{"id":327388,"date":"2015-06-23T04:00:33","date_gmt":"2015-06-23T02:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/back-from-iraq\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T15:00:47","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T13:00:47","slug":"back-from-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/back-from-iraq\/","title":{"rendered":"Back from Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"20150623-01\"<\/a>\u201cIraq is going through its worst period in ten years,\u201d <\/strong>write Gemma and Pierre from the Focolare Movement<\/a> in Jordan and Iraq, following their short trip to Erbil, Iraq. Their objective was to make the people there feel the closeness of the Focolare community that has been in that region for many years. \u201cBeing with them, even though we found them so tried and exhausted, we were struck by how their generosity towards others, and how they continue to believe in in God\u2019s love.\u201d \u201cNine months have passed since the villages of the Nineveh Plains were invaded by ISIS. <\/strong>The general situation of the country has worsened with recent developments, that is, the taking of new territories. The people, including our friends, feel a great sense of uncertainty about the future. Many have already fled the country and others are planning to do the same.\u201d Spiritual closeness no small matter if, at the conclusion of the days together, one person confided: \u201cWe\u2019ve lost everything, I wasn\u2019t able to finish my university studies, there are no jobs . . . but finally, I have peace again, <\/strong>and I decided to begin my relationship with God again.\u201d <\/strong> Pierre and Gemma recount: \u201cDuring the meeting with the Focolare community <\/strong>there was one very important moment: it was when we openly declared our desire to give our lives for one another, to love each other with the measure of Jesus\u2019s love, so that He could be present among us as He promises. Then we meditated on the link between the Eucharist and Church, using a 1982 talk by Chiara Lubich<\/a>, The Eucharist makes the Church and the Church makes the Eucharist. <\/em>We also met Archbishop Bashar Warda, Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Erbil, who was pleased by our visit. In concluding he asked us to pray for Iraq like never before.\u201d \"20150623-02\"<\/a>I have come for you, each one of you is like the whole world to me. . .\u201d <\/strong>said Bishop Salomone Warduni, Auxiliary Bishop of Baghdad, from the Chaldean Catholic Church, who had travelled from Baghdad just to be at our gathering. He exhorted everyone: \u201cHave no fear, <\/strong>carry on in the life of the ideal of unity, because each one of us has a mission to accomplish.\u201d One person said: \u201cI try live love in concrete ways until [love] becomes reciprocal within the community. <\/strong>In the Eucharist I find the strength to carry on loving.\u201d Then there is the joy of being together. In spite of the situation there is very lively group children and teenagers who held a local edition of the Run4Unity sport relay for peace, with 35 boys and girls. \u201cThese were intense days for us,\u201d conclude the two focolarini from Jordan, \u201ca deep and divine experience. They gave much more to us than we were ever able to give to them. Who knows how much life must be coming from this suffering that is being lived in a Christian way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gemma and Pierre write on their return from a short visit to the Christian community in Erbil.<\/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-327388","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\/327388","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=327388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}