Aug 17, 2023 | Senza categoria
Benoît and Chloé Mondou, a young couple from France, decided to start their married life by taking part in the World Youth Day in Lisbon (Portugal).
“Initially we thought our honeymoon would be a tour of Europe, but when the opportunity to go to WYD came up, we didn’t hesitate for a single second!” Benoît and Chloé Mondou were married in Haute-Savoie (France), a week before World Youth Day in Lisbon (Portugal). He is twenty-four years old and she is twenty-two. They met seven years ago in the scout group of which they are active members. Today they are volunteer guides. Benoît has known the spirituality of the Focolare since he was a child and, through him, Chloé began to live it too. They set off for Lisbon with a group of young people from the French speaking countries of the Movement: France, Belgium and Switzerland. They said, “We didn’t give up the trip to Europe but we thought that it was really important to go to the WYD. Now we can say that it put down an important marker for our marriage”.
In their home town, Benoît and Chloé are also involved in a social project in which they visit people in nursing homes. Chloé said, “We are lucky to have been brought up in the same religion but we are also fortunate that we like praying together. For this reason, taking part in the WYD has given an even greater dimension to the faith we both have. During the WYD, there were times when we were separated, but then we met for praise or adoration and so we had those moments to pray together”. Benoît continued, “It was very strong because in normally in daily life we don’t really have the opportunity to pray together. In Lisbon taking time together, even if you were in a group, was strong. Personally, I think it’s an experience you should have at least once in your life. And if you can do it as a couple, even better”.
The moments with Pope Francis were fundamental. Chloé said, “For me the most important thing that the Pope said was when he reminded us that we are all loved, each person as they are, because when you are part of a group, sometimes you tend to create your own personality to stand out, to be accepted. But in places like that you realize that this is how we really live with each other, this is how we are natural and this is how God loves us more.”
Benoît continues, “From the words of the Pope I feel I am taking up a challenge that is close to my heart: to try to be Jesus. The Pope invited the one and a half million young people who were in Lisbon to return to our countries, to spread the good news, to help others and to bring others ahead with the word of Christ. “
Chloé reflected “At the WYD I discovered a new way of living my faith. I realized that there are many different ways to live faith and it doesn’t matter if one person goes to sing in the street and another prefers to be alone at the back of a church. In a family, everyone has to find their own place and their own way of praying”.
Benoît concluded, “We left Portugal with greater faith. This experience increased the desire, which we already had, to raise our children in the faith and to educate them in the Gospel. After our wedding in the Church, we needed this WYD, this pilgrimage, recollection and prayer. It was really good for us”.
Anna Lisa Innocenti
May 31, 2023 | Senza categoria
A meeting was held on the 27 and 28 May in Loppiano (Florence-Italy) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the birth of the Loppiano Prima Cooperative. Fifty years on from the 19 May 1973, the date the cooperative was set up, the event provided a unique opportunity to recall the founding moments, take stock of the journey travelled so far and re-launch productive and commercial activities, looking ahead to the future. We would like to share with you an interview with Maria Ghislandi and Giuseppe Marvelli who were two of its founding members. “You cannot have a future without memory so it is crucial to go back to the roots, and in this break we wish to emphasize our ongoing commitment to recovering, reviving and translating into the present day context, the founding inspirations and prophetic sparks given to the Cooperative over time by Chiara Lubich”. It was with these words that Beatrice Vecchione, the current President of the Loppiano Prima Cooperative, opened the weekend of celebrations entitled Love for Creation, a prophecy on the move, a special occasion commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Cooperative’s foundation that took place on 27 and 28 May 2023 in the Auditorium of Loppiano, the Focolare Movement’s international little town near Florence in Italy. It was a weekend of exchanging and sharing ideas with a view towards integral ecology which revealed the heart of this pioneering experience of ecological agriculture during Laudato Sì Week. 
