by Sr. Nicole Grochowina | 8 Mar 2022 | News
“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you” (John 14:27)
“Let’s keep on praying!” “Let’s remain united in prayer!” “Shalom Ukraine!” These were some of the moving salutations that many persons shared following the prayers held on 2nd March for peace in Ukraine.
People from more than 1,000 places joined the brothers and sisters of Ukraine in prayer through a digital communication link. They connected from Germany, Holland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, South Africa, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, France, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy and Israel.
The relationship was mutual: the latter shared their experiences and fears, but also the courage of the brothers and sisters in Kiev, Lviv and other regions of Ukraine – and, at the same time, their European brothers and sisters joined them in prayer to show them and clearly state: You are not alone, and may God grant us peace!
The invitation for this virtual prayer ‘meeting’ was issued by the network Together for Europe. However, it was immediately clear that these prayers had to be held on a wider base. In fact, many other networks joined in and took an active part; one such network was the Evangelische Allianz Deutschland that made available the digital platform.
During the prayer ‘meeting’, there were various inputs from Ukraine and Russia; once again, it was important to listen and to beseech God’s mercy, because only this can make up for our lack of words.
The words spoken were essential and the shared experiences quite impressive. Miroslav e Viktor strongly pointed out that what their Country needed was the wisdom of Nehemiah (See Book of Nehemiah Ch. 1-6). In one hand he held the defence weapon, while in the other he rebuilt the city. They both sustained that the war in Ukraine has awakened the body of God from its sleep – it was awakened to the reality of God in a battle that is concrete as well as spiritual.
These phrases were saturated with experience. They were illustrated with stories of the families that they both had to take to a safe place, and, while worrying about them, they opted to remain in Ukraine. They spoke about their experiences of responding to attack warnings; indeed, such warnings sounded while they were praying, and this meant that several brothers and sisters had to leave the prayer meeting and find some shelter. They made us aware that other brothers and sisters were at the moment fleeing or crowded in bunkers – or that they did not dare anymore use internet; or simply, words fail them when it comes to describe what they are going through.
Aware of this reality, a lot of persons joined in prayer in the name of Jesus; they prayed a moving bidding prayer together with the brothers and sisters in Ukraine and shared their worries also with the chat. It was a wave of powerful prayer. Together for Europe became a concrete and powerful reality.
At the end, the appeal was a clear one: let’s keep on praying! And: in keeping on praying we are all strengthened, because, after all, prayer benefits all of us.
The friends from Austria immediately accepted this invitation:
On Wednesday 9 March from 19-20.30 (CET).
we will continue to pray in a digital meeting (in German and English).
Sr. Nicole Grochowina
Photo: unsplash.com
by P. Hans-Martin Samietz | 25 Feb 2022 | Experiences, reflections and interviews, News
The coming together of groups and charisms stimulates a new form of Church
Something great, beautiful, undiscovered lies in every charismatic break-up. The initiative group of German-speaking Schoenstatters of Together for Europe became aware of this during the weekend of February 19-20, 2022, in Augsburg and Munich. They dared to knock on doors and entered into encounters with generations and charisms.
On Friday afternoon we met in the Prayer-House in Augsburg. The prayer room on the second floor is flooded with light and bright, centered towards a small wooden cross hanging from the ceiling in front of a white background. In the front, the band with well-chosen voices is singing antiphons of the first two verses of Psalm 50 and their alternate singing moves into a deepening conversation about these Bible verses – enlightening and leading to inner worship.
On Saturday afternoon we were at the Schoenstatt Centre in Munich. 4 young adults from YMCA Munich and the Focolare Movement came along with experienced people from the same movements, who discovered their life’s theme in Together for Europe.
Our goals: We pay attention to the intuition of the young adults present / We meet different generations and charisms / We share faithful interpretations of our encounter. Our finding: Together for Europe is a promise that allows us to discover a new design of Church. Each of these movements is a light inflamed by the Holy Spirit. If they step up to each other, an undiscovered land becomes visible, a Church that builds itself from churches, step by step, encounter by encounter.
