Pope Francis says "...the world is still torn apart by many conflicts and continues to need artisans of fraternity and peace....I ask you to be witnesses and builders of the peace that Christ..."
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SPEECH OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE FOCOLARE MOVEMENT
Consistory Hall
Thursday, December 7, 2023
_____________________________
Dear brothers and sisters, welcome!
I greet Cardinal Farrel, your President, Doctor Margaret Karram, the Co-President, Don Jesús Morán, the members of the General Council, the delegates of the geographical areas and all of you. I am grateful to you for coming as you celebrate the eightieth anniversary of the foundation of the Focolare Movement, also known as the Work of Mary. Thank you!
It coincides with the day in which the Servant of God Chiara Lubich decided to consecrate herself totally to the Lord. From an inspiration received in an absolutely ordinary life context - while she went shopping for her family - a radical act of donation to God arose, as a response to her call that she had felt sweet and strong in her heart her. It was December 7, 1943, in Trento, in the middle of the war; right on the eve of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Mary's "yes" became Chiara's "yes", generating a wave of spirituality that spread throughout the world, to tell everyone that it is beautiful to live the Gospel with a one simple word: unity. But unity also means harmony: harmonious unity.
In these eighty years, you have made this message resonate among young people, communities, families, people of consecrated life, priests and bishops; and also in different social environments: from the world of school to that of the economy, from that of art and culture to that of information and the media; and in particular in the areas of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue. You have thus been an active instrument of a great flowering of works, initiatives, projects and above all of "rebirths", of conversions, of vocations, of lives donated to Christ and to our brothers. Today we want to thank God for all this.
In February 2021, speaking to your General Assembly, I underlined three important attitudes for your journey: living your charism with dynamic fidelity, welcoming moments of crisis as opportunities to mature, embodying spirituality with coherence and realism (Speech, 6 February 2021 ). Living spirituality. I want to remember them today to encourage you to live them and promote them along three lines: ecclesial maturity, fidelity to the charism and commitment to peace.
Ecclesial maturity. I invite you to work so that the dream of a fully synodal and missionary Church is increasingly realized. Start with your communities, encouraging a style of participation and co-responsibility in them, even at government level. May the "hearths" increase within themselves and spread around them a climate of mutual listening and family warmth, in which we respect and take care of each other, with particular attention to those who are weaker, to those who are most in need of support. To this end, it will be useful for you to follow paths of mutual participation and consultation at all levels, paying special attention to communication and sincere dialogue.
Regarding the second line, fidelity to the charism, I remind you of some words of your Foundress: «Leave only the Gospel to those who follow you. If you do this the ideal of unity will remain [...]. What remains and will always remain is the Gospel, which does not suffer the wear and tear of time" (C. Lubich, in The Word of God, Rome 2011, 112-113). Please sow unity by bringing the Gospel, without ever losing sight of the work of incarnation that God continues to want to carry out in us and around us through his Spirit, so that Jesus may be good news for everyone, no one excluded, and "so that they may all be one" (Jn 17:21).
And so we come to the third line: the commitment to peace, which is so important today. After two millennia of Christianity, in fact, the yearning for unity continues to take on, in many parts of the world, the form of a heartbreaking cry that demands a response. Chiara felt it during the tragedy of the Second World War, and she decided to give her whole life so that that "testament of Jesus" could come true. Today, unfortunately, the world is still torn apart by many conflicts and continues to need artisans of fraternity and peace between men and nations. Chiara said: «Being love and spreading it is the general purpose of the Work of Mary» (Pentecost Vigil, St. Peter's Square, 30 May 1998). Being love and spreading it: this is the main purpose. And we know that only from love is the fruit of peace born. This is why I ask you to be witnesses and builders of the peace that Christ achieved with his cross, defeating enmity. Just think that, from the end of the Second World War until now, the wars have not ended. And we are not aware of the drama of war. I'll tell you something. When I went to Redipuglia in 2014 for the centenary of the First War, and I saw that cemetery, I cried, I cried. How much destruction!
And every November 2nd I go to celebrate in some cemetery, even the last time in the Commonwealth Cemetery, and I see the ages of the soldiers: 22, 24, 18, 30... All lives broken. For the war. And the war doesn't end. And in war everyone loses, everyone. Only the weapons manufacturers earn. And if they didn't make weapons for a year, world hunger could end. This is terrible. We have to think about this drama.
Before concluding, I would like to make one final invitation to you, appropriate in this time of Advent: that of vigilance. The danger of spiritual worldliness always lurks. It is therefore necessary that you also know how to react with decision, coherence and realism. Let us remember that the inconsistency between what we say we are and what we really are is the worst anti-testimony. The inconsistency. Please be careful. And the remedy is always to return to the Gospel, the root of our faith and of your history: to the Gospel of humility, of selfless service, of simplicity. And I always like to remember that you are very close to the secret of God, to the four secrets of God. God cannot understand four things: he doesn't know how many congregations of nuns there are; what the Jesuits think; how much money do the Salesians have; and what the focolarini laugh at!
Dear brothers and sisters, as we have already remembered, you are the Work of Mary: it is she who has accompanied you over these eighty years and you know well that she will never stop doing so. May the Virgin of Nazareth therefore be the source of your consolation and strength, so that you may be apostles of unity at the service of the Church and humanity. Thank you for who you are and what you do! Continue your journey with confidence. I bless you from the bottom of my heart. And I recommend you: do not forget to pray for me. Thank you.
