On the 18th of June, Gabriele introduced us to the figure of Takashi and Midori Nagai, whose causes of beatification are promoted by the Catholic Association "Friends of Takashi and Midori Nagai" of which he is the president.
You can find the recording of our meeting with him in Dublin here.
During the Q&A questions at the end of the video, Gabriele talks about his vocation as a Memores Domini.
Memores Domini is a Catholic association, recognised by the Holy See in 1988 as a private, universal, ecclesial association which originated in and is sustained by the ecclesial experience of Communion and Liberation. It is composed of lay men and women who belong to the movement of Communion and Liberation and live their lives trying to imitate and identify with Jesus Christ, with the aim of bringing faith back into people's lives. They do this first and foremost through their work. Their lives can be synthesised in the categories with which the Church traditionally sums up the imitation of Christ: obedience, poverty and virginity. This is the modality through which they dedicate their lives completely to Christ.
We propose to meet on Sunday 18th June in Donnybrook parish center at 11.30 am for a video-call with Gabriele Di Comite who is the President of the Catholic Association "Friends of Takashi and Midori Nagai" which promotes their cause for beatification. We propose then to have lunch together (packed lunch) after the meeting.
"What never dies" - trailer New York Encounter 2022 - Youtube
"I just finished watching the recording of Hans Van Mourik Broekman's talk, and I found it very inspiring. I have so many notes! I wish every school would share its testimony with their teachers as an encouragement." Brian, who just met us, surprised me thus a few days ago after watching the recording of the first meeting we organized last October in Dublin to celebrate the centenary of Fr. Giussani's birth. Or Regina, a friend of Elisa, who had invited her for the first time, who confides that those two meetings gave her the strength to go on with her work that had become extremely difficult.
What happened? And how did it come about? At the end of 2021, I changed jobs and started working in an American multinational company with its European headquarters in Dublin, working in a global team, composed of people scattered across America, Israel and of course Dublin. It was like being catapulted into the world, and the initial fatigue was immediately accompanied by a strong and unexpected "yearning” for those people of (almost) every race and country who participated in the video work calls so that they could meet Christ, the One who filled my life with meaning and gusto. It was a yearning that was combined with an immense gratitude for Fr. Giussani and the movement that had been their channel for meeting Him. So I proposed the gesture to the community and a dozen friends made it possible to organize two meetings entitled "A life lived to the full" one in early October and one in mid-November in the chapel of the University where Chiara, a dear friend of the movement, teaches.
Click here to continue to read the article and watch the recordings of the two meetings.
The Way of the Cross, in the heart of a city where thousands of people carry their daily cross, most of the times dreadfully alone: If God exists, He has nothing to do with my daily life. This is the true cross of every day, the cross of a person abandoned only to himself in his most inner need for a never-ending love, truth, beauty, and justice.
We need the presence of “God-with-us,” Jesus, every day. And Jesus, because of the sacrifice of His cross and because of His resurrection, dwells among us, every day.
To those who suffer, God does not provide arguments which explain everything; rather, his response is that of an accompanying presence, a history of goodness which touches every story of suffering and opens up a ray of light. In Christ, God himself wishes to share this path with us and to offer us his gaze so that we might see the light within it. Christ is the one who, having endured suffering, is “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Heb 12:2).
Pope Francis
Recommencing is a word very close to the most Christian word, the ultimate Christian word, “Resurrecting,” “resurrection.” How many times have we been reminded that this is precisely why Easter is the main mystery, the great mystery of the Christian life! It is thanks to Him who is among us that each one of us restarts, each one of us recommences, each one of us is reborn, each one of us is resurrected. Every day, every hour, every minute of our lives, resurrecting, resuming, recommencing must set our path, must be the law.
Luigi Giussani
You can watch the video here.
On the occasion of the 18th anniversary of the death of the Servant of God Fr. Luigi Giussani (Feb. 22, 2005) and the 41st anniversary of the pontifical recognition of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation (February 11, 1982), Masses are scheduled to be celebrated around the world, presided over by cardinals and bishops.
In Ireland, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, led us in the celebration from Donnybrook parish in Dublin.
The intention for Mass, shared with more than 200 other celebrations around the world, was:
"In grateful memory of Fr. Giussani let us ask the Lord that we may correspond with our whole lives to the invitation addressed to us by Pope Francis on October 15 to accompany him in the prophecy for peace, in the prophecy that indicates the presence of God in the poor, in the prophecy that announces the presence of God in every nation and culture".
