Focolare Movement

I have found you

Jul 8, 2017

A prayer in which Chiara Lubich’s personal conversation with God becomes poetry. When suffering comes, it reveals itself through divine alchemy to be always and only God’s love.

Chiara 4I have found you in so many places, Lord! I have felt you throbbing in the perfect stillness of a little Alpine church, in the shadow of the tabernacle of an empty cathedral, in the breathing as one soul of a crowd who loves you and who fills the arches of your church with songs and love. I have found you in joy. I have spoken to you beyond the starry firmament, when in the evening, in silence, I was returning home from work. I seek you and often I find you. But where I always find you is in suffering. A suffering, any sort of suffering, is like the sound of a bell that summons God’s bride to prayer. When the shadow of the cross appears the soul recollects itself in the tabernacle of its heart and forgetting the tinkling of the bell it “sees” you and speaks to you. It is you who come to visit me. It is I who answer you: “Here I am, Lord, I desire you, I have desired you.” And in this meeting my soul does not feel its suffering, but is as if inebriated with your love: suffused with you, imbued with you: I in you and you in me, that we may be one. And then I reopen my eyes to life, to the life less real, divinely drilled to wage your war.   Chiara Lubich Essential Writings New City Press 2007 p. 91  

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Your email address will not be published.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

USA: NextNow, dialogue between the Muslim and the Focolare communities

USA: NextNow, dialogue between the Muslim and the Focolare communities

‘NextNow’ promotes the Muslim-Christian dialogue which starts from the communities, with a focus on the legacy of the spiritual friendship between Imam W.D. Mohammed and Chiara Lubich. On the 10th of May 2025, Margaret Karram participated in one of the regular meetings. She gave a special online greeting.

Seeds of Peace and Hope for the Care of Creation

Seeds of Peace and Hope for the Care of Creation

On 2nd July, 2025, the Holy Father Leo XIV’s Message for the 10th World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation which is celebrated on 1st September, was published. Maria De Gregorio, expert for sustainable development at the Ecosystems Foundation, expert in strategies and actions to reduce environmental risks and impacts, offered us this reflection.