On January 1st, on the occasion of the 55th World Day of Peace, Pope Francis stated in his message that: “Dialogue means listening to each other, discussing, agreeing and walking together. Fostering all this between generations means tilling the hard and sterile ground of conflict and waste to cultivate the seeds of lasting and shared peace”.

Chiara Lubich in this passage also invites us to establish relationships of dialogue in order to arrive at true peace.

“Jesus came to build totally new relationships between people, between man and woman, between boy and girl, between husband and wife, between parents and children, between teachers and pupils, between workers and employers, between employees and managers, between citizens and rulers, between race and race, between people and people, between state and state.

Jesus wants to build a new social order, based on justice, respect and true human fraternity. Jesus wants to give us, as individuals and as a community, true peace, that divine peace that he alone can give.

But, for this to happen, it is necessary to follow him, even if at first sight he seems to be so demanding. It is necessary to live his Word, each one in the condition of life in which he was called.”

Chiara Lubich

It’s Christmas!

The store windows are all decorated with golden ornaments, small Christmas trees, sales on precious gifts. At night, the streets shine with hanging lights or stars of Bethlehem; the trees lining the sidewalks, their boughs full of red, blue or white lights, create a surreal effect in the boulevards…

There is an atmosphere of expectation. Everyone is touched by it…

Christmas is not just a traditional feast: the birthday of a child born 2005 ago… Christmas is alive! Not only in churches with manger scenes, but among people in this climate of joy, friendship, and goodness that it brings with it each year.

And yet, the world is still overwhelmed by huge problems: poverty to the point of famine, the earthquake victims in Pakistan, dozens of wars, terrorism, hate between cultures, but also among groups and between people…

We need Love. We need Jesus to come back with power.

Baby Jesus is always the immense gift of the Father to humanity, even though not everyone recognizes him.

We have to offer our thanks to the Father also for them. We need to celebrate Christmas and renew our faith in the infant-God who came to save us, to create a new family of brothers and sisters united by love, extended all over the world.

Let’s look around us… so that this love may reach everyone, but especially those who are in pain, who are most in need, all those who are alone, poor, small and ill…. May the communion with them of affection and goods make a family shine forth of true brothers and sisters who celebrate Christmas together and continue even beyond it.

Who can resist the power of love?

In preparing for Christmas, let us display gestures which bring about concrete action. They will be remedies to problems that may seem small, but applied on a vast scale, they can be light and solutions for the serious problems of the world.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Chiara Lubich

An extract from a meditation by Chiara Lubich, 25 September 1986.

(…) As we know, we have various possibilities of being with Mary. A particular thought of ours is addressed to her during morning and evening prayer. We remember Mary at mass and during the visit to the blessed sacrament, and above all during the recitation of the rosary, in which we greet her more than fifty times with the ‘Hail Mary.’

Each phrase of the Hail Mary is beautiful, but today I would like to underline in a special way this double request: ‘Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death’, so that Mary may assist us by interceding for us before God in each present moment, and so that in the important moment of death she may be present to us in a special way.

But if all these prayers prove to be important for us during our day, what I would want particularly to bring to the surface today is the relationship that we must have with Mary. It is a relationship that must be kept alive during the whole course of the day and will grow in depth in accordance with the degree of unity that each of us reaches with her, our most beloved Mother and Leader.

Then we can also imagine that she has lead us to the Focolare, because since she loved us she wanted to also show herself in a special way to us as our mother. Now what does a mother do for her children? We know: she does everything without calculating her efforts. Then, if this is true for an earthly mother, what will our heavenly mother be like?

We must become convinced of her very special love for us and then draw a conclusion from this. Does Mary love me? More so, does she love me in a special way? I cannot but have a boundless trust in her who can do so much. Therefore I will entrust to her everything that is mine, not only my own self, but my thoughts and my worries, what weighs me down, what hurts me. Mary wants all these things for herself and she is very capable of resolving every problem of mine.

