Jul 12, 2017 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria
Fi
fty years have passed since that first quiet meeting which would produce unimagined openings between the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church and the Focolare Movement – They write from the Focolare of Istanbul -. A few weeks ago Metropolitan Gennadios Zervos said it in this way: “Up until today the full importance of that encounter has not yet been appreciated” (see Quel dialogo volute da Dio). We can have some sense of the vital force of that seed when we consider the first Honorary Doctorate in Culture and Unity that was conferred on Patriarch Bartholomew by Sophia University Institute in Loppiano, Italy, last October. That led to a project that is now a reality and enriches the formative offerings of the Institute with a permanent Chair for dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, named after Patriarch Athenagoras and Chiara Lubich. On June 13th, the actual anniversary of their meeting, several of us gathered spontaneously at the Orthodox Patriarchate in Fanar. In front of the beautiful icon of Mary we concluded the day with the Magnificat, our song of thanksgiving: “The Mighty One has done great things…Holy is His Name.” But it was also a golden anniversary at the local Mariapolis held in Istanbul. Just as Pope Francis had visited the Mariapolis in the city of Rome last year, this year the citizens of the Mariapolis in Istanbul were joyfully honored by the visit of Patriarch Bartholomew. The School of Theology on the island of Halki with its splendid park provided the backdrop of an unforgettable celebration. 
On Sunday, June 25th, the Mariapolites from a variety of confessions, nationalities and languages, went up to the hall where Patriarch Bartholomew gave his speech: “We are now talking about a story that is fifty years old, of a very strong bond between the Greek Patriarchate and the Focolare Movement. And we can by now call it a tradition, because Our predecessor Patriarch Demetrios had continued the relationship with Chiara and the Movement. And We have continued and brought forward that tradition for 26 years. We are very happy and it is a cause of great joy for Us that the major part of the years of this tradition were spent with Us.” We are not new to such expressions of affection and esteem from the Patriarch, but he always manages to surprise us. His joy because of the part he played for 26 years out of 50 is no formality, he told us! And speaking off-the-cuff he added: “But already before being patriarch, working beside my predecessors, I lovingly served this relationship. He went on to say: “I see that the good God has blessed you, because your number and your service have grown, because with the life and testament of Chiara that you have embraced, you give service to all humanity with the same pure heart, with the same faith, with the same love and with the same industriousness [as Chiara]. Like the blessing of Pope Francis, so too Our blessing and Our prayer is with you always that you might sow seeds of peace and of love in people’s hearts. May God always lead your steps toward good works.” His speech was followed by an exchange of gifts, which included a framed photo of Athenagoras and Chiara during one of their meetings. Everyone then sang in several languages, including Greek, the Focolare song Love and you’ll understand which was a favorite song of Patriarch Athenagoras and describes the essence of the Mariapolis: the light that comes from loving. The Patriarch invited everyone to an exquisite lunch in the adjoining dining room and the morning concluded with the official photos, selfies and conversations with Bartholomew. “Golden is the inheritance left to us by Patriarch Athenagoras and Chiara, the protagonists and initiators of the ‘dialogue of Love,’ great creators of the dialogue of the people (…) initiators of the new ecumenical Era; they taught peoples, giving them courage, strength, patience, fidelity, willingness, love and unity” (Metropolitan Gennadios Zervos).
