Focolare Movement

Holy Saturday: Mary

Mar 30, 2018

Mary is alone, but she does not give in to suffering: she waits.

“Mary is alone. Alone with her dead son-God. Is it an unspeakable depth of anguish, an infinite agony? Yes, it is, but she remains standing, thus becoming a sublime example and monument of all virtues. She hopes and she believes. During his life, Jesus had spoken of his death but also of his resurrection. Others may have forgotten his words, but she never forgot them. She kept these words in her heart, along with others, and meditated on them (cf. Lk. 2:51). Therefore, she doesn’t give in to suffering: she waits.” Source: Chiara Lubich during a telephone link up. Castel Gandolfo, Romea, 20th  April 2000.

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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’

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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?”

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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.