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What does Pope Francis mean by Church-Communion? <\/em><\/strong>This can be found in four points of the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (EG)<\/em> in the section called No to warring among ourselves<\/a><\/em>. The key phrase is found in (EG, 99): \u201cI especially ask Christians in communities throughout the world to continue to offer a radiant and attractive witness of fraternal communion.\u201d This request, Maria Voce <\/a>says, is extended \u201cto the Christians who find themselves in communities of the Church. It is a request for the witness they give within the various communities in which they live, \u201ca witness of mutual love and care for one another, a witness of fraternal communion.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n But what community is the Pope talking about? <\/strong>Maria Voce points out that one could at first think that the Pope is referring to specific groups, but then she offered a wider view: \u201cthese communities can also be where Christians find themselves in non-Christian communities or in communities in which the Gospel is still to be proclaimed; as well as in convents, associations and families.\u201d<\/p>\n Why this request? <\/strong>\u201cI think he explains why in his concluding statements: \u201cMay this fraternal communion become radiant and attractive.\u201d Beneath this witness lies a longing to evangelize, that this be the \u2018primary\u2019 form of evangelization or the \u2018new\u2019 form of evangelization. Fraternal communion among Christians must attract others simply by its witness.\u201d Then the Pope offered some concrete expressions of this vision. \u201cHe invites us to begin. <\/strong>Let\u2019s begin by praying for that person whom we don\u2019t like at the moment. He invites us to take the first step, even just a small step; \u00a0simply remembering someone in prayer. This helps to overcome all the obstacles that stand in the way of living fraternal communion . . . it makes it possible even for someone destroyed by grudges and hatreds, someone who suffers because of enmities and betrayals, to make a joyful return.\u201d Joy is the characteristic<\/strong> that pervades the entire Apostolic Exhortation: \u201cYou give witness to the Gospel in joy.\u201d<\/p>\n What are some of the impediments? <\/strong>Maria Voce refers to the preceding paragraph. The obstacle is spiritual worldliness<\/span> which consists in \u201cseeking not the Lord\u2019s glory, but human glory and personal wellbeing\u201d (93). Egoism: looking at yourself rather than at God and those around you; seeking security in the things of this world, in money and power, in self-reliance rather than complete trust in God.\u201d This \u201cprevents Christians at the very roots from enjoying fraternal communion.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Pope particularly stigmatizes the contention, envy and jealousy that can arise among Christians, especially if they are in religious communities or communities of people involved in witnessing to the Gospel in some way.\u201d Voce deduces that it is not possible to think about evangelizing in such a way: \u201cThere\u2019s no possibility for fruitfulness, if these Christian communities don\u2019t give an authentic witness to fraternal love.\u201d<\/p>\n In conclusion, Maria Voce confided<\/strong>: \u201cA thought of Chiara Lubich<\/a> comes to my mind. While addressing some animators of parish communities in 2005, she stated: \u2018The Lord has given us a charism for the world of today, the charism of unity. I\u2019m certain that it can also help in the renewal of parish communities, so that they become what they are meant to be: the living Church, where everyone can find Jesus. We therefore feel the responsibility of having received such a gift from God and we have the courage to spread the spirituality of unity<\/a>, especially now when John Paul II presented it to the entire Church as the spirituality of communion (NMI, 43).\u2019\u201d Thus it\u2019s an invitation for us today, to \u201cbe conscious of the fact that we bear a charism and can contribute to creating bonds of fraternal communion in all the communities we belong to, both within our Movement and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n Source: Citt\u00e0 Nuova<\/em> online<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Focolare president focuses on (EG, 98-101) of the Apostolic Exhortation The Evangelii Gaudium \u2013 No to warring among ourselves \u2013 underscoring the witness of communion and joy experienced in community<\/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-342618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342618","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=342618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}