{"id":341458,"date":"2012-10-17T04:00:21","date_gmt":"2012-10-17T02:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/bishops-the-effectiveness-of-a-life-of-witness\/"},"modified":"2024-06-06T12:07:48","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T10:07:48","slug":"bishops-the-effectiveness-of-a-life-of-witness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/bishops-the-effectiveness-of-a-life-of-witness\/","title":{"rendered":"Bishops: The Effectiveness of a Life of Witness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong>An evening of testimonies and sharing <\/strong>over the work of the Synod on the New Evangelisation with 27 bishops and thirty lay people who are attending the Synod<\/strong>. Opening remarks were given by the President of the Bishops Conference of Thailand, Archbishop Francis X. Kriengsa<\/strong>k who is also the moderator of the Bishops Friends of the Focolare Movement. \u201cOur words are accepted when they are an expression of what we are living,\u201d he exhorted. Authenticity is needed in \u201cmen and women who have experienced God and are living icons of God\u2019s love for people.\u201d Where? In the usual places<\/strong>: at work, school, in the field of health, sport, family, neighbourhood, internet.<\/p>\n

Referring to his personal journey in an almost entirely Buddhist society<\/strong>, Archbishop Kriengsak concluded by saying: \u201cbut our personal testimony no matter how heroic is not enough\u201d. In order for the Gospel to be effective and convincing \u201cwe must give life to small cells of Gospel life, and we bishops must be a living part of a joyful and attractive community,\u201d \u201cthe Church is\u00a0 attractive when it is a living communion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Anna Pelli from the Focolare\u2019s Centre for Studies and involved in the Movement\u2019s dialogue with the ecclesial world, gave a presentation on the Ecclesial Movements as the \u201cWord\u201d that evangelizes<\/strong>. She presented the Church in its charismatic richness according to an unprecedented image through which Chiara Lubich described it: \u201cas a magnificent garden in which all the Words of God blossom:\u201d there \u201cJesus blossoms, the Word of God, in all of His various expressions.\u201d (1) From here stems the relationship \u201cof unity and distinction\u201d among the various spiritualities in the Church that are fruits of \u201cof the creativity of the Spirit, His gifts to the Church of today, in order to open new paths of understanding and of\u00a0 putting into effect of God\u2019s infinite truth.\u201d Herein is found the call to live out one\u2019s own specificity<\/strong>, in order to make the Church become \u201ca living Gospel,\u201d \u201can evangelizing people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bishops also wanted to hear from the laity<\/strong> who are motivated by the spirituality of communion as it is lived in the Focolare among young people and old, believers and non-believers, people working in society and in ecclesial environments<\/strong>. The statement of one Russian scientist, an unbeliever, was very meaningful. It was shared by Franz Kronreif from the Focolare: \u201cIf one day you told me you did not believe in God, I would be sad for you and for me. I would feel poorer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In the afternoon a conclusion was drawn, which was expressed by Archbishop Francis Kriengsak: the world is waiting to see \u201cspaces\u201d being created, \u201cspaces of the Risen Lord,\u201d \u201cplaces\u201d that give \u201cvisibility to a humanity that has been shaped by the Gospel, where communion reigns, a communion of hearts and of goods.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s unthinkable that we bishops alone will manage to renew the Church. The laity must be in the front lines,\u201d said one bishop from Korea.<\/p>\n

The participants then moved to the Basilica of St. Bartholemew on Tiber Island, where they were warmly welcomed by the Community of San\u2019Egidio for the celebration of prayer and a light moment of fellowship afterwards.<\/p>\n

By Victoria G\u00f3mez<\/em><\/p>\n

(1) C. Lubich,\u00a0 “Nuova Umanit\u00e0”<\/em>, 3-4 (1997), p.389.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOur words are listened to if they are an expression of life.\u201d A meeting among Bishops attending the Synod, promoted by the Bishop Friends of the Focolare Movement.<\/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":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-341458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341458","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=341458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}