Isaura Pereira dos Reis
- Date of Death: 31/10/2022
- Branch of belonging: volunteer
- Nation: Brazil
Living the Gospel: “For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline” (2 Tim.1:7).
To be authentic witnesses without ever giving up.Living the Gospel in our daily lives requires us to put aside our fears and go beyond our limits and convictions; trusting in the gifts that God has given us because it is there that our strength lies. No hard feelings The Mass had ended. While Don Carlo, our parish priest, was giving a special blessing to one of the parishioners who had celebrated his 90th birthday that day, I was intent on taking some photographs of the occasion. His sister, who had come from French-speaking Switzerland, was also present at the ceremony. As I left the church, I approached her and asked for her mobile number so I could send her the whole set of photos. She gladly gave it to me, thanking me. Later, while I was out, she rang my house. My husband answered the call and on my return, he said to me: “Why are you talking to her despite everything she did to us?” He was referring to old disagreements between that lady and us. The response that came to me was “Why not? I don’t want to leave this world with a grudge against someone! The truth is that we are all brothers and sisters even if sometimes we forget it.” My husband did not reply, but I saw that it made him think. (Loredana – Switzerland) The exam I live in Florence with four other friends, also university students who, like me, wish to live their lives according to the example given by Jesus. The apartment where we live is very humid and to warm up we use a wood-burning stove. This is not the only difficulty which however becomes an incentive to really love each other. For example, I was preparing for an exam with a colleague who had very different study routines and methods to me. I thought of giving up and suggesting that we study separately. But when I talked about it to the others, they advised me to persevere, to try to understand my classmate better. I realized that I should continue to love him. There were still plenty of tense and discouraging moments but he told me that he liked coming to study with us because he felt there was a different atmosphere. In the end, the exam went well and he wanted to celebrate in a pizza restaurant, not only with me, but with all of us. He said, “We passed the exam because of the way we loved one another but also because of the understanding of your friends”. (Gioacchino – Italy)
Compiled by Maria Grazia Berretta
(taken from The Gospel of the Day, New City, year VIII, n.2, September-October 2022)
To become a living prayer
The deep personal encounter with God in prayer redefines our entire existence. Recognising Him as the author of grace gives us the opportunity of loving as children, of losing ourselves in His gaze, until we become living prayer. … As we know, our spirituality is both personal and communitarian. It leads us to extend our love vertically, as people say nowadays, towards God, and horizontally towards our neighbors. And keeping the balance between these two loves is what leads us to holiness. For some of us it’s easier to develop the horizontal dimension of love – and so there is the tendency, at times, to engage in constant activities – rather than developing the vertical dimension. It’s true that we usually direct all that we do to God – we love others for him, we work for him, we suffer for him, we pray to him. But if it is true that by continually “making ourselves one” with our neighbors we have often reached the point of loving them with our hearts too, can we be just as certain that we love God not only with our will, but also with our heart? At the end of our lives, we won’t be able to present ourselves to God together with others, with the community; we’ll be alone. Can we be sure that in that moment all the love stored up in our hearts during our lifetime will spontaneously pour out, as it should do, to the one we ought to have always loved, the one we will meet …and who will judge us? … That moment will come for us too, and keeping it in mind, we should try from now on to improve our relationship with God as much as possible. … In fact, we can love God as servants do, doing all that the master wants, without speaking to him at all. Or we can love him like children, with all our heart, full of the Holy Spirit, filled with love and trust in our Father. This kind of trusting relationship leads us to speak with him often, sharing all our concerns, our resolutions and our plans. We experience the trust and the divine desire that makes us eagerly look forward to the time which is only for him and be in contact with him in a deep way. This is prayer, true prayer! We have to aim at this, to the point that we become living prayers. The theologian, Evdokimov, said something beautiful about prayer. He said: “It’s not enough to say prayers; one must become prayer, be prayer, grow into being a living prayer.”¹ Grow into being a living prayer, be prayer, as Jesus wants, since he said: “Pray always”². I believe that the hearts of many of us contain a real wealth of divine love that can transform our lives into authentic prayer, that can make us grow as a living prayer. We only need to make use of it at the right moment. So, during this period, let’s make the commitment to speak often with God, even in the midst of our activities. Let’s try to improve in this. Saying “for you” before every action already transforms it into prayer. But that’s not enough. Let’s start to have an ongoing dialogue with him, whenever possible. Only in this way, at the end of our life, will our love for God fall from our lips in words similar to those of the saints. …
Chiara Lubich
(Chiara Lubich, Conversazioni, Cittá Nuova 2919, pag. 551-553)
