Focolare spirituality defines seven areas of life, each a way of expressing love. Nothing is more or less important, more or less sacred. “Love is light,” Chiara Lubich explains. When clear light passes through a prism, or even a drop of water, it refracts into the seven colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. And just as that light breaks into different colors, love too has a way of expressing itself in just as many ways.
Love generates wisdom.
When life is focused on giving of ourselves in a loving attitude, it becomes enlightened, and a source of wisdom for ourselves and others. There are many illuminating moments shared together.
When you love someone, you want to find out as much as you can about them, what they’re interested in, what makes them tick. Love for others and for God urges us to study a wide variety of subjects, as well as continually improve our knowledge through development opportunities. We can never stop learning and moving forward.
Embracing suffering, whether our own or that of those around us, can also lead to wisdom as we come through it. It can be an unexpected gift from challenging experiences.
So “indigo” is all about wisdom. When love refracts like light into “indigo,” it shines on these parts of life:
- Studying
- Teaching
- Professional development
- Science, humanities, philosophy, theology
What this means to me
“We got rid of the other teacher. We will do the same with this one as well.” These were the words the students said when my supervisor asked me to take over their class. I knew about them from their former teacher, who happened to be a colleague and friend of mine. “These kids are bad news,” I thought to myself, “but my supervisor thinks I can take on this task, so I will try. I have to love my supervisor and these students. If I am a person who wants to build unity, this is a great place to start.”
I remember how I hesitated outside the classroom before walking in. What should I do? Start tough? Be amusing? Be mean? As I hesitated, one thought hit me: these kids are real people. I was so caught up with all the bad things others were telling me that I had forgotten they were individuals that deserved love and respect. Jesus was in each one of them.
I walked into the classroom, and they were silent, just watching me. I proceeded to the desk, put my books down and looked around at each student in the room. I tried to see each one as an individual and not as “part of a gang.”
The instant I did this, I felt more at ease and began to address them. I introduced myself and, speaking as honestly as I could, I told them I was there to teach them the best I could, but they had to do their part and respect my rules. I proceeded to lay down my classroom norms, then adding, “I will do all I can to help you kids pass this course, but you must meet me halfway.”
When I said this, one of the girls sitting in the front started to bang her desk and shouted, “This is the first time a teacher speaks to us like human beings!!” I smiled at her and at the class and assured them that they were just that and that they deserved my respect as much as I deserved theirs.
From this first encounter on, the kids became students any teacher would be proud of. They listened to lessons and worked hard. They became more serious about the course and started to do well. There were, every now and then, difficult moments, but the sense of trust established from day one helped us overcome these problems.
I tried to live each day the ideal of love and unity. The students felt like real people, and our class became a real class. All the students passed the course with flying colors.
— Gail
(Read more stories like this one in Living City Magazine)