Focolare Movement

New Families Turns Fifty

Jul 19, 2017

New Families was founded on July 19, 1967 by Chiara Lubich, who called it “an explosive, apostolic and diffusive” movement, which is now active around the world answering to the needs of the family.

Chiara Lubich con A e D Zanzucchi e G FumagalliDuring the first school for married focolarini, Chiara Lubich paraphrased what Pope Paul VI had said a day earlier at the General Audience. Chiara announced on that July 19, 1967, that “an explosive, apostolic and diffusive Movement” for families would be born at the very heart of the Focolare. Fifty years later it is easy to see that those words were proven to be true. Married and engaged couples and many others who have a part in the world of the family have seen their love for one another grow through their contact with the charism of unity, transforming it into a living witness of love for God and for the human family. That love has also resulted in the Movement spreading in a large part of the world’s countries. Chiara_Famiglie002 Argentina 1998 New Families is committed to giving an answer to the needs of today’s family that is in line with “Amoris Laetitia” (“The Joy of Love”). They don’t do it with words, but with the concrete fruit of the real life experiences by a multitude of families with their testimonies of unity, and with their hundreds of projects of international cooperation and at-a-distance support. They work for the renewal of society and for the realization of Jesus’s testament: “that all may be one.”

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Your email address will not be published.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

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.

Living the Gospel: from seed to fruit

Living the Gospel: from seed to fruit

The Word of God is like a seed which bears fruit when received with an open heart and perseverance and when with it, we manage to overcome difficulties. Jesus invites us not only to listen to it and understand it, but above all to live it concretely every day. By living His Word, we allow Christ to transform the way we think and act, making our lives and the lives of others, fruitful.