{"id":342862,"date":"2014-03-10T04:00:59","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T03:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/renata-borlone-bearing-witness-to-joy\/"},"modified":"2024-06-06T12:12:01","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T10:12:01","slug":"renata-borlone-bearing-witness-to-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/renata-borlone-bearing-witness-to-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Renata Borlone: bearing witness to joy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"This year too, the anniversary of the Servant of God <\/strong>Renata Borlone <\/a>(Civitavecchia 30\/5\/1930 \u2013 Loppiano 27\/2\/1990) was a moment of reflection<\/strong> on the life of a Christian and the enthusiasm for bringing the peace and joy of Christ everywhere.<\/p>\n

The main appointment, the Holy Mass celebrated in the Sanctuary of Maria Theot\u00f3kos, in Loppiano <\/a>(Italy).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe joy of the Gospel \u2013 as Pope Francis affrimed in the Evangelii gaudium <\/a>\u2013 fills the heart and the entire life of those who meet Jesus\u201d, and this was the experience of Renata.<\/p>\n

A joy that springs forth from<\/strong> a soul who since adolescence had searched for God and for the beauty of His creation and who, having come to know the \u00a0Focolare Movement<\/a>, didn\u2019t spare her energies and enthusiasm in bearing witness daily to love and in contributing to build that unity of the human family that Jesus had asked the Father in his prayer before the passion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe joy<\/strong> \u2013 Renata wrote in her diary \u2013 coincides with God<\/strong>\u2026 to possess it always means to possess God\u201d; and still: \u201cJoy in living for the others\u201d, a joy that \u201ccannot be conditioned by anything, by anyone\u201d because \u201cGod loves me, even if I am incapable, even if I have made a mess in my life and I continue to do so\u201d, but also that joy which, paradoxically, is \u201csqueezed from suffering\u201d and \u201cdrawn out from pain\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"In the twenty three years<\/strong> that she was co-responsible of the Little City of Loppiano that now bears her name, Renata Borlone bore witness with coherence and humility, in front of thousands of people who spent time there for their formation or even for just short periods, of the joy of the life of the Gospel, giving her essential contribution to the new sociality that the Little City is committed to generating, by being always at the service of others and living with exceptional faith the serious illness that would lead to her death. \u201cI am happy, too happy \u2013 she would repeat in the final instances of her earthly existence. I would like to bear witness that death is Life\u201d.<\/p>\n

And continuing to intertwine the words of the Pope and Renata,<\/strong> one is impressed by how much joy can be not only a fruit but may also cause change in the world and in overcoming difficulties. Pope Francis recently said in a homily at Saint Martha: \u201cYou cannot walk without joy, even in the midst of problems, even in difficulties, even in one\u2019s own mistakes and sins there is the joy of Jesus who always forgives and helps\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"And Renata wrote:<\/strong> \u201cIf I had to say something, I would emphasize that the joy that there is in Loppiano is born from the decision that each one makes to want to die to him or herself. I would say that also in this way the unity of peoples is already done, because the the oil that comes from squeezed olives is oil, and you can no longer distinguish one olive from another…\u201d<\/p>\n

Suffering and joy, therefore, challenge and conquest always to be renewed and never closed up within oneself: \u201cMay the others be happy, so that our Heaven here on earth may bring joy to the others\u201d, \u201cI did not give myself to Jesus so as to be happy, but so that my giving would find its meaning in the joy, in the happiness of others, of all those whom God will put beside me\u201d.<\/p>\n

Francesco Ch\u00e2tel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At a distance of 24 years, the witness of the light and joy of her life continues to be greatly relevant today. On February 27, a remembrance of her at the Maria Theot\u00f3kos Sanctuary.<\/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":[893,894],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2","category-senza-categoria-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342862","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=342862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}