Oct 27, 2012 | Non categorizzato
Launched during the Genfest in Budapest at the end of this summer, the object of the United World Project is ambitious: taking up the task that Chiara Lubich entrusted to Young People for a United World (Y4UW), it seeks to promote a culture of universal brotherhood, so that ‘a united world will be on the lips of everyone’, as Chiara put it.
Subdivided into three parts (United World Watch, United World Workshop and United World Network), the project aims at involving the largest number of people possible, asking them to be personally committed to living in fraternity, to the point of involving even large international organizations.
United World Watch is setting up a permanent international monitoring body for universal fraternity. To this end Y4UW is striving to develop the widest possible range of ‘fragments of fraternity’ initiatives throughout the world, studying the principle of universal fraternity in all its forms through research and forums, collecting data on and monitoring fraternal actions by individuals, groups and peoples.
United World Workshop is a way for young people to commit themselves to practical action following up on what UNESCO calls good practice. Through a multitude of activities all over the planet they are committed to working concretely for universal fraternity. Furthermore, by means of the NGO New Humanity, they have asked the UN to give international recognition to ‘United World Week’ promoted by them in many countries since 1996.
United World Network recognizes that to build a united world it is not enough to involve international institutions. By means of an online petition (aiming to have 500,000 signatures to give the UN by May 2013) Y4UW propose to young people, adults and children to take up the commitment of to live out the Golden Rule: ‘Treat others as you would have them treat you’ and to contribute to United World Watch, being constantly on the lookout for signs of fraternity that call the world to unity. To sign go to www.unitedworldproject.org
A key moment for the project will be in May 2013 in Jerusalem when, a year on from the Genfest, signing up to the ‘Network’ will concluded and, with world participation, the ‘Watch’ will be launched officially.
The project shows particular concern for the theme of fraternity in that sensitive situation which is the Middle East. But it will also contain ‘Sharing with Africa’, a proposal of mutual care made to the peoples of Africa to rediscover the traditional ideal of Ubuntu (the vision of unity at the basis of African societies). In this way the United World Project becomes the container for many of the activities of Y4UW.
Tomaso Comazzi
Oct 9, 2012 | Non categorizzato
On Saturday 6 October the annual meeting of the Focolare Delegates came to an end. It had been going since since 13 September at the Movement’s international centre in Rocca di Papa, just outside Rome. About 300 people attended. Among them there were delegates from the Centre of the Movement, including those with an overview of the larger geographical areas where the Movement is present.
It was a month of intense work. The Delegates assessed the Focolare’s current situation worldwide and considered future developments. The programme was a mix of plenary sessions, topic-focused meetings (Church, young people, society) and groups from geographical areas. The Movement’s life was reviewed, its involvement in the lives of many peoples, sharing their aspirations and hopes, their trials and difficulties, such as in Syria or other countries afflicted by violence, conflict and natural disasters. Special consideration was given at how ‘fraternity’ is at work in the world, via the United World Project launched at the Genfest, and assessed in detail by the Focolare. A conference to study the thought of Chiara Lubich was announced. It will be held on 14 March 2013 at the Sapienza University of Rome, on the fifth anniversary of her death. Space was dedicated especially to the topic of communication, highly relevant in a digitally networked world. Benedict XVI’s choice of theme for the next World Communications Day: Social Networks: portals of truth and faith; new spaces for evangelization was highlighted in this context, and consideration was given to the new media and their impact upon society in a conference held by the Italian sociologist Gennaro Iorio, the Chilean psychologist Paula Luengo and the Italian economist Benedetto Gui. There was also an overview of the media used by the Focolare Movement, going from the publishing house Città Nuova in Italy and its sister houses throughout the world, to the Focolare press office, to the Focolare information service and its internal news magazine, to its website and social networks, which are working together in an attempt to achieve coordinated communication.
