by pleung | Jan 31, 2010 | Focolare, Word of Life
“I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture” (Jn 10:9)
February 2010 – Find joy
Jesus presents himself as the one who fulfills the divine promises and the expectations of a people whose story is marked by an alliance with God that has never been revoked.
The idea of the gate is similar to and explained quite well by another image used by Jesus: “I am the way… No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6). He is truly a passageway, an open door that leads to the Father, to God himself.
“I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”
Practically speaking, what does this Word of Life mean? Other passages of the Gospel have implications similar to this phrase from John. Let us reflect on the “narrow gate,” through which we must strive to enter (see Mt 7:13) so as to enter into life.
Why did we choose this passage? We feel that perhaps it is the closest to the truth that Jesus reveals about himself, and it helps us see best how to live it.
When did he become this wide open door, completely open to the Trinity? At the moment the door of heaven seemed to be closed for him, he became the gateway to heaven for us all.
Jesus Forsaken (see Mk 15:34 and Mt 27:46) is the door through which a perfect exchange between God and humanity takes place; in his emptying, he united the children to the Father. It is through that emptiness (the opening of the door) that we come in contact with God and God with us.
So he is at the same time a narrow and wide open door, and we ourselves can experience this.
“I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”
In his abandonment, Jesus himself became our access to the Father. His part is done. But to take advantage of such a huge grace, each one of us must do his or her tiny part, which consists of approaching that door and going through it.
How? When we suffer because of disappointment or something painful, or because of unexpected misfortune or unexplained illness, we can recall the suffering of Jesus, who experienced all these trials and a thousand others.
Yes, he is present in everything that speaks of suffering. Every suffering of ours can bear his name.
Let us try to recognize Jesus in every hardship, in all life’s difficult situations, in every moment of darkness, in our personal trials and those of others, in the sufferings of humanity. All these are him, because he has taken them upon himself.
It would be enough to tell him, with faith, “You, Lord, are my only good” (See Ps 16:2). It would be enough to do something tangible in order to alleviate “his” sufferings in the poor and those who are unhappy, in order to go beyond the door and find a joy on the other side we have never experienced before, a new fullness of life.
By Chiara Lubich
The Word of Life, taken from Scripture, is offered each month as a guide and inspiration for daily living. From the Focolare’s beginnings, Chiara Lubich wrote her commentaries on each Word of Life, and after her death in March 2008, her early writings are now being featured once again. This commentary, addressed to a primarily Christian audience, was originally published in April 1999.
by pleung | Jan 17, 2010 | Focolare
18 January
Disarm
I have to disarm
I have fought this war. For many years.
It was terrible. But now I am disarmed.
I fear nothing,
because “love chases out fear”
I am disarmed from the will to win,
And justifying myself at the expense of others
I am no longer on guard,
jealously holding on to my wealth.
I welcome and share. I am not especially attached to my ideas or projects.
If others have better things to propose,
I accept them willingly…
Whatever is good, true, real, wherever it is,
It is always better for me.
So I am no longer afraid.
When you have nothing
You are not afraid any more
“Who can separate us from the love of Christ?”…
If we disarm, I we divest ourselves of everything,
If we open ourselves to the God-man
Who renews all things,
Then he will wipe out our wicked past
And restore to us a new era where everything is possible.
Ecumenical Patriarch Ahenagoras I
Atenagora Chiesa ortodossa e futuro ecumenico
Morcelliana, Brescia 1995, pp. 209-211
(published by the Priestly Branch of the Focolare Movement)
1月18日
放下自我
必须放下自己。
年复一年，我已苦战良久。
但是，如今我已经放下了自己。
我不再害怕什么，因为“爱驱逐恐惧”。
我放下了取胜的欲望，
也不以别人做代价来证明自我。
我不再吝啬地守护着我的财富，
白白接受的，白白分施。
不固守己见和追求。
如果他人的见解更高明，我喜乐地接受。……
无论何处，凡是美善的，真实的，对我而言，都是更佳选择。
所以，我不再恐惧。
谁若完全空虚自我，就一无所惧。
“有谁能使我们与基督的爱隔绝？”……
如果我们放下自己，空虚自我，向那更新万物的天主子开放；
那么，他就会除去败坏的过去，重新赐给我们一个新时代，在那里，一切都是可能的。
阿特那哥拉一世 宗主教
（Patriarca ecumenico Atenagora I）
阿特那哥拉东正教和大公合一的未来
（Atenagora Chiesa ortodossa e futuro ecumenico）
Morcelliana，布雷西亚1995，209-211页
by pleung | Jan 16, 2010 | Focolare
17 January
“Counselling” in the Church
A moment in the development of language in the early church can be found in the adjectives and adverbs that qualify their way of dealing with one another. For example, the sharing of the gifts of the Spirit was to be done “for the benefit of the community” (1 Cor14:12); “prophesying in turn, so that everyone will learn something.”( 1 Cor 14:31); everything was to be done “with propriety and in order” (1 Cor 14:40), “everybody is to be self-effacing” (Ph 2:3) in mutual relationships; …they were to grow as a body “fitted and joined together, every joint adding to its own strength.” (Eph 4:16). In the sections that deal with admonishment or disapproval, everything was to be done “in a spirit of gentleness” (Gal 6:1), and proclamation was be done “boldly” (Eph 6:20)
If we examine these and other aspects of the language, we realise that some constant themes emerge: order, kindness, diligence, care and attention, sufficient organisational ability to avoid confusion or dispersal… The counsel given in the Church was for itself, with the purpose of establishing order, unity, humility and obedience, to assist in overcoming impulsiveness, inopportune or untimely declarations, and the inability to gather ideas and put them together.
