Focolare:)

CIAO! soo now that I have some time to post again...I want to share with everyone a few things to maybe clarify some of the things I have mentioned such as Chiara, and a "gen." You might not know what it all comes from...

I'm in Florence, Italy to participate in an international formation program that brings youth (called "New Generation"-or short form "gen")from all around the world to come together as we are part of a movement that is based on the spirituality of unity, which is called the "Focolare." The Spirituality of Unity means it aims for universal brotherhood among people of different religions, race, background, age, etc. to fulfill Jesus' last prayer to the Father, "May they all be one."

This international movement called the Focolare began in the midst of the WWII when Chiara Lubich (the Foundress of the Focolare) discovered that the only thing that no bomb can destroy was the experience and discovery that God is LOVE. Chiara along with her friends began reading phrases in the Gospel everyday that they could put into practice in their life. 

For example, when they saw an elderly woman stumbling very slowly to the air-raid shelter, they understood that in order to truly love, they risked their life to help this woman. In this act of love they found an incredible joy in their heart that only God could have shared with them.  There they discovered the secret of how to respond to God, who is Love. At that time, Chiara herself wrote: "Each day there were new discoveries: the Gospel had become our only guide, the only light of our life."

By living the "Golden Rule" of the Gospel present in every religion (Treating others the same way you want to be treated), they discovered the way for building the human family of diversity in a disintegrated society. 

In less than 60 years of life, the movement has spread worldwide to 182 countries counting more than two million adherents with an outreach, difficult to quantify, of a few million people. The Focolare movement has spread into the fields of politics in the "Movement of Unity in Politics," in the area of Economy- "Economy of Communion," and health & education in the group "International Cooperation."

So if you didn't really understand any of that.....it's basically people trying to live words of the Gospel in their lives wherever they are, at work, at school, at home and anywhere else. Also trying to unify humanity through the basic commandment of love.

So perhaps in these next 10 months of my journey in Italy, you will see how this spirituality of Unity called Focolare has transformed my life as I concretely try to put the Gospel into practice daily.