![\"1E3A9169\"](\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/1E3A91691.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo \u00a9 CSC Audiovisivi<\/p><\/div> The series began with an event that had music, poetry, and choreography<\/strong>, to highlight and accompany the words of testimony in the year marking the tenth anniversary of the Focolare founder’s death. More that two thousand people from around the world, religious leaders, including Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Piero Parolin, as well as people from the world of culture, communications and institutions to take part, on Saturday, March 3rd, in what many called a celebration of a life rather than a commemoration. It was a celebration of the life that continues to emerge from Chiara Lubich<\/a>\u2019s charism of unity in a variety of contexts in today\u2019s world, often in hostile environments of war and degradation, producing social transformation that is marked by the life of the Gospel. Adriana is a Brazilian artist: \u201cI didn\u2019t want to stay closed inside a studio. Chiara told me: choose the God who made you an artist.\u201d Out of love for her brothers and sisters and her willingness to be part a social project in the slums of Pedreira in south San Paolo, providing a roof for 500 families living in extreme poverty, a new opportunity was born for her to bring her talents to fruition. \u201cI came here,\u201d Adriana said, \u201cto pay homage to Chiara.\u201d Roberto and Maurizio, in Italy, opened a fish business run according to the principles of the Economy of Communion,<\/a> because \u201cIf our life is all based on profit, what good is it? No one will remember us for the money we had, but for the good that we did.\u201d Maria worked for 15 years in a school on the difficult outskirts of Paris, which most teachers left behind at first chance. \u201cThose children should be able to have the same opportunities as those who are schooled in the best neighbourhoods of Paris.\u201d Business owners Letizia and her husband have declined a major contract and risked failure, rather than produce arms materials to be used in war. Jes\u00fas Mor\u00e1n. Photo \u00a9 CSC Audiovisivi<\/p><\/div> A Syrian couple shared their testimony via video: \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to escape the war, so that we wouldn\u2019t have to close our school for deaf children. Where would they have gone?\u201d The story of a Philippine child was entrusted to the voice and intense acting of an actress, taken in the community centre of Bukas Palad<\/strong> (With Open Hands), in Manila<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019m grateful that from a poor person I\u2019ve become a special person who is loved. This is where my rebirth began.\u201d These are some of the fruits of the intrinsic social dimension of the charism of Chiara Lubich<\/strong>, as it was defined by Focolare co-President, Jes\u00fas Mor\u00e1n<\/a><\/strong>: \u201cChiara wasn\u2019t a reformer. Her dream aimed higher than that, to the anthropological and theological foundation of all social reform \u2013 universal brotherhood.\u201d Photo \u00a9 CSC Audiovisivi<\/p><\/div> Maria Voce<\/a><\/strong> remarked on the premises of an experiences that has reached 182 countries all over the world, with tangible fruits of brotherhood, such as the 25 little cities<\/a> on all the continents, small blueprints of a world that is united. She recounts: During the years of the Second World War, \u201cthe first women focolarini <\/a>never spared themselves from running from one end of Trent to the other, when it came to assisting someone in need. They invited the poor into their home to share their meals with them, putting out their best tablecloth, seated around the table: a focolarina, a poor person, a focolarina, a poor person. They fed the poor, but as brothers and sisters, never as benefactors. The Gospel which they read in the candlelight in the air-raid shelters and discovered and lived with intensity in the Light that was breaking into their lives, was revealing itself to be a source of profound social transformation. On the large wall of the hall, which had been turned into a cinema screen, pictures of the Movement\u2019s long history were being projected to accompany the narration of the story that began from a dream: \u201c This is the great attraction of modern times: to enter into highest contemplation and stay mixed in with the crowd, one person next to the other.\u201d The preferential option for the least of these \u2013 \u201csalvaged from anonymity and made into protagonists\u201d has been a characteristic of the Focolare from its first dawning. Wherever Chiara Lubich is remembered in the world, this dream is renewed. Chiara Favotti<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/a><\/a>The first in a series of events around the world dedicated to Chiara Lubich on the tenth anniversary of her death. The first event was held at the Mariapolis Centre of Castel Gandolfo in Italy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}