Chiara Lubich in dialogue with the world: the gift of words

On 21 January 2022 the Focolare Movement’s international centre at Rocca di Papa, Italy, hosts the launch of an intriguing new book ‘Chiara Lubich in Dialogue with the world: intercultural, linguistic and literary perspectives of her writing’, edited by Rubbettino publishing house.

“The writings of authors defined as ‘spiritual leaders’ are often considered solely as works of spiritual edification (…) frequently offered to the public within anthologies, afforded limited critical attention. The truth is, however, they can often be of great literary value, demonstrating a vital, creative, even courageous use of language[1]”, writes linguist Anna Maria Rossi in her introduction to the book she co-curated with Vincenzo Crupi: Chiara Lubich in Dialogo con il mondo, prospettive interculturali, linguistiche e letterarie nei suoi scritti (‘Chiara Lubich in dialogue with the world: intercultural, linguistic and literary perspectives of her writing’), published by Rubbettino. This volume contains the papers presented at the event of the same name held in Trento, Italy on 24-25 September 2020 as part of the centenary celebrations of the birth of Chiara Lubich.

The proposal to publish this book “was welcomed with enthusiasm and without reserve as corresponding perfectly to the guidelines of the ‘Iride’ (‘Iris’) series published by Rubbettino, designed as “a meeting point between Italian academics and foreigners, to meet the need for informative resources on the best available material in the field of literary criticism, linguistics and philology,” affirmed Rocco Mario Morano, series editor. “This volume on Chiara Lubich – he continued – makes a significant contribution to this line of research, gathering as it does the depth and breadth of analysis contained within the studies of 25 academics from different parts of the world, who employ their literary experience, sensitivity and competence in a range of different disciplines to this subject”.

Morano identifies how, in order to describe her own spiritual experience, the author Chiara Lubich demonstrates particular care to use “models of writing formed, time and again, to meet her driving need to communicate her innermost understanding and thought, permeated with an elevated spirituality and great religiousity (…). This drives her tendency to submit her texts to continual revisions to enable the reader to penetrate her deepest meaning in all its aspects (…). These adjustments never distract (…) from the strong desire and immense joy of giving the Word as an act of love to all people of good will throughout the whole world, whatever their religious, political or philososphical creed”.

The book, which is launched on 21 January 2022 at the Focolare Movement’s international centre, focuses on the texts written by Chiara Lubich between 1949 and 1950, writings often referred to as “Paradise ‘49”. A detailed textual analysis of the author’s words and a precise study of the language of mysticism used to communicate such a deep experience, “offers – according to Rossi – through image and metaphor, insights for intertextual comparison”.

The word itself is viewed, too, as a means which leads to an ideal, to unity. In fact, an analysis of Lubich’s writings in the second section of the book reveals her as a “woman of dialogue”, one who always directed her attention to others, attentive to the multicultural dimension of those with whom she communicated; a woman who with her words was capable of ‘building up’, of being ‘constructive’ in the face of differences, one who lived evangelical love in full.

This love continues into the passage from one language to another in the highly delicate task of translation, which necessarily presumes a process of consultation, exchange and relationship between translator and author. According to Regina Célia Pereira da Silva, Lecturer in Portughese Language at the Università per Stranieri of Siena, Italy, specialist in Linguistic Information Translation, Strategy and Technology, “the words of Chiara come not solely from a religious theory, but rather they are fruit of a real concrete life, touched by encountering the divine. Only if the translator too experiences such giving of oneself through words, will they be able to understand this kind of reality, living it not individually but in a collective way”.

To find a way of communicating such a strong experience, respecting the intentions of the author while eliminating every possible ambiguity of phraseology, is not just a matter of expressing the same language, but also the translator should give their own ideas and be ready to lose them, ‘emptying’ themselves. A dialogue must be established between “the author, translator and beneficiaries of a text,” explains Regina Pereira. “This presumes a new dynamic, one typical of Chiara Lubich (…) which involves penetrating the needs of the other in order to share in them and if possible to take the first step. It demands humility and love. The author-translator relationship has at its heart a novel form of communication based on the concept of nothingness which, as an emptiness, is able to welcome the other person completely with their own personal and cultural identity. The translator or the reader enters the text, enters the author and acquires her experience and is enriched by it”.

Maria Grazia Berretta

[1]Rossi, Anna Maria in Chiara Lubich in Dialogo con il mondo, prospettive interculturali, linguistiche e letterarie nei suoi scritti, edited by Anna Maria Rossi, Vincenzo Crupi, Rubbettino Editore, 2021, p. 11.