John 4:13-14

“Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4:13–14).

(http://www.focolare.org/en/news/2012/09/01/settembre-2012/)

How much one suffers of thirst today, and they all run to drink again, not yet convinced to have mistaken the source!

Is there a source that refreshes? Yes, it is Jesus.

Today activism drains us, it pushes us into a race so anxious so as to lose direction, and one wastes infinite energies in the pursuit of very provisional goals.

Only by satiating that thirst which makes you feel loved by the Father, fully valued and accepted by Him, placing in His hands every concern, looking to Jesus for the Words of Light that assign to every dimension of life the right value, you discover that you no longer need to run because you have already arrived, you are in Christ, in the fullness of life and you move in His presence.

Will you allow yourself to love yourself? To find a space worthy for your interior life, for prayer and meditation, in order to say thank you, in order to ask for pardon, in order to recognize your limits and your greatness? You would become a person with whom one likes being around, like being near the source! … and near the springs rose up entire cities!

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An Experience of Life:

After the first few years of marriage, we moved to a house that best suited our needs. This house had a large garage. Often, we wondered what to make of this environment, which had remained unused for years.

As a married missionary couple of the Community of Villaregia, we wanted to give to our family life the color of the missionary outreach. The work of Tino allowed us to have some free afternoons which we utilized to collect clothing and medicines in the various collection centers for the mission, existing in our area.

Four years ago, we had an idea: why not make available the garage for storage and distribution of medicines? This insight increased the vitality of the family. Every Tuesday, about fifty people gather in our house to select drugs to be shipped in the containers. From early afternoon until late in the evening, there is a steady stream of adults and young people who offer their services to the poor brethren. Last year, thanks to the generosity of so many physicians and pharmacists, and the constant commitment of this group of friends, we were able to prepare thirty-two crates of medicines, worth about three million euros.

Even our four children, not withstanding their study commitments, participate in the initiative, happy to make space within the domestic walls, for brothers near and far.

Tino e Marta (Tombelle (VE), Italy)

Matthew 13:12

“To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” (Mt 13:12)

(http://www.focolare.org/en/news/2012/07/01/luglio-2012-3/)

This passage from the Gospel of Matthew is part of the parable of the sower. The seed is the Word. The Word is not just something added to man, something which man can do without. The earth (the human creature) and the seed (the Word) in fact were created one for the another. It makes no sense to think of the seed without a relationship with the soil. And the soil without the seed is an uninhabitable desert. Man as we know him, if he cuts off all relations with the Word becomes an arid steppe. The Word is just right for the land. It meets and crosses the aspirations of man, his problems, his sins, his longing for salvation, his accomplishments in the personal and social fields.

And Who is this Word? It is Jesus, the Word that has made His dwelling among us. In the word of Jesus is present Jesus Himself Who speaks, Who speaks to us. And so we meet Him in the Word. And receiving the Word in our hearts, as He wants it to be received (that is, being ready to translate it into life), we are one with Him and He is born and grows in us, and so "we are". But for this we must live the Word, make it our own, we set aside ourselves for the Word; to put it above our thoughts, our affections. And with the Word, blooms the Christian community.

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An Experience of Life:

The words of the Gospel continue to make us wonder, especially regarding the "giving".

And so to make available the most immediate and effective practical help we created a site on the Internet. We called it "electronic sharing." There appears a list of offerings: clothing, tools, rental houses, available lessons, possibilities for holidays ... and a list of needs. This simple tool has proven very useful, we have been able to help many people.

For example, a woman abandoned by her husband, with two sons, underpaid work, poor health, needed a car to go to work.

A family discovered this need by way of the "electronic sharing" and offered their car at a very affordable price. Other families offered a contribution to buy the car which was then fixed up. Within a few days the car was delivered and a party was held. Emotion and gratitude. Actually, even that lady offered a contribution to those who find themselves in difficulty.

J. T., Hungary

John 6:68

‘Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life’ (Jn 6:68)

(http://www.focolare.org/en/news/2012/03/01/marzo-2012/)

How many words we hear in a day! There are simple and difficult words, those for love or for hate, those which soothe or make angry. There are tender words or words of reproach. There are words that are imprinted in the memory, which enter into the heart, others that slip away and that we forget quickly. Jesus, after the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, turns to the crowd with a long speech. In the first part He speaks of the mystery of His Person. In the second part Jesus pauses to talk about the bread of the Eucharist. And He identifies Himself with this Food: it is He, Jesus, the living Bread. He who eats It deeply unites himself to God and can live for God Himself.

The listeners were surprised and found it difficult to receive these words. This is why so many leave. Jesus sees the uncertainty of faith even among the twelve. Jesus asks them also to take a position. Peter responds on behalf of the friends with an authentic profession and experience of Christian faith: he recognizes and testifies that only the revelation of Jesus can lead into the divine life: "You have words of eternal life," of the fullness of life. The words of Jesus are words of life. Not only because they can be put into practice, but also because when you live the words your life takes on a particular fullness. We learn to hear the word of God, distinguishing it from a thousand other words that pass by. It is the Word of a Father Who wants the good of the children and this is why He gives us words that give meaning to daily life.

