Aug 22, 2017 | Focolare Worldwide
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I had only been married a short while when my husband fell gravely ill. At the same time I discovered I was pregnant.” This is how one Nigerian woman’s story begins. Far from her own family and alone, she asked her husband’s family for help, but only found closed doors. “We lived through hell,” she said. Fortunately other doors opened soon after: those of Casa Alba. And for her, like many other young women in difficulty, a new day began. “I don’t know how I would have survived otherwise. Now, thanks to God, things have gotten better.” Casa Alba is one of the Focolare Movement’s projects in Nigeria. For many years, it was once just called a “gen house” (for “new generation”, the young people of the Focolare). Only later did Chiara Lubich propose naming it “Alba” (“dawn”), with the hope that it might become a true house for many vulnerable girls from all over Nigeria. Here many – some were living on the street – have been welcomed and learned a trade. Both sewing work (which became a course in itself) and batik (the art of dying fabric), which at first were just a way to earn some money, have become a true recovery project. Spiritual and ethical training are also integral parts of the program. In May Casa Alba celebrated its 25th anniversary at the Mariapolis Center of Onitsha – an entire weekend with a concluding mass outdoors. Four hundred people were invited, many of whom donned typical brightly colored African coloring, decorated with batik techniques. Auxiliary Bishop Denis Chidi Isizoh, celebrated the mass. “Focolare means fire,” he said during the homily. “It is the fire of encouragement, of evangelization, of love.” He described the times he had met Chiara Lubich personally, when he worked with Cardinal Arinze at the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. “A French scholar once wrote, ‘I think therefore I am.’ No African would ever say this. Africans would say ‘We are, therefore I am.’ I am a person because I belong to a community, to a group. This is what the members of the Focolare Movement tell us: when we are united like a community, that is when we find ourselves.” Let’s go back for a moment. Some time ago Elde de Souza, who directs Casa Alba, visited Bishop Denis to inform him of funding difficulties that the project was having and that activities would have to be suspended. In response, the bishop renewed his faith in the program and relaunched it. Instead of its closing, he proposed celebrating Casa Alba’s 25th anniversary in grand style. “The Focolare in Nigeria is too quiet!” he said. His proposal was too good to ignore, and the entire community mobilized. Everyone, old and young, got to work. Bishop Denis’s enthusiasm is contagious. “Nigeria is a happy place. We are happy people. Yet some are not, and are in really difficult situations. This is what life is about,” he says, concluding that we are all able to unite our sufferings to those of Jesus on the cross. At the celebration, all the Casa Alba “girls” are present. Some are teens; others are already grandmothers. The celebration is a chance to retrace paths and stories. “It changed me and my life.” “Before I had a short temper, but here I calmed down.” “It is wonderful to hear how this small seed produced so much fruit,” says Mama Regina, 83, one of the early teachers. The next day, the newspaper of the archdiocese (which has 2 million Catholics), called the anniversary “a colorful spectacular.” “The Focolare Movement has dried the tears of hopeless young people, who today live above the poverty line thanks to the skills acquired at Casa Alba.” The event was covered on radio and television, and the regional newspaper printed a call to raise funds to relaunch the project. A new day is beginning for Casa Alba as well.
