Alba Sgariglia has degrees in philosophy and theology. Since 1975, the year before she entered the focolare, she began working at the Study Centre of the Focolare Movement alongside the foundress, Chiara Lubich.
What did your work at the Study Centre consist of?
I used to go to the library in Florence to photocopy passages from the Greek Fathers, which we would then translate at home, searching through countless pages for those brief phrases that could serve Chiara Lubich to confirm her inspirations. At the time I was working with Marisa Cerini, who told me: for us, building unity means that we should enter into the thought of the Greek Fathers and from there try to understand the light of the charism that Chiara has received. In the following years I also taught religion in secondary schools in Rome. I then joined the governing body of the Movement to oversee the cultural aspect and subsequently I became part of the Abba School, which Chiara founded in 1991 to study the notes from the so-called period of Paradise ’49. Finally, in 2014, Maria Voce Emmaus, then President of the Focolare Movement, entrusted me with the Chiara Lubich Centre, which was established to preserve, study and promote the life and work of Chiara.
What does this newly published book represent?
Paradise ‘49 is a text published posthumously, since it was written, compiled and edited by Chiara Lubich during her lifetime. She wished to describe the mystical experience she had lived between 1949 and 1951, accompanying it with footnotes that would facilitate its comprehension, so as to provide the group of scholars at the Abba School with a text that was accessible and could be used for research. The text contains a mystical experience that Chiara always said she could not keep to herself. Then, urged on by many people, she realized that the text could be understood and used by others in the Movement as well.
For example, in the early 2000s, she herself explained the essence of this experience to the young people of the Movement. Then little by little, she realized that the experience recounted in the text could also be shared with people of other religions. Over the years we have held symposia with Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims, to whom Chiara offered some passages from Paradise ’49. We have also discussed the text with people with no religious affiliation, who have given reflections far deeper than we could ever have imagined, emphasizing that it is a text of great value. There are many founders of charisms who have received this possibility of understanding the work they were carrying out, through so-called “intellectual visions” in which one perceives with the intellect what God is allowing one to see.
But since it is a mystical language, isn’t it difficult for most people to understand?
Mystical language is a unique literary genre; it is neither poetry, nor theatre, nor literature, nor theology. For example, one sometimes encounters difficulties on a theological level, because the mystic seeks words they cannot find, trying to express the inexpressible: a difficult task, so much so that often Chiara herself, whilst we were re-reading these passages, would ask us: “But how could I have written these sentences? What do they mean? Why did I write this?”
This confirms that, in such situations, the founders seek to express what they “see” using the cultural categories and concepts at their disposal, which are sometimes inadequate. For example, in Paradise ’49 there are references to The Divine Comedy because Chiara was familiar with it, or to philosophers such as Kant, whom she had studied. The external setting can also have an influence: Chiara and her first companions began this experience in the mountains of Trent, in Tonadico: it is a natural setting that speaks for itself through its beauty. This, too, helped her to express things she was perceiving for the first time in her life.
Over these 18 years since Chiara’s death, you have published books that shed light on the context of the Paradise ’49 experience…
We have continued to examine the text in depth across various disciplines, using the method Chiara had left us, which is to study everything with “Jesus in our midst”. I believe that three key aspects can be identified in this volume: the first is an educational aspect, as it teaches how to live out the charism of unity and offers a vital key to understanding it; the second aspect can be described as artistic and literary, as the text encompasses many literary genres: diaries, letters, writings and notes; finally, there is the doctrinal aspect, as the text undoubtedly has a theological focus. It is, in fact, a mystical experience that helps us to understand, on the one hand, the truths of Heaven: God, the Trinity, the Word, Mary, creation, hell and paradise; and, on the other hand, the incarnation of the charism in a movement that would have been founded in the following years, that is, after 1949–51. Every time one reads these mystical texts, one understands new things. This is what happens to me too: every time I read these pages, I understand new things, both intellectually and spiritually.
When reading the text, doesn’t Chiara seem to be a bit presumptuous in certain passages?