In a live broadcast transmitted across the world on Saturday 6 October, Focolare President Maria Voce said, ‘The news brought by the Delegates and what we have been told directly have shown God at work in the year that has just finished. We are sure that he will do even more in this coming year, if we put ourselves at his service, recognizing him and loving him in each brother or sister.’
This year has been dedicated by the Roman Catholic Church to the ‘New Evangelization’, and the Focolare Movement is in harmony with this as it seeks to understand and live more deeply the point of Chiara Lubich’s spirituality of love for our brother or sister. The Other, Another Me is the title of Maria Voce’s talk to the Focolare this year. It is based on the biblical invitation to ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ (Mk 22:39).
This is the basis of Maria Voce’s words in a greeting via the internet to the members of the Movement: ‘May this year see a huge expansion of love in the world.’ We must seal ‘this pact of mutual love, not for ourselves but for the sake of humanity which needs a flood of love, which needs a torrent of love, which needs to meet Jesus.’
In the meantime, on Sunday 7 October, there was the solemn opening ceremony in the Vatican of the Synod of Bishops on the theme of The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith, to which Maria Voce has been invited as an observer.
Oct 7, 2012 | Focolare Worldwide
I am Nacho from Argentina and I am 25 years old. For many years I played with one of the best football teams in Argentina. My life was organized around sport and I was going to play professionally. I was engaged to a girl who since she was little lived the same ideal of life I have, one based on Gospel values. We dreamed of getting married and having lots of children. I had many plans for how my life would be with her.
But while I thanked God for having been with me throughout my life and for what I was living with Lucia, I felt as if God was saying inside me, ‘Nacho, are you willing to follow me, leaving all behind and consecrating your life to me alone?’ I immediately felt I wanted to say, ‘Of course I am.’
I asked myself what giving ‘my all’ could mean and I understood that God was asking me to follow him by leaving my present family: father, mother, brothers and sisters and, above all, leaving my possible future family. I talked to Lucia about it. It wasn’t easy for either of us but, with tears in my eyes, that day I had confirmation of the decision I was about to take: to follow Jesus as a focolarino, in the path first trodden by Chiara Lubich.
It’s not easy to explain what I experience living out the things Jesus has promised, that is, that no one leaves house, father, mother, children and does not receive back in this life a hundredfold what has been left. This is my experience day after day, for example in giving some of my time to someone in need and feeling this person truly my brother or sister, sharing in suffering or in joy. Some days ago I got back home dead tired from work and all I wanted was to have a rest. Another focolarino was making the evening meal asked me to give him a hand because he was late. I began to help, just like that, forgetting my tiredness, and I felt the joy of being able to live for him.
Having these small experiences, I’m able to discover even more of myself. I see that my limits become a springboard for growth and my horizons are widened, especially when it comes to other cultures. Living together with people from other countries I feel that the only real barriers are the ones inside us. And this makes me overcome the fear of the unknown, of what is different from me, because I’ve understood that diversity doesn’t so much create division as serve make us more complete.
Now I’m in Switzerland finishing my training as a focolarino. I don’t yet know which focolare in the world I’ll go to, who I’ll be living with, but I feel that God calls me personally to build up fraternity in the world, embracing the whole human family with a free heart, and I want to spend my life for this ideal .
From Genfest 2012
Sep 27, 2012 | Non categorizzato
«… Although surrounded , like everyone else, by the evils of our times, you, young people often have hearts and minds with antennas capable of detecting special wavelengths which others are not able to perceive. Your age makes you free to entertain noble aspirations such as peace, justice, freedom, and unity, to dream of achievements which would appear utopian to others, to foresee in the third millennium the dawning of a new world, a better, happier world, a world more worthy of the human person, more united.
We thank God that you’re here! But what can I tell you now? My words echo the words of Jesus which the Pope repeated to young people in 1995: “As the Father sent me, so I send you” (Jn. 20:21). It’s an invitation to you to bring the light of truth into today’s society; to meet the challenge of what the Pope called “new evangelization.”
