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

7 Dec 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)

Living the Gospel/1

4 Dec 2013 | Non categorizzato

Providence “My husband owns a construction company and, since the banks had blocked funding, he was without work for two years. Between the growing economic hardship and the moments of discouragement, we continued to hope in God’s providence. At the beginning of the school year the children were in need of books, and we didn’t know what to do. One morning a friend of ours came to tell us that he had received some money and knowing that we were going through hard times, offered to help us: “You can pay us back when you have it,” he suggested. Last month the mortgages were released, but the serious economic situation prevented us from paying the employees regularly. Unbeknownst to us, a friend spoke with them, explained the problem and asked if they were willing to work without pay for a while. They all agreed. Christmas was drawing near when, totally unexpectedly, we received a back payment. With great joy we divided it among the employees. Then, through a relative, providence came through yet again. (E.M. – Italia) The Lamp I had always looked for a good relationship with my mother-in-law. My husband would often console me that if the relationship with her was difficult for him, imagine what it would be for me. I wanted to ignore her. But I wasn’t at peace. The Gospel told me to love everybody and my mother-in-law was also contained in that everybody. And so I would telephone her to hear how she was getting on, take her here and there, and invite her for lunch every week. . . Little by little, the barriers between us began to disappear and I became her main confidant and companion on her visits to the doctor, where I presented myself as her guardian angel. At nearly eighty years of age she began to show concern for a neighbor who was in need of companionship, and to prepare sweets for the parish. She told me: “I learnt from you how good it feels to be remembered.” One day she confided to me: “This lamp is very dear to me, because it was left to me by my Grandfather. It’s one of the few family mementos that I have. When I die, I’d like you to have it. .” Now the lamp is in our house, as a reminder that only love remains. (I.B. – Svizzera) Source: Il Vangelo del giorno, December 2013, Città Nuova Editrice.

Making Jesus the Reason for the Season

2 Dec 2013 | Non categorizzato

“Christmas is drawing near and the streets are covered in light. . .” These are the opening words of Chiara Lubich’s message “They have dislodged Jesus!”“, describing a day near Christmas as she drove through the streets of a large fashionable city. She was so struck by the exterior scene that grabbed her attention at every corner: “A never-ending row of shops, an endless but exorbitant wealth.” Struck by the gentle and gracious Christmas atmosphere, Chiara was equally stunned by the total absence of its deeper true meaning: “The disbelief that overcame my heart nearly turned to rebellion” she writes. “This rich and exorbitant world has lassoed Christmas and everything surrounding it and forced Jesus out! It loves the poetry, the atmosphere; the friendship it brings; the gifts it suggests, the lights, stars and songs. It focuses on Christmas for the best sales of the year. But for Jesus: not even a thought. ‘He came among his own, but his own did not receive him. . .’ ‘There was no place for him at the inn. . .’ not even at Christmas. Last night I couldn’t sleep. This thought kept we awake the whole night.” Chiara confided that she would have liked to do something that would highlight and convey Christmas’s great mystery of love. “That at least in our homes,” she hoped “we would cry out the One who was born, celebrating Him as He had never been celebrated before.” For several years now the children who live the spirituality of unity have been taking on Chiara’s dream, bringing Baby Jesus back to the centre of Christmas. They do it with songs, small hand-made painted statues and Nativity scenes; also collecting offerings for the suffering and poverty of other children. This year they will support their peers in Philippines and Syria. Anyone wishing to join in can download a poster illustrating the Baby Jesus Project at: gen4.focolare.org

The Adventure of Unity: The Beginnings /2

1 Dec 2013 | Non categorizzato

Continued from: The Adventure of Unity: The beginnings /1

In the next few months, Chiara drew many young people around her. Some of them wanted to follow her in her path: Natalia Dallapiccola was the first, then Doriana Zamboni and Giosi Guella, Graziella De Luca and the sisters, Gisella and Ginetta Calliari; another pair of sisters were the Ronchettis, Valeria and Angelella, Bruna Tomasi, Marilen Holzhauser and Aletta Salizzoni. . .  And all of this was happening while the way of the focolare was anything but defined, except for the “absolute Gospel radicalism” of Chiara.

In those months the war was waging in Trent, bringing ruin, misery, and death. Chiara and her new companions were in the habit of meeting in the air-raid shelters during air attacks. They had a great desire to come together and to put the Gospel into practice, following the overwhelming intuition that had led them to place God-Love at the centre of their life. “Each event touched us so deeply,” Chiara would later say. “The lesson that God was offering to us through the circumstances around us was quite clear: Everything is vanity of vanities, everything passes away. But, contemporaneously, God placed a question in my heart, which was for all of us. And He also provided the answer: ‘But could there be an ideal that doesn’t die, that no bomb can crumble and to which we can give ourselves?’ Yes: God. We decided to make God the ideal of our life.”

One day, in the darkened cellar underneath the home of Natalia Dallapiccola, they were reading the Gospel by the light of candle, as was their custom by now. They opened it by chance to the chapter containing the prayer of Jesus before his death: “Father, that all be one” (Jn 17:21). It’s an extraordinary but complex passage of the Gospel, which has been studied by scholars and theologians throughout the Christian world; but in those days it was a bit forgotten because it was so mysterious. And then there was that word “unity” which had become part of the Communists’ vocabulary, who, in a certain sense, had claimed a monopoly on it. “But, for them, those words seemed to become illuminated, one by one,” Chiara writes, “and they placed within our hearts the conviction that we had been born for ‘this’ page of the Gospel.”

A few months earlier, on the 24th of January, a priest had asked Chiara: “Do you know what the greatest suffering of Jesus was?” In keeping with the mentality of the time, Chiara responded: “His suffering in the Garden of Olives.” But the priest corrected her: “No, Jesus suffered most when he was on the cross and cried out: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”(Mt 27:46)”. Struck by his words, as soon as she was alone with her friend, Doriana, she said: “We only have one life, we’ll follow Jesus abandoned.” From that moment on he would be Chiara’s only spouse in life.

Meanwhile the unrest caused by the war didn’t let up. The families of most of the girls fled to the mountain valleys. But the girls decided to remain in Trent: some because of work or study; some, like Chiara, in order not to abandon the many people who had begun to gather around them. Chiara stayed with an acquaintance until the following September when she found a flat at Number Two Piazza Cappuccini on the outskirts of Trent. This is where some of her new friends – first Natalia Dallapiccola, then the others, began living together. It was the first focolare: a modest two-room apartment in the clearing shaded by trees at the foot of the Capuchin church. They called it simply “the little house”.

Word of Life for December

28 Nov 2013 | Non categorizzato

Christmas is nearly here – let’s take the love of Jesus to everyone

“May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all.” (I Thes 3:12) Visit the new Gen 4 website to see other formats available