June 7
June 6
June 5th
June 4th
Ciudad Nueva at the Madrid Book Fair 2025
Learn about the spirituality of the Focolare through our books.
June 3
June 2
Giving generously works wonders
What can I do?
Every day, terrible events occur, of such magnitude that they make us feel powerless: migrants who face journeys of death in desperate conditions, populations experiencing the daily tragedy of war, or the dramatic social injustices that afflict the planet. "What can I do?": this question can paralyze us and imprison us in a resigned individualism. The first challenge to one's own conscience is to allow oneself to be challenged by this very question. "What can I do?" This is what the fishermen off the coast of Lampedusa asked themselves in Italy, forming, together with the generous local people, veritable human chains, to reach out and try to save, one by one, at least one (and then ten, a hundred, a thousand...) of the desperate shipwrecked people abandoned to the waves of the Mediterranean Sea. This is what the communities on the borders of war zones (in Europe, Africa, Asia...) asked themselves, opening the doors of their homes not out of political or economic calculation, but out of a natural choice of compassion and welcome. It is precisely in these situations that we can observe small or large everyday “miracles,” which are not utopian dreams, but gestures that build the society of the future. Seeking hope, not waiting for it to come to us: this is emphasized by Professor Russell Pearce[1] of Fordham School of Law in New York. He conducted interviews with two organizations that promote dialogue and peace between Israelis and Palestinians—Parents Circle and Combatants for Peace—with the aim of understanding how their members managed to maintain their relations after October 7, 2023, and during the subsequent war in Gaza. Why did these groups maintain their ties and even strengthen them? Both Palestinians and Israelis claim that their dialogue has been transformative. They say theirs is a dialogue of love. A Palestinian participant observes: “The transformation we have experienced has been for each of us a very sacred experience and has left an impact on our souls and also a deep bond. It is a journey and a process that transforms the other into a brother.” An Israeli similarly observes: “We worked to build trust and become a family, years of sacred labor with all its challenges, dynamics, and doubts.” Pearce concludes: Jewish sages teach that “if you save one life, you save the whole world”; a Palestinian who runs the Parents Circle youth program explained: “If you change one person, you change a whole world.” Chiara Lubich said: “The most visible aspect of unity is fraternity. This certainly seems to me the most appropriate way to go against the current (…) to more fully achieve freedom and equality. (…) It is a valid path for those who hold the destiny of humanity in their hands, but also for mothers, for volunteers who bring fragments of solidarity to the world, for those who make available part of their company's profits to eliminate spaces of poverty, for those who do not surrender to war. The fraternity that comes “from above” and that “from below” will thus meet in peace.”[2] [1] R. Pearce: “Dialogo e Pace sostenibili” [Ekklesia- Sentieri di Comunione e Dialogo- n.4 October-December 2024].[2] C. Lubich, No to the defeat of peace, in “Città Nuova” n. 24/2003