We need to understand why Chiara says those things in that way. We could say that it is as if God, in order to express concepts that cannot be conveyed through a human being, identifies with that person, seeing things through their eyes. This is why Chiara finds herself writing: “Today I am universal fatherhood.” But she herself asks: “What does that mean?” In that moment, she identifies with that reality, so that she can express it. In the footnotes, she herself comments on and explains her amazement and her joy at seeing that other founders had experienced more or less the same thing.
What advice would you give to someone reading this text?
I would say: take this book and read it whenever and however you like, at any time. You can discuss passages that are unclear or more complex with others, or with an expert. But I suggest that you don’t let yourself be influenced by anyone, because this text speaks directly to the individual. Let’s open it at random and read whatever page we come across. We will understand what we need at that moment, because the text, despite a few difficulties, really touches us deeply. It’s a mystical experience, that can, in a certain way, be “shared”. This is the novelty, as Chiara herself explained to us. She always made sure that everyone could participate in her experience, and this book gives us that opportunity.
A full lecture hall, attentive, almost suspended in silence. This was the atmosphere in the Paul VI Hall of the Pontifical Lateran University (Rome, Italy) on Friday 22nd May, when Chiara Lubich’s Paradise ’49 was presented to the public for the first time.
It wasn’t simply a book launch. The widespread impression, heard in the corridors and in conversations among those present, was that this was a historical moment: for the first time, a text kept mostly private until now, was being openly offered to ecclesial and cultural debate, in a hall filled to capacity.
Welcoming those present, Anna Maria Rossi, speaking on behalf of the Chiara Lubich Centre – promoter of the series of Works by Chiara Lubich – immediately clarified the meaning of the event, recalling the extensive editorial process that led to the publication of the volume. “It is not an isolated text – she explained – but part of a broader journey, which tells the story of the emergence of a charism in the Church”.
The contents were introduced by speakers from different ecclesial and academic backgrounds. Alessandro Clemenzia, Dean of the Theological Faculty of Central Italy and an expert in Chiara Lubich’s spirituality, offered an important key to the book’s interpretation: “It is not a question of understanding what Chiara wrote, but what God wishes to say about himself through this experience”. A perspective that helped reveal the depth of the text without reducing it to a simple document.
Stefan Tobler, a Swiss evangelical theologian also involved in the reflection on the Charism of Unity, drew attention to the figure of the author: a woman who, through these pages, “offers the most intimate aspects of her relationship with God” sharing her experience in an authentic way.
Particularly anticipated was the contribution of Angela Ales Bello, philosopher and phenomenology expert, the only speaker external to the Focolare Movement. She clearly pointed out that mysticism is not something “strange” or esoteric, but “an illumination of reality lived in faith”. She also highlighted an original feature of Paradise ’49: an experience that involves not only the person, but also the community, almost a “we” that becomes a subject.
Brendan Leahy, Bishop of Limerick (Ireland) and, like Clemenzia and Tobler, also a member of the interdisciplinary study centre of the Focolare Movement known as the “Abba School”, intervened remotely. He highlighted the ecclesial significance of the text. Paradise ’49, he said, is not a systematic treatise, but can “inspire new perspectives” and help us understand the Church as a living and relational communion.
Throughout the meeting, alongside the great enthusiasm, there was also a certain caution: how can such an intense text be received without simplifying or misunderstanding it? The answer emerged several times, almost like a guiding thread: Paradise ’49 cannot be understood only by reading it but by letting oneself become involved in it.
Perhaps this was the deepest meaning of the day. With this publication, the Focolare Movement has taken a step towards greater openness: what was born as a lived experience is now being offered to everyone, not as an object to be analyzed, but as a proposal for life.
“Let us give thanks together to the Lord for the great spiritual family that has been born from the charism of Chiara Lubich.” These were the words of Pope Leo XIV to the participants at the General Assembly of the Work of Mary – Focolare Movement, on the 21st of March 2026. As the Pope recalls, Chiara Lubich is widely known for her work as a foundress as well as for her ’spirituality of communion’, thanks in part to her numerous publications. Less well known is the mystical experience that lies at the origin of her Movement and from which she has constantly drawn inspiration. The publication of Paradise ’49 is part of the extensive publishing project of her “Works”. This is being undertaken by the Chiara Lubich Centre and published by Città Nuova, and it is the sixth volume in the series. This book now lifts a veil that had previously been kept reserved, which was the understandable wish of the Author herself. It was over that intense contemplative period that stretched from the 16th of July 1949 to the end of 1951, and it is known precisely as “Paradise ’49”.
