Community Events

Both university students and adult workers participate freely in the fundamental gestures of the movement, to share the vicissitudes and circumstances of daily life to deepen their Christian faith in a personal way.

Common Fund
“Participation in the common fund is obligatory and free: obligatory because everyone must participate: free, absolutely free as to the amount. It must be understood as a percentage of one’s income, therefore as a symbol and sign of poverty, of the fact that our things are not ours, but are given to us to administrate by God. Poverty does not mean not having anything to administrate:  poverty is administrating, having as our supreme purpose that everything be to further the Kingdom of God, to further the Church. The sign that we conceive of our whole life - including our money and the things we possess - as furthering the Kingdom of God lies in their participation in the Fraternity’s common fund.”
(Luigi Giussani, CL Fraternity Spiritual Exercises, 1982)

From the Movement’s beginning, one of its most educative gestures has been the so-called “common fund”, whose aim is the furthering of the Movement’s work through support of missionary, charitable, and cultural activities. Everyone gives freely to this fund, contributing monthly a percentage of income. The purpose of this gesture is to witness to a communal concept of personal property and a growth in awareness of poverty as an evangelical virtue. The amount given is not important, but what matters is the fidelity with which one fulfills this freely made commitment.

• FRATERNITY COMMON FUND
  This supports the needs of the Movement throughout the world. The UK Community has no discretion on how the Fraternity Common Fund is used. Contributions can be paid via the Fraternity website, or via a UK bank account – please contact the Secretary Team for details.
  
  
• UK COMMUNITY COMMON FUND
  The UK Community Common Fund supports the needs and initiatives of the local Community. It can be paid either by cash to the leader/secretary of your School of Community group, or by standing order into the Manalive Bank Account – please contact the Secretary Team for details.

Beginning of the Year Day
At the beginning of each academic year, the Movement proposes a public gesture, the Beginning of the Year Day, to mark a communal restart for all its members. The Beginning of the Year Day is a central moment, and marks the beginning of an educational journey that we are invited to undertake throughout the year. Fr. Carrón presents a theme for the year based on what is currently happening in society and in the Church, which offers everyone an original proposal of listening and comparison with the Christian experience.

The Beginning of the Year Day for adults and University Students is led by Fr. Carrón, President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, in Milan, and consists of a lecture, a testimony, or listening to a recording of Fr. Giussani. A separate Beginning Day takes place for high school students (GS). Notes from the Beginning Day for adults and university students are published in Traces Page One, and notes for high school students are published on the CL Website. These texts are subsequently worked upon during School of Community. In the UK, individual Beginning of the Year Days take place in London, in the Midlands and in Scotland.

Download the pdf of the 2020 Beginning of the Year Day booklet

Fraternity Spiritual Exercises
The Spiritual Exercises of the Fraternity are an exceptional moment in the year; reserved to all members of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, they are held once a year and are a privileged moment for the identification with the charism of CL and for a personal ascesis. As Fr. Giussani said, participation in the Exercises and enrolment in the Fraternity “is a personal act, wholly the initiative of the individual, not a choice made by a group. It is born as a personal need to one’s own faith and for the realization of one’s own Christian physiognomy. Its aim […] is that of belonging to a company that helps in the journey to holiness; that is to say, in the knowledge of Christ, in the love of Christ for the good of men, for the Kingdom of God on earth.” (CL Litterae Communionis, February 1992)

Led by Fr. Julián Carrón, the weekend spiritual retreat takes place in Rimini, Italy. In the UK, the community comes together for the weekend to follow the Exercises live from Italy via video-link, with a live English translation. Fr. Giussani recommended that the “three-day-long-retreat” was organized in such a way that it also had a significant aesthetic impact. For this reason, listening to classical music is of great importance, as well as singing, silence and prayer.

Download the pdf of the 2020 Fraternity Exercises booklet



Weekend with Fr. Carrón and European English-Speaking Communities
Each year, at the beginning of January, the UK community has the opportunity to spend a weekend with Fr. Carrón, together with other European English speaking communities, including Ireland, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg and Malta. This weekend-retreat offers us the possibility to engage in a more intimate dialogue with Fr. Carrón and to help each other in looking at how our personal circumstances are challenging our faith.

Summer Holiday
“Vacation is the most noble time of the year because it is the moment when you involve yourself as you like with what you value the most in life or you don’t involve yourself with anything, at which point, you’re a fool. [...] If vacation does not help you remember what you would want to remember the most, if it does not make you better in the relationship with others, but makes you more impulsive, if it does not help you learn to look at nature with a deep intentionality, if it does not help you make sacrifices with joy, recreation time misses its mark."
(Luigi Giussani, Vacations: The time of freedom)

In the life of CL, holidays are a great opportunity for education and mission. The wholesomeness of the human environment and the imposing beauty of nature encourage questions about reality’s being, order, and goodness – reality is the first challenge which awakens the religious sense within us. The beauty of nature, common prayer and community life, with its joys and challenges, offers a new gaze towards every day life.

In the UK, a summer community holiday is proposed every year in different location at the end of July, usually lasting for five days. During these days, we go on hikes, excursions, play games, listen to testimonies and lectures, living the days as a community.



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In the Calendar section, you will find detailed information about the next events organised by CL.