In the story of Chiara Lubich and the Focolare Movement, 13 May is an important date. We shall let Giordani describe the event in 1944.

“On 13 May, the second great air raid unleashed on Trent. Among many other houses, a house next to Chiara’s was destroyed, and the walls and window panes of Chiara’s house were damaged. Also the homes of Dori and Natalia and others were uninhabitable. The hospital where Chiara’s brother worked as a medical assistant was greatly hit, with many dead and injured.
On that same day she met Dori and they hugged each other: both were homeless. She went to the hospital and saw the massacre. It was then that Gino himself remarked: “All is vanity of vanities, everything passes away.”
That night she slept in the open with her parents who passed the night meditating on how they would evacuate. Chiara recalled that when she made her vow of chastity, she had promised her spiritual guide that she would not leave the city of Trent. She cried so hard upon thinking of the imminent separation from her parents who were unaware and tried to pacify her. She was consoled by the motto – Omnia vincit amor! (love conquers all) – and while praying, watched the stars of the Big Bear cross the night sky.

Just before dawn when her parents, obliged to evacuate, gathered the few objects still intact in the house, she told her father that she could not leave because of the promise she had made. She knelt in front of him, looking up to him with her eyes full of tears. Her father blessed her, though with anguish, and gave his consent. She repeated the same gesture with her mother who, however, opposed it. And her parents with their sacks on their shoulders, started off for the countryside. Empty handed, her soul broken with pain, and crying, she started off toward the destroyed city. At a certain point she met a woman who seemed to have gone mad with pain, and who shook her shoulders saying: “Four in my family are dead!” Chiara consoled her and thought that she had to forget her own pain and think of that of humanity.”

Igino Giordani

An unexpected way of living Chiara Lubich’s centenary. Maria Voce’s talk in the Osservatore Romano.

“Celebrate to meet” is the motto that we in the Focolare Movement have chosen to commemorate in 2020, all over the world, one hundred years since the birth of our founder Chiara Lubich. Until a few weeks ago, this motto seemed a fitting choice through which to celebrate, in the most varied ways, the person of our founder and the charism that God gave her, which she generously communicated. In fact, we would like people to meet her alive today and not think of her as a nostalgic memory; We would like people to find her in her spirituality, in her works and above all in her “people”, in all those who are now living her spirit of family, fellowship and unity.

And beginning with 7^th December 2019 we have rejoiced in the many events that have taken place throughout the world. We would have liked these celebrations to continue. But in a very short time the scenario has changed and the motto “celebrate to meet” might even seem anachronistic. We too have put all kinds of celebrations or events on hold. The pandemic caused by the coronavirus is forcing more and more countries all over the world to take drastic measures to slow down contagion. For now, isolation and physical distance are the most effective ways. This is shown by the information coming to us from China, which we accompanied with trepidation for weeks. But here in Italy and in a number of other countries around the world the situation is still very serious.

For many of us who are living in isolation it is a totally new experience, one which not only has social or psychological dimensions, but also strong spiritual repercussions. This is true for everyone and especially for Christians. This situation also deeply affects our specific spirituality as Focolare Movement. We are made for fellowship and unity. Knowing how to create relationships is perhaps the most characteristic quality of a person who has encountered and welcomed Chiara’s spirit. And it is precisely this dimension that now seems to be extremely limited.

But love does not allow itself to be limited. This is the great experience that is happening during these dramatic and painful times. More than ever and from all over the world I receive testimonies from people who are setting in motion creativity and imagination and who are thinking of others even in difficult and unusual conditions. Children are telling of the small or big acts of love they have done so as to overcome the difficulties of having to stay at home; young people are putting themselves on the web to create a prayer relay; entrepreneurs are going against the flow so as not to take advantage of the emergency, but rather to serve the common good even at the expense of personal gain.

There are many ways to offer support and comfort: first of all through prayer; with a phone call, a WhatsApp message, an email, so that no one feels alone, not only those who are at home, but also the sick and those who are doing their best to heal, console and accompany those suffering the consequences of this situation. And then there are messages of solidarity that help us open our hearts even beyond the coronavirus emergency, like the one we received from the young people in Syria who, despite their dramatic situation, found the strength to think of us in Italy. It is the young people who teach us that these experiences shared on social media can multiply, because even goodness can be contagious.