On Sunday, in the rooms and during the church service of the Christian church “Vineyard Munich”, we witnessed people telling their stories of how God is acting concretely in their lives. How beautiful to know that every Sunday Christians are getting in contact with the God of life.
The pact of mutual love can be concretized in reaching out to groups and charisms that are strange to us, who are searching for God in their lives. The pact can be of central help in jointly grasping a new form of Church.
P. Hans-Martin Samietz
Photo: Gebetshaus.org / schoenstatt-muenchen.de
by Beatriz Lauenroth | 24 Feb 2022 | Experiences, reflections and interviews, News
Great preoccupations for peace: Europe prays and keeps on hoping
Many initiatives of prayer imploring peace are multiplying all over the Continent, starting from the Countries that are directly involved.
Our network Together for Europe, too, has rallied in this sense and has adhered to this great current of prayer for peace.
We would like to point out this initiative: an evening during which we can meet, understand better and pray. We will be linked to some Ukrainian brothers and sisters, to listen to them and pray together for peace (in German and English)
Wednesday, March 2, 2022, 7 p.m. – 8.30 p.m. (CET) via Zoom
(One needs to register at this address: mfe2021@web.de)
Beatriz Lauenroth
Photo: Ilona Toth
by Beatriz Lauenroth | 16 Feb 2022 | 2022 Friends | Porto, News
The annual meeting of the Friends of Together for Europe (TfE) 2022 will be held in Porto, Portugal
The meeting of the Friends of TfE will be held on 10 – 12 November 2022 in Portugal. The Portuguese Friends invite the Friends from 45 movements that adhere to TfE to visit their most beautiful city of Porto, an architectural jewel, through which the river Douro (Golden) flows between the mountains and the Atlantic.
The Country outlining the Western boundaries of Europe is ready to open its heart and doors to welcome the participants of the Congress. Clotilde, a member of the Schönstatt Movement stated: “We want to promote dialogue with the aim of discovering how we, together, can re-affirm solidarity and brotherhood between all nations. And in order to know each other better we will together have a look at the history and culture of our Country”.
Why, of all places, have we chosen Porto? A smiling Ana Lúcia of the Emmanuel Community explained: “Tourists associate Porto with the famous wine Port. In 1996, Porto was the World Heritage Capital. It’s the city with many bridges, and these symbolize the links between various Countries”.
More than anything else – and this has a special interest to the Friends of TfE – there we find an ecumenical environment. “In Porto there are seven Churches (Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lusitanian, Methodist, Lutheran, Russian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox) that are committed to the ecumenical dialogue”. There are also contacts with the Taizé Community. “Therefore, there’s no better place to build and experience unity”, as José António e Maria Eugénia of the Focolare Movement underlined.
What values can we share there? Maria da Conceição of the Cursillos Movement affirms: “For example we can offer the rest of Europe an experience of a community in which one finds spontaneous closeness and mutual help, inspired by the Gospel”. The family is the optimal place where faith is handed down. During the November meeting there will be the possibility of meeting representatives of the younger generations and hold an in-depth exchange of ideas on how they face today’s challenges, for example, migration, ecology, etc, based on their faith.
Liliana (Verbum Dei) e Filomena (Theresian Institution) expressed the common desire: “We would like the November meeting to give us the possibility to cultivate with our friends the culture of the encounter, something close to the ideals of TfE. We would like to become ever more “’builders of hope’, as Gerhard Pross put in November 2021. Our challenges may be summed up as “reconciled diversity” (Margaret Karram)”.
Porto will surely be a step forward.
Beatriz Lauenroth
by TogetherforEurope | 17 Jan 2022 | News
A great friend of Together for Europe passes away
As an MEP, David M. Sassoli took part in the prayer Vigil, which was held at the Basilica dei SS Apostoli (Rome) on March 24, 2017, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Rome Treaty (read the interview >>). In July 2020, as President of the European Parliament, he sent his appreciation for our initiative for May 9. Here we want to make known his meaningful and encouraging letter.