“Loppiano Prima”, Beatrice Vecchione continued, “has its own physiognomy and typical characteristics well captured by the title and because it undoubtedly reflects five decades of “love for creation and of a prophecy on the move”, a prophecy of which, going back to the roots, Raffaella Pinassi Cardinali – one of the pioneers and someone who has always been a point of reference for the agricultural cooperative that was started in 1973 on the wave of a challenge – to support the construction and development of the little town of Loppiano. Starting on 19 May of that year, with 8 founding members eager to put to good use the land in the Chianti hills of Florentine Valdarno donated to the Focolare Movement by the Folonari family, Loppiano Prima has become a cooperative with a widespread shareholding system that currently has 3,256 shareholders. As stated in its Articles of Association, “it has no speculative purpose and is governed by the principles of mutuality that prevails”. Furthermore, “its main purpose is to achieve the community’s general interest in promoting humanity and integrating its citizens in society, as well as contributing to the implementation of universal fraternity”. This is how, over the last 50 years, on uncultivated land that had been abandoned when many farmers emigrated in the post-war period, Loppiano Prima Cooperative has become the protagonist of a unique experience of ante litteram ecological agriculture which has put humanity, nature and their relationship with each other at the centre. A topic that is active and operational within Loppiano but which is also present in and for the region, the fruit of the generosity, tenacity and passion of so many volunteers of God of the Focolare Movement who felt the call to respond to Chiara Lubich’s prophecy 50 years ago, giving God through work; above all the fruit of the faith of those who believed in and wanted to take care of that dream that we have now inherited: to love creation, making of one’s own life a true witness of the Gospel. Now we will share Maria Ghislandi and Giuseppe Marvelli’s stories, two of the founding members of Loppiano Prima. https://youtu.be/IQzEiEkzwAQ
Apr 10, 2023 | Senza categoria
- Date of Death: 11/04/2023
- Branch of belonging: volunteer
- Nation: Italy
Jan 17, 2023 | Senza categoria
KidsAction4Peaceis the initiative to which the youngest of the Focolare Movement join, Gen4 e Gen3, inviting children to get involved in building peace. A simple but concrete way to look at those who, at this moment, are living the suffering and injustice of war. To make a contribution, we have time from 25 to 30 January 2023 Hello everyone! We are a few children who strive to build peace at school, at home, in sport by being kind and helping those in need. How can we help our friends who are in the midst of war? Let’s ask our leaders to help people at war to build peace! Would you like to help us too?
- Make a drawing, or write a poem or letter about peace.
- Write the slogan (hashtag) #KidsAction4Peace on it (you can also ask an adult to take a photo and put it on social media with this hashtag).
- Send it between January 25 to 30 to the postal address of your head of government or You can also make more and send them to other leaders. You can find the list by country here. (January 30 is also the International School Day of Non-Violence).
- Ask at least five other children to do the same and pass this message on.
We heard that on February 9 and 10, many of these leaders will meet in Brussels, so we hope that our letters and drawings will reach their hearts. Bye!!! Sofia (12), Agnese (10), Matteo (10), Costanza (10), Nicola (9), Mattia (8), Teresa (8), Cristina (7), Anastasia (7) from Italy; Leonor (11), Margarida (9), Leonor (9), Joao (8), Leonor (8) from Portugal; Thiméo (12), Mathilde (11), Adéline (8), Aurélien (5) from Belgium https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi0kJ9-z7pY
Nov 30, 2022 | Senza categoria
Remaining lukewarm before the proclamation of the Word is like remaining “blind, naked and unhappy” (Rev 3:17).However, God continues to knock at our door of man, especially in the darkest moments of life; just as a father seeks his son, God does not tire of chasing us and those who listen to his “call” experience full joy. Providential solution When our children were young, and even during their adolescence, outings and trips together were always occasions for celebration. When we were left alone, we realized that we had changed, as if we had taken different paths and had grown apart. It was difficult to talk to one another without giving offence. We realized that we needed to find a new way of communicating and decided to go to a psychotherapist. When I shared this with a friend, she confided to me that she had experienced the same situations with her husband and that they reached the brink of divorce. The providential solution they found was to become part of a community in their parish and to get involved in works of charity. I suggested this to my husband and he agreed. Since then our lives have changed: giving our time and energy and opening our doors to others, we have found not only a way to live but a way to