{"id":371423,"date":"2025-02-18T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/?p=371423"},"modified":"2025-02-18T08:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T07:45:11","slug":"living-the-gospel-test-everything-but-hold-on-to-what-is-good-1-thessalonians-5-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/living-the-gospel-test-everything-but-hold-on-to-what-is-good-1-thessalonians-5-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Living the Gospel: “Test everything but hold on to what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5: 21)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A simple bar of nougat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

I meet regularly with the synod team in my Parish. At a local assembly, seven people are elected for one year to work on the implementation of the synodal process. We meet in the evenings, sometimes carrying with us the weight of our fatigue and personal worries, even if we try to set them aside in order to put ourselves at the service of the community. <\/p>\n\n

At one meeting, using the excuse that it was the “Week of Sweetness”, I brought a bar of nougat for each one. We were all happy as children, we relaxed and the atmosphere changed. I realized that communion is built with small gestures. <\/p>\n\n

(C.P. \u2013 Argentina)<\/p>\n\n

They chose peace<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Marc and Maria Antonia, both in their fifties, were surprised to inherit a small industrial machinery company from Marc\u2019s godfather\u2014an uncle who had loved him dearly. They thought long and hard about what to do but eventually decided to keep the company rather than sell it, partly to preserve the jobs of the six employees and partly with the hope of running their own business, involving their son, who had studied materials engineering. <\/p>\n\n

Despite their enthusiasm, dedication, and effort, they faced tough times. The business was struggling. A year after taking over, they had to lay off two workers and return machinery they couldn\u2019t fully pay for. They also had debts with banks and family members. <\/p>\n\n

In the evenings, exhausted, they started wondering if they had made the wrong decision. But they didn\u2019t give up; they pushed forward, looking for new clients. Slowly, the company stabilized, stopped losing money, and they began repaying their debts. However, they were left with very little to live on. <\/p>\n\n

They endured another difficult period until a new client approached them with a large, ongoing order that could finally give them financial stability. They were thrilled\u2014until they realized that their production would be for the arms industry, specifically cannon parts. They were shaken. Could they just turn a blind eye? After all, if they didn\u2019t take the job, someone else would. <\/p>\n\n

They had many conversations, including one with Pedro, and spent several sleepless nights. But they knew they did not want to contribute, even indirectly, to violent death. They refused the order. <\/p>\n\n

After this difficult decision, incredibly the company got other jobs and managed to keep going, despite the difficulties.<\/p>\n\n

(A.M. Spain \u2013 from LAR <\/a>magazine) <\/p>\n\n

Believing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

We are raising funds to travel from our country, the Philippines, to Rome to participate in the Youth Jubilee. Recently two elderly ladies came to us bringing us some coins from their piggy bank. One of them handed us the coins and said, “These were collected over the course of a year on the small altar I have in my house.” this humble but profound gift, a result of faith and sacrifice, left us stunned. <\/p>\n\n

(some young people from the Philippines)<\/p>\n\n

Edited by Carlos Mana<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Photo: \u00a9 Jonathan en Pixabay<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trying to put the words of the Gospel into practice in everyday situations or when making important decisions, naturally leads to transforming effects which are sometimes really surprising. It\u2019s like this: give and you will receive, put love into your actions and you will find love and friendship, make decisions with the common good in mind and you will find the way forward. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":371418,"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":[3286],"tags":[3349,3196,3301,3664],"class_list":["post-371423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-testimonianze-di-vita-en","tag-notifiche-en","tag-ppg-en","tag-testimonianze-en","tag-vangelo-vissuto-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371423","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=371423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}