1. P. Evdokimov, Ortodossia, in Aforismi e citazioni cristiane, cit. p. 153. 2. Cf. Lc 21, 36.
https://youtu.be/TqJCVMkF2xs
Seed Funding Program: an opportunity to a local action
15 projects selected for the Seed Funding Program, a micro-financing programme that supports and encourages significant and promising integral ecology initiatives worldwide. The Focolare Movement, FaithInvest and MundellEarth support the project.. Today the world is facing a complex social and environmental crisis, and people are mostly eager to find solutions to deal concretely with this problem. Acting for the good of our “common home”, as Pope Francis likes to call the earth, listening to “the cry of the poor, of the planet and of the new generations”. The Focolare Movement has also decided to play its part and has realised to be responsible for studying in depth the problems afflicting the world and to engage itself in concrete actions. With this desire to find strategies from an integrated approach, the Seed Funding Program (SFP) was born in partnership with FaithInvest and MundellEarth. The SFP is a micro-financing programme that aims to sustain and encourage significant and promising initiatives in different parts of the world towards the realization of local ecological plans within the Focolare communities to journey together towards an integral ecology. From the Philippines to Argentina, of the 33 projects that responded to the call, 15 were selected to receive the funding and develop their work with environmental and social aspects in their communities. The projects are youth-led, with intergenerational efforts, placed in their local communities, oriented towards integral ecology and motivated by spiritual values. During the SFP Kickoff meeting that took place on September 3rd, all the participants were able to be inspired by each other’s projects – from recyclable carpentry cooperatives to the integral formation of the youth. A great moment of sharing was also attended by Catherine Devitt (Faith Plans Programme Manager of FaithInvest) John Mundell (President of MundellEarth) and Etienne Kenfack (Focolare Movement Advisor for the ‘Physical Life and Nature’ aspect).
Ana Clara Giovani and Bianca Carvalho
Here are the projects Get to know more here: https://www.new-humanity.org/es/project/seed-funding-program/
Argentina: building a home, a family and a future
“Giving’ is like a breeze that opens so many doors. Here is the story of some Youth for Unity who supported a family in need on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina.The friendship that developed led to them sharing in experiences they could never have imagined. The work begun a few months ago by Youth for Unity, together with New Youth and other members of the community, in the cities of Rodríguez and Luján in the province of Buenos Aires, has developed in an unexpected and providential way. It all started at Christmas 2021, when some Youth for Unity thought of the fact that some families would not have anything special to eat during the festive season and they decided to take concrete action. . The first thing they did was was to contact Titian and his parents. Titan was five years old and lived with his family in difficult circumstances in a very poor area. They prepared a beautiful hamper for them, full of delicious things they could eat at such a special time: these included a chicken, a salad, good wine, cider, panettone, pudding and some fizzy drinks. They also thought of some presents. But the joy they created did not end there. When the Youth for Unity took the Christmas hamper to the family, they began to understand first-hand the reality in which these people were living. Having decent housing, even if only to avoid being left in the cold during the winter, seemed utopian. “It was shocking,” one representative from New Youth said, “but, at the same time, it was also a moment of real joy. In addition, chatting with Titian’s parents, the child’s enthusiasm to start the first year of primary school emerged and our concrete response was unanimous: ‘let’s support him!’” “We decided to buy him everything he needed for school. This meant shoes, socks, t-shirts, trousers, apron, backpack, exercise book, pencils,” say the Youth for Unity, who also received financial help from other young people, friends from Mendoza in Argentina and Guatemala. They still remember Titian’s first day at school: “Mum sent us photos of the child with his new things, they were really very happy.” 
But there is more. Some time later, volunteers and other adults who knew the Movement – many of them housewives linked to New Humanity – told them that they had providentially obtained money to buy materials to build a house for the family. Ricardo, the father, was an accomplished builder and also had some sand and building materials. In this way, the financial help was transformed into bricks and cement and within 20 days, the house was standing. Winter was approaching and it was very important for them to have shelter. A voice message from Titian on WhatsApp confirmed this: ‘Thank you for donating the bricks for my room.’
(from Ciudad Nueva magazine, Cono Sud)
Margaret Karram: let there be a ceasefire and dialogue be victorious in ‘seeking the paths to peace’
The “prayer for universal peace” pronounced today by the president of the Focolare Movement in Assisi, at the tomb of St Francis, echoes the words of Pope Francis. The full version is attached. “We ask you, with the faith that moves mountains, that there be a ceasefire in the war, and that dialogue will be victorious ‘in seeking the paths to peace’ between Russia and Ukraine. We ask for the grace that every ongoing conflict, especially the most forgotten ones, can end. This deeply felt invocation is at the heart of the “prayer for universal peace”, pronounced this morning in Assisi by Margaret Karram, President of the Focolare Movement. In the crypt of St Francis, in the Lower Basilica, she was joined by the General Council of the Movement, gathered in the “city of peace” for a few days of retreat. “We are here on behalf of all the members of the Movement: Christians of various Churches, believers of various religions, people who consider themselves as brothers and sisters in one human family.” Margaret Karram continued: “We make our own the cry of pain and the despair of peoples who are currently suffering because of violence, conflicts, and wars.” “Grant us the grace to welcome one another, to forgive one another and live as one human family. Grant that we may love other people’s countries as our own! God of mercy and harmony, make us ‘instruments of Your peace’.” One week before Pope Francis consecrates Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (on 25th March) this plea is part of a collective prayer for peace throughout the world and supports the extensive network of solidarity to which members of the Movement also belong. Focolare communities are present in over 180 countries, including many places where there are still conflicts and wars.
Stefania Tanesini