For me, everything happened like the surprise of a “beautiful day,” when one of my high school teachers–I was then 15 years old–read and explained to us the prologue of the Gospel of St. John. “The Word of God, or rather that of which everything was made, was made flesh,” he said. “And therefore Beauty was made flesh, Goodness was made flesh, Justice was made flesh, Love, Life, Truth were made flesh. Being does not exist in a Platonic nowhere; it became flesh, it is one among us.” That is the whole story. My life as a very young man was literally invaded by this; both as a memory that continually influenced my thought and as a stimulus to make me reevaluate the banality of everyday life. The present moment, from then on, was no longer banal for me. When such a “beautiful day” happens and one unexpectedly sees something of extraordinary beauty, one cannot help but speak about it to one’s friends. One cannot help but cry out: “Look there!” And that’s what happened.
Luigi Giussani
As a boy, at just 15 years of age, he was thunderstruck by the discovery of the mystery of Christ. He had intuited–not only with the mind but with the heart–that Christ is the unifying center of all reality, he is the answer to all human questions, he is the fulfilment of every desire for happiness, goodness, love and eternity present in the human heart. The wonder and fascination of this first encounter with Christ never abandoned him. As the then-Cardinal Ratzinger said at his funeral: “Fr Giussani always kept the eyes of his life and of his heart fixed on Christ. In this way, he understood that Christianity is not an intellectual system, a packet of dogmas, a moralism; Christianity is rather an encounter, a love story; it is an event.” Here lies the root of his charisma. Fr Giussani attracted, convinced, converted hearts because he transmitted to others what he carried within him after that fundamental experience of his: the passion for humanity and the passion for Christ as the fulfilment of man.
Pope Francis
You can watch the video here.
On Saturday 10th December at 7.30 pm at the Church of the Sacred Heart, Donnybrook, Stillorgan Rd, the choir of Communion and Liberation Ireland will perform in an evening of Christmas Songs and Readings.
At the end of the evening, there will be a collection in support of the
AVSI Foundation Christmas campaign “Peace is Possible”, for projects in Ukraine and other countries. For more info about AVSI and its projects, please visit www.avsi.org.
Everyone is welcome
In this centenary year of the birth of Fr. Luigi Giussani (1922 – 2005), the Catholic community of Communion and Liberation in Ireland warmly invites you to a series of talks with the theme ‘A Life Lived to the Full – A Tender Passion for the Person’.
The speakers – drawn from three continents – will share the continued impact of Fr. Giussani’s witness in their lives today and help us to understand who Fr Giussani was and why his way of speaking of Christ resonated so deeply around the world, creating communities of people following his charism.
The talks will take place at St Laurence’s Church at TU Dublin, Grangegorman Lower, Dublin 7, D07 E244. Talks are from 7.30 – 8.30 pm and are preceded by a welcome reception from 7 pm.
Thursday October 6, 2022. Speakers are:
- Hans van Mourik Broekman, Author of Full Life – Letters to My Students and Principal at Liverpool College in England
- Fr. Michael Carvill FSCB, Pastor of Nativity of Our Lord Parish, Broomfield, Colorado, USA.
Tuesday November 15, 2022. Speakers are:
- Dr. Mauro Prina, Director of Thermal Dynamics at Elon Musk’s SpaceX in Los Angeles, USA
- Hsieh-Ning Wang, Exhibition organiser and art educator, Taichung, Taiwan.
Dear Friends,
As the audience that Pope Francis has granted us for the Centenary of the birth of our beloved Fr. Giussani, filling us with deep gratitude and joy, approaches, I feel the urgency to re-iterate to you the reasons for our participation in such an important event, to help us await for it with humble and sincere hearts, wide open in prayer.
The audience will be a fundamental step on the journey we are on. At such a delicate moment for the movement, with the pilgrimage to the house of Peter we want to affirm once again our affectionate following of the Pope, and in it our passionate love for Christ and the Church. As sons and daughters, we therefore entrust to Pope Francis the desire that animates us from deep within to offer, through the concreteness of our existence, our contribution of faith and of building the common good for the benefit of all our human brothers and sisters, continuing to beg, first and foremost for ourselves, for Him who alone can fulfil the thirst of the human heart: Jesus of Nazareth. This is what Fr. Giussani taught us and witnessed to with his life: “In the great riverbed of the Church and in fidelity to the Magisterium and to Tradition, we have always wanted to bring people to discover–or to see more easily–how Christ is a presence” (Fr. Giussani). We “exist only for this.”