Through these testimonies I have become convinced that Chiara Lubich’s centenary is not on hold and the motto “Celebrate to meet” is more relevant than ever.

However, it is our Father in heaven, or perhaps even Chiara herself, who is inviting us to live this jubilee year in a deeper and more authentic way. Beyond the constraints, even though it is impossible to celebrate the Eucharist together, we are rediscovering the living and strong presence of Jesus: in the Gospel that we live, in the neighbour we love and in the midst of those who – even at a distance – are united in his name.

But in a special way our foundress is making us rediscover her greatest love, her spouse: Jesus Forsaken – “the God of Chiara”, as Archbishop Lauro Tisi, the Archbishop of Trent, likes to call him. He is the God who went to the limit, to gather up into himself every experience of feeling limited, and give it value. He is the God who became the periphery to make us understand that even in the most extreme experience we can still encounter Him. He is the God who made every kind of pain, anguish, desperation and sadness his own, to teach us that pain accepted and transformed into love is an inexhaustible source of hope and life.

This is the challenge of the global emergency: not to evade, not just trying to survive in order to reach the goal safely, but to root ourselves well in the present. To look at, accept and face every painful situation – whether personal or of others – to make it a place of encounter with “Jesus Forsaken”. And to find the strength and creativity, while loving Him, to build relationships of solidarity and love even in this difficult situation.

For Chiara every encounter with “the Spouse”, with Jesus Forsaken, was a celebration. I am convinced that when we meet Him we will also meet her because we will learn, as she herself tried to do, to look at every situation with the eyes of God. Perhaps we too will be able to repeat the experience of Chiara and her companions, who were “almost” unaware of the war or when it ended. They were taken so much by God and his love that they felt that the reality they lived, the concrete love that circulated among them and among so many others in their city, was stronger than everything else.

We do not know how long this emergency will last: it may be weeks or months. However it will pass. The world we will find at the end of the tunnel is the one we are building now.

By Maria Voce

Source: Osservatore Romano – https://www.vaticannews.va/it/osservatoreromano/news/2020-04/radicarci-bene-nel-presente.html

Chiara Lubich wrote “Faith is a new way “to see”; it is, so to say, the way Jesus sees” [1]. Faith helps us meet Jesus in every neighbour and understand deeply even his inner feelings.

Never lacked anything
One day, the owner of the company where I work called a meeting for all the employees. After enumerating the problems that the company was facing, he proposed reduced ours of work with a 30% decrease in salary to avoid redundancies. What did this mean to me ? I was faced with a very difficult decision , because I have a large family and a lot of expenses… but since this meant that many of us would still be working, I accepted the proposal.

My wife and I were determined to trust in God’s providence. We also involved our children, asking them to pray not only for the needs of our family, but also for other families who were facing difficulties. We soon found out that God was listening to our prayers; I received a sum of money that I lent to a friend of mine. I gave this money to him quite a long time ago, and I thought that I would never get it back.

Now, that so many months have passed, we realize that we never lacked anything, and our children have acquired a greater sense of responsibility.

S.d.O. – Brazil

Teleshopping
Most of the time I find myself in the awkward position of having to say no to a telemarketer.
These unwanted phone calls often arrive at the least appropriate time of the day. Over the years, I’ve adopted a variety of answers that range from faking foreign accent and pretending not to understand to the usual “I don’t have time” while hanging up quickly. However, every time I use these or other similar tactics I feel uncomfortable because I know that I am causing more unpleasantness to someone who has no other choice but to work in teleshopping. What can I do? Reject gently but firmly before any proposal is made to avoid wasting time ? When I remember that the person doing this work is always a neighbour to love, the more I listen, the more miserable I become when I finally declare my refusal. I’m trying to say at least a quick “Good day!” before I hang up.
C.C. -USE

Perceiving love
A 52 year old man who shot himself in the head because of family problems was admitted to my ward. Fortunately, his brain was not damaged, but his eyes were, and he had to undergo very complicated surgery. In the visits that followed, he kept on saying that he wanted to die. After a period of intensive care, he was brought to my ward, where I took every opportunity to stop and greet him. One day I asked him, “Do you know who is at your bedside?” He answered: “I can’t see, but I think it’s the doctor who operated on me. During the operation, I felt so much love”.  I promised him I would do my best to save at least one eye.