communicate. We also experience greater joy with our children and grandchildren. (F.D.A. – Croatia) The Value of Becoming One After my architectural studies in Florence, I went home for the holidays to my small village in the Tuscan hills where my parents were renovating the old family farmhouse. After I had a look at the plans, I expressed some concerns both about the actual condition of the building and the changes necessary to preserve the original structure. My brother, however, reacted badly, accusing me in front of everyone of wanting to be a know-it-all. I wanted to show that I was right, but since from a group known in Florence that was committed to living the Gospel I had learned the value of “making yourself one with others”, as St Paul said, I put my ideas aside, to avoid arguing. When the time came to start the work, the foreman explained that the project could not be carried out as it was and recommended some changes, which coincided with those I had suggested. At this point, my mother, explained: “You see, my son, when you’re here, we’ll always think of you as a child and that’s why we don’t accept what you have learned. Try to understand your brother”. (C.G. – Italy)
Edited by Maria Grazia Berretta
(taken from The Gospel of the Day, New City, year VIII, n.2, November-December 2022)
Nov 22, 2022 | Senza categoria
The merciful are those who are able to forgive others and often even themselves. However, mercy is not just an inner disposition, it is the way that unites us with God. His immense love for us is not a feeling but an action; the act through which each of us is ‘reborn’. Living in peace It was not the first time I had noticed trespassing on my land. I had never had any enemies and my father had taught me how to build good relationships, but on this occasion I wanted to see clearly what was going on. I asked Our Lady for help and one night I went into the orchard with another farmer. As I suspected, at a certain hour I saw my neighbour arrive with two sons armed with fruit boxes. The plan was to photograph them in the act: bewildered by the flashes, the three of them immediately ran off, leaving the harvested fruit on the ground. The next day, towards evening, our neighbour’s wife asked my wife if she would kindly destroy the photos and not press charges against her husband. As agreed, my wife replied: “I don’t know what photos you are talking about, my husband has been away for two days”. From that day on, things started to change with unusual kindness and a willingness to help with the picking… During one of the breaks, the neighbour admitted he had come to get some apples ‘to try them’ and had seen flashes. I replied: “Strange things have been happening in the village for some time. What’s important for us is to live in peace”. (V.S.E. – Italy) A real change When I retired and looked back on my life all I could see was a total failure! I never got married because my parents were against my choice of a guy who was good but not one of our ‘rank’. My relationship with my brothers and sister had almost completely broken down because of an inheritance that according to them had been unfairly divided. I could call myself rich but what a void has been created in and around me! While I was in hospital a niece came to visit me who said something that really troubled me: “The trouble with you Aunty is that you are possessed by evil. Every trace of goodness in you has disappeared”. When I was finally discharged, I looked for a priest in whom I could confide what was distressing me. When he had finished listening to me, it seemed to him that I somehow wanted to take revenge on life, on family, on everyone, so he urged me to start thinking more of other people by celebrating relatives’ birthdays with gifts, taking an interest in the neighbours’ news, writing to former students. They were small gestures but steps towards the light. In desperation I put his suggestion into practice. It is hard but I really feel something is changing. (G.I. – Spain) Friends in sickness While my mother was in hospital I got to know her roommate, Klari who was at the same stage of cancer and undergoing the same series of chemotherapies. They had become friends, but something was dividing them. As a young woman, Klari had been a communist activist and did not accept the Catholic faith my mother professed. They did not argue, but you could feel that neither of them wanted to let go of their own beliefs. Nevertheless, my mother was always available and to help Klari who had no relatives she had involved us in the family with her needs – just little things, like dealing with some paperwork for her, phoning friends, etc. When their health started to deteriorate for both of them, each reacted differently to the illness. A great peace shone out from my mother, who always remained attentive to her friend. Klari, on the other hand, became impatient and aggressive, but before she went into a coma, she thanked my mother for the way she had always been by her side. She had now become one of our family. (P.F.H. – Germany)
Edited by Maria Grazia Berretta (taken from Il Vangelo del Giorno, Città Nuova, year VIII, no.2, November-December 2022)
