Chicago Focolare community, guests and friends celebrate an evening of Prayer for Christian Unity

Braving bitter cold and the heaviest snowfall of the season, 130 members and friends of the Focolare came together in warm, deep communion for an evening of prayer for Christian unity. The event was held at the KAM Isaiah Temple, Hyde Park, Chicago, in a meeting room where the Torah scrolls are kept.

The Indianapolis Focolare community marked the beginning of Advent, reflecting in songs, words, a pantomime, and personal experiences the true meaning of Christmas. The December 4th celebration began with the local Focolare coordinators, Jim and Millie Komro, welcoming 138 people, half from the local Burmese community. 

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Video: The Cube - Our Yes to God

The Cube - Our Yes to God - Midwest Mariapolis 2011

 

View Video MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR Saturday April 9, 2011

Teenagers and young adults are invited to join in an immersion of the life, light, and love of Blessed Chiara Luce Badano, an Italian teenager who lived a brief but intense life full of charity and hope, through a variety of song, dance, and audio visuals hosted by the Youth for a United World of the Midwest.

April 9, 2011, 5:30pm CST (Sunday Mass celebrated at 4pm)North Riverside Village Hall (2401 S Des Plaines Ave, North Riverside IL - MAP)Pizza & Fellowship @ 7pm

Free Online Registration now open or contact y4uw.midwest@focolare.us

Printable Invitation (3.67 MB) Bulletin announcement (46.56 kB)

Muslim and Christian Youth working together for the Homeless

Fifty years ago it would not have happened.  During Christmas, 2010 Muslim young people from the Ephraim Bahar Cultural Center and Christian youth of the Focolare Movement engaged in an interreligious experience of “dialogue of life.” Living out together one of the principal tenets of both religions—to recognize the presence of God the poor—we demonstrated how the world can be changed for the better.

About half of the 150 people attending the Indianapolis New Family Christmas Party were Burmese refugees, most of them parishioners at St. Pius X. In this mutli cultural gathering, the "language of love" overcame any barriers and made everyone feel welcome.

"Suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:2-3)

On the evening of October 26, 2010 at the Holy Name Cathedral (Chicago, IL) more than 500 members of the area’s ecclesial movements and communities met around Francis Cardinal George for an annual appointment that has become like a yearly family reunion. The day’s incredible wind storm did not deter them.  Rather, it brought to mind the Pentecost gathering of movements in Vatican square on May 30, 1998, when 300,000 gathered around Pope John Paul II. In her welcome, Mary FioRito, Executive Assistant to Cardinal George and the Cardinal’s liaison to the movements, saw in the Chicago wind storm an encounter with the Holy Spirit.

"I wish it was every day. I would come!" wrote 11-year-old youth after participating in the 13th annual Sports Weekend on September 25 in Delaware, Ohio.

Organized by the Midwest Young for Unity, the Sports Weekend brought together more than 80 participants from across Columbus and Ohio and from as far away as Indiana, Michigan and Illinois.

 

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Video: Chiara Luce Badano Presented in Dialogue

Presented at the Midwest Mariapolis 2010

 

Today began with the two professors finally getting to the bottom of the mystery of Mariapolis. Stanley is convinced that it lies in the Cube of Love itself; Livingston, however, has begun to understand that the key to the Mariapolis lies not in things, but in relationships.

 

The second day began with a recap through the eyes of the two intrepid “anthropologists,” Dr. Livingston and Dr. Stanley. They observed the unique symbols, sayings, and practices of Mariapolis.

Participants were introduced to the reality of Mariapolis 2010 through a pair of "anthropologists", Dr. Stanley and Dr. Livingstone, who had come to explore the life of this “city,” a place with its own language, structure, customs, and laws.

Join us for this year's Summar Mariapolis -

An experience of life inspired by the spirituality of unity of the Focolare Movement. A chance to experience what the world would be like if everyone lived the Golden Rule.

Friday, July 9 after dinner to Tuesday, July 13 after lunch at Valparaiso University, Indiana (maps)

Mariapolis is a special time for the whole family to grow in loving God and your neighbor!

Read more about last year's Mariapolis...

 

 

 

Join us for this year's Summar Mariapolis -

An experience of life inspired by the spirituality of unity of the Focolare Movement. A chance to experience what the world would be like if everyone lived the Golden Rule.

Friday, July 9 after dinner to Tuesday, July 13 after lunch at Valparaiso University, Indiana  (maps)

Mariapolis is a special time for the whole family to grow in loving God and your neighbor!

Read more about last year's Mariapolis...

 

The Chicago Mariapolis Center hosted a seminar on April 11, 2010 to introduce the New City Press title Education’s Highest Aim.  The sixty participants, including professional educators, parents, students, and other interested community members, listened to an introductory talk by Dr. Thomas Masters, Midwest director of "Education and Unity," the Focolare’s educational research group. Masters, a co-author of Education’s Highest Aim, noted the many "problems" found in education today, but explained that in the light of a spirituality of communion, “these problems become opportunities for ongoing reflection and action, action that leads not to solutions, but to engagement, renewal and the formation of moral identity.”

Memorial Mass to commemorate the life of Chiara Lubich Founder of the Focolare Movement 1/22/1920 - 3/14/2008 Saturday, March 13, 2010

Communities in Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus (OH), as well as small groups in Madison and Appleton (WI) hosted evenings of Prayer for Christian Unity on January 22, part of the "Worldwide Week of Prayer for Christian Unity." The gatherings were marked by the deep joy in being together and warm sense of family typical of the Focolare.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity "You are witnesses of these things." Luke 24:48 We invite you to join us at the Focolare Center

5001 S. Greenwood, Chicago

on Saturday, January 23, 2010

for a potluck supper at 5:30 pm followed by a program

at 7:00 pm of prayers, songs, experiences

and an audiovisual.

You are welcome to bring family, friends

and fellow parishioners.

For more information, please call us at (773) 285-2746 or (708) 484-9771

Each year the local Focolare communities from Woodstock, IL, Wheaton, IL, Appleton, WI, Columbus OH, IIndianapolis, IN and places in between have a Christmas “party.” This year the parties even reached to the other side of the world.

Over the past several months a small community of Burmese refugees has settled near St. Pius X Parish on the north side of Indianapolis and have begun attending Mass there. The parishioners have sought to fulfill the needs of these families through religious education classes, English lessons, and other help.

More than 400 participated in this year’s Mariapolis, "Love: Wellspring of a New Culture." Every Mariapolis is special, but the beauty, harmony, and wisdom of this year’s made everyone feel a bit of what "on earth as it is in heaven" means.