Nedo Pozzi and his bold utopia

Aug 21, 2021 | Non categorizzato

A reflection by Anna and Alberto Friso. For decades they worked alongside Nedo in his generous and hugely competent commitment to serve the world of family life as a married focolarino. “Two driving ideas conditioned my life growing up: the need to consecrate myself totally to God and an instinctive creative love for beauty and art, combined with the unshakeable conviction that I would do something truly important with my life”. This is how Nedo Pozzi described his ambitious life-project, which he confided to us too during the almost forty years we shared at the Focolare’s international centre. Firstly we worked together in the field of “Family Life”. Then his distinctive gifts as a communicator, man of culture and of rare sensitivity, led to him being entrusted with other even more arduous and complex tasks. In 2000 he played a key role in developing a Focolare network (NetOne) for those active in the field of communications and media. Later, he was asked, with Vera Araujo, to coordinate the Focolare Movement’s dialogue with contemporary culture. Throughout this period, he wrote articles and books for Città Nuova publishing, he contributed research for Focolare founder Chiara Lubich’s public discourses, and delivered presentations at numerous international conventions. Nedo was born in Mantova, Italy on 6 July 1937 and grew up along the shores of Lake Maggiore. He never lost his capacity to dream bold dreams. At barely 20 years of age, he met Angela and thus began a passionate love story. Years later, at the many courses for engaged couples they animated, Nedo would candidly declare that quite obviously it was he and Angela who had invented falling in love!  They got married early one morning with only 2 witnesses present. No need for expensive tastes, their wedding banquet was two sandwiches and a beer at Milan station! In this way their life’s adventure together joyously took off under the station’s arcades, which still today evoke the feeling of a cathedral in the world. All too soon, however, reality failed to live up to the dream and the first signs appeared of a crisis to threaten everything. At this point Nedo was introduced to Focolare by a married couple he knew. This proved to be the discovery of true Love, with a capital ‘L’. Love which gives of itself freely, a love composed of forgiveness, of living for the other person, a love with God at its root. From this moment on, the ideal of unity became the essence of their love for one another. They discovered how giving oneself to God and to their neighbors can open up the possibility for married people too to consecrate themselves to God. At separate times, both Nedo and Angela responded to the calling to become married focolarini. And this marked the fulfillment of the first of Nedo’s two yearning desires: to be all for God. He seemed to let go of his second passion – beauty, because he couldn’t imagine how to reconcile these two apparently contradictory callings. His life became a crescendo in love as he daily dedicated himself to others and humanity. He found himself called “directly and vitally to pay in person in each moment”, as he described it. And it was precisely through this process that Nedo’s thirst for beauty became satisfied, in the discovery that Beauty with a capital ‘B’ is hiding within every neighbor, be they famous or forsaken. All of us who have been fortunate enough to be around Nedo and penetrate, through his intuitive reflections, the mystery of his and our own life, can testify that in Nedo the profound contrasting passions which dominated his adolescence have truly been reconciled. With his departure on 12 August, 2021, after eight years of an illness which gradually eroded his intellectual and relational capabilities, we have lost a giant of wisdom and of charity, a man of profound faith and passionate openness to others. But we, like Angela and as their daughter Paola declared on behalf of siblings Pierpaolo and Daniela, will remember him as the tenderest spouse and father, loyal friend and an intellectual who lived and worked, as he himself said, to open up “a glimpse of the Absolute”.