Aug 21, 2017 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria
Eugene: My name is Eugene, and this is my wife Ann. We have been married for almost nine years, and have two children; Erin is seven and Anica is almost five. We come from the Philippines and we are here in Italy for a year, to make an experience in the school of families in Loppiano. I am an engineer by profession, and before coming here, I was working in the supply chain department in a power generation company. Ann: I have a degree in Information Technology. When we got married, I was then working in the IT industry. I had what I could say was a successful and flourishing career, and I was going up the corporate ladder. But it was a job that demanded much from me; at a certain point, I felt that to love Eugene and to make our desire of starting a family a reality, I had to put my family above my career. We talked about it together. Around that time, the global financial meltdown was being felt. We had doubts about being able to raise a family with only one income. It was a big risk. But we felt strongly that it was what God was asking from us, and we said our yes, trusting that God would always take care of us. I left my 10-year IT career and became a housewife, and Eugene became the sole provider for our family. Soon after, we found out that we were going to have our first baby and we were very excited. Erin was born. It was a joyful an exciting moment for us. But our joy was short-lived. Two weeks later, on December 6, we had difficulty feeding her. We brought her to the hospital, and the doctor told us that she had sepsis and meningitis, which was potentially fatal. December 7 was a special day for us. We started the day renewing our ‘yes’ to God’s will, believing that everything was part of His great love for our family. Very early that morning, the doctor called to inform us that the infection was apparently at an advanced stage and that Erin was in a very critical condition. That afternoon, we had Erin’s emergency baptism at the neonatal ICU. Eugene: The next day, Erin’s pulse started to drop. She was pale and weak, and her eyes were not responding to movement and light. At once, the doctor advised us to transfer her to a better-equipped hospital, which, naturally, was also more expensive. At first, I was worried because we could not afford the rates of that hospital. But Ann helped me make a leap of faith, and we agreed to do everything for Erin and worry about the expenses later. That morning, I couldn’t accept what was happening to our family. I asked God, “WHY?” but later, entrusting everything to Him, I gave Him my ‘yes.’ In the ambulance on the way to the new hospital, I was asked to stimulate Erin by touching her and singing her favorite lullaby because her pulse was dropping. It was hard to understand why our young family had to go through all this. But we continued to believe that there was a reason for everything, even if we could not understand it at that moment. Once again, Ann and I said our ‘yes’ to His will. Arriving at the emergency room, we watched as Erin was pierced with needles, connected to tubes and surrounded by machines. We watched her go into a seizure. We could not help but cry, seeing everything that was being done to her and realizing the gravity of her illness. I was at a loss and couldn’t understand why our baby had to go through all those painful medical procedures. That day was December 8, the feast of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. We went to the hospital chapel and entrusted Erin to our Lady. Ann: The doctors told us right away that Erin’s condition was very critical, that the infection seemed to have already reached her brain and that she had meningitis. They also told us that upfront that in cases as grave as this, they had only seen two outcomes in the past—either the patient did not live, or the patient survived but with a handicap. They assured us that they would do everything they could, but that we could only hope and pray. Various tests were run on her the entire day. Again, Erin had to undergo the ordeal of being pierced many times with needles while tubes and machines were connected to her arms and feet. Transfusions were ordered for platelets, fresh frozen plasma and red blood cells. She resembled a small Jesus being crucified, suffering and helpless. It was hard to see her go through this, but we also felt how special she was to Jesus, who had chosen her, at such a tender age, to be an innocent victim like Him on the cross. There was really nothing we could do but be there for her, staying “at the foot of her cross” as Mary had done when Jesus was on the cross. Eugene: While Erin was going through physical pain, Ann and I underwent a great deal of emotional pain. Many times, Ann and I would look at each other, assuring one another of our love and unity in this suffering. Though we couldn’t understand why we had to go through this, we continued to believe that it was part of God’s great design for our baby and our family. Absurd as it was, we still believed that this suffering was the immense love of God for us. That night, Ann and I asked ourselves if we were ready for anything: for the possibility of raising a handicapped child, even for the possibility that she would not make it at all, and we would lose her. I asked God, “Are You asking me to give You even my only daughter?” Ann remembered Abraham, who continued to trust, even when he was asked to sacrifice Isaac. She also remembered Job, who remained faithful even when he had lost everything, peacefully saying, “The Lord gives, the Lord takes away.” It was not easy to accept these harsh possibilities, but together, we accepted