by Sr. Nicole Grochowina | May 7, 2023 | 2023 Europe Day, News
Warm invitation! For Europe’s Day
May 10th, 19:00 CET, by Zoom:
one hour of meeting and prayer – and it’s all in English.
Communities and Movements in Timisoara have invited Together for Europe to the November meeting of its friends. Moreover, Timisoara is the European cultural capital of Europe in 2023.
And: Timisoara has a long history of unity and reconciliation with all the accompanying happiness, but also with the corresponding challenges.
Young people from Timisoara, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Portugal pray with us: one hour – one encounter. Be part of it!
Called to unity – living in diversity
Time: May 10, 2023 07:00 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
https://fau.zoom.us/j/61128116535?pwd=V2d2VmdHNndhdFM0eXFYNUo1bHRwQT09
Meeting-ID: 611 2811 6535
Kenncode: 001766
Download the Flyer>>
Sr. Nicole Grochowina
by Sr. Nicole Grochowina | Apr 4, 2022 | Experiences, reflections and interviews, News
The character of the Church 3.0
“The character of the Church 3.0, and thus even the character of our 200-strong meeting, has completely changed once Ukraine was attacked. All nice thoughts were swept away; at Baar we became aware that this is not a time for nice and important words. Rather, it is a time in which the people of God, and therefore even the Church, ought to gather in prayer. Reunited once again. Existentially reunited. And the prayers need to go beyond all boundaries.
Some days ago, during the prayer session that involved more than a thousand persons, we promised to “keep on praying”. And this is what we are doing: last week Austria continued to pray, and now it is us in Switzerland that came together to pray. Whenever Communities and Movements come together, there is a lot of power…
Undauntedly, all political meetings are important and necessary. However, as our Ukrainian brothers and sisters recently prayed, also beseeching the transformation of hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, go hand in hand. It moves side by side and it helps.
A praying and communitarian Church
We became aware that the Church 3.0 is a Church that prays. It is a communitarian Church because it prays of behalf of others, and its vitality comes from the charisms and not from numbers and structure. It is a wounded Church, and for this reason she relies upon God’s compassion – and not only for herself.
Therefore we prayed, and we experienced something of the new form of the Church. There was a feeling of a new beginning. We were conscious that in our prayer, words and actions, we were journeying with and Ukrainian brothers and sisters. In our prayers we included our confusion, fear and lack of words. Something will grow out of the ashes.
Right now, let there be peace: just peace and the possibility to protect persons. It’s quite sad to see persons being used as power pawns. And it is even sadder when their life is taken away for this reason. We hope that the power that we felt here during our meeting may bring about peace and life in the world”.
Being Christian in a post-Church-society, sr Nicole Grochowina, 12 March 2022
Source: miteinander-wie-sonst.ch
Photo: Fokolar-Bewegung Schweiz; Dialoghotel Eckstein
by Sr. Nicole Grochowina | Mar 8, 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 Sr. Nicole Grochowina | May 7, 2020 | 2020 Europe Day, Experiences, reflections and interviews, News
Europe Day 2020 and Pope Francis
We have been journeying together for the last six weeks. During this shared prayerful journey we allowed the Word of God and our reflection regarding Europe (2016) to inspire us, and we included all European Countries in our prayers. Our main objective was to strengthen our yearning to be all one and to mould Europe with the power of prayer.
May 9, Europe Day
Our journey will take us toward May 9, 2020, Europe Day. This Day ought to be a day of encounters between Communities, Movements and Countries. This year, however, due to Covid-19, we cannot gather physically in churches and squares, or hold social events, conferences and prayers.
This does not mean that the Day’s activities have been cancelled; on the contrary: a lot of creativity is being expressed in digital conferences and prayers, discussion groups and on-line dialogue between Communities, Movements and politicians that will be start, for example, from Utrecht, Graz, Rome, Lyon and Esslingen. Here all linguistic and National barriers will be overcome and thus we can reflect together about Europe and to keep the Continent in our prayers.
Letter from Pope Francis
All our events linked to May 9 have a papal blessing. Indeed, Pope Francis, on 22 April, sent a letter to the Secretariat of Together for Europe in Rome in which, after thanking us for our letter of April 12, he encouraged in the service to the common good, inspired by values of solidarity, peace and justice. He pray for us and he warmly sents his apostolic blessing to all of us.
Letter Secretariat of State, Pope Francis, 22 April 2020
Sr. Nicole Grochowina, Christusbruderschaft Selbitz
Photo Pope Francis: Pixabay/Manfred Kindlinger
by Sr. Nicole Grochowina | May 17, 2019 | 2019 Europe Day
the text is only available in German and Italian