Anna and Alberto Friso

formerly responsible for the New Families Movement

Gospel lived: Jesus forsaken and joy

Aug 20, 2021 | Non categorizzato

When in suffering, you recognize the face of Jesus abandoned on the Cross by his Father and, with all your limitations, accept it, then that suffering is transformed into joy. Life takes on another meaning; it improves, because it is lived with love. Losing your father I was already an adult when my father left home to have another family, yet the loss of your father always leaves you with a void that nothing can fill. Memories, words come back to me and I remember him. The saddest thing is when you don’t know who to share a joy or a success with. Now I’m married, we’re expecting a child, but that sense of being an orphan persists. My wife, on the other hand, resents her father who left the family when she and her little sister were little. For this reason, talking among ourselves about the father figure brings out our great diversity. But precisely because we know what love and its absence mean, we are committed to being sources of true love for our future children. This is one of the things that the parish community which we are joining emphasizes a lot: the nature of true love, the kind of love that overcomes self-centeredness and which is explained to us by Jesus, who with his life and death gave us the measure. (PI – Switzerland) My humorist friend In my opinion, compared with the limited, deficient, sometimes tragic aspect that man finds in his fellow men, as well as in himself, humour is the new vision of life from God. For years I collaborated as a designer with Nino, a dear friend, on some of his comical publications. Everyone, absolutely everyone, stumbles as they walk. As for Nino, every time he stumbles, he stops to think about it for a moment and then starts laughing about it. Then he tells us and everyone smiles. If you think about it, this is the pattern of his humour. A humour that has become more and more refined over the years, without the grit of satire, yet penetrating; an amiable mockery not of people, but of the “old man” who is always lurking in everyone. Nino himself wrote about it a few years ago: “According to me, humour is an unexpected dimension, which in addition to the four traditional measures of a person: height, length, width and depth, reveals four anti-measures: shortness, lowness, narrowness and superficiality”. (Vittorio – Italy) Irina and Ecumenism I am Orthodox, born in Russia, and married to an Anglican priest. There were never any theological difficulties between my husband and I; he loved the Orthodox Church very much. As time went on, we discovered how much we also have in common with the Catholic Church. My husband directed an Ecumenical Centre in Rome, to which he dedicated all his energy. After his death, I taught Russian at the Gregorian University for five years. Then I returned to England, and took on the role of President of an Ecumenical Centre in Oxford. In my book entitled “The path of unity” I speak about my husband and about the contacts I had with important personalities of different Churches who appreciated our ecumenical work. Of course, there is still a lot to do for unity to be achieved, but there is no lack of prophetic spirits who work for this aim. They are a minority, it is true, but they exist and they are the great strength of the Church. Even if it saddens me to see that there are still many prejudices to overcome, we must continue to work and hope, because the commandment of Christ is “that all be one”. For me the Church is already one.

Compiled by Lorenzo Russo

  (Taken from Il Vangelo del Giorno, Città Nuova, Year VII, no.4, July-August 2021)