His will, realizing in that moment that Erin was not ours; she belonged to God. Ann: We prepared ourselves for the worst. But as days passed, we found each day giving us more and more reasons to hope. Erin responded remarkably to the treatment that was given to her. Her color returned, and her skin quality improved. Her eyes started to respond again. She became more mobile. Her cranial ultrasound showed that her brain was normal despite the gravity of the infection. All other tests done on her showed normal results, without a trace of the infection. Soon, the doctors and the nurses were calling her “a miracle baby.” Day after day, she became better and stronger. We watched our little woman bravely fight to live, and as we went through the experience with her, we re-learned important things in life which we might have started to take for granted. In a way, she was teaching us to “BE” more rather than to HAVE or DO more. She was teaching us what life was all about. Eugene: It was Christmas time, and in the midst of the many uncertainties, I was reminded of what Chiara Lubich affirmed one Christmas–that God alone is the source of joy and complete happiness. I also read the Pope’s message–that Christmas is a reminder of that little family of Nazareth, a seemingly unfortunate family that had to go through a lot of difficulties when Jesus was born. As we lived the experience with Erin, it was like a real-life meditation, a constant chance to meet Jesus and choose Him again and again, sometimes on the cross, sometimes in the resurrection. We were not always strong. But what sustained us was the presence of Jesus in our midst, with the Focolare community, and also the support of our family and friends. We felt God’s concrete love through the many people who came forward to help us–practically, financially, emotionally, spiritually–and through countless others who prayed for Erin and for us. Ann: Erin stayed in the hospital for 23 days. We had many celebrations in the hospital: my birthday, Erin’s first month, and our first Christmas as a family of three. But if there was anything worth celebrating and being grateful for, it was the gift of a new life for Erin. We went home on December 29, just in time for the New Year. During her first year of life, we continued to go to different doctors for follow-up check-ups, with consistently normal results. Just before she turned one-year old, she passed her neurological evaluation with flying colors, exceeding her neurologist’s expectations. Now, Erin is seven years old, living life spiritedly with our second daughter Anica who is almost five years old. We are here in Italy for one year to make an experience in the school for families in Loppiano. Like most parents, we also have our concerns, challenges and worries about our children. But we have already entrusted them and their future to God to whom they belong in the first place. We realize that as parents, we are only stewards with a role to accompany these children as they grow up, helping them to correspond to God’s beautiful plan of love for their lives.
Aug 18, 2017 | Focolare Worldwide
Who like me, while wanting to give the best of themselves, has found it a little difficult at times? We wanted to treat the people around us well, but we spoke badly; we wanted to help, but our egoism got in the way. That’s why several of my friends and I came up with a solution. It all began with two of us who were finding it hard to always give the best of themselves, and they realized they needed to find a way to support one another’s efforts, since it’s easier to love and respect others when you know that there’s someone else on your side that’s trying to do the same. A “pact” was beginning to be born that would help each of us to be more constant with the challenge of giving the best of ourselves in our relationships with other people. But that promise didn’t end with us. In fact, they told others about it, and those people found themselves in the same predicament. At that point we took the promise too, and really put our selves into it. We even found a “sign” that would help ut remember the daily “pact” and that would support us: a wristband of white twine. We interiorized the “pact” and made it part of our life. Since it helped us so much, we decided to spread it around the city, telling everyone we knew about our experience with it. This set off a chain reaction and the news about the “pact” began to spread all over Italy. In recent months we’ve received so many pictures and expriences of people who have accepted the challenge; so now we’d like to invite everyone who would be interested to put on a white wristband and take the challenge with us. If you’d like more information, or would like to tell us about yourself , the good things that have happened when you tried to give the best of yourself in every moment, write to us at: ilpattobraccialetto@gmail.com Some of your testimonies will be published in our Teens Magazine. From: Teens online
Aug 17, 2017 | Focolare Worldwide