I tell you these things because I experienced that if we take her love for us seriously, our mother will not neglect to show this love to us. Try to do the same. Perhaps you have already done so. Try not to keep any burden in your heart, and to entrust everything to her. You will find one problem resolved after another.

(…) So these are just a few words on spending our day with Mary. May she allow us to experience her motherly affection and guard us as the pupils of her eyes. During these next few weeks, let’s revive our unity with Mary.

Chiara Lubich
Conference Call, Switzerland, 25 September 1986

Meditation by Chiara Lubich on how we can live the silence of Mary and at the same time speak to evangelize as Jesus did.

Our Mother is so beautiful in her continuous recollection as shown us by the Gospel: “But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart” (Lk 2:19).
That full silence fascinates the soul who loves.
How can I live like Mary in her mystical silence when our vocation at times is to speak in order to evangelize?
Our Mother also spoke. And she gave Jesus. There has never been a greater apostle in the world. No one ever spoke such words as she, who gave the Word.
And she kept silent. She kept silent because the two could not speak at once. The word must always rest against a silence, like a painting against a background.
She kept silent because she was a creature. For nothingness does not speak. But upon that nothingness Jesus spoke and said: himself.
God, Creator and All, spoke upon the nothingness of the creature.
How then can I live Mary, how can my life be perfumed by her beauty?
By silencing the creature in me, and upon this silence letting the Spirit of the Lord speak.
In this way I live Mary and I live Jesus. I live Jesus upon Mary. I live Jesus by living Mary.

Chiara Lubich

Original and complete text: New City Press, Chiara Lubich, Essential Writings p 137-138

Extract of a talk given by Chiara Lubich, to members of the Focolare Movement, on the Feast of St Claire, 11 August 1987.

“When we were young we were always greatly struck by a phrase that Saint Claire told St Francis when the latter drew her into following his way. St Francis asked her: “My child, what do you want?” One could expect all kinds of answers, like: “I would like to follow you in the way of poverty; I want to become a nun; I want to enter a convent,” and so on. Instead to the question “My child, what do you want?” she answered: “God”. She wanted God because she was choosing God as God had chosen her.

It’s the same choice that we also made at the beginning of the Focolare Movement. We made only one choice: God! Beyond the bombings and everything else, God emerged. We believed in God and we chose God as the ideal of our life.

This choice of God makes us put aside all those riches  that we may accumulate, perhaps even without realizing it. We might be rich of our work with the Focolare Movement, our possessions, our ideas, our studies, our relatives (…). Our ideal, which is Jesus Forsaken, who made himself nothing, makes us put all of this aside so as to have God first and do all the rest as an expression of the will of God.

This is what St Claire reminds us of again today. She did it by choosing the way of poverty; we do it by choosing the way of unity, always having Jesus in our midst, the Risen One, through our love for Jesus Forsaken.”

Chiara Lubich
Mollens (Switzerland), 11 August 1987

A spiritual reflection by Chiara Lubich, Conference Call, Mollens, Switzerland, March 26, 1987

“As we are aware, our spirituality (our path to holiness) is based on a point from which all else has flowed: belief in God’s love, being conscious that we are not alone; we are not orphans, we have a Father above who loves us.

One way of applying this faith in God is when we are worried about something that makes us anxious. Sometimes it is fear for the future, or concerns about our health or impending dangers; we might be worried about members of our family or apprehensive about something we have to do; we might be overwhelmed by the shock of bad news. There are all kinds of fears.

Well then, at times like these, precisely in times when everything is uncertain, God wants us to believe in his love and asks of us an act of trust. (…) He wants us to make good use of these painful situations to prove to him that we do believe in his love. This means believing that he is a Father to us (…).

Scripture says: “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.” (1 Pt 5:7). This means in practice that Christians must offload all their worries onto their heavenly Father, in the same way as a load is put on a beast of burden. The fact is that God is our Father and he wants his children’s happiness. This is why they unload every burden onto him. Besides, God is love and he wants his children to be love.

All these worries and fears block our soul, causing us to close in onourselves, thereby preventing us from being open to God’s will and from loving our neighbours.

