resources to renovate it himself. The community around him acted. 
“Many people came to help me, and in three days we were able to redo the roof and replace the earth and straw ceilings with plasterboard ones.” These are the enthusiastic words of Janos Kalman, who is Serbian and a Hungarian citizen, a father of three. There is something extraordinary about the work being done on his home. Until recently, he lived in a dilapidated house without water in the middle of unused fields. His dream had always been to have his own property, but he could never afford it. Thanks to an injury payout and the generosity of many, he was finally able to raise the money to purchase a home. This gave rise to another problem, however – it badly needed renovating. “I wished I could have fixed it,” he says, “but I knew on my own I could never do it.” After an accident at work, Janos used crutches for 10 years. Lately he has started walking again, but he still can’t bend one knee. He needed help. This is how the Focolare community got involved, putting into practice the motto ‘Dare to care’ from Youth for a United World. (See unitedworldproject.org/daretocare2021.) “We decided to make a list of the people who were most in need,” explains Cinzia Panero, a member of the Focolare in Serbia. “Some were in financial difficulty, others sick, and still others without a home.” Among the latter was Janos. He says there is still work to do, “but the help I received is a great gift to me.” One other important fact sets this story apart: Janos’ house is located in Vojvodina, an autonomous region of Serbia made up of various ethnic groups (Slovaks, Ruthenians, Romanians, Croats, with the majority Hungarian-speaking). Some people from the Czech Republic contributed to the renovation works as well, collecting money for the necessary material and sending two volunteers to Serbia. They did this with some care. Those who contributed financially, for example, included a personal message addressed to those receiving the amount sent. Those benefiting responded with heartfelt gratitude. It was a gesture that helps to build a sense of family, beyond the distance – true teamwork between different cultures. “In addition to helping someone in need,” said one of the volunteers, “I felt that I was also helping myself get out of my comfort zone.” We can reach out to others to build a home. In doing so, we all become a home.
By Laura Salerno
Watch the video of the experience
Oct 11, 2021 | Non categorizzato
We are in times that we must walk together, in the synodal style. In this passage we are asked to put love for our brothers and sisters first, with every brother and sister, but especially with those we work with, study with, live with. All our responsibilities can be … summarized in helping our neighbour. This is confirmed by one of those sentences of Scripture that centre on love and that strike a chord within us: “For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Gal. 5:14 NRSV). If that is how things are, then our striving towards holiness means focussing all our attention and all our effort on loving our neighbour. For us, striving towards holiness is not so much about trying to be rid of our faults one by one, as about loving, thinking of others, completely forgetting ourselves. … But we know that whoever loves their neighbour, whoever lives for others, soon realizes that it is no longer they who live, but Christ lives in them. Christ lives in their hearts. And who is Christ? Who is Jesus? He is holiness. We find holiness in Him, whose presence emerges within us because we love. Our holiness comes as a consequence of loving, and we cannot reach it any other way. If we were to seek after holiness for its own sake, we would never reach it. So let’s love then, and nothing else! Let go of everything, even the attachment to holiness, striving only, only, only to love. It’s the only way to be able to make a gift of our holiness to Mary one day. … Let’s set off again, as if today were the first day of our revolution of love, the first day of our Holy Journey. Let’s set off again, not thinking of anything else, because love sums up everything. Let’s try to love every neighbour as ourselves; and do so by “immersing ourselves” in every situation.
Chiara Lubich
https://vimeo.com/623446995 (From LUBICH, C; Edited by Michel Vandeleene, Conversazioni in collegamento telefonico, Cittá Nuova, Roma, 2019, pp. 120-121).
