“Thank you all for the evening. You have allowed me to contemplate the wealth of the Church in its Charismas. Chiara Lubich always said that the church is a marvellous garden full of flowers of all different colours. Thank you!”
With these words, Maria Voce, called Emmaus in the Focolare Movement, concluded the meeting in the hall of the Curia of the Custody of the Holy Land.
All the movements present in the Holy Land were invited to the meeting, with their different charismas.
The Custody offered its resources for the meeting and the Focolare Movement organized everything very well, even providing interpreters for all the languages of the movements present: Italian, French, English, Portuguese, Hebrew and Arabic. All the movements and the communities that attended introduced themselves and briefly told their story and their experiences in the Holy Land.
“This meeting of the different movements with their specific charismas has been organized to spend some time together and to get to know one another,” said Maria Voce, “Meeting others is important for our movement: loving everyone without distinction of charisma, faith, religious creed, conviction, even our enemies; being the first to love and without ulterior motives, knowing that you can receive nothing in exchange; loving always; that they may all be one, as you , Father, are in me and I in you, that they may also be is us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (John 17,21) … this is one of the fundamental points of our charisma, being one, each of our charismas is part of the body of Christ which here in this Holy Land became incarnate. All men need love and all are capable of loving.”
Recalling the words of John Paul II on the vigil of Pentecost, on 30th May 1998, Maria Voce said that the Holy Spirit invoked on that important occasion has worked in these years and relations of collaboration between the various movements and communities have increased.
“In the communion between movements, we can benefit from one another. They are complementary, one has what the other does not have. In this communion, we rediscover and reinforce our identity, faithful to our own gift. By strengthening our charisma in this communion, we are of help to the Church which sees alongside its Petrine charisma the Marian charisma of the movements. I do not see any danger of syncretism between the various movements but a need for reciprocity between the various charismas.” She recalled the words that Mother Teresa once said to Chiara Lubich “What you do, I cannot do but what I do, you cannot do. We have a different charisma and both serve the Church.”
The meeting came to an end with a moment of prayer in which many expressed their gratitude for the lovely evening and thanked God for the gift of the various charismas, hoping that they can be of use for the Church of the Holy Land. There was a moment of fraternity over something to eat to exchange the last goodbyes in the hope that there will again be opportunities for the various movements to meet.
Maria Voce will hold a meeting on Wednesday 16th at 4.00 p.m. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on the theme “The Role of Dialogue to Promote Peace”.
Marco Gavasso
With these words, Maria Voce, called Emmaus in the Focolare Movement, concluded the meeting in the hall of the Curia of the Custody of the Holy Land.
All the movements present in the Holy Land were invited to the meeting, with their different charismas.
The Custody offered its resources for the meeting and the Focolare Movement organized everything very well, even providing interpreters for all the languages of the movements present: Italian, French, English, Portuguese, Hebrew and Arabic. All the movements and the communities that attended introduced themselves and briefly told their story and their experiences in the Holy Land.
“This meeting of the different movements with their specific charismas has been organized to spend some time together and to get to know one another,” said Maria Voce, “Meeting others is important for our movement: loving everyone without distinction of charisma, faith, religious creed, conviction, even our enemies; being the first to love and without ulterior motives, knowing that you can receive nothing in exchange; loving always; that they may all be one, as you , Father, are in me and I in you, that they may also be is us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (John 17,21) … this is one of the fundamental points of our charisma, being one, each of our charismas is part of the body of Christ which here in this Holy Land became incarnate. All men need love and all are capable of loving.”
Recalling the words of John Paul II on the vigil of Pentecost, on 30th May 1998, Maria Voce said that the Holy Spirit invoked on that important occasion has worked in these years and relations of collaboration between the various movements and communities have increased.
“In the communion between movements, we can benefit from one another. They are complementary, one has what the other does not have. In this communion, we rediscover and reinforce our identity, faithful to our own gift. By strengthening our charisma in this communion, we are of help to the Church which sees alongside its Petrine charisma the Marian charisma of the movements. I do not see any danger of syncretism between the various movements but a need for reciprocity between the various charismas.” She recalled the words that Mother Teresa once said to Chiara Lubich “What you do, I cannot do but what I do, you cannot do. We have a different charisma and both serve the Church.”
The meeting came to an end with a moment of prayer in which many expressed their gratitude for the lovely evening and thanked God for the gift of the various charismas, hoping that they can be of use for the Church of the Holy Land. There was a moment of fraternity over something to eat to exchange the last goodbyes in the hope that there will again be opportunities for the various movements to meet.
Maria Voce will hold a meeting on Wednesday 16th at 4.00 p.m. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on the theme “The Role of Dialogue to Promote Peace”.
Marco Gavasso