Card. Carlo Maria Martini
Il consigliare nella Chiesa
Al Consiglio pastorale diocesano, 15 aprile 1989
(published by the Priestly Branch of the Focolare Movement)
1月17日
教会内提供建议
在初期教会的交流中，我们发现不少形容词和副词来修饰沟通的形式。例如，神恩的互换，是为了“建立团体”（格前：14，12）；说先知话，应“一个一个的说，为使众人都能学习”（格前：14，31）； “一切都该照规矩按次第而行”（格前：14，40）；在相互关系中要“存心谦下”（斐：2，3）；……应在“因各关节之互补互助，结构紧凑”（弗：4，16）的同一身体内成长；在警告或谴责时，应伴以“柔和”（迦：6，1）；宣讲时该“坦诚无惧”（弗：6，20）。
如果我们细心观察上面以及其它相关沟通的修饰语时，就会意识到几个经常出现的词：秩序，柔和，勤勉，谨慎，关心，一定的组织能力以避免混乱和涣散；……所以在教会内提出建议时，当考虑到全局，应是为了建立秩序、合一、谦卑与温良；应有助于克服冲动、横加干涉、不合时宜、拒绝不同思想、欠缺整体考虑等弊病。
马尔蒂尼枢机（Card. Carlo Maria Martini）
在教会内提供建议
教区牧灵委员会，1989年4月15日
by pleung | Jan 15, 2010 | Focolare
16 January
The “civilization” of community
From the Acts of the Apostles we can see how all Christian communities, growing and multiplying according to the laws of living organisms, all follow the same guidelines. The practice of Jesus’s commandment is the raison d’être of the community itself, and is the totally new and original aspect that sets this community apart from others.
The whole pastoral activity of the Apostles can be summed up as enabling everyone to live the new commandment, which is the summary of the Law and the Prophets. John writes, “This is the commandment that he has given us, that anyone who loves God must also love his brother” (1 Jn 4:21)
The Apostles experienced this communion with Jesus and were the first to be aware of the Kingdom of God among them. Their task was to enable others to enter into and share in this communion, for this is the original “civilization” that God wanted to share with us.
Silvano Cola
Scritti e testimonianze
Gen’s, Grottaferrata 2007, p. 57
(published by the Priestly Branch of the Focolare Movement)
1月16日
团体的“文明”
从《宗徒大事录》的记载可以看出，每一基督徒团体的产生与增长，都遵循着有机体的法则，就如同生命一样，保持着同一的命脉：实践耶稣的命令是团体本身存在的根本，也是其既崭新又原始的面貌，并使之有别于其它团体。
宗徒们所有的牧灵工作，可以总括为：让所有人按照新诫命去生活。这就是法律和先知的总纲：“我们从他蒙受了这命令,——圣若望写到——那爱天主的也应该爱自己的兄弟”（若一：4，21）。
宗徒们经验到了这份与耶稣的共融，他们首先拥有天国在他们中间临现的意识；而他们的使命就是使其他人也来参与这份共融，因为这种“文明”，正是天主原本要通传给我们的。
司万诺•科拉（Silvano Cola）
著作和见证
《新青》，Grottaferrata 2007，75页
by pleung | Jan 14, 2010 | Focolare
15 January
Communion between Pastors and people
Communion must be cultivated and extended day by day and at every level in the structures of each Church’s life. There, relations between Bishops, priests and deacons, between Pastors and the entire People of God, between clergy and Religious, between associations and ecclesial movements must all be clearly characterized by communion. To this end, the structures of participation envisaged by Canon Law, such as the Council of Priests and the Pastoral Council…
The theology and spirituality of communion encourage a fruitful dialogue between Pastors and faithful…Significant is Saint Benedict’s reminder to the Abbot of a monastery, inviting him to consult even the youngest members of the community: “By the Lord’s inspiration, it is often a younger person who knows what is best”. And Saint Paulinus of Nola urges: “Let us listen to what all the faithful say, because in every one of them the Spirit of God breathes”.