In these weeks leading up to the audience, therefore, let us keep awake our petition to Christ that He may make us capable of renewing our yes to His call in every moment: it is in the yes of each of us, in fact, that our following the Church, which we wish to express through our united presence in St. Peter’s Square on October 15, is made concrete.
As we await the meeting with the Holy Father, with our hearts open to welcome his words and blessing with joyful gratitude, trusting in the merciful embrace of the Church, we entrust the journey of our movement to Our Lady's intercession. We are aware of our nothingness and at the same time are full of indomitable hope in the One who can do everything, in walking that “beautiful road” of which Fr. Giussani never ceased to make us certain: “How can we live out the familiarity with Him, that
familiarity in which His word becomes evident and the only one that gives meaning to life? There is a way: the companionship born of Christ has erupted in history: it is the Church, His body, the mode of His presence today, a day-by-day familiarity, a commitment in the mystery of his presence within the sign that is the Church. This is how a rational evidence, fully reasonable, can be born, which makes us repeat with certainty what He, unique in the history of humanity, said of himself: I am the way, the truth, and the life” (Fr. Giussani).
Let us pray to the Holy Spirit to accompany us and enlighten us, and let us always pray for the Pope and his intentions.
In friendship,
Davide Prosperi
Download the booklet in English here or look for other languages on the CLInternational Website
The International Assembly of leaders of the movement was held in La Thuile from August 26 to 30, entitled "The Master is here and is calling you". It brought together almost 500 leaders of the movement from more than 70 countries.
We publish the text of the introduction by Davide Prosperi, president of the CL Fraternity, which also includes the message sent to the participants from Fr. Julián Carrón.
The texts of the meditations of Father Mauro-Giuseppe Lepori, Abbot General of the Cistercian Order, on the occasion of the Spiritual Exercises of the Fraternity of CL, held via video link from Friday April 29 to Sunday May 1, 2022.
We are with the Pope and with all those who are doing their best to stop the horror of this war. We are with the Pope, who defends and proclaims peace. But how fragile is the desire for peace if this desire does not become a task, a daily responsibility, to build experiences that ensure education, work, charity, and justice for our people, and every people?
Much has been said and much will be said about the causes and possible short and long-term effects of this senseless invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army. As Christians, our gaze is first and foremost fixed on the human: men, women, children, the elderly, the sick and dependent, who are suddenly threatened by the nightmare of bombings, a lack of food and basic necessities, the loss of loved ones, and who are forced to flee their homes, abandoning everything to the unknown. Will they find someone who wants to take them in?
We cannot think of standing by and watching events unfold, waiting for them to pass; and this is not only because this time the conflict goes to the heart of Europe, but because we will suffer the consequences of this tragic war for a long time. Aeschylus already observed that the first victim of every war is the truth. Lies feed hatred, create enmity, open deep scars between Christians who are brothers and sisters in the faith who fight each other without knowing why.
We recognize that the words of Pope Francis in Fratelli tutti are very true at this time: “Every war leaves our world worse than it was before. War is a failure of politics and of humanity, a shameful capitulation, a stinging defeat before the forces of evil. Let us not remain mired in theoretical discussions, but touch the wounded flesh of the victims. Let us look once more at all those civilians whose killing was considered 'collateral damage'. […] Let us hear the true stories of these victims of violence, look at reality through their eyes, and listen with an open heart to the stories they tell. In this way, we will be able to grasp the abyss of evil at the heart of war."
In this hour of anguish and torment, of uncertainty for the fate of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters, adhering to the Day of Fasting appealed for by the Pope to the whole Church next Ash Wednesday (March 2, 2022), we invoke the intervention of the Holy Spirit through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the only "living fountain" of hope.
The Way of the Cross, in the heart of a city where thousands of people carry their daily cross, most of the times dreadfully alone: If God exists, He has nothing to do with my daily life. This is the true cross of every day, the cross of a person abandoned only to himself in his most inner need for a never-ending love, truth, beauty, and justice.
We need the presence of “God-with-us,” Jesus, every day. And Jesus, because of the sacrifice of His cross and because of His resurrection, dwells among us, every day.
Christ is the life of my life: in Him is summed up all that I would desire, all that I look for, all that I sacrifice, all that develops in me out of love for the persons with whom He has put me. Christ is a man who lived as everybody else two thousand years ago, but who, risen from the dead, invested by the power of the Mystery–in which by then He participated in His own nature–takes hold of us day after day, hour after hour, action after action.
Luigi Giussani
You can watch the video here.
The video is also available in multiple languages on the Communion and Liberation official Youtube channel.
