Sunday, September 26, 2010

Unbelievable

indescribable, beautiful, amazing.....but i don't think there's a word in the dictionary to describe what I feel after witnessing the beautification of Chiara Luce. its almost surreal. She gave me a taste of heaven.

Listening to the mass despite not being able to understand much of it... I didn't want to leave. I was so drawn by her life and how she lived every moment to its fullest- in the midst of all her suffering. She loved fully the people who were around her and the greatest of all she loved God. When she asked Why? Jesus? Why? a few moments later she answered "If you want it Jesus, I want it (suffering) too."

After the mass, we headed to St. Peter's Square, inside a grand hall with 8000 people and another 5000 outside...there were even more people at the mass. The sharing of her life in every moment from childhood to the end of her earthly life was so incredible. Her life has made me feel how much God loves each and every one of us- his unconditional love is truly shown in her life.

At the end when her parents now in their 70's were on stage shared about moments with their daughter were the most beautiful in her suffering. I couldn't stop but tear a little when Chiara told her mom in the last moments, "Ciao Momma...Be Happy! because I am!"

Her life just doesn't end after this, it will continue to live on as she has paved the way for young people to reach sainthood.

I feel so blessed and so loved by God.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

just an ordinary girl.

There's so much I can update with words or pictures, but the experience I'm having is so much more than that. It's really indescribable because the feeling of joy that is contained in my heart is more than just temporary or tangible. It's a joy that comes from above-God. The girls that I'm living with, all 50 of them from around the world, different cultures, religions, backgrounds, but nonetheless we all try to love each other, placing others before ourselves as we build this true united family. Sometimes we fail, but we always start again.

This weekend we will be traveling to ROMA for the celebration of a ordinary girl who lived an extraordinary life. Her name is Chiara Luce Badano (1971-1990) (not the Chiara I mentioned earlier). She will be beautified this Saturday  as she is on her way to becoming a "saint." A saint in our day and age and she exemplifies how each and every one of us can do the same.

John Paul II said "Don't be afraid to become saints young people."

A glimpse into an ordinary girl...


She wrote to Chiara (Foundress of the Focolare Movement): “I rediscovered Jesus Forsaken in a special way.” She was referring to one of the key point of the spirituality of unity, when Jesus on the cross cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46). When Jesus felt the abandonment of his Father on the cross, it was the deepest suffering of all. In November of that year she wrote again: “I discovered that Jesus Forsaken is the key to unity and I want to choose him as my spouse and be ready for when he comes. I want to prefer him! I realized that I can find him in those who are far from him, in all atheists, and that I must love them in a very special way, without expecting anything at all for myself.” 


 She had a lot of friends. To those who asked her if she talked about Jesus to her friends, she replied: “I must not tell about Jesus, but give Jesus with my behavior.”


Her testimony of faith, love and hope gives me a strength to look past little worries and obstacles I have day in and out. Her suffering only brought her more into her relationship with God who loves her, me, and you IMMENSELY. 


For anyone interested in reading more about her... [Chiara Badano]

Also the Beautification that I will be attending along with 15 000 people will be streamed on TV and Internet from 10am -12pm Eastern Time in Canada [Chiara Luce Badano Live Transmission]









Saturday, September 18, 2010

Pictures :)

Arabic Food - Chicken+ Pastry with minced beef + salad :)
[on the weekends we get to enjoy awesome food made by people of different countries]
Brazilian Food-Pork with Rice+ Bean with Pork + Salad
Sept 12- We took a beautiful walk to this "lago" (Lake)
but it was more like a pond.
The nature around is stunning!
Sept 12- We attempted to climb on this rock and take pictures.
Laura (Columbia) is holding onto Mariam (Palestine)
I finally go onto this rock..and this picture is
with Joselyn (India), Mariam, and Stephanie (Ecuador)
So Michelle (left) and Ula (both from Philiphines) started this trend of jumping off the fence.
There's a funny story to this as I was on the fence with Anna (Australia)
and it's really hard to balance on it....and being CLUMSY as I am.