One morning he told me that he was beginning to see a glimmer of light. His eyesight improved daily. A few months after he was discharged from hospital, he came to see me. He was a totally different person: he started a new life, even a new married life. But above all, he told me that he discovered faith. Jokingly I said to him that the loss of an eye gave him better sight!

F.K. – Slovakia

Edited by Stefania Tanesini

(from Il Vangelo del Giorno, Città Nuova, year VI, n.2, March-April 2020)

[1] C. Lubich, Word of Life, April 1980, in Parole di Vita, compiled and edited by Fabio Ciardi (Works of ChiaraLubich 5; Città Nuova, Rome 2017), pp. 169-170.

Anthony Patrick Vella is a well-known artist in Malta. He was interviewed by the Maltese newspaper columnist, Cristian Muscat. Here are some extracts from that interview.

What does painting mean to you?
Painting is an expression of one’s personal experiences but at the same time it’s an expression of humanity because we don’t live in a vacuum but together with others. It is an expression which materialises and emerges from the soul of the individual, or of a group of individuals in a collective activity, created by means of lines, strokes, the use of materials; it is an expression of emotions, calculated decisions and risks.

Which artist has had an influence on your life?
I was a friend of Josef Calleja. He was a profoundly spiritual person and an artist ahead of his time. Working with the artist Frank Portelli gave me the opportunity to work on various projects. Frank appreciated my work and encouraged me. I have been inspired by many other artists of different eras, including Giotto of Bodone and Alexander Calder.

Is there a work of art that you would wish to have at home?
I am not a collector, but if I had a choice I would opt for the masterpiece by Antonello da Messina, the Virgin Annunciate, housed at the Palazzo Abatellis Museum in Palermo, Italy. It is an exceptionally profound work of art. The painting, representing the Annunciation, features a woman against a dark background, slightly turned and looking pensive, but with her right hand raised, as if with that gesture she has just said her “yes”- a risky decision, but with utmost faith in her Creator.

How do you begin a work of art? Do you have a particular ritual?
Before I start working, I spend same time in silence, listening and having a dialogue with the Creator, until I abandon myself into his hands, praying that every decision and action of mine will be for the good of humankind.

Does painting have a future?
Painting is a way for human beings to communicate, to dialogue and to leave their mark, which ideally should never be erased, or at least takes a long time to be erased.

If you had to be born again, would you like to become a painter?
I would choose to live the same experience because throughout my entire life, notwithstanding the difficulties, I have met genuine people who have taught me and given me formation. Painting and aesthetic architecture remain an integral part of my conceptual thinking – it’s what I embrace and what enables me to have a global and holistic approach.

Article published in New City Magazine, London, April 2020 (no. 543), pp 20-21.

Anthony Patrick Vella’s artwork can be viewed on his website: www.anthonypatrickvella.com

Extract from Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation “Christus Vivit” of Pope Francis, no. 124-129

“(…) Christ is alive! We need to keep reminding ourselves of this, because we can risk seeing Jesus Christ simply as a fine model from the distant past, as a memory, as someone who saved us two thousand years ago. But that would be of no use to us: it would leave us unchanged, it would not set us free. The one who fills us with his grace, the one who liberates us, transforms us, heals and consoles us is someone fully alive. He is the Christ, risen from the dead, filled with supernatural life and energy, and robed in boundless light. That is why Saint Paul could say: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile” (1 Cor 15:7).

Alive, he can be present in your life at every moment, to fill it with light and to take away all sorrow and solitude. Even if all others depart, he will remain, as he promised: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). He fills your life with his unseen presence; wherever you go, he will be waiting there for you. Because he did not only come in the past, but he comes to you today and every day, inviting you to set out towards ever new horizons.

See Jesus as happy, overflowing with joy. Rejoice with him as with a friend who has triumphed. They killed him, the holy one, the just one, the innocent one, but he triumphed in the end. Evil does not have the last word. Nor will it have the last word in your life, for you have a friend who loves you and wants to triumph in you. Your Saviour lives.