In the early times of the Focolare Movement, when the Holy Spirit was teaching us our first steps on the path of love, “casting all our anxiety onto the Father” was something we did every day, and often several times a day. In fact we were leaving behind a purely human way of living so as to live more according to God’s ways.

Worries are stumbling blocks to love. So the Holy Spirit had to teach us how to get rid of them. And he did. I remember we used to say that just as you cannot hold a hot coal in your hand, but you would drop it at once so as not to get burned, so too with the same speed we had to cast every worry onto the Father. I can’t remember any worry cast into the Father’s heart which he did not take care of. It is not always easy to believe and to have faith in God’s love. But we must make the effort to believe on every occasion, even the most tangled.

We will then witness God’s intervention time and time again. He will not desert us, he will take care of us. I know that many amongst are in difficult situations. The thought of this conference call is especially for them. But also for everyone else: There are so many situations to be faced in life!

There is such a great need that Someone else think of us! Let’s cast every worry onto him. We will then be free to love. We’ll progress faster on the path of love which, as we know, leads to holiness.”

Chiara Lubich
(Mollens, Switzerland)

“We are now living through the most precious moments of the year. They are precious for the Church that re-lives the liturgy of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection. They are precious to all of us in the Movement because we have a spirituality that is centered on unity and on Jesus  Forsaken.

Today is Holy Thursday, our feast day. Like today, many years ago, Jesus gave his disciples the new commandment, the commandment which is the fundamental law and the basis of every other rule for each of us. Like today, Jesus prayed for unity: “May they all be one.” Like today, he instituted the Eucharist which makes him present among us and in fact brings about our unity with Him and with one another. And like today, he instituted the priesthood that makes the Eucharist possible. All of this in one day.

What more do we want? It’s our feast day and we have often lived this day with great emotion in our heart, an emotion we don’t experience at any other time of year.

Now is the time to say thank you to Jesus, a huge thank you that wells up from the depths of our hearts and reaches up to heaven.

What would our life be like without the new commandment, without the Eucharist, without the Ideal of unity?
But tomorrow is another day beyond compare: Good Friday, Jesus Crucified and Forsaken. There’s no better day than tomorrow, at three in the afternoon, when we solemnly consecrate again ourselves to him, and renew our resolve to spend the life we have by loving him, always, at once, and with joy. When we kiss the crucifix, may Jesus receive from our hearts, from all of us around the world, this solemn promise.

It will be the best way to celebrate Good Friday with him, and he will help us become saints for His glory, for the joy of Mary and as a gift for one another.

Then, after Holy Saturday comes Easter Sunday. He is risen, he is the resurrection and the life, for us too. Perhaps for the first time, let’s thank him for the life we will have later and which will not end. Let’s promise him to think about this often and to make the best possible plans, not only for this life but for the most important one.
Let’s tell him that we too want to be his glory and his joy in future, and we want to live this life so that he may have more joy and glory from very many people.

Happy Easter to everyone and to each one. I wish that this Easter be the most beautiful of your life. May everything blossom, like this beautiful spring.

Chiara Lubich
Lake Constance (Switzerland), 16 April 1981

Source: www.centrochiaralubich.org

Extract from a meditation by Chiara Lubich entitled “Like Mary Our Mother”

There are many ways of imitating Mary, but one is better than all the others, which is to imitate her, to do as she would do on earth. I believe this is what she prefers, because in some ways it allows her to come and live on earth once more. Therefore, without neglecting the other ways of honouring her, we must focus on this: imitating her.

How can we do this? What characteristic should we imitate? Let’s imitate her in what is essential. She is a mother, Jesus’ mother and spiritually our mother. On the cross, Jesus gave her to us as a mother in the person of John. We have to be other Marys as a mother. Practically speaking, we should state this intention: during the Marian Year, I will behave towards every neighbour I meet, or for whom I work, as though I were their mother.

