Chiara Lubich, witness of faith

Dec 7, 2013 | Non categorizzato

The Focolare Movement formally requests the opening of the cause for beatification for Chiara Lubich on 7 December 2013.

On December 7, symbolic date for the Focolare Movement, the president Maria Voce announced the imminent presentation of the request to open the cause of Chiara Lubich’s beatification to the Bishop of Frascati, Raffaello Martinelli.

7 December 1943: the date of the birth of the Focolare Movement. In fact, on that day, as she herself recounts, Chiara Lubich never thought of establishing something. Her only desire was to follow God.

7 December 2013: after 70 years, her consecration to God brought forth unexpected fruits and consequences in many ways. The birth of a Movement, the Focolare Movement; the acknowledgement of the person of Chiara as one who received a charism, for the good of many and her faithfulness to it. On the day of her funeral, March 18, 2008, thousands of people from all over the world paid her tribute, and the testimonies of those belonging to various Christian Churches, faithful of other religions, representatives of the world of culture, laity and politics underscored the impact of Chiara’s charism in their personal lives and on the world that each one represented.

Phramaha Thongratana Thavorn, a Thai Buddhist monk – March 18, 2008

«Chiara’s legacy is one of the greatest spiritual blessings of our time,» the Rabbi of Jerusalem David Rosen affirmed. And Samuel Kobia, ex-secretary general of the World Council of Churches said: «Focused on the spirituality of unity, she made a great impact on the ecumenical movement.» «Chiara is not only yours, she is also ours. Indeed, she belongs to the whole world,» these are the words of Phramaha Thongratana Thavorn, a Thai Buddhist monk. «Her experience of a Christianity devoid of every dogmatism and all enlightened by the mandatum novum [new commandment] is such a great lesson for believers and non-believers,» the philosopher Massimo Cacciari wrote.

In the Catholic Church it’s a custom to present, to the Catholic faithful, people who have been distinguished for a special witness of faith in and love for God, as a catalyst of Christian life. This happens after a canonical process of verification, that also looks at the patrimony of life, thought and action of the person. This can begin no sooner than five years after the person’s death.

In these years, thinking of Chiara and her legacy, ordinary persons and those of authority, Catholics and people belonging to other Churches, religions and cultures – even in the diversity of their respective visions – have expressed the wish that this could happen also for Chiara. They ask for a recognition that will remarkably encourage Christians and non-Christians to take a greater moral and spiritual commitment for the good of humanity. It will be an encouragement to assume Chiara’s desire that she expressed many times, the desire to become saints together, to propose to the Church not the holiness of an individual, but the holiness of the people.

© CSC Media

In an interview to Città Nuova of March 2013, the co-president of the Focolare Movement, Giancarlo Faletti, answered a question on the different views of non-Catholic Christians who also belong to the Movement on the proclamation of a person’s holiness: «I think that this new experience should not endow possible memorial greatness because of the beatification or canonization, but should rather highlight the presence of God in a person, understand God’s work in this person,» and – through this person’s witness – in many people.

For information and in-depth study:

press release – biography Chiara Lubich

Chiara Lubich, 1973. Today the Movement is thirty years old

Dec 7, 2013 | Non categorizzato

(Video in Italian) http://vimeo.com/80976960 “I was asked to recall today, December 7, 1973, the day of Dec. 7, 1943, which we always consider as the official date of the beginning of the Movement. It is the date of my consecration to God. The young people here or those newer to the Movement will, I think, appreciate if I describe that simple day. I shall try to do it not looking at myself but at the fact that it is the work of God. Imagine a young girl in love, in love with a love which is the first love, the purest one, a love which is still undeclared, but which begins to enflame her heart. But there’s one difference. Here on earth, a young girl, who is in love in this way, has the image of her beloved in front of her; instead this girl doesn’t see him, doesn’t hear him, doesn’t touch him or sense his fragrance with the senses of the body, but rather with the senses of her soul, through which Love entered in and invaded all herbeing. Because of this she feels a joy which is so special, difficult to experience again in a lifetime, ajoy which is secret, serene, jubilant. A few days before December 7, I was told to make a vigil the night before, beside a crucifix, in order to prepare myself the best way I could for my marriage with God, a marriage which was to take place in the most secret manner (the only ones to know of it were God, myself, and the priest). That evening I tried to make this vigil, kneeling beside my bed before a metal crucifix which my mother has now. I think I prayed for about two hours. But being young and not too convinced of certain practices which I later understood were not according to my vocation, I fell asleep, noticing later on that the crucifix was all covered with drops of moisture from my breath due to my praying. This fact seemed like a symbol to me: the crucifix which I was to follow would not be so much the crucifix of physical suffering, which many spiritualities have emphasized, but rather that of spiritual suffering (at that time I did not know Jesus Forsaken yet), the spiritual suffering which Jesus experienced”. (more)