Before focusing on the book, let us take a look at the event itself, of which the book is a narrative. On the 16th of July 1949, after attending Mass, Chiara wanted to turn to Jesus and call him by name, but she could not. What she had just experienced had transformed her into Jesus; she could not therefore call herself, and from her lips came the words that Jesus used in his prayer: “Abba, Father”. Later, she wrote: “I seemed to understand that the one who had put upon my lips the word “Father” was the Holy Spirit.” It is not merely a word, it is reality: “in that moment I found myself within the bosom of the Father. … I had, therefore, entered into the Bosom of the Father, which appeared to the eyes of my soul (but it was as if I saw it with my physical eyes) as an abyss that was immense, cosmic. And it was all gold and flames above, below, to the right and to the left.” From the very first moment, the event takes on mystical overtones, comparable to similar experiences lived by other mystics. Yet it also reveals a distinctive feature, stemming above all from its unitive, “collective”, ecclesial dimension.
Before attending Mass, Chiara had made a “pact of unity” with Igino Giordani, a well-known writer, Member of Parliament and father of a family. Together they had asked that it be Jesus, who came through the Eucharist in one of them, to “bring about” unity with Jesus in the other, both of them totally open and receptive to his action, as into an “empty chalice”. And that is what happened: upon her and upon him, having become an “emptiness of love”, only Jesus came and remained. The two had become one Christ. It was a repetition of the Apostle Paul’s experience: “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20): the two souls had become one soul, that of Christ. It is this one soul that entered the bosom of the Father. The mystical experience that took place did not concern just one person but, first two, then an entire group to whom Chiara communicates what she is experiencing, constantly involving new people in the same experience: “I had the impression of seeing in the Bosom of the Father a small company: it was us.” In the bosom of the Father, life is lived as a single Soul (the capital letter is a constant feature of Chiara’s narrative).
Highlights from the presentation at the Pontifical Lateran University
When, shortly afterwards, the phenomenon of the “mystical marriage” occurs—common to many mystics—it is no longer one person who is “married”, but the entire group that has become a single Soul. From that moment begins what Chiara calls “travelling Paradise”, a sort of honeymoon in which the Spouse shows her the realities of Heaven that now belong to her as well. And here we venture into the contents of what she calls “lights”, “revelations”, “understandings”, the experience and insight of the Revelation, of such intensity that she becomes identified with what she “sees”, almost as if she were coming to know the mysteries of the faith from within. These are insights regarding the Movement that is coming into being, guidelines for a pedagogy of the spirituality of communion, indications that translate into prayer and daily life: “on earth, as it is in Heaven”.
The text is not easy to read, both because of its mystical language—filled with paradoxes, metaphors and contradictions—and, above all, because of the richness of its content. The Author composed this work over a long period of years, practically until the end of her life, selecting and organizing the papers from that period of enlightenment. We are faced with a variety of literary genres: letters, intimate pages in the style of a spiritual diary, notes in preparation for talks, newspaper articles and commentaries on the “Word of Life”, autobiographical and speculative reflections, and even a fable. However, although varied, the experience unfolds as if along a golden thread that follows a divine pedagogy, “a revelation of mysteries as light and sweet as Paradise, as logical and progressive as life”. The publication reproduces the complete text, just as she wished to present it, with her own comments added during the slow process of rereading.
The speakers at the presentation: Alessandro Clemenzia, Dean of the Faculty of Theology of Central Italy; Angela Ales Bello, Professor Emerita of Contemporary Philosophy – Pontifical Lateran University; Stefan Tobler, theologian and Director of the Institute for Ecumenical Research at the “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu (Romania); Brendan Leahy, theologian and Bishop of Limerick (Ireland)
There are two introductions, one of a historical nature, by Alba Sgariglia[1], which traces the history and complex composition of the text, and the other of a theological nature, by Piero Coda[2], which highlights the nature of the experience and how it fits into the historical journey of the Church, whilst also revealing its novelty. The book is enriched by a glossary, bibliography, and scriptural and subject indexes.