Pope John Paul II
Novo millennio ineunte 45
(published by the Priestly Branch of the Focolare Movement)
1月15日
牧人和信友间的相互聆听
每一地方教会都应在日常生活的各个层面上，培养和拓展共融的幅度。在主教与司铎、执事之间、在牧人与全体天主子民间、神职界与献身人士间、在教会内各协会与各运动组织间，都应闪耀出共融的光芒。为达到这目标，应时常重视教会法所指定的相关机构，如：司铎咨议会，牧灵委员会等。
事实上,共融神学以及共融的灵修精神，促请牧者和信众之间做有实效的相互聆听……
圣本笃的话，意味深长，值得反思。圣本笃在提醒隐修院院长要咨询年轻人的意见时说：“上主经常启迪最年轻的人，提供更好的建议”。此外，诺拉的圣保里诺也劝免说：“我们要聆听每一位信友，因为天主圣神启迪每一位信徒”。
教宗若望保禄二世
《新千年的开始》牧函 45
by pleung | Jan 13, 2010 | Focolare
14 January
Forming responsible people
It would be too easy to associate only with people who desire comfortable lives, who wish just to be “towed along”, to be helped or assisted, or just to receive. With them you can play the part of big brother, making them dependent on you.
Your role ought to be that of forming responsible people who want to stand on their own two feet, like real men and women.
It is hard, but you must be decisive and help others to rouse themselves from inactivity, to think for themselves, to organise their own lives, to stand up for themselves, and if necessary to disagree with you.
In that way you will be truly happy to see them growing alongside you.
Card. François-Xavier Van Thuan
Spera in Dio!
Città Nuova, Roma 2008, p. 42
(published by the Priestly Branch of the Focolare Movement)
1月14日
培养有责任感的人
如果只与那些喜欢悠游自在，甘愿做随从的好好先生相处，未免太容易了。这些人只愿跟在别人后边，只想接受，常等着别人来施惠帮助；你在他们中扮演着大哥的角色，俨然是不可或缺的重要人物。
其实，你的任务是培养有责任感的人，即那些不依赖他人，并名实相符的人。
这是相当困难的，但你必须下定决心，来帮助人摆脱麻木的状态，要培养人独立思考，自我筹措，敢于应战的能力；如果必要，也敢于挑战你的思想观点。
那时你将真正喜乐地看到：他们在同你一起成长。
阮文顺枢机
盼望天主
新城出版社，罗马 2008，42页
by pleung | Jan 12, 2010 | Focolare
13 January
Showing the father to the world
I am aware that you, God the Father almighty, have to be the main aim of my life, in such a way that every word of mine, every feeling, expresses you.
The exercise of the word, that you have given me, can have no greater reward that that of serving you by making you known, of showing this world that ignores you or… denies you, that you are Father, Father of the only (Son of) God. This is the only aim I have.
Saint Hilary of Poitiers
PL 10, 48
(published by the Priestly Branch of the Focolare Movement)
1月13日
将父显示于世界
我深深知道，全能的天主父，你应是我生命的最后终向，因此我的一言一行都在彰显着你。
你赐给我言谈的能力，对这个礼物，我唯一渴望回报你的方法就是用来服侍你，使人认识你，向这个忽略、……拒绝你的世界，显示你是父，是天主独生子之父。
这是我生命的唯一目标。
圣依拉略•普瓦捷
（Sant’Ilario di Poitiers）
拉丁教父集 10，48
by pleung | Jan 11, 2010 | Focolare
12 January
If a city were set on fire
If a city were set alight at various points, even by small fires, but they managed to resist being put out, soon the city would be aflame. If a city, in the most different places, were lit up by the fire that Jesus brought on earth, and this fire, through the goodwill of the people who lived there, managed to resist the ice of the world, we would soon have the city aflame with the love of God.
The fire that Jesus brought to earth is himself. It is charity: that love which not only binds the soul to God, but also souls to one another.
In fact, a lighted supernatural fire means the continual triumph of God in souls who have given themselves to him and, because they are united to him, united among themselves.
Two or more people united in the name of Christ, who are not afraid or ashamed to declare explicitly to one another their desire to love God, but who actually make of this unity in Christ their Ideal, are a divine power in the world. And in every city these souls could exist in families: father and mother, son and father, mother and mother-in-law. They could meet in parishes, in associations, in social bodies, in schools, in offices, everywhere.
