Focolare Movement

1st November: All Saints Day

Nov 1, 2011

Holiness: is it a word that has been superseded, or it is an opportunity to reach the fullness of life? Today, while the Catholic Church remembers the saints, we publish a meditation by Chiara Lubich on the figure of the saint as someone who truly knows what Love is.

Launched into infinity

The saints are great men and women

who, having seen their greatness in the Lord,

risk for God, as his children,

everything that is theirs.

They give, demanding nothing.

They give their life, their soul, their joy,

every earthly bond, every richness.

Free and alone,

launched into infinity,

they wait for Love to bring them

into the eternal kingdom; but, already in this life,

they feel their hearts fill with love,

true love, the only love

that satisfies, that consoles,

that love which shatters

the eyelids of the soul and gives

new tears.

Ah, no one knows who a saint is!

He or she has given and now receives,

and an endless flow

passes between heaven and earth,

joins earth to heaven,

and filters from the depths

rare ecstasy, celestial sap

that does not stop at the saint,

but flows over the tired, the mortal,

the blind and paralyzed in soul,

and breaks through and refreshes,

comforts and attracts and saves.

If you want to know about love, ask a saint.

 

Chiara Lubich, Essential Writings, New City Press, Hyde Park, NY, 2007, p. 116

___

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to Newsletter

Thought of the day

Related post

Brotherhood

Brotherhood

Brotherhood, being children of the same Father, can be the root of every kind of pacifism. In this excerpt from the “Catholic Revolt”, Igino Giordani wrote almost an invocation, a poetic appeal that compels us to look up and opens our eyes to who our brother is, that brother who may be labelled as an enemy, as a foreigner, as a migrant, but is always a brother. It is an appeal written back in 1925, that still touches our deepest chords and challenges us to be builders of peace.

Christians protagonists of dialogue

Christians protagonists of dialogue

29th June is the feast of Saints Peter and Paul and is a significant day in the ecumenical sphere. On this date we publish some interviews with Christians from various Churches