While I was on the fence, I lost my balance and practically fell into the lake,
there's a hilarious picture to show this (but not gonna post it!)
From Left: Vicky (Jordan), Mariam (Palestine), Anna (Australia), Laura (Netherlands)
I didn't fall this time....
they look red...they're no sunburnt...the photo was just not at the right setting
this is the picture of the day....the epic jumping pictures, but being the photographer (I wasn't in it)
Anna (Australia) looks the best I must say (third from the left)-dunno what she's doing
Sept 14 Night- We had our "Secret Amigo" Night"-
we played this game where each person in the house has a friend
that they needed to do small acts of love for the whole week..
I folded my friend a crane, painted a picture on a rock, gave her candy,
gave her a shoulder massage, wrote her a card. All this time she doesn't know it's me.
Then on Sept 14, we had to prepare a big gift for them and
 we found out who our secret friend was!
 I thought to play a prank. So I got a box and filled it with stuff that belonged 
to the friend that I had: her vitamins, hair gel, a passport, but then obviously
 I included a braceletfor her which was her actual present;)

My friend that i got was "Shatha" from Jordan...
So the person that had me gave me
blow up balloon animals all week, and her final gift,
she gave me a rubber ducky?
 that I had to model the whole night.
sorta embarassing...
Sept 15- this is another good dish we have...Egg omelet with Ham and Cheese
we eat cheese with everything! but it's soooo GOOD...on the right is a potato
it was fried...(as you can see I only ate one)
These beautiful flowers outside the house..it's filled with these flowers all around!
Our House!- as you can see the sign says "Scuola Gen"-Gen School
in english....it's where 50 youth ("gen")
 come together from around the world.
and have participate in a formation ("school of Life")
trying to live our spirituality
of unity called "Focolare."
Everyday and every moment trying to live the words of the Gospel
and building a community where love is the only rule.
thought to take a picture of this cute bambino (baby) outside
the church...he's half flip and italian
Sept 15- Here we were waiting for the 5 gen guys to arrive
 vs the 50 gen girls. We introduced ourselves,
 where we come from, how long we are staying and etc.
So since they were late, and we were just posing for pictures.
So Maria from Korea (in the middle with two peace signs)
she always poses with a peace sign around her eye.
So we thought to pose like that to show how much we love her.

Friday, September 17, 2010

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. 

Sunday, September 12, 2010

life.

Life is such a journey that sometimes we go down certain paths and don't realize how we got there.

I wouldn't have imagined myself in Italy at this moment, it has been such a blessing that sometimes I forget to be thankful for the opportunities I have been given.

On the train ride from Rome to Florence, I was reading a book on Gandhi...and one quote really stuck out.

Here it is,

"As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world outside us-that is the myth of the "atomic age"-as in being able to remake ourselves."

I guess that's why in Italy ....to continue to grow in this journey we call "life."
to understand and to discover my purpose in this world....because to live with a purpose gives meaning to the journey, without a purpose....there's not really a reason to live.

These words gotta be put into action or else they are nothing more than just letters put together.
so let's live in this way to never stop "remaking ourselves" to reach greatness.

But anyhow.....an update on what's been going on.

I live with 50 girls in one house from around the world.
its always LOUD and always full of such JOY.

I wake up at 6:30am to go for a run,
and man is it soo beautiful when its slightly chilly as I run overlooking endless mountains. (I'll take more pics)
We enjoy the same breakfast everyday (cereal and bread)- and no peanut butter, and barely any nutella :(. just jam.

Then we have to clean for 30 mins, then head downstairs to the auditorium to have some "reflection time"
An example of this, we saw a video of Chiara answering the question " If God is love, then why is there so much suffering, wars, and disasters that exist?"

Here was her answer, "In every suffering, God always has a greater plan that sometimes we can't comprehend in the midst of the suffering. God understands how we feel in all our sufferings because he sacrificed his only Son to die for us, and He suffered every imaginable suffering a person can face. In this suffering, God had a plan because his Son was to resurrect and to save us from our sins that we may have eternal life."

So after this reflection, we go to WORK...actually it's like factory work for 3 hours. We fold Christmas cards, stuff them into envelopes, and then package them into boxes, and another job we have is to place soaps into nice boxes, and package them. The soaps actually get shipped to stores in the U.S. and Canada such as TJ max, and Home Sense.

We work to pay for our accomodations, food and trips to cities in Italy we take every month. This month we are going to ROME.

After work, we have lunch break from 1-3pm...where we can sleep, or do anything. Then we work again from 3-6pm. Come home..then go to mass at 6:30pm. Dinner time later at like 8pm. Then we have our group meetings at night twice a week. Also we don't always work in the morning as Mon, Wed, Fri we have italian classes in the morning. that's the schedule. simple but exciting even though its sorta repetitive.