Builders of peace “In a situation of extreme crisis which the country is undergoing, we want to help each other lives as authentic Christians. In Valencia, the city most struck by plunders, we experienced days of confusion and mass hysteria. Many industrial zones were savagely ransacked without the intervention of the police. We even saw the same army incite the plunder of shops, even bringing trucks and equipment. The city is blocked, there are arrests and a tense climate, anger and hunger. In the meantime, in the family and with other friends we are trying to support to one another and convey hope, without judging those who have taken away all sorts of items from the stores, even kitchen appliance and auto components. But we are also witnessing the help of Divine Providence with the arrival of medicine and food for entire families. It is amazing how God’s love watches over us, his children.” (O.T. – Venezuela) Cook “As a cook, I like to imagine life as an exercise to reach the banquet in Heaven, Didn’t Jesus start his public life with a wedding banquet in Cana? Didn’t he take part in many banquets, up to the last supper, and promised a final banquet in which, certainly, many cooks like will find their seats? In my service in the kitchen, the objective is not so much the dish in itself, but the people who will taste the fruit of my work. I try not to work only in view of my career, but to be a good husband and father, but for God.” (V. – Italy) The “trick” «In the apartment I share with other students, cohabitation isn’t always easy t because their habits are very different from mine. One day, discouraged, I was thinking of finding another lodging, when my girlfriend suggested that I take the initiative to do something for my co-boarders. She herself helped me bake a cake. Such a simple gesture! And yet, it helped to ease our relationships, in such a way that a kind of competition to help one another started among us. Now I know the “trick” whenever some difficulties arise: I can start by being the first to love.” (B. C. – Czech Republic) Real poverty “I have a disabled friend who gets a minimum pension and is isolated by his brothers and sisters. One day he told me: “I bought a pair of shoes for G. and every day I offer him breakfast at the bar. Now I am thinking of paying for his denture.” He does such acts daily and yet they say he is antisocial and that he is even short of mind. Instead the goodness of this man, in his conditions, is able to pay attention to others’ needs, always moves me. One day he said “When someone suffers, I feel that he resembles me a lot. And being able to help him makes me feel alive and fulfilled.” (T. – Italy)
Aug 10, 2017 | Focolare Worldwide
Arr
iving from Manila 60 km away, your first sensation as you come upon the region of Lake Taal on the island of Luzon is one of deep peace. Visitors are enchanted by such a unique sight: a lake whose waters have filled an ancient caldera with an island in its midst. That island, in turn, which is set in a more recent crater, has another much smaller lake. And at the centre of that small water mirror sits another island. It has that Russian doll effect with one lake contained inside the other. From the top of the volcano the view extends over green hills of fields and forests, pineapple, coffee and endless varieties of banana plantations and tropical flowers. 
Ever since 1982 visitors have had the same sensation among the streets and buildings of Mariapolis Peace in Tagaytay, which was the first permanent Mariapolis in Asia. “I have a dream,” exclaimed Chiara Lubich that year, as she observed the hills of Tagaytay: “that precisely there, a Focolare town would rise where the Gospel would be lived out in a steady way in order to give a picture of what the world would be like if we all lived the Gospel. The presence of the Focolare in Tagaytay is, however, far farther in time. The Focolare’s presence in the Philippines goes back much further in time. Already in 1966, the first meetings of Focolare members were being held in Tagaytay. Taken by the beauty of the natural surroundings, those members had prayed that one day there would be a centre for gatherings of Focolare members in that place, a “home for all of them”. Thanks to a generous donation the following year, that dream began to come true and take shape in 1975. Then came the events and dream in 1982, with the coincidental invitation to the Focolare Movement by the Philippine Bishops Conference to build, right there in the vicinity of Tagaytay, a “school” for Asian priests. Ever since then the development has been unexpectedly surprising. In particular, among the ten constructions that have been erected, there is a school of dialogue with the Great Religions of Asia, geared particularly towards Muslims and Buddhists, but also Hindus and Shintoists. Every year Buddhist youths from a lay Japanese association converge on the property to experience the joy of living living life together. Recently, in May, 200 members of the Great Religions from 13 Asian countries attended the School of Oriental Religions (SOR). From its founding, Mariapolis Pace has assumed the profile of a centre for human development, becoming one of the venues of the Bukas Palad Foundation, a non-profit NGO, founded near Manila in 1983 to respond to the social and sanitary needs of the poorest sections of the population, especially in rural regions. Entire families live in precarious situations – often in one-room homes with dirt floors and no running water – with little or no access to medical care and scarce job opportunities. With their motto: “Freely we have received; freely we give,” Bukas Palad (with open hands), has been on course for more than thirty years, improving the quality of life for thousands of people, not only medically, but also humanly and spiritualy, with an integrated and holistic approach focused on human health and development. The workshops are currently a highlight of the Mariapolis, which adhere to the Economy of Communion Project, with the hospital volunteer activities in several public health structures, along with the lively testimony of workers in the media and several education projects. The experiences of dialogue and sharing grow and multiply like the water in a lake that is replicated in other mirrors of water. But the reflections of Mariapolis Peace cannot be counted.
