Last December 30th, Pino Quartana, one of the first protagonists of the EoC, left us for Heaven.

He left us on the dawn of the Feast of the Holy Family, with Mariele his wife, and son Luca beside him; he would have reached 84 years of age in February.  With a degree in Philosophy, he had taught High School for many years.  We wish to remember him today for the very important role he lived in the first years of the EoC’s development: when in May of 1991 Chiara Lubich launched worldwide, the ‘Eoc bomb’, Pino Quartana was responsible along with his wife Mariele and with Tommaso Sorgi, for the New Humanity Movement of the Focolare, the first area in which the EoC naturally moved its first steps.  Pino Quartana accompanied the project from up close, encouraging it and supporting the first moments of its explosion in the whole world.

All Christmases in our lives are very special.
And on that day it is not rare that in the hearts of men
a flame is lit...
Yes, because Christmas is the strong and evident testimony of the One who loves us,
Because it cannot be but love
that is up there, from heaven,
who came to live among us.

Chiara Lubich

With Chiara Lubich's words we send you our best wishes and thank God together for the return of Baby Jesus in our midst in this difficult year but for us also full of graces, providence, fruits and life.

A God who is born poor among the poor must remind us the center and the goal of the Chiara's EoC: no indigent, a rich program and for this many hearts are moved. I want to think and hope that Chiara in Heaven is happy of this 2011.

We have to look ahead for a fruitful 2012. Best wishes and thank you to each and everyone.

Luigino Bruni

From 13 June 2011, a small dream became a reality

The EoC German site is now online!

For a long time our German speaking friends and entrepreneurs from Germany, Switzerland and Austria wanted to have the German language on the EoC website. The first translations had already begun, but the lack of a person who could upload them continuously on the website, prevented this project to come true. Then, on March 2011, a friend of the EoC who lives in Switzerland, Enzo, has offered his time and skills to help EoC with the project: an offer truly appreciated and well accepted by our German speaking friends.

The new survey has been uploaded!

The third part on our challenges as EoC

In sight of the big event in Brazil, for the 20th of the EoC, we have one more survey on "Which challenges is the EoC called to face in the next 20 years?
After having asked opinions, in the last two surveys, on the spreading of the project and on the EoC businesses, today we put you before a series of challenges that regard one of the Economy of Communion's central aspects, around which the whole project revolves: the poor. We're very interested in what you think, so we hope that many of you will vote on this most important challenge!

Welcome 2011!

This year, 2011, is an important year for those who passionately follow the EoC project. It's the project's 20th anniversary! The Brazil 2011 meeting is a goal that we've been imagining, creating, awaiting for four years, and now it's at our doorstep. But in the meantime...there are two very important upcoming events for our "youth project". One is the Summer School for Spanish-speaking Latin America, which was announced at the end of the EoC congress in Bolivia and will take place in O'Higgins (Argentina) at Mariapolis Lia, from January 17 - 22, 2011. The other is actually two international events which will take place in Kenya, from January 23 - 28, at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa and in Mariapolis Piero. It will be the first time that the Economy of Communion is announced as a new paradigm for the development of the African continent.

Vieni, Signore

Vieni di notte,
ma nel nostro
cuore è sempre notte:
e dunque vieni sempre, Signore.

Vieni in silenzio,
noi non sappiamo più cosa dirci:
e dunque vieni sempre,
Signore.

Vieni in solitudine,
ma ognuno di noi è sempre più solo:
e dunque vieni sempre, Signore.

Vieni, figlio della pace,
noi ignoriamo
cosa sia la pace:
e dunque vieni sempre, Signore.
...
Vieni, Signore.

Vieni sempre, Signore.

David Maria Turoldo

Help us to realize what we have

This letter was written by Julia as a school assignment. She'll turn eight years old in January. In reality, it is directed to Santa Claus, because the writing assignment specifically said, "write a letter to Santa Claus", knowing that using Santa Claus is less uncomfortable and more "politically correct" than Jesus. But asked about the true recipient of her letter, Julia answered: Baby Jesus... We publish the letter here because her disarming simplicity touched us very much.

Thank for giving me my life, for giving me a family that loves me, for having me live these seven years well, given me friendship and helping me to find many friends. 

People have so many things, even if they are unsatisfied, and so people don't realize what they have. So please help us to realize what we have.

Kisses, Julia

The second part of the survey about the challenges of the EoC in the next 20 years

The December survey has arrived...

More than 200 of you answered the November survey. The questions were about the challenges that the EoC is called to face regarding how it is spread. The results of the survey can be viewed in the new survey page, but the challenge considered the most important was "Bringing its message to the business and political worlds". Now, in December, we continue along the same lines, but this time we want to know what you think about how to concretize the "new culture" that the EoC brings. This survey will be inserted in a red module to distinguish it from the last survey, and you can always find it in the upper right corner of the homepage. We invite you to continue giving your opinion, choosing only one of the proposed challenges!!!

Last days to order our magnificant agenda for the EoC's 20th

The 2011 EoC Agenda is a great opportunity to spread the economy of communion among our friends and collegues and to prepare us day after day for the big event in Brazil in 2011. As Luigino told us during the Expo at Loppiano, "we have to make a choral effort to support our initiatives: a cultural movement also needs these instruments that can and should become opportunities."

A new interactive feature on the EoC website

We've begun a monthly survey...

The aim of this survey is to make our website always more dynamic and capable of increasing dialogue with our devoted visitors. We're at the doors of the Brazil 2011 meeting: seven months will fly by, and we want to get there with part of the journey already taken, together, contemporaneously throughout the world. That is why we've begun this new simple survey, which will change each month and pose questions about the challenges that the EoC is called to face today, its strengths and its weaknesses. It poses questions to bring about answers and therefore gather a general common idea about the EoC today. Each month, we'll communicate the results of the survey in the newsletter. 

This month's survey is in the home page, in the upper right corner. Answering is simple. We invite everyone to answer!