Chiara Lubich: The child of the gospel

Aug 16, 2021 | Non categorizzato

Chiara Lubich reminds us that the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like children. This is because children trustingly abandon themselves to their father and mother: they believe in their love. In the same way, an authentic Christian, like a child, believes in God’s love, and throws him or herself into the arms of the heavenly Father. Jesus’ way of acting and speaking is always a little puzzling. In this case, he breaks with the commonly held view of children as socially insignificant beings. The apostles don’t want them around him in their “adult” world, where children are only a nuisance. Even the chief priests and the scribes seeing the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” become angry. And they ask Jesus to scold them (see Mt 21:15-16). Instead, Jesus has a completely different attitude towards children: he calls them to him and embraces them; he lays his hands on them and blesses them; and he even holds them up as models for his disciples. “For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” In another passage of the Gospel, Jesus says that, “Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:3). Why does the kingdom of God belong to those who are like children? Because children confidently abandon themselves to the care of their father and mother; they believe in their love. When they are in their arms, they feel safe and unafraid. And when they sense danger, they hold on even more tightly to their mum or dad, and immediately feel protected. At times, we see a parent put a child in a high place, for example, and then tell him or her to jump. And the child jumps with complete trust. Jesus wants the disciples of the kingdom of heaven to be like that. Authentic Christians, like children, believe in the love of God. They throw themselves into the arms of their heavenly Father, and trust him unconditionally. Nothing frightens them anymore because they never feel alone. Even when a time of trial comes along, they believe in God’s love, for they believe that everything that happens is for their good. Are they worried about something? They put it in the Father’s hands, and with child-like trust believe that he will resolve everything. They abandon themselves completely, as a child does, without calculating the risks. Children are totally dependent on their parents for their food, clothing, a home, care, education, and so on. So, too, do we “children of the Gospel” depend completely on the Father. He nourishes us just as he nourishes the birds of the air. He clothes us as he adorns the wild flowers. He knows what we need even before we ask him for it (see Mt 6:26), and he gives it to us. The kingdom of God, too, is not something that we ourselves achieve; we receive it as a gift from the hands of the Father. Furthermore, children do not do evil, for they don’t even know what it is. … The “children of the Gospel” believe in God’s mercy, and, forgetting the past, they begin a new life each day in openness to the promptings of the Spirit, which are always creative. Children do not learn to speak on their own; they need to be taught. The disciples of Jesus do not follow their own reasoning; they learn everything from the word of God to the point of speaking and living according to the Gospel. Children are inclined to imitate their father. If you ask them: “What do you want to do when you grow up?” they often say that they want to follow their mother or their father’s profession. The same applies to the “children of the Gospel.” They imitate their heavenly Father who is Love, and they love as he does. They love everyone because the Father makes the sun rise and the rain fall on the just and unjust alike (see Mt 5:45). They are the first to love because He loved us while we were still sinners (see Rm 5:8). They love freely, without selfish interests, because this is what the heavenly Father does… This is why Jesus likes to be surrounded by children and puts them before us as models. …

Chiara Lubich

The Word of Life, October 2003 From: Parole di Vita, a cura di Fabio Ciardi, Opere di Chiara Lubich, Città Nuova, 2017, pag. 702

Living the Gospel: sowing love

Aug 13, 2021 | Non categorizzato

St Augustine said, “Once and for all, I give you this one short command: love, and do what you will. If you hold your peace, hold your peace out of love. If you correct someone, correct them out of love. Let the root of love be in you: nothing can spring from it but good”. Put love … I could never have believed that my husband would turn into a stranger. His behaviour demonstrated such selfishness that he alienated all those around him. Actually this hid a deep sense of inferiority on his part. But it got to the point that I couldn’t even celebrate our two children’s successes without offending him. Yet when we first met, I had felt so supported by him! But now I felt my world had fallen apart and I was at crisis point. Around this time, I heard from an old school friend who had entered the convent but had just decided to leave. I went to see her and she shared her experience of loneliness, of disappointed idealism, of jealousies within the community, a community which existed for the best of humanitarian aims. As she spoke, I seemed to see myself in a mirror. We began to meet regularly and a phrase she quoted from St John of the Cross illuminated me on what I needed to do to try to save my family: “Where there is no love, put love and you will find love”. I decided to try. It wasn’t easy. But today things are different, both for me and for my friend. (M.d.A. – Albania) Staying in Syria Ten years ago, as life was becoming very difficult for us Christians, we asked ourselves if it was really the case to stay in our own country. Many had chosen to flee, and apparently had found safety, far from the sounds of gunfire and from the fear. However, even if we can’t do much, we realise that our presence here has become a true mission. Not so much about giving a witness of loyalty to the land or keeping the faith, but rather of being close to people, as Pope Francis has described. We’re sure that this situation, difficult as it is, is offering a great life lesson to our own children. (V.M. – Syria) Learning from the smallest Kanna comes from a Christian family and goes to a nursery where the teacher and many of the other children belong to different religions. At the end of the year, the teacher greets each of the children one by one. When she reached Kanna, she said, “Thank you because you’ve taught us about Jesus. When you speak about him, we can feel he’s close to you. You taught us the prayers you learned at home and they’re beautiful. This morning I saw you when you gave the prize you’d won to one of your friends. This gesture really moved me! I’m about to get married, but before I do I want to be baptized. I’m taking preparation because I want to believe in Jesus like you do.” (Z.J. – Japan)