Jul 10, 2017 | Focolare Worldwide
“My country, Lebanon, was under Syrian control for many years. This is why serious tensions developed between the two countries. And it only got worse when a large number of Syrian refugees arrived: almost two million people. Compared to our 4.5 million inhabitants, it was almost half the population. “When the war began in Syria, some families from the Focolare community in Aleppo came to Lebanon to get away from the war for a while. After that, when the situation worsened in their country, they were no longer able to go back to their homeland and were taken in at a Focolare center. Within that hostile atmosphere, helping them was a decisive choice that went against everything. It meant that we had to make an effort to erase all the prejudices that the Lebanese have about Syrians. “We wanted to give witness to peace and love between us. We started by visiting them, building strong bonds with them. Parents, teens and kids – we all lent a hand so that these families wouldn’t feel alone in such difficult times. We spent the days together, organizing evenings and trying to lighten their load, listen and understand them. “While we could not resolve the problem between countries, we could at least build an oasis of peace around them. They didn’t have anything, having had to leave their country without bringing their things or clothes. We put what we had in common, collecting clothes in particular. These we offered them sensitively, since it was not easy for them to accept material help. “Their living conditions were hard. They were unemployed, in enemy territory, and often hoping to hear news about relatives or friends. We young people went to the beach together to try to ease the tense atmosphere. We started hanging out a lot, spending a lot of time together. We read the Word of Life so we could share our life experiences. We started to feel like we were part of the same family. “A year later, these families had to look for someplace to live. They were stressed and had a lot of financial difficulties. Yet together we believed in God’s providence. Searching with them for houses and work, we were quite aware of the difficulties we would face. We went into houses searching for somewhere for ‘our Syrian friends’ to stay, and we would get harsh reactions. For example, the apartment owners would charge extremely high prices in order to turn them away. “On their last day before leaving the center, one family still had not found a house or furniture. One of us reminded everyone that we had to have faith that God would intervene. To our great joy, the next day we found a house that didn’t cost anything, and someone else who was moving gave us their furniture, too. We also found schools for their children that cost very little. We started a French school with a group of teachers, which allowed the Syrian children to start school. “Now these families have left Lebanon and moved to Canada, Belgium or Holland. They wrote us to say that they felt so supported and at home in Lebanon. One family said, ‘Without the support of the Lebanese families, we would never have been able to start all over again so easily.’ “When they departed, they left what they had for other families who would come after them. Now we have three residences available that we use to help Syrian and Iraqi families who are in Lebanon before emigrating. We try to be always available to love them and safeguard these relationships of peace.”
Jul 7, 2017 | Focolare Worldwide
After a violent 12-year civil war, Burundi is currently undergoing a political crisis that has generated great divisions among the institutions and citizens. There have been numerous demonstrations against the government and many young people were arrested. Homicides and abductions followed and many left their own villages and even the country. The gen, the youth of the Focolare, undertook to “live for their own people”, recognising in every difficulty of the suffering person, the countenance of Jesus crucified and forsaken, to love him concretely. “We went to help the many wounded- recounted Lewis – during one of the visits to a hospital in the capital we washed the clothes of the sick and shared our meals with some of them. We visited the children of an orphanage, and played and shared the afternoon with them, trying to make them happy. We took the occasion to give a hand also in the cleaning.” Many of the gen who are university students organised a “Peace conference, at the Burundi University, with the participation of many. “The hall which was full, confirmed how people really aspire for peace. Our musical group called the “Smiling Gen” performed, and was greatly applauded by all. Particularly the song “I Believe” (see the video) composed by them, encouraged our country’s youth to go against the current, and become aware of the suffering of others, with the invitation to do their share in changing the world. When we shot the video clip, we had to make an effort to go beyond the adverse situations around us and believe that despite all, peace is really possible.” To make their commitment more visible and effective, together with the local focolare community, the youths gave rise to the “Project for Peace in Burundi”which includes a series of initiatives in favour of peace and reconciliation: «Through theme conferences, radio programs, charity events, art, poetry and song contests, and a grand closing event, all, of which were diffused by the social media, we try to involve as many people as possible to join us in building peace in our country.” https://youtu.be/Q2fobgsqI7c
Jul 5, 2017 | Focolare Worldwide