Aug 9, 2017 | Focolare Worldwide
As a child, I loved to tune in to Vatican Radio in the evenings, which would broadcast news in various foreign languages. Naturally, I didn’t know any of those languages, but listening fascinated me. It seemed like my heart was expanding to all humanity, its people and their everyday lives. It was during one of these evenings that I happened to hear Pope Pius XII invoke the name of God three times: “God, God, God!” That cry was imprinted on my conscience, even if, with the passing of time, it dimmed and was lost to memory. This was 1956. Nine years later, in January 1963, I found myself in Turin, in the military. A bunkmate invited me to a conference, which, strangely enough, I didn’t ask anything about beforehand. As I requested permission from my superiors, I found myself asking as if my whole life depended on it. When they unexpectedly agreed, I left for Ala di Stura, a small mountain village in a marvelous corner of nature. After having been welcomed by those present as if we had always known one another, it was there that I met Chiara Lubich – the founder of Focolare – and Igino Giordani, a co-founder. It made a strong impression on me to meet people from different cultures and religions. I also was able to meet during that time, since she was also hosted by Focolare, Assunta Roncalli, who was Pope John XXIII’s sister. He died that same year on June 3, 1963. One morning Chiara spoke about a new calling that had started in the movement. It was only when she explained the year and circumstances of how it had begun that something urgently returned to mind: “God, God, God! God will help you, God will be your strength. May this indescribable name resound, the source of every right, justice and freedom, in parliaments, squares, houses and offices…” That was what the pope said in his radio message on November 10, 1956, when the revolution in Hungary was crushed. “There was a society that erased the name of God, the reality of God, the providence of God, and the love of God from people’s hearts,” Chiara commented. “So there must be a society that is able to return him to his rightful place. Is it possible that the devil has his faithful followers, totalitarians, pseudo-martyrs for his cause, and God not have a small army of Christians that give everything to take back the world for him? Chiara responded to that call of the pope with her intuition to gather women and men of all ages, nationalities, conditions, bound by a single link: that of universal fraternity. They would form an army of volunteers, the Volunteers of God, part of the Focolare Movement that today is present in 182 countries. It is a modern, radical calling. Chiara Lubich gives it an additional fascinating touch when she describes it as the “attraction of modern times”: “To achieve the highest contemplation while remaining mixed in the crowd, side by side with people… to shine embellishing light on everyone, and at the same time, share with our neighbors their shame, fame, bruises and brief joys.” Igino Giordani compares it to “sanctity in worker’s clothing, spurred to bring God in parliament, in local councils, in hospitals, schools, offices, shops, studios, home, on the bocce field, but also in the world of art, communication, science, economics…” Because, he adds, “to bring God to these places means transforming them into abbeys, changing them into holy places where each day a special mass is celebrated!” Fifty-four years have passed since that day I heard the call to enroll with the Volunteers of God, who were born from a charism that, because it is genuine, can be measured by its tangible results in culture, society, economics, politics… so that the various areas of life do not remain mediocre, hopeless, divided and callous, but open to welcome the deep presence of God. Gennaro Piccolo, “A way for unity,” Centro Igino Giordani, Andria, Italy