Edited by Lorenzo Russo

  (translated from Il Vangelo del Giorno, Città Nuova, anno VII, n.4, luglio-agosto 2021)

Sister Antonia Moioli – “Blessed are those who follow my ways”

Aug 10, 2021 | Non categorizzato

Sister Antonia Moioli departed this life on 30^th July, 2021. She was calm, had a beautiful smile and was surrounded by affection and prayers. Born in Alzano Lombardo (Bergamo, Italy) on 13^th June, 1949 to a deeply Christian family, at the age of 19 Antonia Moioli got to know the Focolare Movement: the discovery of God Love inspired her to love everyone: from the members of her family to those at the nursery school. “I was wondering what God wanted of me. A priest advised me not to worry, to continue living the Ideal and to trust Jesus who said: To those who love me I will manifest myself. I trust him and I count on that. In the meantime, I realize that many of my colleagues at work were lively, free nuns. They gave me a book of their Founder. When I read it, I experienced a joy as it was so much in harmony with the Ideal”. In 1971 she entered the Institute of the Sisters of the Infant Jesus. She made her first vows in 1974 and her perpetual vows in 1980. She threw herself into education with enthusiasm; everyone remembers her for her vitality, love and passion for children and young people. In 1977 she went to Rome, to the school of Santa Maria degli Angeli where she taught and became Head of the Institute. She was a reference point for many students. Her institutional duties did not distance her from the students, they allowed her to show them the beauty of following Jesus. In 1993 she was the only nun in the youth ministry consultancy for the Diocese and the Prefecture. A former student testifies: “Sister Antonia was a real woman, able to give an example to the Church of the wonderful vocation of women: she knew how to be a mother, constantly generating her children to the faith, to the encounter with Jesus. … as a mother who knows potentiality of her children, she did not stop at our complaints. … She was a strong woman, able to show her humanity. In the year 2000, welcoming the pilgrims who came to Rome for the World Youth Day, Sister Antonia said to me: “you will clean the bathrooms in the gym”. I would have preferred to engage in other activities. Before starting, Sister Antonia, told me that to truly serve people you had to get your hands dirty. And then I realized the most beautiful thing that made me recognize that she was a true educator: she started cleaning the bathrooms with me. … I was faced with a strong woman, happy to be a nun and educator, a complete, fulfilled woman ”. She hoped that everyone could experience that to love is to give life, moment by moment. Another trait of her, typical of her congregation’s charisma was love for the poor and she was sensitive to those who struggled, the simplest people. She also had a great love for her older sisters. In 1996 she was responsible for Italy and she inspired the communities with the same enthusiasm as ever. At the end of her mandate, for two years, she dedicated herself to the service of the International Centre for Sisters of the Focolare Movement and thereafter continued to hold other positions. Celebrating 25 years of consecration she wrote: “In these 25 years I have experienced His fidelity stronger than my infidelities. God’s immense love heals, encourages, supports, it is Paradise”. And even more: “In starting over all the times I have struggled or failed, I have always felt enveloped by an immense love, Mary and the charism of Unity were essential to make me a true daughter of my founder, with a heart open wide to all the aspects of the Church and humanity ”. In recent years she encountered weakness and illness; she was spared nothing, she was asked to give up everything! What her founder Nicola Barré said was realized in her,: “This night is a splendid day”. As Margaret Karram, President of the Focolare Movement, wrote, “Sister Antonia leaves an example of a true disciple of Jesus, faithful to living the Word and constantly following Him. She worked tirelessly at many levels for the realization of “May they all be one ”.