Oct 8, 2021 | Non categorizzato
Preparations are underway at diocesan level for the World Youth Day. A journey towards 2023 when young people will gather around the Pope in Lisbon. That’s right. Young people are among those who have suffered most in this period of health emergency. Their external life and outreach were suddenly cut off. They could not go to school, university, work. They were cut off from social life and from friends. But it is also true that young people were the first to set solidarity in motion, to fight for life, to instil hope, to be builders of peace, to care for the environment. Pope Francis listened to them, he heard from them how much they have lived and are living at this time. A few days ago he issued his message for WYD 2021 with an invitation calling for action: “Stand up! I appoint you as a witness of what you have seen”. He says, “When a young person falls, in some sense all humanity falls. Yet it is also true that when a young person rises, it is as if the whole world rises as well”. He challenges them with the story of the young Paul, who while on his way to Damascus to arrest some Christians, was surrounded by a light “brighter than the sun” and heard the voice of Jesus calling him by name, “Saul! Saul”. Almost as if today Pope Francis wants to call every young person by name. And he retraces with them Paul’s path of witness of Christ. In conclusion, he says to them, Arise! Testify with your experience, to the love and respect it is possible to instil in human relationships. Arise! Uphold social justice, truth, human rights. Testify to the new way of looking at things that enables you to view creation with eyes brimming with wonder, that makes you see the Earth as our common home and gives you the courage to promote an integral ecology. Testify that we can always start again and that Christ is alive. “I see this message as a great challenge for us young people,” Klara María Piedade, 27 years old, a young woman from Brazil, confided to me. “I think it is an answer and a confirmation that we really must be responsible in becoming protagonists of the united world, of a more fraternal world”. Klara is one of the young people who this year are at the Focolare’s “Young People for a United World Centre” in Rome. Since last May they have been busy on various fronts in favour of caring for our common home, echoing the Laudato Sì. Dare to care – Dare to take care. This is their programme of which they are the main promoters. “We must be protagonists”, Klara reiterates, “not only in words but with our actions. We will change the world if we take this first step. It is very important to network with those who are already doing something”. The date of the next World Youth Day which will be held in Lisbon, Portugal in August 2023 has just been announced. Meanwhile, in November this year, on the feast of Christ the King, the WYD will be celebrated in all the dioceses of the world. A path of preparation open to the surprises of God, “for he wants to light up our path”.
Carlos Mana
Oct 6, 2021 | Non categorizzato
A conference held by the Faculty of Theology, Innsbruck, Austria that took place after several years of intellectual and existential preparation 
“Look at all the flowers” is an unusual title for a theological conference and, especially, in such a prestigious context as the Faculty of Theology in Innsbruck which many people identify with the name of Karl Rahner who is buried in the large Jesuit church that divides the two wings of the Athenaeum. It was significant that such a large number of people (about 100) attended this conference in the prestigious Leopold Saal and about 150 more were able to follow online from other continents. This was not an isolated event but the conclusion of a journey that began almost a decade ago on the occasion of an Islamic-Christian conference organised by the Focolare Movement and based on an exchange of experiences of dialogue of life. Two professors from the Austrian theological faculty – Roman Siebenrock and Wolfgang Palaver – present on that occasion showed great interest in this experience of dialogue. In the following months, in contact with the spirituality of the Focolare, they also visited the new Sophia University Institute and the Movement’s International Centre for Interreligious Dialogue. Hence the idea of forming a research group with academics from the two religions to explore aspects of spirituality from the two perspectives developed Since then, every year, at the end of August, this group – called cluster – made up of around twenty people from different backgrounds has met regularly for a few days. From the outset, it was not just an intellectual and academic activity but also an existential exercise that has gradually built up deep personal, cultural, religious and intellectual relationships. In recent years the group’s interest has focused on some of Chiara Lubich’s texts of a more mystiical nature. The passages, including the one that gave the conference its title, have been studied in depth from both Christian (Catholic and Reformed) and Muslim (Sunni and Shia) perspectives. At the end of this process, it was decided to organise an academic conference to share the richness of these reflections. The conference that has just taken place opened up this experience to an academic public. Whilst this event was Germanic in origin – the vast majority of the participants were Austrians, Swiss and Germans and this was expressed in the style, language and categories of thought prevalent in this part of Europe – the spiritual heritage of Lubich was very present and was able to bring together thinkers of different ethnic and cultural origins and both religious and non-religious people: Catholics, members of the Reformed Church, Muslims and Marxists. Stefan Tobler, a theologian from the Reformed Tradition offered a reflection on the passage that gave this event its title. This was followed by other reflections and round table discussions from which emerged the experiences of intellectual and spiritual communion that these Christian and Muslim academics have been living for years. An artist from Geneva who took part in the proceedings noted that the group who took to the stage to perform in different voices were a tangible witness to the communion among the participants. This is something that is rarely found in academia but which characterised the conference. It brought an important dimension: communion of thought and spirit. Moreover, the presence of Catholics, Reformed Church members, Marxists and Muslims offered a remarkable cross-section of schools of thought and of academic but also cultural and religious sensitivities which it is not easy to find in today’s world of strong polarisation even in academic and cultural spheres.