On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the Servant of God Fr. Luigi Giussani (1922) and the 40th anniversary of the pontifical recognition of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation (February 11, 1982), hundreds of Masses are celebrated in Italy and around the world, presided over by cardinals and bishops.
In Ireland, Archbishop Diarmund Martin, lead us in the celebration from Donnybrook parish in Dublin.
The intention for Mass, shared with more than 200 other celebrations around the world, was:
"Let us ask, through the intercession of Our Lady "the living fountain of hope," to personally live and witness every day, in total fidelity to the Church, the responsibility of the charism given by the Spirit of Christ to Fr. Giussani for the benefit of all the holy People of God and of our human brothers and sisters.".
A full list of Masses around the world is available here.
Father Luigi Giussani engaged tirelessly in educational initiatives throughout the course of his life. Much of his thought was communicated through the richness and rhythm of oral discourse, preserved as audio and video recordings in the Archive of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation in Milan.
This volume presents some of the spiritual exercises of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, drawing from the transcripts of these recordings. In these exercises, Giussani investigates the rise of ethics and the decline of ontology that have accompanied modernity and the spread of rationalism. Bearing up against old age and illness, he resisted the urge to withdraw, instead finding new avenues of communication and the technological means to reach all corners of the movement. To Give One’s Life for the Work of Another explores the nature of God, the powerful human experience of self-awareness, and the fundamental components of Christianity, in the unmistakable voice of a consummate teacher.
At a time when young people are abandoning the church and questioning the value of faith, Father Giussani’s method of judging and verifying Christianity as an experience is a timeless intervention.
You can download the text here.
[Original title: Dare la vita per l’opera di un Altro]
The book is available for purchase through McGill-Queen's University Press and on Amazon.
"When John and Andrew found Christ, they didn’t understand the beyond, what paradise could mean, but they felt something there that was like a paradise, a piece of paradise: it was a piece of something Other. It already exists, it’s something present. Therefore, faith is to grasp, to recognize a present."
Luigi Giussani
You can watch the video here.
The video is also available in multiple languages on the Communion and Liberation official Youtube channel.
On Saturday, November 27, 2021, the Central Diaconia of the Fraternity of CL gathered in Milan to be informed by the Vice-President about the interview that took place with the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life during the past few days and where he had been called after the resignation of its President, Fr. Carrón. Prosperi reported that the Prefect of the Dicastery, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, confirmed him that, according to art. 19 of the Statute of the Fraternity of CL, in the event of the President’s resignation, the Vice-President fully takes over. Therefore, he acknowledged to him the full powers as interim President of the Fraternity. Thus, the Central Diaconia unanimously took note of the task he was entrusted and expressed their complete availability and cooperation.
The Equipe of the teachers and educators of Communion and Liberation (CLE) is an occasion of friendship, dialogue, and encounter. As such, it showcases the experience of many adults who, engaged in various roles in the world of the education of young people, have taken part in recent years.
The meeting of the Equipe this year–on the eve of the beginning of the school year–was anticipated in a particular way, not only for the joy of coming together in person and in a more extended way, but also because of the awareness that we are facing a dramatic moment, that we are immersed in a time that challenges our very identity. [...}
Click here to continue reading the news and access the pdf with the notes of the Assembly in English and other languages
On Saturday, September 25th 2021, the community of CL in Ireland met in Dublin to follow the live streaming video of the Beginning of the Year Day of the Adults and University Students of Communion and Liberation held in Milan by Fr Julian Cárron. Following current government guidelines, we proposed to meet at Marino Institute of Education to help each other live this moment and to start renewed this new social year together. People from the communities in Dublin, Wicklow, Cork and Limerick came together while many others followed from their home the lesson by Fr Cárron.
The title of the BOYD was: "YOU ARE NOT LACKING IN ANY SPIRITUAL GIFT"
The text of this meeting will accompany us in our work on school of community for the next few months.
Please download the full text from the link below.
The following text is an excerpt from the notes on a conversation Msgr. Luigi Giussani had in the summer of 1964. It first appeared in English in the July 2000 issue of Traces.
From Gioventù Studentesca’s earliest days we have had a clear and simple idea: free time is time when you are not obligated to do anything, there is nothing you are obligated to do, free time is free time.
Keep on reading the article here
In this volume, the president of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation addresses one of the most widespread questions of this time dominated by uncertainty: "Is there hope?" The impact with the harshness of reality has brought out everyone’s human need. Even in these dramatic times, perhaps even more so, our hearts are not satisfied by partial answers and cry out for something that truly lives up to the challenge.