Sister Tiziana Longhitano

Chiara Lubich: The mirror

Aug 9, 2021 | Non categorizzato

Chiara Lubich invites us to look at Jesus as if he were a mirror, just as St Clare of Assisi did when writing to her sisters in religion. This mirror reflects divinity in its humanity. Today we can ask ourselves: are we, in some way, mirrors of Jesus? Are we this for others? In St Clare’s letters to Agnes of Prague*, that form part of several writings in which she speaks of her need to be radically faithful to the Gospel, she invites the sisters to look at Jesus as if they were looking in a mirror, a mirror that in its humanity reflects back divinity. She wrote: “Fix your eyes on the mirror of eternity, (Jesus)… and be totally transformed in the image of his divinity” (FF 2888). Saint Clare was inviting Agnes to look to her Spouse, and also to imitate him, making the same choices he made, doing his same actions, his same deeds. … Today, we could ask ourselves: are we in some way a mirror of Jesus? Do we mirror Jesus also for others? In this regard I’d like to mention one of our dreams from the early days of the Movement. We used to say: “If, for some absurd hypothesis, all Gospels were destroyed, we would like to live in such a way that, by seeing how we behave, people would in some way see Jesus in us and could therefore re-write the Gospel”: … ‘Love your neighbour as yourself” (Mt 19:19); ‘Give and gifts will be given to you (Lk 6:38); ‘Do not judge’ (Mt 7:1). ‘Love your enemies’ (Mt 5:44);  ‘Love one another’ (Cf Jn 15:12); ‘For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them’ (Mt 18:20).”

Chiara Lubich

The Mirror – Feast of St Clare,  Berne, 11 August 2002 * A religious sister in St Clare’s Order  

Living the Gospel: like the evangelical child

Aug 6, 2021 | Non categorizzato

Jesus asks us to become  small, like children, who confidently entrust themselves to their  father and mother and believe in their love.  Chiara Lubich said,  “We too, “evangelical children”, depend on the Father for everything . He knows what we need, even before we ask him and he gives it to us”. Adoption at a distance In January 2017, I remotely adopted a girl from Kenya.  However, for about a year my life took an unexpected turn and I did not have a fixed income, so sometimes I wondered if I would be able to continue supporting the child. The words of Jesus, “Whatever you do to the least, you do to me”, were always a stimulus to continue to take care of her. Then, like a confirmation, after each moment of hesitation, I was offered a new work project. I thank God who loves me immensely and proves this to me all the time. (Anny from Romania) An innovative model I was in my last year of Dentistry, the most challenging. I shouldn’t have been thinking of anything else but to graduate quickly. Instead I agreed to give tutorials to Fabio, who was not doing well at school, as a favour for his mother, a lady I met by chance. I’m was doing it for free, because their finances were not good. One day when we were studying science, by chance, I had to teach him about teeth! To help him understand the masterpiece that is our chewing system, almost without realizing, I invented a model with a technical device which was simple but very practical for teaching. I communicated the discovery to the Professor of my thesis. He was very enthusiastic about it. Even more, he offered to include it in a lecture he was going to give at the University of Caserta, describing not only the technical aspect, but also the circumstance that made me think of it. In the following months, I was also given the opportunity to talk about it to 70 students. The latest news from the Professor is that a book will also be published about my discovery. And all because I listened to a mother’s request. (Tonino – Italy) Temptation I’m married and have three daughters. I am a carpenter. I have a small bank account, but our financial situation is not thriving. One day, when I went to make a deposit, I found a credit in my account of 235 bolivares: an amount we would really have needed! I ignored it and with my wife, we decided to wait for a week. While waiting, I imagined the most bizarre things about that money; maybe someone was suffering or could lose their job because of me. A few years ago, I didn’t think about love of neighbour at all, but now! Back in the bank, I explained the situation to the person in charge, who said to me, “You are the most honest person I have met”. Since they needed to investigate to see what had happened, she gave me an appointment three days later. When I went back to the bank they had discovered the error. I was relieved to learn that the money belonged to a man who participates in the Word of Life meetings in my very Parish. Luckily I hadn’t succumbed to that moment of temptation. (Jose from Venezuela)

