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.
Feb 11, 2014 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria
The story of the Focolare Movement often begins with the following words: “It was wartime and everything was crumbling . . . only God remained.” That was in 1943 when the Second World War was in full swing. Many of the practices of those early days have become emblematic and are now part of the heritage of Focolare communities around the world.
One such practice was the “bundle”. Vittoria Aletta Salizzoni, one of Chiara Lubich’s first companions explains: “I remember one thing. I think it happened in 1946. Chiara proposed that we give away our extra clothing to the community. That’s how we began the practice of the “bundle” as it was called. We were poor. You can imagine! In the aftermath of the war there wasn’t anything. Our clothing was old and used, but we all managed to find something that could be added to the “bundle”. I remember that large pile of clothing in the middle of the room of the “little house”, ready for distribution.”
This practice that recalls the first Christian communities where: “there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need” (Acts 4:34-35), has become common practice among the Focolare communities across the world.
The inhabitants of the Focolare town of Loppiano decided to launch a similar proposal on February 8-9, 2014 for their entire territory. This would also be in response to Pope Francis’ upcoming Lenten Message in which he highlights sharing. The pope calls for a conversion: “that human conscience may be converted to justice, equality, sobriety and sharing.”
The solidarity project has been entitled Weekend For Giving. “It will be a full immersion in the culture of giving,” organisers explain, “that offers a space for sharing and making requests for materials in good and usable condition, also the bulletin board for posting needs and the “time bank” where you can put your time at the disposal of others.
The town’s meeting hall has been chosen as the gathering point. “All kinds of things have arrived: from used clothing for all ages and sizes, books, appliances, furniture, toys, house décor items,” they say.
On Sunday space was also provided for discussing and explaining the culture of giving as opposed to a culture of possessing, and how it can be applied to everyday life.
At the conclusion of the day, the Permanent Bundle Network was inaugurated as the collection and distribution point for all the donated materials. It will be a place open to solidarity and redistribution of goods to those who are in need of them.
Dec 1, 2013 | Non categorizzato
Continued from: The Adventure of Unity: The beginnings /1
In the next few months, Chiara drew many young people around her. Some of them wanted to follow her in her path: Natalia Dallapiccola was the first, then Doriana Zamboni and Giosi Guella, Graziella De Luca and the sisters, Gisella and Ginetta Calliari; another pair of sisters were the Ronchettis, Valeria and Angelella, Bruna Tomasi, Marilen Holzhauser and Aletta Salizzoni. . . And all of this was happening while the way of the focolare was anything but defined, except for the “absolute Gospel radicalism” of Chiara.
In those months the war was waging in Trent, bringing ruin, misery, and death. Chiara and her new companions were in the habit of meeting in the air-raid shelters during air attacks. They had a great desire to come together and to put the Gospel into practice, following the overwhelming intuition that had led them to place God-Love at the centre of their life. “Each event touched us so deeply,” Chiara would later say. “The lesson that God was offering to us through the circumstances around us was quite clear: Everything is vanity of vanities, everything passes away. But, contemporaneously, God placed a question in my heart, which was for all of us. And He also provided the answer: ‘But could there be an ideal that doesn’t die, that no bomb can crumble and to which we can give ourselves?’ Yes: God. We decided to make God the ideal of our life.”
One day, in the darkened cellar underneath the home of Natalia Dallapiccola, they were reading the Gospel by the light of candle, as was their custom by now. They opened it by chance to the chapter containing the prayer of Jesus before his death: “Father, that all be one” (Jn 17:21). It’s an extraordinary but complex passage of the Gospel, which has been studied by scholars and theologians throughout the Christian world; but in those days it was a bit forgotten because it was so mysterious. And then there was that word “unity” which had become part of the Communists’ vocabulary, who, in a certain sense, had claimed a monopoly on it. “But, for them, those words seemed to become illuminated, one by one,” Chiara writes, “and they placed within our hearts the conviction that we had been born for ‘this’ page of the Gospel.”
A few months earlier, on the 24th of January, a priest had asked Chiara: “Do you know what the greatest suffering of Jesus was?” In keeping with the mentality of the time, Chiara responded: “His suffering in the Garden of Olives.” But the priest corrected her: “No, Jesus suffered most when he was on the cross and cried out: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”(Mt 27:46)”. Struck by his words, as soon as she was alone with her friend, Doriana, she said: “We only have one life, we’ll follow Jesus abandoned.” From that moment on he would be Chiara’s only spouse in life.
Meanwhile the unrest caused by the war didn’t let up. The families of most of the girls fled to the mountain valleys. But the girls decided to remain in Trent: some because of work or study; some, like Chiara, in order not to abandon the many people who had begun to gather around them. Chiara stayed with an acquaintance until the following September when she found a flat at Number Two Piazza Cappuccini on the outskirts of Trent. This is where some of her new friends – first Natalia Dallapiccola, then the others, began living together. It was the first focolare: a modest two-room apartment in the clearing shaded by trees at the foot of the Capuchin church. They called it simply “the little house”.