"An unexpected event is the only hope," said Montale. The announcement of this unexpected event has resounded in history, making the first people who met Jesus gasp. Since then, the seed of hope has entered the world and continues to take root in people it encounters, rekindling and reviving their hearts. One perceives in them a "strange positivity" and the audacity to challenge evil, pain and even death by virtue of a present experience.
Pope Francis has invited everyone to join in the prayer of the Holy Rosary this month of May 2021 to ask for the end of the pandemic, which has afflicted the world for more than a year now, and to ask for the resumption of social and work activities.
“At the beginning of this month dedicated to Our Lady,” the Holy Father said, “We join together in prayer with all the sanctuaries spread throughout the whole world, with the faithful, and with all persons of good will, to entrust into the hands of our Holy Mother the whole human race, sorely tried by this period of pandemic.”
With some friends, we will pray the Rosary every evening at 9.00 pm on Skype: everyone is welcome. In particular, we invite everyone to join in prayer on the 10th of May when the Holy Rosary will be lead from Knock Shrine at 5.00 pm, Irish time. Live stream on the Knock Shrine website, Knock Shrine Facebook page and on Vatican Media channels.
You can find the press release from the Pontifical Council for promoting the new Evangelization here.
Contact us for more information
As every year, Communion and Liberation Ireland organises a Way of the Cross on Good Friday. As the current Covid 19 restrictions won't allow us to physically follow the cross through Phoenix Park as we have done so many times in the past, we invite everyone to join us for a moment of reflection on the stations of the Way of the Cross online from Donnybrook Parish, Dublin at 12.00 pm.
The Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell will join us, leading the meditation at the beginning of the Way of the Cross.
It will be possible to view the recording of the event at this link. To help following the celebration please download the booklet with the readings and the songs.
Contact us for more information
Ultimately, people–young and not so young–need one thing: the certainty of the positivity of their time and of their lives, the certainty of their destiny.
To say “Christ is risen” is to affirm that reality is positive; it is to lovingly affirm reality. Without Christ’s Resurrection, there is only one possibility: nothingness.
Christ makes Himself present as the Risen one in every period of time, throughout the whole of history. The Spirit of Jesus, that is to say the Word made flesh, becomes an experience possible for ordinary man, in His power to redeem the whole existence of each person and human history, in the radical change that He produces in the one who encounters Him and, like John and Andrew, follows Him.
You can read an article by Giuseppe Frangi presenting the picture that was chosen for the poster 2021 here.
You can watch the Videoposter prepared by CL here.
Pope Francis highlights devotion to Our Lady in a video message on Friday as Ireland’s Knock Shrine, which has held the status of national Marian Shrine for decades, is elevated to the status of an International Sanctuary of Special Eucharistic and Marian Devotion.
These are the words the Holy Father sent via video message (you can watch the original video message here) to the Irish faithful:
Brothers and sisters, good evening!
I wish to take advantage of the media to be with you at such an important time in the life of the Shrine.
Ever since the apparition of 21 August 1879, when the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to some villagers in Knock together with Saint Joseph and Saint John the Apostle, the Irish people have expressed their devotion wherever they have been. You have been a people of missionaries. It is good to remember how many priests left their land to become evangelisers. Nor can we forget the many lay people who emigrated to many lands and kept alive their devotion to Our Lady of Knock. How many families, over the course of almost a century and a half, have passed on the faith to their children and gathered their daily labours around the prayer of the Rosary with the image of Our Lady of Knock at its centre! The arms of the Virgin Mary in a praying position still show how fundamental the life of prayer is, which comes as a message of hope from this Shrine. You know that in the apparition of Knock the Virgin does not say a word. But even her silence is a language; indeed, it is the most expressive language that is given to us. The message from Knock is the great value of silence for faith.
It is silence before the mystery, which does not mean renouncing understanding, but understanding sustained and assisted by the mystery of the love of Jesus who offered himself for all of us, as the Lamb sacrificed for the salvation of humanity. It is silence before the great mystery of love, which finds no possible response other than to surrender oneself with trust to the will of the merciful Father. Finally, it is the silence that Jesus asked for when he taught us: “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Mt 6:6-8).
