Written messages from members and friends

Very sad but trying to put my faith in God and believing in His Love for all and each one. Especially in my heart are the original founders of Luminosa, and its present community, who are living a great mystery as they face important decisions and challenges in their lives. I am praying for you. Thanks to all who have given their lives to accompany Luminosa especially in this most difficult time. With gratitude always,

Liz Balzer, Long Island, NY

As Margaret shares, I met the movement thru the presence of Luminosa in the beginning, when I lived in Hyde Park in the 1980s. It was thru Denise Silva at first. But it was almost 20 years later, and after meeting focolarini in Dallas and in Edinborough before I was able to enter the Volunteers. I know now that's more common than I one thought. It is indeed sad to see the end of the geographical presence of our charism in the area. But as I listened to Margaret (and remember her as a young woman if not exactly as a teenage gen) and Bob, whom I remember also very well), I suddenly thought of the seeming hundreds of thousands of even millions maybe, who have become refugees in the last 40 years and more. I felt pulled to unite my own small tiny Jesus forsakenness in the loss of what Luminosa came to mean to me (more names and events than I could possibly mention since 1984). That is the gift of the charism of unity for me, something that took a very long time to grasp hold of. I hold all of you and your own special feelings in my heart. Unlike the refugees of the wars and natural disasters (which was the birth of the focolare in the beginning I just realized), we have a solution that we know works. We can at least unite our own suffering to others, perhaps.

Sharon Peelor