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE FOCOLARE MOVEMENT
Consistory Hall
Thursday, December 7, 2023
_____________________________
Dear brothers and sisters, welcome!
I greet Cardinal Farrel, your President, Doctor Margaret Karram, the Co-President, Don Jesús Morán, the members of the General Council, the delegates of the geographical areas and all of you. I am grateful to you for coming as you celebrate the eightieth anniversary of the foundation of the Focolare Movement, also known as the Work of Mary. Thank you!
It coincides with the day in which the Servant of God Chiara Lubich decided to consecrate herself totally to the Lord. From an inspiration received in an absolutely ordinary life context - while she went shopping for her family - a radical act of donation to God arose, as a response to her call that she had felt sweet and strong in her heart her. It was December 7, 1943, in Trento, in the middle of the war; right on the eve of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Mary's "yes" became Chiara's "yes", generating a wave of spirituality that spread throughout the world, to tell everyone that it is beautiful to live the Gospel with a one simple word: unity. But unity also means harmony: harmonious unity.
In these eighty years, you have made this message resonate among young people, communities, families, people of consecrated life, priests and bishops; and also in different social environments: from the world of school to that of the economy, from that of art and culture to that of information and the media; and in particular in the areas of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue. You have thus been an active instrument of a great flowering of works, initiatives, projects and above all of "rebirths", of conversions, of vocations, of lives donated to Christ and to our brothers. Today we want to thank God for all this.
In February 2021, speaking to your General Assembly, I underlined three important attitudes for your journey: living your charism with dynamic fidelity, welcoming moments of crisis as opportunities to mature, embodying spirituality with coherence and realism (Speech, 6 February 2021 ). Living spirituality. I want to remember them today to encourage you to live them and promote them along three lines: ecclesial maturity, fidelity to the charism and commitment to peace.
Ecclesial maturity. I invite you to work so that the dream of a fully synodal and missionary Church is increasingly realized. Start with your communities, encouraging a style of participation and co-responsibility in them, even at government level. May the "hearths" increase within themselves and spread around them a climate of mutual listening and family warmth, in which we respect and take care of each other, with particular attention to those who are weaker, to those who are most in need of support. To this end, it will be useful for you to follow paths of mutual participation and consultation at all levels, paying special attention to communication and sincere dialogue.
Regarding the second line, fidelity to the charism, I remind you of some words of your Foundress: «Leave only the Gospel to those who follow you. If you do this the ideal of unity will remain [...]. What remains and will always remain is the Gospel, which does not suffer the wear and tear of time" (C. Lubich, in The Word of God, Rome 2011, 112-113). Please sow unity by bringing the Gospel, without ever losing sight of the work of incarnation that God continues to want to carry out in us and around us through his Spirit, so that Jesus may be good news for everyone, no one excluded, and "so that they may all be one" (Jn 17:21).
And so we come to the third line: the commitment to peace, which is so important today. After two millennia of Christianity, in fact, the yearning for unity continues to take on, in many parts of the world, the form of a heartbreaking cry that demands a response. Chiara felt it during the tragedy of the Second World War, and she decided to give her whole life so that that "testament of Jesus" could come true. Today, unfortunately, the world is still torn apart by many conflicts and continues to need artisans of fraternity and peace between men and nations. Chiara said: «Being love and spreading it is the general purpose of the Work of Mary» (Pentecost Vigil, St. Peter's Square, 30 May 1998). Being love and spreading it: this is the main purpose. And we know that only from love is the fruit of peace born. This is why I ask you to be witnesses and builders of the peace that Christ achieved with his cross, defeating enmity. Just think that, from the end of the Second World War until now, the wars have not ended. And we are not aware of the drama of war. I'll tell you something. When I went to Redipuglia in 2014 for the centenary of the First War, and I saw that cemetery, I cried, I cried. How much destruction!
And every November 2nd I go to celebrate in some cemetery, even the last time in the Commonwealth Cemetery, and I see the ages of the soldiers: 22, 24, 18, 30... All lives broken. For the war. And the war doesn't end. And in war everyone loses, everyone. Only the weapons manufacturers earn. And if they didn't make weapons for a year, world hunger could end. This is terrible. We have to think about this drama.
Before concluding, I would like to make one final invitation to you, appropriate in this time of Advent: that of vigilance. The danger of spiritual worldliness always lurks. It is therefore necessary that you also know how to react with decision, coherence and realism. Let us remember that the inconsistency between what we say we are and what we really are is the worst anti-testimony. The inconsistency. Please be careful. And the remedy is always to return to the Gospel, the root of our faith and of your history: to the Gospel of humility, of selfless service, of simplicity. And I always like to remember that you are very close to the secret of God, to the four secrets of God. God cannot understand four things: he doesn't know how many congregations of nuns there are; what the Jesuits think; how much money do the Salesians have; and what the focolarini laugh at!
Dear brothers and sisters, as we have already remembered, you are the Work of Mary: it is she who has accompanied you over these eighty years and you know well that she will never stop doing so. May the Virgin of Nazareth therefore be the source of your consolation and strength, so that you may be apostles of unity at the service of the Church and humanity. Thank you for who you are and what you do! Continue your journey with confidence. I bless you from the bottom of my heart. And I recommend you: do not forget to pray for me. Thank you.
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