Because he lives, there can be no doubt that goodness will have the upper hand in your life and that all our struggles will prove worthwhile. If this is the case, we can stop complaining and look to the future, for with him this is always possible. That is the certainty we have. Jesus is eternally alive. If we hold fast to him, we will have life, and be protected from the threats of death and violence that may assail us in life.

Every other solution will prove inadequate and temporary. It may be helpful for a time, but once again we will find ourselves exposed and abandoned before the storms of life. With Jesus, on the other hand, our hearts experience a security that is firmly rooted and enduring. Saint Paul says that he wishes to be one with Christ in order “to know him and the power of his resurrection” (Phil 3:10). That power will constantly be revealed in your lives too, for he came to give you life, “and life in abundance” (Jn 10:10).

If in your heart you can learn to appreciate the beauty of this message, if you are willing to encounter the Lord, if you are willing to let him love you and save you, if you can make friends with him and start to talk to him, the living Christ, about the realities of your life, then you will have a profound experience capable of sustaining your entire Christian life. You will also be able to share that experience with other young people. For “being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction”

Maria Voce, President of the Focolare Movement, sends her Easter greetings: to experience a continuous passing from death to resurrection through love of neighbour. Only in this way will we overcome this painful time of   pandemic and any other suffering.

Easter 2020

Dear All,

This year, Jesus’ passing from death to a completely new life challenges us and puts us in an attitude of listening.

And it is here that faith and our charism come to our aid: we find the answer in Jesus crucified and forsaken, the God of these present times that are so hard to understand. Even the loneliness we are now perhaps forced to experience, if lived with him, can be inhabited and filled by His Kingdom.[1] Only by choosing him, embracing him in all that is painful, and loving him in an exclusive way, will we and the whole of humanity find the path towards the light, towards a new birth.

JESUS IS RISEN! Let us have this experience of passing continually from death to resurrection and share it with many, with everyone.

This is how we can prepare for tomorrow and lay solid foundations for the world of the future, when we will go back to meeting one another and embracing one another once more.

HAPPY EASTER!

Maria Voce (Emmaus)

Extract from Chiara Lubich’s spiritual thought during a conference call on 12 April, 1990.

“Today is Holy Thursday, a special day in which, often in past years, we felt enveloped, intimately imbued, by a special, most sweet atmosphere: certainly a particular presence of the Holy Spirit. It cannot be otherwise, for today we remember, we re-live, condensed, many mysteries of our faith and our Ideal. In fact, this is the day of love, because everything that this day commemorates is love.

Love is the ministerial priesthood, instituted during that far-away Holy Thursday, of which the Holy Father, in his latest letter to the priests for this Holy Thursday, said that it is not an institution existing “beside” nor “above” the laity; but “for” the laity. Just for this reason, it possesses a “ministerial” character, that is, “of service” and therefore, of concrete love.

Love is the Eucharist in which Jesus gave us all of Himself.
Love is unity, effect of the love which, like today, He invoked from the Father.
Love is the “New Commandment” which He left us.
And it is on the “New Commandment” of Jesus that I would like to dwell on. We proposed it to the Genfest as the great chance to arrive to a united world, and everyone, more or less, will strive to put it in action.

Today is the start of the Easter Triduum. They are three solemn days. Well, in one of these, we must find a solemn moment in which we will repeat among ourselves, in our centres, in our focolares, in our nuclei, in our units, in our clusters, with whom it is possible, everywhere, that pact which the first focolarine made when they said, “I am ready to die for you, I for you, I for you…”.

We know it. Even this small, great thing is not always very easy: human respect may have infiltrated even in the fundamental structures of the Movement. Perhaps for some it is easier to make these decisions directly with God. But ours is a collective spirituality, and we cannot betray it.

Since that time, the Pact has been the milestone of the Movement. There, Jesus put Himself in our midst. Therefore, let us find the way to renew it and then let us strive to live accordingly. The supernatural tone will rise in the whole Movement, and we will become better -as we should be- the foremost workers of a united world.  The Risen One will be more resplendent among us with His Spirit, as required by the feast of Easter, which we will soon celebrate.