Roberto Catalano
Oct 5, 2021 | Non categorizzato
Memories of Anna Fratta (Doni) from Lucia Abignente, an Italian Focolarina who joined her in Poland for several years. A life of complete “giving”, true to the name given her by Chiara Lubich. “An abyss of humanity”, “a ‘maestro’ of life”, “a small great woman”. Just three of the many reactions to the news that Anna Fratta, known throughout the Focolare Movement as ‘Doni’, reached the house of the Father on 24 September 2021. She herself would no doubt feel rather uncomfortable about these epithets, shying away as she did from any kind of praise. She was always measured in her own words, which, few as they were, came out as ‘distilled’ wisdom. Her temperament, reinforced by her life experiences, made them such. The youngest of six, in her childhood she was no stranger to the dimension of suffering, particularly when she lost of one of her sisters. From a very tender age, she already began to pose profound existential questions about the meaning of life, and gradually drifted away from belief in God, seeking her answers elsewhere. Later on, the study of medicine, which she undertook in a spirit of rebellion, showed itself to be providential. She found herself fascinated by biology, which had a significant impact on her interior progress. In nature she discovered a relationship of reciprocity and of service she could not explain, a law of love which she came to understand one night. “After a dramatic and painful interior struggle” she described how she accepted “there is a Being who contains love within”. It was a decisive turning point, followed by her meeting with God in the charism of Chiara Lubich. Not long after this, Doni perceived that God was calling her to follow Chiara in the way of the Focolare. Doni was among the group of Focolarini doctors who, at the invitation of the Catholic Church, went behind the ‘Iron Curtain’, where she lived for thirty years (1962-1992), firstly in the DDR (former East Germany) and then Poland. She worked silently and effectively in bringing Focolare communities to life there, following their growth and progress with awe and gratitude to God. From this region which suffered from lack of liberty and the impossibility of regular contact with the Focolare Center in Rome, Italy, she was then transferred right to its heart, living in Rocca di Papa, Rome, as part of Chiara Lubich’s own community house. With Chiara, she shared profound, luminous, eventful years, accompanying her at an international level and then, with great love and dedication also through the last part of her earthly journey. The design of God on Doni continued through her wise contribution as General Counsellor for the aspect of “spirituality and prayer life” of the Focolare Movement. At the same time, alongside Gis Calliari, Eli Folonari and others of the first Focolarine, she lived total self-giving in welcoming countless visitors to Chiara Lubich’s home, transmitting the light of the daily life they had shared with Chiara. Later she moved to the Focolare little town of Loppiano, Italy, due to an illness which progressively reduced her physical capacities. A profound interior coherence linked all her actions. “Love, we know, disarms. Our speaking was such that anyone could listen, friends and enemies alike,” she recalled, aware that in those years behind the Iron Curtain, the secret Police followed them assiduously. “Love, love, only love, and filling my suitcases with this love. It’s all I’ll be bringing with me!” she wrote in recent years, as she prepared herself for the final journey. No wonder then, that her professional activity had earned the respect of the authorities. In the DDR she was awarded three medals in honor of the work she did and for the “collective” she built up. Even clearer how her life transmitted the love of God to many. Perhaps the secret lies in her constant intimate relationship with Mary, particularly in the Desolation and ‘yes’ at Golgotha opening her arms and heart to humanity. This was the example Doni followed. On 15 September back in 1962, just after crossing the Berlin Wall, she wrote, “There’s nothing to lean on here. And if you don’t keep your gaze on Mary at the foot of the Cross, you’ll fall down. There are times I feel like I’m suffocating and the only thing to do is pray to Mary. It’s the only way so that slowly, slowly the emptiness becomes a fullness, and the pain is transformed into peace. These are the most beautiful, most precious moments of the day, because in suffering I find an ever more intimate and profound relationship with Mary, and through her with all her children”. Maybe here lies the secret of her fruitfulness, of her life of complete “giving”, true to the name Chiara Lubich gave to her – Doni (“gifts” in Italian).
Lucia Abignente