Dear brothers and sisters present in Knock, and all of you who are following this solemn moment through the new communications media! To have raised the national Shrine of Our Lady of Knock to an international Shrine of special Eucharistic and Marian devotion is a great responsibility. You commit yourselves to keeping your arms always wide open in a sign of welcome to every pilgrim who reaches you from every part of the world, without asking him anything, only recognising him or her as a brother or sister who wishes to share the same experience of prayer in mutual fraternity. May welcome be combined with charity and become an effective testimony of a heart that opens to receive the Word of God and the grace of the Holy Spirit that gives strength. May the mystery of the Eucharist, which unites us in communion with the Risen Lord and with each other, always be the support for us to live faithfully our vocation to be missionary disciples, as was the Virgin Mary, who made herself a pilgrim of the Gospel of her Son. May she protect us and console us with her merciful face.
I greet you, I greet you all, imploring a blessing for you, and I ask you, please, to pray for me!
Source: Vatican.va
On the 13th March at 9.00 pm, we invite everyone to an evening of Music and Poetry with Prof. Pier Paolo Bellini
"Life lies beyond the music, in the foreground: it is a single note, from the beginning to the end. Once you become conscious of that note you never lose it again: it remains as a fixation, a fixation that makes a person a person: It’s the desire for happiness".
Luigi Giussani
Contact us if you wish to access the recording of this event or if you wish to have more information about similar events we will organise in the future.
Masses are celebrated all over the world for the 16th anniversary of Fr. Giussani's death and the 39th anniversary of the pontifical recognition of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation.
In Ireland, the new Archbishop of Dublin, Dermot Farrell, lead us in the celebration from Holy Cross parish in Dundrum, Dublin on Tuesday the 2nd of March at 7.30 pm. In respect of the regulation for Covid19, it was possible to join the live streaming event via the parish webcam.
The intention for Mass, shared with more than 200 other celebrations around the world, was:
“In the difficult circumstances we are called to share with all our brothers and sisters, we ask the Lord to grant us the watchful and grateful awareness of the gift received in our encounter with Fr. Giussani’s charism, that we may continue to better serve the Church, recognizing that Christ dwells in every passing instant and, therefore, nothing is useless; everything is a sign of an indestructible positivity”.
A full list of Masses around the world is available here.
On the first Sunday of Lent 2021 (21/2) at 3.00 pm we propose a moment of reflection to step away momentarily from our busy routines and be recalled to the meaning of Lent and Easter in our lives.
This year the Lent Retreat will be held online on Zoom. We welcome again Mgr Paul Callan V.G. to lead us in the reflection. The retreat will conclude with the celebration of Holy Mass online.
Everyone is welcome. If you wish to join us for the Lent Retreat, contact us.
The Weekend of the 12- 14 February 2021 New York City will host the annual New York Encounter Special Edition.
The 2021 edition will be entirely online and will be broadcasted live and visible on the Encounter YouTube channel. It is, therefore, possible to join from all over the world for a weekend of public discussion, exhibits and performances to sustain our desire to live fully here and now.
This is how the theme for this year's edition, entitled "When reality hits", is presented on the New York Encounter Website:
In 2020 reality hit us hard. [...] Reality is still hitting. It has elicited the best in us: an urgency to respond, admiration for the caregivers, solidarity with those in need and for the victims of injustice. But after so many months, tiredness and a sense of rebellion are sinking in. Ultimately, the events of the past months have exposed our radical neediness and debunked our illusion of control. A deeper, truer core of our humanity is emerging: expectancy. Expectancy of a vaccine, of the end of racism, of political change or … of something else, more radical. It is this expectancy that pushes us towards the future, igniting the desire to continue to walk. We want to move forward. But we do not want our experience of these events to be muddled by ideological interpretations. We do not want to waste the sorrow we have suffered and the lessons we have learned, as if they had been in vain.
What happened in 2020 indeed changed and is still changing us. What is the nature of this change? What are we looking for? Will life ever be the same? Can this change be a milestone in the journey of life?
You can find more information, the program of the 2 days and more updates here. Also, you can read an interview with Riro Maniscalco, chairman of New York Encounter here.
On Saturday 6/2 @ 8.30 pm, we invite everyone to listen to an exhibition on Etty Hillesum prepared by some members of the CL Community of Dublin. The title of the exhibition is: "Etty Hillesum: Uninterrupted Dialogue with God".
Contact us to receive access to the presentation
On the initiative of some teachers from Communion and Liberation, on Saturday, January 30 at 8 p.m Irish time there will be an online public meeting entitled: "Education: Communicating one’s self. Growing and helping others grow during a pandemic.” It will be a dialogue with Julián Carrón on the many provocations that are emerging during this time, starting from the situation of education: it is an emergency that concerns us all, not just “insiders”.