If we do that, we will notice a conversion happening in us, a revolution, not only because we will find our¬selves acting as a mother even to our own mother or father from time to time, but because we will have adopted a particular, specific attitude. A mother is always welcoming, always helpful, always hopeful, and covers over everything. She forgives everything in her children, even if they are delinquents or terrorists.

The fact is that a mother’s love is very similar to the charity of Christ of which St Paul speaks. If we have a mother’s heart or, to be exact, if we decide to make Mary’s heart our own, as she is the most perfect model of motherhood, then we shall always be ready to love others in all circumstances, and keep the Risen Lord living in us. Moreover, we will do all we can to keep Jesus, the Risen Lord, present in our midst.

If we have the heart of this Mother, we will love everybody, not only the members of our own Church, but also those of other Churches. Not only Christians, but also Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and so on. We will love all people of goodwill and everyone who lives on this earth, because Mary’s motherhood is universal, just as Redemption was universal.

Even when she is not loved in return, she always loves, and loves everyone. This then is our intention: to live like Mary, as if we were everyone’s mother.

Make me know your ways, O Lord: teach me your paths (Ps 25 [24]:4).

This psalm presents us with a man who feels threatened and in danger. He needs to find the right path to lead him to safety. Who can he appeal to for help? Aware of his own frailty, he finally raises his eyes and cries out to the Lord, to the God of Israel, who has never abandoned his people, but has guided them on the long journey through the desert to the Promised Land. The experience of ‘walking with God’ fills the wayfarer with a sense of hope once again. It is a special time of new intimacy with God, of trusting abandonment to his faithful love, despite one’s own infidelity. In the language of the Bible, walking with God is also a lesson in life: it is a time of learning to recognise his plan of salvation.

“Make me know your ways, O Lord: teach me your paths.”

Often, we walk along the roads of what we presume to be our self-sufficiency but then we find ourselves disoriented, confused, and aware of our limitations and shortcomings. We would like to find a compass in life and the correct pathway to reach our goal. This Psalm helps us greatly; it urges us towards a new or renewed personal encounter with God and of trust in his friendship. It gives us the courage to embrace his teachings, which constantly invite us to avoid remaining closed in on ourselves, to follow him on the way of love, upon which he is the first to travel as he comes to meet us. It can be a prayer that accompanies us throughout the day and makes every moment, whether joyful or sad, into a stage on our journey.

“Make me know your ways, O Lord: teach me your paths.”

In Switzerland, Hedy, who is married and has four children, has been trying to live the Word for a long time. She is now seriously ill and knows that she is about to reach the goal of her journey on earth. Her dear friend Kati tells us, ‘During every visit, even with the nursing staff, Hedy is always looking out for other people – she is always interested in other people – even though it is now very difficult for her to speak. She thanks everyone for being there and shares her experience with them. She is only Love, a living “yes” to God’s will! She attracts many people: friends, relatives and clergy. Everyone is deeply impressed by her attention to all her visitors and by her strength, the fruit of faith in God’s love.’

Focolare founder, Chiara Lubich, spoke of life as a ‘holy journey’ [i] The ‘holy journey’ is a symbol of the path we travel towards God. … Why not make of the only life we have, a journey, a holy journey, because holy is he who awaits us. … Even those who do not have precise religious beliefs can make a masterpiece of their lives and, with great integrity undertake a journey of sincere moral commitment. … If life is a ‘holy journey’ along the pathways of God’s will, we should make progress every day. … But when we stop? … Should we abandon the enterprise because we are discouraged by our mistakes? No, in these moments the watchword is ‘start again’ … by putting all our trust in God’s grace rather than in our abilities. … And it’s important that we walk together, united in love, helping one another. The Holy One will be in our midst and he will be our ‘Way’. He will make us understand God’s will more clearly and give us the desire and the capacity to carry it out. Everything will be easier if we are united and we will experience the joy promised to those who undertake the ‘holy journey’.[ii]

Letizia Magri

[i] Cf. Ps. 84 (83):6 ‘Blessed is he who finds in you his strength and decides in his heart the holy journey’ (CEI 1974)

[ii] C Lubich, Word of Life, Dec 2006

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