Compiled by Lorenzo Russo

(taken from Il Vangelo del Giorno, Città Nuova, year VII, no. 4, July-August 2021)  

Perfect Joy

Aug 2, 2021 | Non categorizzato

Chiara Lubich quotes St Francis and his “perfect joy”. When faced with the pain of  something we must give up, a detachment, a trial or an illness, she invites us to experience the full meaning of the words, “You are Lord my only good”. One day St. Francis, who was truly in love with his Lord, while traveling barefoot and half frozen towards Assisi, explained to Brother Leo where “perfect joy, perfect happiness” could be found. It was not so much in working miracles and raising the dead; nor was it in prophesying and speaking all languages. It was to be found in keeping charity while bearing with the abuse they would receive from their brothers in the Friary they were going to. Because, he said, “Above all the graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit, is that of overcoming oneself and suffering willingly, for the love of Christ, all pain, abuse and hardships”. That, for him, was “perfect joy”. Let’s try to do the same. When we realize that a suffering is approaching (something we must give up, a detachment, a trial, an illness) let’s say with St. Francis, “Here is perfect joy”. This is the fullness of what we mean when we say, “You, Lord, are my only good.” It’s a very challenging thought, isn’t it? But it is with actions such as these that we can make progress, indeed, we can fly ahead in life, leaving behind a trail of light and bringing many others with us.

Chiara Lubich

  Perfect joy, CH Conference Call – Castel Gandolfo, 17th December 1998  

Overshoot Day: the Earth is asking for help

Jul 29, 2021 | Non categorizzato

The Earth’s resources for this year run out on July 29. How can we reverse all this waste? Luigi Muraca, a member of the international Focolare youth formation team, appeals to us to face the challenge. Overshoot Day is a symbollic date indicating when we, the inhabitants of this planet, have consumed all the resources the Earth can regenerate within one year. To take a simple illustration: just say there were 100 new trees growing each year, and we humans cut down more than 100 a year.. Overshoot Day marks the day we cut down tree number 101. This year, Overshoot Day falls on 29 July. So from this date until the end of the year, we’ll consume more resources than we should allow ourselves. Despite this, I predict it won’t feel any different to yesterday. As you read this you’re probably not too worried about it, and I guess you’ve not noticed the people around you so far today anguished about this fact, nor the people you’re still to meet. I just want you to know one thing: it’s not your fault. It’s not that you’re insensitive, or that you couldn’t care less about the environment or the planet. You’re not too worried because, like me, you’ve got used to this kind of news on climate crises. And when you get used to something, you stop experiencing it as an emergency. News about the climate crisis has more or less become part of our daily routine. And there’s the real danger that getting used to hearing about it, makes us lose the will to change things. It happens to me too and that makes me sad. But it’s not all bad news. Not everyone remains passive in the face of these uncomfortable facts. Some actually try to change things. Here I’d like to draw attention to two projects launched by the youth of the Focolare Movement, striving to contribute to tackling the issues of ecology and our use of resources.   PATHWAYS – People, planet and our ecological conversion The first project, called PATHWAYS – People, planet and our ecological conversion is an awareness and action campaign, launched as part of the 6-year Pathways for a United World program. In the year 2021-22, those behind the initiative – Teens for Unity, Youth for a United World and  New Humanity NGO – are launching actions at local and global level, in a three-phase program: 1) Learn – study and get informed, as a solid foundation to any action 2) Act – moving for change 3) Share – using the hashtag #daretocare   ZERO HUNGER The second project is directed at our planet’s food resources. For several years now, the youth of the Focolare Movement have collaborated with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in a shared commitment towards achieving “Zero Hunger”, supporting the goal of reducing famine in the world. While an international team works to coordinate global activity, local actions and initiatives are underway in many local territories. Luigi Muraca – Redazione Teens