It is possible to re-watch the event in English here.
The annual meeting of the European English speaking communities with Fr Carron will go ahead this year in a new format.
We will spend 2 evenings together connecting via Zoom:
Friday 8 January, 7 - 8.30pm - Assembly
Saturday 9 January, 6 - 7.30pm - Assembly
Saturday 9 January, 8.30 - 10pm - Evening
The title fo the moment is:
"Everyone who follows me will have a hundredfold here on earth" Within the challenging circumstances we are living, is it truly possible to experience a "gusto for life"? What attempts have we made to face the situation, dramatic as it is? What have they yielded?
To prepare for the weekend, we invite you to send your contribution to secretary.cl@gmail.com by 27 December 2020. All contributions will be sent to Fr. Carrón.
To register for the event please contact the Secretary Team.
The AVSI Tent Campaign 2020-2021 is titled "Expand your horizons. Share your life with those in need". Friends of AVSI from Ireland and the UK organise an event online to raise funds to sustain the AVSI projects around the world. During the event, there will be a witness of a friend who works for AVSI in Uganda.
Maria Laura Conte, AVSI Communication Director, describes in this way the 2020-2021 campaign: "The AVSI 2020-2021 campaign aims to draw new motivation from these unprecedented times: AVSI sees these times as an opportunity to be present and active, close to the needy, even more so today, than throughout the past fifty years of its activities. The more times are challenging and urgent, the more those who work for development focused on the dignity of the person, feel compelled to respond. That word “close” is the pivot of our journey: it expresses the idea of a respectful and steadfast nearness".
AVSI, a non-profit organization founded in 1972, implements development and humanitarian aid projects in 33 countries, including Italy. You can discover more about AVSI here.
Also, you can discover more about the different projects for the 2020 Tents Campain in the PDF below or here.
It is possible to make donations here.
In order to attend this event, it is necessary to send an email to avsitents2020@gmail.com, expressing the interest in participating in the event.
Those who sent an email to avsitents2020@gmail.com will receive a confirmation email including:
* Details to make a donation - in case they haven't done it already.
* Details to join the event (date, time, Zoom link).
* Details of the AVSI projects we are supporting.
* Bingo card.
“He is present here and now: here and now! Emmanuel. Everything flows from this; everything flows from this, because everything changes. His presence requires flesh, something material, our flesh. The presence of Christ, in the ordinariness of life, increasingly involves the beat of our heart: being moved by His presence turns into being moved in our daily lives. Nothing is useless, nothing is extraneous. We start to have an affection for everything, everything, and the magnificent consequences of this are respect for what you do, precision in what you do, loyalty to your concrete work and tenacity in persevering to the end; you become more tireless. Really, it is like as if you were outlining another world, another world within this world.”
You can watch the video here.
The video is also available in multiple languages on the Communion and Liberation official Youtube channel.
If you would like to know more about the picture chosen for this year's poster, Jean-François Millet "Winter Evening", you can read the article from December Traces by Giuseppe Frangi here
The first Sunday of Advent 2020 (29/11) at 3.00 pm we propose a moment of reflection to step away momentarily from our busy routines and be recalled to the meaning of Christmas in our lives.
This year the Advent Retreat will be held online on Zoom. We welcome again Mgr Paul Callan V.G. to lead us in the reflection. The retreat will conclude with the rosary.
Everyone is welcome. If you wish to join us for the Advent Retreat, contact us.
The EncuentroMadrid is an event organised by the community of Communion and Liberation in Spain. This year title is "En quién podemos confiar?" (In whom can we trust?). It will take place online 19-22 November with meetings, round-tables, performances... You can discover more about the event reading the interview to Fr. Ignacio Carbajosa, national responsible for Communion and Liberation in Spain here or an interview with Rafael Gerez, president of the EncuentroMadrid, here. Also you can read an article by María Serrano here.
There will be a bit of Ireland this year at the EncuentroMadrid as on Saturday 21st November at 9.00 pm Irish time the organisers propose an evening of songs from all over the world: "Cántame algo que me hable de la vida" [Sing to me Something that Tells me about Life]. Members of the choir of Communion and Liberation Ireland have sent a video of "Cavan Girl" that will be played together with the other songs from Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, USA, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Uganda and Spain.
You can watch live the evening (and access to the lyrics and the introductions of each songs in English) EncuentroMadrid website.
