The annual meeting for those responsible for the Priest Volunteers who belong to the Focolare Movement was held in the charming town of Einsiedeln, Switzerland, with its green meadows, the lake and a thousand year-old Benedictine Abbey. Sixty priests from 11 European countries, plus a group from Brazil, and one from the Philippines attended the gathering. Einsideln was the last stage of their pilgrimage in search of the roots of the charism of unity, and the emergence of the priestly Volunteer vocation as one of the many branches of the Focolare. Trent, Italy (2009), Ottmaring, Germany (2010), Budapest, Hungary (2012) and Einsiedeln, Switzerland (2013): each of these places represents one significant moment in the history of the Movement. Particularly Einsiedeln and nearby Oberiberg, where, in the1960s, Chiara Lubich and her first companions understood new things about several aspects of the charism. Through the meditations and visits to places visited by Chiara and the first group, “I rediscovered the beauty of the Ideal of unity,” said one participant. “I want to spread this with my life and give witness of mutual love each day.” In this context there was a greater understanding of the significance of those places that has led them once more to the “existential peripheries” and then to spread the light of the Gospel in the Church and Humanity. ”It was like listening to a concert,” one participant explains, “which surprises you with new notes as its music unfoldsfor you. We would like to begin again from the Gospel as the essence of our lives, not a lot of activities. These days have been a springboard for me to go out and draw many others to God.” Another focal point of their discussion was the Focolare Movement and the specific role of the priest Volunteers. This topic was explored also with the help of several presentations from the past year, given by president of the Focolare Movement, Maria Voce.

Along with memorable places from the history of the Focolare, several Swiss historical and cultural sites were also of great interest such as the Benedictine Abbey, with its hundreds of years of spiritual and theological tradition; the birthplace of St. Nicholas of Flue and his mystical experience. This patron saint of Switzerland surprised everyone with his symbolic hold on the Swiss Confederation in a surprising synthesis between spirituality, culture and politics. Then there was Zurich of the Reform and Huldrych Zwingli, with his living call to urgent unity among the confessions who claim the same Gospel. “As priests of the Church,” they concluded, “spiritually bound to a modern day charism, we felt responsible in a new way for today’s humanity. This is truly a divine adventure which the Holy Spirit urges us to follow.”