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<\/a>Foto \u00a9 D. Salmaso \u2013 CSC Audiovisivi<\/p><\/div> \u201cI want to raise my gaze towards the horizon and ask you to do it with me<\/strong>, and with trustful fidelity and creative generosity, look to the future which today has already begun.\u201d Pope Francis is the first Pontiff to visit Loppiano<\/a>, the town of the Focolare Movement close to Florence. In this first visit, the Pope launched a challenge to the community present, the universal Church and the entire humankind: \u201cBuild a shared culture of encounter and a global civilisation of alliance.\u201d It must be a culture that responds to the divisions of these times, marked by growing poverty and the drama of forced migration. \u201cIn the changing epochs we are undergoing\u201d \u2013 the Pope observed, \u201cin fact \u2013 we have to commit ourselves to the tracing of new paths to pursue together, and we need men and women, youths, families, and people of all walks of life and professions who can measure up to this task.\u201d From the front stairs of the Church dedicated to Maria Theotokos, Mother of God, where 7,000 people were present, being spiritual sons and daughters of Chiara Lubich<\/a>, founder of the Focolare, the Holy Father proposed the challenge of a \u201ccreative fidelity: being faithful to the original inspiration and also open to the breath of the Holy Spirit, and undertaking with courage the new paths he suggests.\u201d Foto \u00a9 R. Bassolino – CSC Audiovisivi<\/p><\/div> To do this \u2013Francis observed \u2013 we need \u201chumility, openness, synergy, and risk capacities.\u201d Then we have to put \u201ccommunity discernment\u201d into practice, that is, \u201cwe have to listen to God, to the point of hearing with him, the cry of the People. We need to listen to the People to the point of breathing the will to which God is calling us.\u201d It is a demanding commitment which calls for faithfulness even when the enthusiasm of the beginnings give way – for the movements \u2013 to the quest for new paths to the actualization of the charism. In answering the questions of the Focolare, the Pope cited St. Paul and invited all to focus on two key words: parresia and hyponom\u00e8. The first expresses \u201ccourage and sincerity in bearing witness to the truth, and with the faith in God and his mercy,\u201d the antidote for \u201cevery false fear, and every temptation to hide behind the quiet life, in respectability.\u201d The second translates into perseverance in \u201cchallenging situations we come to face in life,\u201d and finds its fundaments in the awareness of the love of God which \u201cmakes us capable of living with tenacity, serenity, positivity, imagination\u2026 and also a pinch of humour.\u201d Foto \u00a9 R. Orefice – CSC Audiovisivi<\/p><\/div> The Pontiff then invited all to recall the memory of the first days, when Chiara imagined Loppiano as \u201ca piece of new city in the spirit of the Gospel,\u201d an expression of a people united in diversity and its heart in the Eucharist, being the source of new life. It is a people which the Pope exhorted to go forth \u201cto cast the yeast of the Gospel into the dough of society,\u201d especially where there is poverty, suffering and research. \u201cThe charism of unity<\/a> \u2013 he said \u2013 is a providential stimulus and a powerful aid in living this evangelical mysticism of the We.\u201d But the renewal of culture cannot but require new education. In Loppiano, which started also as a city-school with study centres like the Sophia University<\/a>, the Pope exhorted the inauguration of an \u201ceducational pact\u201d founded on dialogue and proximity, to \u201cexercise together the three languages: of the head, the heart and the hands.\u201d In this \u2013 he added – \u201cit is important that there be in Loppiano, a university centre for those who seek Wisdom, but which also sets as an objective, the construction of a culture of unity\u201d: a \u201cfrontier\u201d academic experience. But it is above all Mary \u2013 concluded Francis\u2013 \u201cthat is the school to attend (\u2026) to learn how to know Jesus, and to live of Jesus and with Jesus: do not forget that Mary, the first disciple of Jesus was a lay person. She is the woman of faithfulness, courage, parresia and patience.\u201d In the city of Loppiano, the Pope\u2019s invitation echoes the intuition of Chiara Lubich, the \u201cfoundation stone\u201d of the Work of Mary, and resounds to consolidate a path: \u201cOur wish\u201d \u2013 these are the words of Maria Voce<\/a>, President of the Focolare \u2013 \u201cis that whoever visits this town can find a home, a family, a mother: Mary! It is she who educates and inspires every expression of the social life of the Focolare Movement (\u2026) It is she who in the Magnificat indicates to us a programme of life and action and pushes us to throw open wide, the doors of the heart towards all those who suffer, seeking happiness.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/a>
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