This year we will meet on Zoom to watch together the translation of the Beginning Day 2020 held in Milan by Fr Julián Carrón on the 03 October 2020 at 3.00 pm. The title of the meeting is You only see what you admire
As part of the Beginning Day, we will watch together a video interview with Mikel Azurmendi produced by Fernando De Haro for the Meeting 2020 Special Edition, on the occasion of the Italian translation of The Embrace. Towards a culture of encounter.
You can watch the video and download the full text here.
Starting from "an unforeseen and unforeseeable interruption of reality, wearing the face of the coronavirus," Julian Carrón, in his ebook "Reawakening Our Humanity - Reflections in a Dizzying Time", describes how this circumstance offers the great possibility of the rediscovery of the self: from solitude to silence, from sharing to friendship, to the consciousness that we have of ourselves and of the world.
Thursday 25 June, 8.30 pm
The Way of the Cross, in the heart of a city where thousands of people carry their daily cross, most of the times dreadfully alone: If God exists, He has nothing to do with my daily life. This is the true cross of every day, the cross of a person abandoned only to himself in his most inner need for a never-ending love, truth, beauty, and justice.
We need the presence of “God-with-us,” Jesus, every day. And Jesus, because of the sacrifice of His cross and because of His resurrection, dwells among us, every day.
19th February
7.00pm
Newman university Church on 87A St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2
Fifteen years after the death of Fr. Giussani and thirty-eight years after the pontifical recognition of the Fraternity of CL, the intention for masses celebrated throughout the world.
“That, in being faithful to the charism of Fr. Giussani and living our belonging to our Holy Church, we may follow Pope Francis’ invitation to ‘follow Jesus’ and ‘listen daily to His call’ which reaches us through His witnesses. Offering our lives for the Pope and for all our brothers and sisters in humanity, we ask the Holy Spirit that the encounter with Christ become more and more the total horizon of our lives and what truly forms all our relationships.”
Referring to the context in which Christians are called to live out their faith, Fr. Julián Carrón (President of the Fraternity of CL) recently wrote, “Many times over the last few years, we have said–echoing the words of Pope Francis–that we are living a real ‘epochal change’. The signs of a radical shift in relationships at a personal, social and institutional level can be seen more and more clearly, all over the globe. In addition, in traditionally Christian countries, it is becoming ever more clear that societies are no longer capable of sustaining the Christian values that have shaped their people’s lives for centuries. These profound changes we are passing through are a great provocation, reminding us not to take anything for granted. They force us to ask ourselves daily where our hope lies, what makes it possible for us to get up in the morning, go to work, continue to love, not be scandalized by our shortcomings, and face life without fear or violence overshadowing our relationships. (…) Let us support each other with our reciprocal witness, that this circumstance not weaken our passion to communicate Christ, letting His beauty shine forth to the many young people who are seeking, at times clumsily, for something that responds to their most human needs.”
Most Rev. Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin, celebrated Mass for the anniversary of the death of Fr. Luigi Giussani.
Read the full homily on the Archdiocese of Dublin website
Dr. Timothy P. O'Malley will present a lecture titled "After Secularism: The Future of Catholic Education."
Wednesday the 12th of February at 7:30pm
Newman Church, 87A St Stephen's Green, Saint Kevin's, Dublin 2
Event organised by Notre Dame - Newman Centre for Faith and Reason.
For more information, please follow the below link:
http://newman.nd.edu/uncategorized/after-secularism-the-future-of-catholic-education/
We'd like to invite everyone to the book presentation of "I want it all"with Marta's father Giorgio Bellavista and Emanuele Polverelli, curator of the book.
2nd February 3.30pm
Newtownpark Pastoral Center, Guardian Angels Parish, Newtownpark Avenue, Blackrock
The Way of the Cross, in the heart of a city where thousands of people carry their daily cross, most of the time dreadfully alone: If God exists, He has nothing to do with my daily life. This is the true cross of every day, the cross of a person abandoned only to himself in his most inner need for a never-ending love, truth, beauty, and justice.
We need the presence of “God-with-us,” Jesus, every day. And Jesus, because of the sacrifice of His cross and because of His resurrection, dwells among us, every day.
It is very hard not to think of a referendum as a conflictual moment. After all,
people are often called upon to take a decision regarding matters considered decisive.
In Ireland, as in other countries, referenda have too often been synonymous with
division, conflict, bitterness and a “culture of walls”. The outcome inevitably produces
joy as well as tears, mockery or resentment. The proposed referendum on repealing the
Eight Amendment seems no different. It ticks all the boxes: a highly controversial
question with a bitter history and parties well entrenched in their positions, their nonnegotiable principles.
[...] Download the PDF to read the full text