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An Experience of Life:

I went many times to visit Franca in prison. Her pain, her anguish, within the walls of the prison grew every day. I just felt helpless, but every now and then I could give her a bit 'of serenity.

One day she said to me: "I like you because you are like me ".

She had expressed the desire to come to our home during the periods of leave. We talked with the children and together we received her with joy. There was with us, at that time, our mother, rather ill, and it was surprising to see how she knew how to console Franca.

Then there was a special Christmas; Franca was already at our house when we received the news of the arrival of my brother with his whole family.

Knowing his way of thinking I was afraid that the presence of Franca would upset him. Instead, seeing our willingness and the joy that Mom felt in helping the unfortunate girl, after a first moment of surprise, he was taken up by the climate of solidarity without judgment. Franca had found the warmth of a family.

N.S., Italia

P.s.

I highly recommend reading the book:

The True Devotion To Mary,

By St. Louis De Montfort.

(http://www.catholictradition.org/Classics/secret-mary.htm).

In particular read paragraphs 47-59 for our very particular period of time in the history of the world and of the Church.

Blessed Pope John Paul II wrote about this book:

“The reading of this book was a decisive turning point in my life. I say ‘turning point,’ but in fact it was a long inner journey… This ‘perfect devotion’ is indispensable to anyone who means to give himself without reserve to Christ and to the work of redemption.” “It is from Montfort that I have taken my motto: ‘Totus tuus’ (‘I am all thine’). Someday I’ll have to tell you Montfortians how I discovered De Montfort’s ‘Treatise on True Devotion To Mary’, and how often I had to reread it to understand it.”

Matthew 26:41

“Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mt 26:41).
(http://www.focolare.org/en/news/2011/07/01/luglio-2011/)

How can we find the help we need to overcome the temptations in our life? The seven sacraments give us strong graces to be able to say “no” to the temptations and “yes” to Jesus. Six of these sacraments produce effects and give graces corresponding to each sacrament. But the sacrament of the Eucharist is Jesus Christ in His very Person! The source and summit of the Christian life is the Eucharist!

One always experiences a type of emotion when one arrives to the source of the river Piave or of the river Tevere or of some other great river, because those streams of water recall to mind important facts for Italy and for the whole world. In the same way this happens when we pause, without hurry, before the Eucharist: from this sacrament there has gushed forth the whole life of the Church expressed throughout 2000 years of history.

From the Eucharist the martyrs received courage and strength. During the persecutions, the Christians invented every stratagem in order to bring to the condemned the Eucharistic bread.

From the Eucharist there has gushed forth a river of charity that has given rise in the world to hospitals, hospices for the incurables, orphanages and other charitable institutions. Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta would open her religious houses only if there was the possibility of having the Mass and of having Eucharistic adoration “because, she would say, one cannot love the poorest of the poor if one does not feed himself or herself at the source which is Jesus”.

From the Eucharist a great number of Christians obtained wisdom. Saint Thomas Aquinas, held by the Church as the unparalleled teacher, acquired his knowledge from Jesus in the tabernacle, on which he often rested his head.

The Eucharist, the source of the life of the Church, gives rise to unity: “one bread, and one body” (1Cor 10:17).

With the Eucharist we are intimately inserted into the life of Jesus as members of His Body. For this it is called “communion”: it leads us to overcome our instinct to close ourselves in our egoism and it opens us up to the divine love toward others; it makes us one body, as it is one the bread that we eat.

Also the Eucharistic procession seeks to express this unity not static, but of life, of collaboration, of a journey made together.

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An Experience of Life:

Cardinal Van Thuan, during the Jubilee year, preached the Spiritual Exercises to the Pope and to the Roman Curia. In his reflections he recounted many facts of his lived experience in a concentration camp in Vietnam, where he passed 13 years in prison, nine of which were in solitary confinement.

“Put in prison I succeeded in writing to my friends, who sent me a little wine with the label “medicine for the stomach” and some hosts hidden in a sealed torchlight. I can never express my great joy: each day, with three drops of wine and a drop of water in the palm of my hand, I celebrated Mass… They were the most beautiful Masses of my life! So in prison I felt beat in my heart the same Heart of Christ. I felt that my life was His, and His was mine.”

“In the indoctrination camps we were divided into groups of 50 people; we would sleep on a common bed, each allotted 50 centimeters. At 9:30 pm one had to turn off the lights and all had to go to bed. In that moment I curled myself in bed in order to celebrate the Mass, by memory, and I distributed Holy Communion by passing my hand under the mosquito net. We even put together little sacks with the wrappers of cigarette packs in order to conserve the Most Blessed Sacrament and to bring it to others. Eucharistic Jesus was always with me in my shirt pocket.”

“Each week there was an indoctrination session, in which the whole camp had to participate. During the interval, with my catholic companions, we took advantage of this moment in order to pass a small sack to each of the other four groups: all knew that Jesus was in their midst. During the night the prisoners took turns in adoration. Eucharist Jesus helped in unimaginable ways with His silent presence: many Christians returned to the fervor of the faith. Their testimony of service and of love had an ever increasing impact on the other prisoners. Even the Buddhists and other non Christians came to the faith. The strength of the love of Jesus was irresistible.”