Letter of president of the European Parliament David Maria Sassoli to Together for Europe, 9 July 2020
We are deeply grateful to him for his strong political commitment, characterised by deeply Christian values, and express our great appreciation. We sincerely hope that his example and the legacy of his determined commitment to politics and society will live on in the future.
International Secretariat of Together for Europe
by Ilona Toth | 30 Nov 2021 | 2021 Friends | Castel Gandolfo, News
Reality ought to be faced in light of our calling: this enables us to read and understand together the signs of the times and act accordingly. This is what the Meeting of Together for Europe was all about.
All controls are in place: the green pass, the wrist temperature, the mask and social distancing. However, there’s more. Here, the persons have also an invisible ’green pass’: it’s their ‘Yes’ to their vocation to promote Togetherness in line with their fidelity to the ‘pact of mutual love’. It’s quite evident that today’s humanity is facing unprecedented challenges, and this almost makes it compulsory for us to be united, work together and sustain one another. No one found this an easy task. Marco Impagliazzo, President of the St Egidio Community, stated: “I thank you for having knocked on my door with perseverance; indeed, that’s why I’m here”. Each one had to put aside something: commitments, urgent matters or worries regarding travelling, as, for example, Fr Juan Pablo Catoggio, leader of the Schönstatt Presedium, had to do.
We’re talking about the meeting of the Steering Committee, at last in person, which was held at the International Centre of the Focolare Movement in Castel Gandolfo (Rome), with several leaders of Communities and Movements belonging to various Churches. The latter included Hansjörg Kopp (General Secretary, YMCA Germany) and Martin Bühlmann (Vineyard, Switzerland and Germany). After a day of sharing and work, the evening appointment was an online meeting with various persons that form part of the ecumenical network so as to renew the shared mission for Europe, which is, as the title of the Meeting suggested: moving from polarization toward a reconciled diversity through reconciliation.
Margaret Karram, President of the Focolare Movement, arrived on foot because of the heavy traffic. After expressing her gratitude, the first thing she said was that she was there to learn for the others. The sharing of lived-out experiences during the pandemic, the shared doubts and the challenges that need to be tackled rendered the meeting a school of communion. No one was in a hurry. Even Jesús Moran, Co-President of the Focolare Movement, stayed for lunch: this was an opportunity to know each other better and to clarify ideas and points of view.
The much-awaited 6th November ZOOM Meeting based in Castel Gandolfo was open on the whole of Europe. After a few minutes of meditation and prayers, we set upon a journey that took us from East to West, and from North to South of our Continent. We listened to persons with the ‘green pass’ of Togetherness sharing how they helped others in their material and spiritual needs, thus sowing hope around them. These contributions provided a framework for two keynote speeches: by Gerhard Pross, Moderator of Together for Europe, and by Margaret Karram.
Here is the text of their contributions:
Gerhard Pross “The prophetic mission of Together for Europe” >>
Margaret Karram “The message of reconciliation in the midst of polarisation” >>
The evening prayers, which were prepared by several persons, were conducted in four languages and reached a climax with the ‘pact of mutual love’, according to John 13, 34, which was renewed in many languages.
The chat feedbacks were many; they expressed gratitude for the keynote speeches, the lived-out experiences and the encouragement provided. One stated: “It’s a strong message that is, at the same time, full of hope based on the certainty that the Lord of history is with us, in our midst, if we tread His pathway of Unity”. And another, using a poetic form: “Together for Europe seems to be ‘an underground river, which one cannot see, but which is constantly moving, dragging stuff, excavating, joining others and then one day it will return to the surface; we don’t know where and when this will happen, but when it does it will transform the territories it hits’”.
The monitors were switched off, and off we went. In 2022 we hope to be able to greet each other in person in Portugal, enriched with new experiences. Our ‘green pass’ allows us to reach “all boundaries”– as Gerhard Pross put it – and “adopt a perspective of the Kingdom of God that is wider and more complete”.
In her final greeting, Margaret Karram summed up: “Reconciled diversity, in which we believe because we have experienced it already, may mark a new step forward for Together for Europe in the coming years. It may indicate the program on which to base our living and our initiatives”. Indeed, it’s a program that goes beyond Europe.
Ilona Tóth