Jul 16, 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
A book written with the heart. The testimony of one of the first young women from the city of Trent, Italy, who followed Chiara Lubich in a spiritual adventure that has gathered in millions of people. Vittoria Salizzoni (Aletta) was one those first companions along with Dori Zamboni, Graziella De Luca, Silvana Veronesi, Bruna Tomasi, Palmira Frizzera, Gisella and Ginetta Calliari, Natalia Dallapiccola, Giosi Guella, Valeria Ronchetti, Lia Brunet and Marilen Holzauser.
Aletta, as she was popularly known, lived with Chiara at the dawn of the Focolare. Her recollections – some published here for the first time – along with excerpts from talks and presentations, describe the exceptional adventure she lived; also her share for over twenty five years in building the Focolare Movement in the lands of the Middle East.
She shares her memories in a language that is simple and spontaneous not with the intention of sketching a history of the Movement, but with the desire of conveying the courage and vitality that accompanied the events. Now, at the age of 87 when asked how she feels, she responds: “I feel rich. . .”
We publish one excerpt from the book, Aletta racconta. . . una trentina con Chiara Lubich, Citta Nuova’s Per Series, in which she tells of her years in Lebanon during the war (1975-1990).
“In the midst of the hatred and the bombs we believed in the Gospel. In the midst of wounded and dead there was an oasis of people striving to live mutual love and communion of goods not only among themselves, but also with others, with Muslims as well.
There was so much mutual support, a veritable competition in offering flats, for example, and dwelling places to people with nowhere to stay. Many families opened their homes to those who were living in the most dangerous regions. Then there were some who had houses in the mountains or in secure locations, who offered hospitality to the ones who were left homeless.
When food supplies were scarce those who had bread distributed to those who had none; the same with water. The ones who went to collect water for themselves said to the others: “Give us your water containers and we’ll fetch some water for you.” And this meant standing for many hours at a fountain, always fearful that a bombardment could happen at any moment.
There were certainly experiences of loss, but our spiritual support for one another seemed to lead to material assistance as well. Everything grew from there and not like a mutual aid society but as a society in which the Gospel was being lived out.
We were all living in the same conditions, and so the only thing we could do was love, and the war could never prevent us from doing that – on the contrary! You could even say that it was forming us. We felt the continual support of the Focolare and the nearness of Chiara Lubich who followed us from afar, during those very difficult and troubling situations in Lebanon.”
Sep 9, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
“Pharaohs, the Greeks, Bedouins, Christians and Muslims. . . The Egypt of today is a synthesis of these cultures that have all brought something to the unique personality of the Egyptians, with its beauty, originality and, also, contradictions.” Sally, a young woman from Cairo, presented a brief overview of the religious and cultural history of this fascinating land.
It was Friday afternoon, which is holiday for the majority of Egyptians which is Muslim. The gathering took place in the large Jesuit College close to the central railway station and not far from Tahrir Square.
The special guests entered into a darkened hall. It was like entering into the inner chamber of an ancient pyramid surrounded by supernatural mystery. The three hundred and fifty people who had gathered were welcomed amid bursting enthusiasm as the lights were turned on. It appeared a true phantasmagoria of colour and sound, expressing the great joy.
Shortly before, a group of children had handed to Maria Voce the Key of Ankh, the Egyptian symbol for life and immortality. With this same key, Sally offered an hour-long presentation of the history of this people and its society that arose along the banks of the Nile, until the Tahrir Square and the Arab Revolution, which has left the country with a new situation to be faced.
The history of the Focolare Movement is also inserted into the history of this ancient country. It first appeared with the arrival of Aletta Salizzoni, Mariba Zimmermann and Marise Atallah on the 26 January 1981. This moment was the beginning of a change in the lives of many people within the Christian community, producing in this land the birth of many groups of people who spend their lives in the building of communities in which mutual love is practiced and where Christ can be present.
The spirituality of unity has now spread to Sohag, Luxor, Aswan, Alessandria, Ismailia and other cities, even into the smallest villages. Representatives from Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Syria and Iraq were also in attendance. There were groups from all over the country, who had gathered in Egypt to share with the president and co-president the latest pages of their country’s history beginning with the “revolution” as everyone calls it here. During that week, Sally recalls, “it was difficult to leave the house, there was not security and we were planted in the present moment. We prayed more and tried to help others. This resulted in deeper relationships with our neighbours and among Christians and Muslims. Our fear had been transformed into mutual love and joyous communion. We could feel the unity of our great family.”
To conclude there were a few pieces of folkore, bright colours, bright like the faces that appeared on stage. This was followed later in the day by meetings with the children, youths, and families where there were open and sincere discussions. Tomorrow there will be more discussion with Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti.
By Roberto Catalano
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.