People travel for various reasons: curiosity, thirst for knowledge, spirit of adventure, or in search of oneself. This was not so for Gianni Ricci who has indeed travelled far and wide and who is the co-author with Delfina Ducci, of an unedited book published by New City, The long journey tto “making yourself one.” He “lived on the road” so to say, with aim of bringing solace to humanity’s infinite forms of suffering. Born in Ripalta Cremasca, in northern Italy, in a simple but dignified family, he was raised with authentic Christian values. At the age of 20 he met Chiara Lubich’s spirituality of unity which revolutionised his idea of Christian life, so much so that he made the Focolare way of life his very own. In 1964 he left for Loppiano (Florence, Italy), the newly born town of the Movement, to which he faithfully dedicated twenty years of his life. After Loppiano, he accepted God’s will which led him first to Turkey, where he helped the newborn community to grow, then to the Lebanon, the Holy Land, Algiers, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Tunisia and Morocco. “How many sudden changes I underwent! I am now in Turkey. There is nothing that can stop me from reaching sanctity. There is so much to do here,” he said. Gianni Ricci, the soulful globe trotter, took note of all he encountered, sometimes foregoing the difficulties, especially in relating with such diverse peoples. Though he saw the tragedy of the wars that caused deep wounds in the population, smothering hopes in a possible future stability and peace, he did not seek solutions or possible solutions in history books. He simply lived alongside the people he met, with a free and open heart towards an “infinite” humanity, that speaks the same language of the heart and of suffering. «At the end of January 1986, with Aletta (focolarina of the early times) he travelled from Istanbul to Ankara and from there to Beirut, in Lebanon. The airport was half-destroyed by bombs! Lebanon was devastated by civil war (…). The check points were severe, the authorities suspected everyone and everything. Each check point was guarded by different factions. After eight days, Gianni left again for Istanbul. Along the 120 km that separated Beirut from the confines with Syria, they had to pass through 13 check points. At the first one they risked their lives. He stopped in front of a guardhouse where a soldier armed to his teeth asked to see his documents. He showed them and was able to leave. After a few steps a boy warned him to go back, making him note that the guard was pointing his gun on him and had not given the order to proceed. He didn’t press the trigger, thanks to Allah,” he said. It is not a political narration, but solely a “humane” one. The humanity he speaks about has no colour, language, passports, confines, laws or customs. In every place he was assigned to, Gianni undertook to nurture the relationships with the local Churches, Islam, the Hebrew world, with the aim of sustaining all the people he met, to defeat the fear and uncertainty of the future, the tensions provoked by war. A chain of memories in a perspective of unity – this is the “logic” that still drives Gianni, a stupefied observer of God’s works. The citations were taken from “The Long Journey to “making yourself one.” Experiences in the Middle East, Città Nuova, 2016.
Jul 4, 2017 | Focolare Worldwide
Every life bears hope within. Even in the dark tunnel of addiction a light can still shine. In 1983 in the city of Guaratinguetá, in the State of Sao Paolo (Brazil), Nelson Giovanelli, encouraged by Fr. Han Stepel, a German Franciscan friar, approached a group of drug addicts. The young Nelson won their trust and one of them, Antonio Eleuterio, asked him for help to be able to get out of the drug ring. Those were the first steps of the big Fazenda da Esperança family. In 1989, Iraci Leite and Lucilene Rosendo, two girls of the same parish, following Nelson’s example, left everything to dedicate themselves totally to this new mission. In 2007 Pope Benedict XVI visited the Pedrinhas community in Brazil, at the Aparecida shrine. Since then the Fazenda da Esperança’s mission has spread worldwide. The operators of the current 118 Fazendas diffused in 17 nations are volunteers, often with a background of drug and alcohol addiction, and who, after rehabilitation, felt God’s calling to become in turn, harbingers of hope for those who have plunged into the same dark pit. In the first days of May 2017, 60 volunteers of various Fazendas of the world went to Assisi, the city of St. Francis and St. Claire, and to Loppiano (Italy), to start a new “hope mission” through the roads of Europe. For two weeks, they were accompanied also by the international band, Gen Rosso. Germany, end of May. Some members of the band recount: “every morning, a caravan of cars and minibuses set out for a new destination, within an area of 400 kilometres: schools, communities, groups, and jailhouses. The boys and girls of the Fazenda share their past experiences, triggering and answering the question they are posed. Above all they light up hope: if they were able to make it, why can’t I do the same? These are stories of drugs, desperation, solitude, fear, crime, and jails. When the darkness becomes absolute, a light shines out: God loves me, just as I am, in the conditions I have reduced myself to. What do they hold on to, in order to be reborn? It is to the “Word of life,” and mutual love, the daily nutriment to get up on one’s feet and start again. An explosive message which flies to the sound of words, and also to the rhythm of music and dance steps, increasingly involving all. At first, all this generates simple curiosity and moments of doubt. Then the uncertainty melts away and smiles appear on the faces of many of the youths, up to when a heartfelt exchange of ideas occurs. Also today, the message of hope has pierced the hearts of many.” The tour Every Life Has Hope has travelled kilometres across various cities and regions, testifying to the presence of God in society today, and the chance for all, nobody excluded, to start again. In the jail of Bielefeld, the “caravan” encountered a hundred prisoners, and in Arnsberg, in north Germany, the members of the Shalom movement On Pentecost day in Koln, there was a stopover in a parish community, and in the afternoon, a meeting with the Caritas was held. Invited by the Auxiliary Bishop, the band sang the mass in the Cathedral, offering the song “I was there,” composed specifically for that occasion. In Gut Hange there were celebrations for the first five years of the opening of a women’s Fazenda. Furthermore, there were visits to homes for wayward tramps and terminally ill people, and meetings with students and drug addicts hosted in a public structure, with a congregation of nuns who dedicate their lives to accommodating girls with serious problems. The tour also made a stopover in Belgium at the community in Peer, a town that will soon open a new Fazenda. After two intense and joyful weeks, the Fazenda group will proceed to Berlin and Poland, while Gen Rosso will return to Loppiano to prepare for their next tour with the musical “Campus” in Apulia (southern Italy), where there will be the inauguration of a new Fazenda. Once again, together, they will light up new hope.