This is a fundamental text for understanding the charism of Chiara Lubich, which extends beyond her Movement. It is a work destined to form part of the Church’s mystical and doctrinal heritage, capable of speaking to every person, “a legacy to be shared and brought to fruition”, as Piero Coda writes.
How should one read this book? “All these papers I have written,” the Author noted as early as the 25th of July 1949, “are worth nothing if the soul who reads them does not love, is not in God. They have value if it is God who reads them in that soul.” It is a fundamental principle for understanding any work: to place oneself on its same level. To understand Paradise ’49 properly, it is essential to listen sincerely to the experience of its Author and almost to enter with her into that “Paradise” to which the book bears witness. Chiara Lubich was convinced of this. When, on the 22nd of November 2003, she began reading her work again, together with a small circle of scholars whom she had gathered around her, called the “Abba School”, she noted in her text: “This time we are reading it with the aim of converting ourselves, translating it into life. We must ensure that the Abba School becomes Paradise. In fact, only in this way can the contents of these volumes be understood….”
[1] Alba Sgariglia is the director of the Chiara Lubich Centre, a researcher at the Focolare Movement’s Centre for Studies, and a member of the Abbà School in the field of theology and Mariology.
[2] Piero Coda is Secretary General of the International Theological Commission and a professor of Trinitarian Ontology at the “Sophia” University Institute. He was a former President of the Italian Theological Association from 2004 to 2011.
I have learnt to laugh at myself; I can be quite ridiculous at times when I feel vulnerable. I am keenly aware of the humour people display at the point of death or in the face of tragedy. I learnt this from the founder of Logotherapy, Viktor Frankl.
What annoys me?
When people fail to understand things that are quite obvious.
The motto of my life?
It is a phrase by Pope Paul VI: “Blessed are these troubled and paradoxical times, which almost compel us to holiness.” It can also be read in a secular sense, that is: these are times that compel us to be people of integrity.
My strength?
I would say it is linked to this motto: I manage to remain calm in moments of crisis. I have a kind of “tragic optimism”.
My weakness?
I’m a bit lazy and I also tend to prejudge situations and people, but I try to be aware of this and convert myself.
What is particularly close to my heart in my new role?
Making institutional relationships more human. Being realistic. And then, not to distance myself from the dynamic of dialogue with anyone, no matter what. Unity with Margaret.
My favourite place?
The simple and poor neighbourhoods of Latin American cities where you can just chat with people, perhaps over a cup of mate [a traditional South American drink]!
Where do I draw my strength from?
I am a down-to-earth, religious, Latin American person. Whenever I can, or when I have a problem to sort out, I go on a pilgrimage to Marian shrines, and I also like to have images of my “patron saints”. In short, I draw strength from prayer and from spending time with friends. I would like to always have time for them.
A good night’s sleep is also good for me! Everything seems possible in the morning.
What worries me?
That our charism is not understood in all its fullness, and so I worry whether we will be able to free it from the sin of “domination” and inauthenticity that has tainted our relationships.
Roberto Almada, born in 1956 in Rosario, Argentina, is the new Co-President of the Focolare Movement. He studied medicine and is a specialist in psychiatry. He also holds a doctorate in philosophy and is co-founder of the School of Logotherapy in Uruguay and Paraguay. He got to know the Focolare Movement in 1976. He has lived in Focolare communities for many years, including in Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina and at the International Centre in Rocca di Papa. Roberto Almada is the author of the book “Il burnout del buon samaritano” [The Burnout of the Good Samaritan].
“We should have the courage to reach out to one another, the courage to come together.
This is not simply a motto for the United World Week, but a choice we all make every day. And if we do so, it becomes a path to peace.”
Margaret Karram and Roberto Almada, President and Co-President of the Focolare Movement, through a brief chat, encourage us to approach dialogue with determination and to choose it in a practical way in our daily lives.
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