On the weekends, some of the gen from different countries cook their food, this weekend I got to experience Brazilian, Columbian, and Jordanian food :).

Anyways bye for now!
God Bless!

Donata

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Pictures :)


Sept 6/10 -first sunset in Italy

Sept 7/10-from train station in Rome

Sept 7/ 10-inside Rome train station
Sept 8/10- eating Italian cake for the festa of the Scuola Gen (Gen School)
Sept 8/10- Gen Quattro House (where I am staying temporarily)
Sept 9/10- Gabri the Popa for our morning meditation
Sept 10/ 10 overlooking Loppiano on top of the popa formation house
Sept 10/10 first spaghetti meal- so delicious
Sept 10/10 Me-Jolie (Columbia)-Pati (Brazil)--Geraldine (Columbia- Stella (Hong Kong)
Sept 10/10 Orosyla (Romania) + BAMBINA
Sept 10/10- CRAZY gen :) 
Sept 10/10- eating with the Popa in Formation [Paola on the left (my godsister)]

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

the end to a New Beginning

so currently 4:38pm in Italy ....and don't know how I manage to sleep in until 1pm today. almost 13 hour sleep, equivalent to the amount of sleep of the past three nights..one of them being awake for like 24 hours.

I landed in London at 7:20am and spent the 8 hour stopover sleeping in this huge red couch making sure my backpack was right beside me, and my leg was on top of my other carry on as everyone had been warning me of pickpocketers and gypsies.

Then to my surprise the 8 hours went by quite fast as I was starving without food..and being cheap I didn't bother buying food. Then my 3 hour flight to Rome was again short and sweet..landing around 7:40pm in Rome. Running around the airport figuring out who was to pick me up.

I eventually found these nuns that I tried to talk to...because it's soo weird not to talk for such a long period of time and being alone in this foreign country.

My converation consisted of " Mi chiamo Donata, Sono di Canada..." Can I use your cellphone (gesturing a phone)...they understood and one of them was Indonesian which helped.

Finally after three hours I found the other girl from LA and we both took a taxi to Centro Gen, where I was to spend the night.

As soon as I arrived, they all greeted me with smiles and such a welcome that I felt at home again. They offered me to make me pasta at like 11pm..but I just opted for some water. My body was drained but their welcome and love somehow energized me.

So the buildings and homes in Italy are soo different from Canada. To describe it....I took a shower in a bathtub without a curtain, and in every room they have a door to a balcony (this was an apartment)

Tired as I was I must have fell asleep within the first 5 seconds after sending my parents an email saying that I'm still alive as my dad was in deep panic the whole night and day figuring out how to contact me. He was worried to death.

So I managed to squeeze in 6 hours of sleep, but slightly jetlagged. Another thing that is different is the food of course...everything is half the size. their bread, they milk containers, their jam.....no wonder we have an obese epidemic in North America. and they are deprived of chocolate...so I welcomed the girls with some toblerone chocolate.

A while later me and the girl from LA (Elsie) and another gen from Milan took a train to Rome Termini (central station)...where me and Elsie would take a 3 hour train ride to Firenze (Florence). At the station I was extremely cautious of my stuff ....but never really saw any pickpocketers or gypsies again.

Even on the 3 hour train ride, no sight of gypsies and we arrived in Firenze. then took a 15 mins car ride in a pretty ghetto standard car...up the mountains into Loppiano!

What an adventure....and then as soon as I arrived I was greeted by like over 40 gen/youth at the Gen house..from Jordan, Brazil, Colombia, Nigeria, Burundy, Australia, Hong Kong, Argentina, Israel,India....covering the whole world...and tahnkfully most of them knew some english..but mostly all of them knew Italian.

They had like 10 times the energy I had...and they welcomed me with such joy it was contagious. I settled into my petit room as there was limited space in the big big house we were living in....with like at least 7 bedrooms, and 7 washrooms, 2 kitchens, many living rooms, computer room...and just about everything.

Everyone helped me with my luggage, told  me to get rest, asked if I wanted to eat something, introduced me to other ppl, offered me their umbrella, had my bed ready,....endless acts of kindness that made me feel so loved despite being a stranger to them.

I think this is enough of an update as there could be so much more....I'm just beginning to overcome the language barrier and the tiredness I felt.

But today I'm ready to start a new day ...living each present moment.
(btw...thanks for all those that came to my party, and also those that couldn't come)

with Love,

Donata