Jul 3, 2017 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria
How many times must we forgive? “Three years ago my elder brother came to the house and offended my wife while I was away at work, When I returned home I got very angry, but together, we decided not to react. We then discovered that his daughter, who at that time, was living with us, returned to her house saying that she had to prepare lunch by herself. Besides, to our great surprise, my brother started to recount to the other people in our community that we had insulted him and that he would have forgiven us only if we asked his pardon. At this point this was just too much for us and for a year we no longer spoke to each other. One day I remembered that Jesus had taught us to forgive seventy times seven, in whatever situation we would encounter and even pray for our enemies. So, on the last day of the year, I organised a meeting of reconciliation, in the presence of all the enlarged family. . I was the first to speak, I told the members of the family that we were not there to give long speeches, or to judge one another, but simply to ask my elder brother’s forgiveness and that we were sorry for having offended him. Then I got up and knelt in front of him, in a gesture of humility and goodness of heart, two Christian virtues. The members of the family, including my brother, were so surprised and taken aback by this gesture, and none of them dared to speak. After a few minutes he told me that he had forgiven me. We returned home happy and serene for having re-established peace among our families. (Christopher and Perpetua Idu – Africa) Pearl of great price I was living through a really hard marriage. My husband developed an alcohol addiction due to having served in the Army. Shortly after coming back to England and eating fairly normally again, he developed a duodenal ulcer, which gave him appalling abdominal pain and appeared to be incurable. It was then that he discovered alcohol as an effective pain killer. I lived through this horrific time with him. I only speak of all this because I need to describe how I found myself physically and mentally at the end of my tether. I spoke with various doctors and professionals but they were unable to help either him or me. I hadn’t yet discovered Alcoholics Anonymous. A year or so later we met the Focolare Movement. At the event I ended up writing to someone in the Focolare community that I really respected and trusted. I told him about the impossibility of our lives. His response was: “Thank you for sharing with me your ‘pearl of great price’..”’ I was aghast. How could all the huge difficulties that I had described to him be called my ‘pearl of great price’? It took me years to begin to understand how to turn suffering into love, to ‘let go’ of everything I thought was necessary in order to be accepted socially; to make things tidy and whitewashed. To be honest, to be able to say my ‘yes’ rather than ‘no’. I began to understand the innumerable things that make up one’s ego! Now in my old age I am beginning to discover or rather I have a ‘murmur’ of what it is to experience what ‘melt down’ means. It’s an absolute surrender, allowing God to wrap me in his arms and to let him do all the work. Before he died, my husband had a direct experience of Jesus’ love and never drank again. Also I was released from depression. All this has taken years, most of my life really. But it certainly was and is my ‘pearl of great price’ – truly. Source: New City (London)
On Sunday, June 25th, the Mariapolites from a variety of confessions, nationalities and languages, went up to the hall where Patriarch Bartholomew gave his speech: “We are now talking about a story that is fifty years old, of a very strong bond between the Greek Patriarchate and the Focolare Movement. And we can by now call it a tradition, because Our predecessor Patriarch Demetrios had continued the relationship with Chiara and the Movement. And We have continued and brought forward that tradition for 26 years. We are very happy and it is a cause of great joy for Us that the major part of the years of this tradition were spent with Us.” We are not new to such expressions of affection and esteem from the Patriarch, but he always manages to surprise us. His joy because of the part he played for 26 years out of 50 is no formality, he told us! And speaking off-the-cuff he added: “But already before being patriarch, working beside my predecessors, I lovingly served this relationship. He went on to say: “I see that the good God has blessed you, because your number and your service have grown, because with the life and testament of Chiara that you have embraced, you give service to all humanity with the same pure heart, with the same faith, with the same love and with the same industriousness [as Chiara]. Like the blessing of Pope Francis, so too Our blessing and Our prayer is with you always that you might sow seeds of peace and of love in people’s hearts. May God always lead your steps toward good works.” 