Chiara Lubich
Meditations
New City London 2005, p. 59
(published by the Priestly Branch of the Focolare Movement)
1月12日
燃烧的城市
如果在一个城市不同的地方投火，虽然火势微弱，只要它能承受住各种阻力，整个城市很快将会变成火海。如果一个城市中，到处燃起耶稣投在地上的火，这火透过人们的善志承受住世界的冰冷，不久整个城市就会燃烧起天主的圣爱之火。
耶稣所投在地上的火就是仁爱，就是他自己。这爱不仅使灵魂与天主结合，同时也使人与人之间彼此结合。其实，燃起超性的火焰，就是天主在奉献给他的灵魂之内的持续的胜利，目的是使这些灵魂结合于他并在他内彼此合而为一。
那里有两个或更多因基督之名融合一起的灵魂，他们不但不害怕或者不羞于彼此宣认他们对天主的渴慕，更以在基督内合而为一作为他们的理想，他们成了世上一股神圣的力量。而在每一个城市，这些灵魂可能出现在家庭中：爸爸-妈妈、儿子-父亲，儿媳-婆母；可能出现在堂区，协会，社团，学校，办公室以及任何地方。
卢嘉勒
灵修著作/ 1
新城出版社，罗马 1991，70页
by pleung | Jan 10, 2010 | Focolare
11 January
Living members everywhere
In my country before Perestroika (döi mái), in each of the two dioceses of Langson and Bac Ninh in North Vietnam, only two priests were left, and they could not freely leave
their residences. Cardinal Giuse Maria Trinh Nhu Khuê recounts: “Small groups of two or more lived the Gospel daily and helped one another in every way; and in their reciprocal gift they experienced the presence of the One who said, ‘But take courage; I have conquered the world!’ (Jn 16:33) ”
Above all, it is thanks to these small groups…that the Church in my country survived. Everywhere, in fact, one could verify the presence of Christ, even among two Christians who met in the market or among two men who worked side by side in a re-education camp. It was not necessary to speak to each other. A particular context was not needed. It was enough to be united “in his name,” which means in his love. One experienced the presence of the Risen One who enlightens and comforts…
Precisely when all was lost, Jesus began to walk the streets of our country again. He left the tabernacle and made himself present in the schools and in the factories, in the offices and in the prisons.
Card. François-Xavier Van Thuan
Testimony of Hope
Pauline Books, Boston 2000, p143-144
(published by the Priestly Branch of the Focolare Movement)
1月11日
耶稣走访我们的国家
越南是我的国家，在北部有两个教区兰森和北宁，在改革开放之前，每个教区只剩下两位神父，而他们也受到管制，不得自由出入离开居住地。若瑟枢机主教（cardinale Giuseppe Trinh Nhu Khuê）记述说：“这些由两个或两个以上的人组成的小团体，每日以福音为生活准则，在各方面彼此帮助，在这种互为礼物的经验中，他们体验到主的临在，他曾说过‘你们要有信心，我已经战胜了世界！’（若：16，33）”。
有赖这些小型团体，（……）我国的教会得以幸存。其实，在任何地方，都可以证实基督的这种临在；甚至在市场相遇的两位基督徒，或一起在劳改营中工作的两个人，他们不需要说什么，不需要什么特殊环境。只要‘因他的名’聚在一起，即留在他的爱内，就能经验到复活之主的临在，经验到他的光照和安慰。……
正当一切都被粉碎时，耶稣再次走访我的国家，他走出圣体龛，来到学校，工厂，办公室和监狱。
阮文顺枢机主教
希望的见证
新城出版社，罗马2008 第十版
183-184页
by pleung | Jan 9, 2010 | Focolare
10 January
Multiply small communities
Strive, therefore, in every parish…to restore life to the small groups or counselling centres for the faithful who proclaim Christ and his word, places where it is possible to experience faith, to put charity into practice and to organize hope.
This structuring of the large urban parishes by the multiplication of small communities allows the mission a larger breathing space, which takes into account the density of the population and its social and cultural features which are often very different. If this pastoral method is also to be applied effectively in workplaces, it would be important to evangelize them with a well thought-out and adapted pastoral ministry since, because of the high social mobility, it is here that people spend a large part of their day.
Pope Benedict XVI
Pastoral Convention of the Diocese of Rome
26 May 2009
(published by the Priestly Branch of the Focolare Movement)
1月10日
增建小型团体
在每一个堂区内你们应尽心竭力复兴……小型团体和各种信友服务中心，即那些宣讲基督和他的圣言，那些让人经验信德，实践爱德以及给人希望的团体。
城市中较大的堂区透过分建小型团体，可以拓展传教的范围，更能顾及到人口的稠密，社会与文化的各种特色，而这些特色通常有着显著不同。
这项牧灵方法也需有效地运用到各工作场所。由于社会的高度流动性，每一天人们要在工作的地方度过很长的时间。所以，藉着周全的牧灵服务使环境福音化，也成了当务之急。
教宗本笃十六世
罗马教区牧灵会议
2009年5月26日
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