{"id":306166,"date":"2018-05-18T01:10:45","date_gmt":"2018-05-17T23:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/signs-of-unity-and-peace\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T20:37:12","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T18:37:12","slug":"signs-of-unity-and-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/signs-of-unity-and-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Signs of unity and peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cRecently, just before the Holy Father visited Loppiano<\/a>, I was in close contact with five Buddhist monks from Thailand,<\/strong>\u201d says Luigi Butori<\/strong>. Originally from central Italy, Butori has lived in southeast Asia for close to 30 years. \u201cI speak their language, and for the occasion I was their interpreter. It\u2019s been an intense, profound, and demanding experience. \u201cWhen they visited the Focolare Movement\u2019s international center for religious near Rome, they were struck by way two religious brothers, who are no longer so young themselves, served them concretely and did everything they could for them. That\u2019s when the monks began to perceive a light, a harmony, or as one of them put it: a unique \u2018voice\u2019 within and around them.\u201d \u201cThe monks\u2019 stay continued with a visit to the capital, accompanied by a guide who is a focolarina. The monk\u2019s saw that her eyes \u2018had that same smile as the brothers we met earlier.\u2019 Then they spent a day in the city of Lucca, with the Focolare community there \u2013 close to 80 people ages 2 to 94. \u2018You could see the same light in their faces,\u2019 they said. \u201cThe monks briefly stopped for a few hours in Pisa, where the Leaning Tower is, and there was someone from the local community there. They had the same smile. \u201cAt this point one of the youngest monks exclaimed, \u2018This child of Chiara Lubich has the same type of smile that we found in Rome, Castelli and Lucca \u2013 how is that possible?\u2019

\"\"<\/a>

Buddhist monk Phramaha Thongrattana Thavorn (Luce Ardente) greeting the pope – Foto \u00a9 R. Orefice – CSC Audiovisivi<\/p><\/div> Then Loppiano. \u201cIn that city of 850, where<\/strong> everyone knows and was waiting for Luce Ardente,<\/strong> as the monks\u2019 teacher is known, there was a \u2018special harmony,\u2019 as they put it. It was an entire city of smiles! The monks\u2019 hearts opened like flowers in spring, since they are so sensitive to the spiritual atmosphere. \u201cBut the moment of moments came when the pope\u2019s helicopter appeared in the sky. One of the monks, who had never experienced anything similar, was moved inside, as he told me later, and even shed tears, which is quite rare for monks. All the joy and hands waving to Pope Francis overcame any Buddhist restraint, and spontaneous joy shone from their faces and gestures. \u201cThey listened to the songs by Gen Verde and Gen Rosso and nodded, happy with the meaning that they express. I tried to translate the Holy Father\u2019s words, but I noticed that they understood them from within, beyond whatever I told them. \u201c\u2018We want to be a sign of unity and peace for the whole world,\u2019 they told me. \u201cWhen they personally greeted the pope, they did so with an incredible serenity within. They told him: \u2018Holy Father, we are Buddhist monks and we are a part of the Focolare: we studied the spirituality of unity of \u2018mamma Chiara\u2019 and want to live it: loving everyone, being first to love, loving right away with joy. We want to live unity as Chiara taught us to, like the rainbow in the sky: different colors, but united. We offer you this Thai fabric, so you can remember us.\u2019 \u201cThe pope listened and agreed, smiling. \u201cThen, beyond what they had planned to say, one of them added, \u2018Thank you for everything you said, but especially how you move \u2013 it is a sign of love and peace that I will always take with me wherever I go.\u2019 \u201cLater one of them told me: \u2018Such an important man moving in such a simple way and sitting on a simple chair is a shock for me. It is not by chance that we met him: it means that we must work together for the good of humanity.\u2019\u201d Chiara Favotti<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Buddhist monks who gathered around the Holy Father at Loppiano on May 10 have become a visible sign of the unity of the human family. Here is the story of their journey there.<\/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":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306166","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=306166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}