Focolare Movement

Coming Together in Joy

Feb 19, 2013

99 Sayings by Benedict XVI. By Stephen Liesenfeld (ed.)

Coming Together in Joy distills Pope Benedict’s counsel from his many years of Truth-searching and study, prayer and reflection, priestly ministry and service to the Church. These 99 short reflections guide us on a journey along various aspects of the Christian faith, such as the bond between reason and belief, Mary, the Eucharist, social justice and evangelization. Ever alert to the real issues of families and young people, priests and teachers, the learned and the simple, the Pope also points us to the way faith makes a real difference in our lives. Taken together, these sayings comprise a concise summary of the main elements of Pope Benedict’s teachings. They are a joy to read, satisfying the soul’s hunger and quenching the mind’s thirst.

Orders: New City Press (NY)

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Thought of the day

A precious legacy: Chiara Lubich’s ‘Paradise ’49’

The first presentation of Chiara Lubich’s book ‘Paradise ’49’ took place on the 22nd of May 2026 in the Paul VI Hall at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. The book is a collection of writings in which the Foundress of the Focolare Movement bears witness to and shares her mystical experience from the years 1949 to 1951.

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A precious legacy: Chiara Lubich’s ‘Paradise ’49’

A precious legacy: Chiara Lubich’s ‘Paradise ’49’

The first presentation of Chiara Lubich’s book ‘Paradise ’49’ took place on the 22nd of May 2026 in the Paul VI Hall at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. The book is a collection of writings in which the Foundress of the Focolare Movement bears witness to and shares her mystical experience from the years 1949 to 1951.

Chiara Lubich: “Do you know where we are?”

Chiara Lubich: “Do you know where we are?”

It is the 16th of July 1949. Chiara Lubich is in Tonadico, in the Dolomite Mountains in northern Italy, for a period of rest together with some of her first companions. They are joined there by the Honourable Igino Giordani, whom Chiara called Foco. On that day, Chiara and Foco sealed a Pact of unity, a prelude to the spiritual and mystical experience that Chiara would live between 1949 and 1951. This period is known as “Paradise ’49”, the writings from which have recently been published in a book (for now in Italian). In the introduction to the book, the theologian Piero Coda offers some insights “For a theological reading” of the text. Here is an extract, relating specifically to the Pact of the 16th of July, together with a short video of Chiara Lubich from 20 December 1999, in which she shares this experience of light with the Gen, the young people of the Focolare Movement.