“New evangelization!!” But why “new”? And what is the meaning of “new”? This “new” can have a number of meanings. I will tell you one.
You know that words are no longer enough today. Young people, especially, do not listen so much to teachers as to witnesses; they want facts. Well then, evangelization will be “new” if those who announce the Gospel are first of all genuine, authentic Christians, who are the first to live what the Gospel teaches, so that people can say of them what they said of the early Christians: “Look how they love one another and how they are ready to die for one another.”
Furthermore, evangelization will be “new” if they also love all other men and women, without distinction. Again, it will be “new” if these Christians will love in a concrete way by actively helping to give food, clothes, and shelter to those in need. And finally, it will be “new” – pay attention here – if they speak and announce the Gospel, but only after doing all these.
Such Christians, I assure you, fascinate the world with Jesus; they make people fall in love with him, so that the kingdom of God spreads beyond all expectations and the Church is strengthened and grows. It grows in such a way that these Christians can look far into the future, as Jesus did when he called everyone to universal brotherhood, praying to the Father: “May they all be one.” It might seem to be a wild dream, but it is possible because it is the dream of a God. And they believe in it. There are thousands, millions of young people from all nations who are walking towards this very goal.
It is to them that John Paul II said: “History is made by those who look toward the future: the others are dragged along….”[1]
My dear young people, the Pope also addresses these words to all of you today. Don’t disappoint him, don’t disappoint us. This is my wish for you with all my heart.»
Tor Vergata (Rome), 19 August 2000, talk by Chiara Lubich at the 25th World Youth Day
[1]John Paul II, Homily during Mass at the conclusion of the Genfest 1980, in L’Osservatore Romano May 19-20, p. 1.
Sep 18, 2012 | Non categorizzato
My name is Magued and I grew up in a Christian family. When I was three my mother was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. This illness progressed until she was paralysed and blind. From when I was small I learned how to help her together with my dad, my brother and my sister. I dreamed that my mum would get well again, and be like my friends’ mothers, but as time passed I realised that this was not to be.
My siblings and I learned to accept this will of God, to believe that everything contributes to good for those who love God. And we became very united amongst us and were aware of a grace that helped us always.
Six years ago we found out that my sister had a tumour. It was then that I went into crisis with God and could not accept that my sister was ill, so I asked God if I could take her place because I could have dealt with it better. As time passed I accepted my sister’s illness, that despite the treatment, was not getting better.
Four years ago my mother died and at that time I felt a great suffering and emptiness in my life. It was as though part of my heart had been detached and gone with her.
Then two years ago, while having a check up about an eye problem, I found out that I had my mother’s same illness. I had just finished university and thought I had a future in front of me… All of a sudden everything vanished. I was in anguish thinking that one day I would wake up paralysed or I would have lost my sight as she did. I felt it was the devil who tempted me to start doing everything immediately, even bad things, which later I would not be able to do. These temptations stopped when I understood that what made me happy was to live each day as if it were my last, in a deep relationship with God.
Then I started a new job, and I met a girl, an angel, who was ready to carry with me all the difficulties that I might meet in future. Many of my friends say that they pray for me so that I may be cured, but I answer that I pray for them, so that each one of us is ill in some way.
One evening a few months ago my sister phoned me when I was out with my friends, and asked me to come back because she did not feel well. I went home and sat beside her and we began to pray together. We were not used to doing this but it was as though a voice said to me: “pray with her Magued.” A little while later she felt worse, she leant her head on me and passed away.
In recent months every now and then I had a relapse. I was not able to hold a pen, or I lost the feeling in an arm, and for a while I could not see properly which made the situation at work difficult. When these things happen I remember my mother and my sister, who despite their pain, they had eyes filled with joy and peace. It is as if they were saying to me: don’t be afraid, continue believing in the Love of God and witness it with your life.
(M.G. Egitto)