Let us not forget that tomorrow, Good Friday, reminds us of Jesus Forsaken, the divine key which renders truly possible our being ready to die for one another.

To each and every one I wish the Happiest Easter. May the Risen One be with us.”

Chiara Lubich

Extract of a writing by Chiara Lubich on Mary Desolate.

“Mary stood at the foot of the cross in her heart-rending Stabat, which transformed her soul into a bitter sea of anguish. She is the highest expression in a human creature of the heroism of every virtue. She lived meekness to perfection; she was poor to the point of losing her Son who was God; she was the embodiment of justice, not lamenting the loss of what was hers only because God chose her; she was pure in her emotional detachment from her Son, God (…). In Mary Desolate, we see the triumph of the virtues of faith and hope, through the love she nourished throughout her whole life. In that moment, this love blazed forth in her active sharing in the work of the Redemption.

In her desolation, which adorns her with every virtue, Mary teaches us humility and patience, prudence and perseverance, simplicity and silence, so that on the background of the ‘darkness’ of ourselves, of all that is merely human within us, the light of God living in us may shine out for the world. Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, is the perfect saint, a monument of holiness towards whom all people may look in order to learn how to clothe themselves with the self-denial taught by the Church down the centuries, and which the saints, in different tones, have echoed throughout the ages.

We do not think enough about Mary’s “passion,” about the swords that pierced her Heart, about the terrible forsakenness she felt on Golgotha when Jesus entrusted her to others… Perhaps the reason for this is that Mary knew all too well how to cover her living, anguished agony with sweetness, light and silence.

Yet, there is no suffering similar to hers….

If one day our sufferings reach such depths that make everything in us rebel because the fruit of our “passion” seems to be taken out of our hands and even more so from our heart, let’s remember her. This ice coldness will make us a bit like her, and the reality of Mary will become clearer in our souls: the All-Beautiful, the Mother of all because by divine will she was detached from everyone, most of all, from her divine Son.

Mary Desolate is the Saint par excellence.
I would like to relive her in her mortification.
I would like to be able to be alone with God like her, in the sense that, even when I am with others, I feel drawn to make the whole of my life an intimate dialogue between my soul and God.

I must mortify words, thoughts, and actions that are outside the moment of God, to set them into the moment reserved for them.

Mary Desolate is the certainty of holiness, a perennial source of union with God, a cup overflowing with joy.”

 Chiara Lubich

Chiara Lubich, La Dottrina Spirituale, Città Nuova Editrice 2006 (Roma), pp.183 – 184

Were I to leave this earth today, and were you to ask me for a final word about what our Ideal is, I would have to say, certain that it would be understood in its deepest sense: “Be a family”.

Are some among you suffering from spiritual or moral trials? Be understanding to them, as a mother would, and even more. Enlighten them through your words and through your example. Do not allow them to miss the warmth of a family, but rather increase it.

Are any among you in physical pain? May they be our preferred brothers and sisters. Suffer with them. Try to understand their pain completely. Share with them the fruits of your apostolic activities so that they may know that, more than anyone else, they have contributed to them.

Are any among you approaching their final moments of life? Imagine you are in their place, and do for them what you would want done for yourself, until their very last breath.

Are any of you rejoicing because of a success, or for any other reason? Rejoice with them, so that their consolation may not fade and their hearts not close up, so that their joy may belong to everyone.

Are some moving to another place? Do not let them leave without filling their hearts with a single legacy: the sense of a family, so that they may take it with them wherever they go.

Never place any kind of activity, either spiritual or apostolic, before the spirit of being a family with the brothers or sisters with whom you are living.

Wherever you go to bring Christ’s ideal, to spread this immense family of the Work of Mary, you can do no better than to try to create, with discretion and prudence, but with solid conviction, the spirit of a family. It is a humble spirit; it wishes the best for everyone; it is not proud… to sum up, it is true, complete charity.

So, were I to leave this world today, in fact, I would let Jesus in me repeat to you: “Love one another… so that all may be one.”

Chiara Lubich

(Source: Essential Writings, New City Press, p.48, “A legacy: Be a family”)