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What Is Belonging?


JuCa

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Cool, hopefully my friend from New York will be at the Diaconia . . . I'll have to ask Chris. He's not CLU, but he's younger than I am, so he should be . . . lol, I am only bunking CLU because I told Paolo that I would only go if he could get me teh CLU rate!

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Blazer-

I understand your experience about belonging, yet feeling alien to the people you belong to. I share in this experience. I'm not familiar with Beethoven's 7th, but it is certainly something I'm going to listen to.

I have been struggling with belonging for a while now. Mainly because the people I belong to the most, the friends I have met through the CL movement, are 200 miles away from me. See, I belong to the Evansville Community (with just about everyone else on this thread-beware... we're scandalous people) but I go to school in Lexington KY. It's about 3 hours away. When I am home, with my friends, I rejoice. I'm in the middle of the party, but I remember those times when I was away at school and on the outside looking in. When I am at school, with my friends here, I am very alien to them. And this is a struggle for me. I desire to belong to my friends at school, and for them to belong to me. But I struggle because I fail to recognize Christ in them (at least most of them) and I don't belong to them because they do not share in my desire for Him. I stay with them and hope that one day we will belong to each other, and that has been slowly becoming a reality. I proposed the movement to them and a small CLU group has formed. We have begun to understand belonging and it is the start of Something.

I hope my experiences may help you to understand a little better!!

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Paolo, our responsible, said something that stuck with me at our last SofC. He said "Where is the movement? It's wherever you move." And then it hit me! I can make the movement present where I am. That's why they movement doesn't have membership cards, or whatever . . . because it moves to where people who have been touched by Msgr. Giussani and ultimately, by Christ, can make these things happen again.

So there, in KY, you have started moving. You proposed to some people 'Let's read Giussani" and then you read it, you struggle with it together, and then you go and hang out and have fun . . . and there is the Movement. There is CL, because you are are there.

The Italians in Houston are very excited, becuase they say "Being here in America is like being in Italy in the 60's, when the movement began. In Italy we are established, people say 'Oh, you're CL I know what you think.' But here in America, it is waiting to be encountered." In a way, America is waiting to be moved by the movement, by your movement. And, yes, you will feel like that outsider. You will feel, even with your friends, like someone foreign. But at the same time, you are waiting again for that encounter, for that fact of Christ to be made new, because you are different, because now, Christ will come and you are not the same as you were. So its a possibility to encounter him again.

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Paolo, our responsible, said something that stuck with me at our last SofC.  He said "Where is the movement?  It's wherever you move."  And then it hit me!  I can make the movement present where I am.  That's why they movement doesn't have membership cards, or whatever . . . because it moves to where people who have been touched by Msgr. Giussani and ultimately, by Christ, can make these things happen again.

So there, in KY, you have started moving.  You proposed to some people 'Let's read Giussani" and then you read it, you struggle with it together, and then you go and hang out and have fun . . . and there is the Movement.  There is CL, because you are are there.

Definitely, i love what you said BLAZEr!! that's the AMAZING thing, where you are, there it is also. when you recognize this, the Presence is ever so present. even when you are away from the friends you feel like you "belong" with the most---like all those going on the Cruise from Southern Indiana---they are a part of your life and they are a part of yours. you give them a piece of your heart, therefore, a piece of you goes with them wherever they are! It is when you are not with them and your heart longs to be, that is when you know you belong! When they are in your thoughts, in your prayers, in everything you do even when they are not with you, that is when i think a deeper sense of belonging is felt.

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Thanks for sharing Blazer, you are right. Wherever I am, the movement- and Christ- is also. And we are moving here in KY, albeit slowly, but we're moving. And it is beautiful. I struggled so much the beginning of this year, I was so unhappy in my struggles. But since I proposed, and we began our School of Community, I haven't struggled as much. I am happy. I now have people in Lexington that I belong to. I share in the desire for Him with my friends here in Lexington. And that has made me so much happier.

I will be at Diaconia, also. So hopefully we will get a chance to meet, in the flesh!

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With WHO and WHERE do you feel the biggest sense of belonging? what about where you are or who you're with makes you feel this way? I love to hear how others feel like they belong!!

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I have found that when i least expect a sense of belonging with the people i am with, that is when i find the deepest sense....tonight after CL Community we went to McDonald's and talked...well, we go to talking about things and the next minute it is hours later....to know you have differences among the group yet the fact that Christ unites us is amazing and brings such a sense of belonging...not only did i feel like i belonged but my "i" was exhalted...i saw Christ in those around me by them being willing and open, interested and asking questions, and us being able to share our faith with one another in love...God is amazing!!!

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I will be at Diaconia, also. So hopefully we will get a chance to meet, in the flesh!

Hey Katt...will you be going with the Evansville group or are you going with your Lexington group?? just wondering :D

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DM-

I'm going by myself, because no one else from Lexington could go, but I'm sure I'll be hanging with the E'ville crew quite a bit.

btw, I'm home in E'ville now and will be at School of Community tomorrow night! Perhaps I will see you there??

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