At the birthplace of Chiara Luce Badano

Mar 10, 2022 | Non categorizzato

On 6–7 March 2022 Focolare’s president and co-president were in Sassello, Italy, the birthplace of Blessed Chiara Luce Badano in the province of Savona. It was an intimate, personal meeting with Chiara Luce and the foundation that protects and promotes her memory. Things change after you visit Sassello. The young Chiara Luce can certainly be known through books, documentaries or her massive presence on social media. But if you are lucky enough to go to Sassello, everything changes. This is because at the cemetery, or through her mother Maria Teresa and friends, the relationship with her immediately takes on a personal quality. That is exactly what happened on 6–7 March to Margaret Karram and Jesús Morán when they went there. It was one of the first off-site trips by the Focolare president and co-president, one year after the General Assembly that elected them. This private visit came from a desire to know Chiara Luce, but not just that. “During these days I understood the extraordinary nature of Chiara Luce, the roots of her holiness,” commented the president, who was able to embrace Maria Teresa Badano, meet the Bishop of Acqui Mons. Luigi Testore and meet members of the Chiara Badano Foundation. These were important days, with an atmosphere of growing affection, dialogue and sharing. It was a time to rebuild relationships of trust, collaboration and take a look together at numerous challenges and future projects. It was a brief visit, marked by precious anecdotes from Maria Teresa, who recalled pieces of Chiara Luce’s daily life, such as her constant and total openness to welcome anyone who came to visit her – right up to the last days of her life. At the cemetery, meeting Chiara Luce face to face, “we entrusted to her, first of all, peace in Ukraine and in the many places where conflicts are not in the media spotlight,” said Jesús Morán,  “and then all young people, for whom she is an extraordinary and extremely necessary model, today more than ever.”

Stefania Tanesini

The thread that unites: a Council and a Charism

Mar 9, 2022 | Non categorizzato

On 11^th -12^th  March 2022, a Conference entitled “The Second Vatican Council and the charism of the Unity of Chiara Lubich” will be held in the heart of Florence (Italy). It is being jointly organized by the Chiara Lubich Center and the Sophia University Institute and can be followed via live streaming in Italian and English. On 11^th-12^th  March 2022, Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance, will host a Conference entitled The Second Vatican Council and the Charism of Unity of Chiara Lubich. Starting with a careful analysis of the conciliar event, the aim is to go to the heart of this itinerary, a moment, that was fixed in history and continued over time. They will be two full days that, thanks to the presence of numerous personalities and experts, will open up a journey of investigation and study, outlining the vital link between the charism of the foundress of the Focolare and Vatican II. There will be three important sessions: A chronological and kairological coincidence: a Council and a charism; The Word becomes Church; The Church becomes Word. Vincenzo Di Pilato, Professor of Fundamental Theology at the Faculty of Theology of Puglia,  and Florence Gillet of the Chiara Lubich Center, theologian and expert on the founder of the Focolare, are speakers at this Conference. We asked them about the event. Prof. Di Pilato, what, in particular, will this Conference highlight ? Originally, the conference was part of the centenary celebrations for the birth of Chiara Lubich (1920-2020). However, due to the global health emergency it was postponed until now. The objective was and remains, to probe the productive reciprocity between the charism of unity and the two Constitutions promulgated by the Second Vatican Council, on the Revelation of God and on the Church: Dei Verbum and Lumen gentium. How much have the two documents found a fertile place of interpretation and development in the ecclesial experience aroused by the charism of unity? And vice versa: how much was the flowering of ecclesial life promoted by the charism of unity made possible precisely by the horizon opened by the extraordinary event of the Council? These are the basic questions that will accompany the dialogue between the participants. It should be remembered, however, that it was Vatican II who reiterated this essential unity between hierarchical gifts and charismatic gifts (cf. Lumen gentium, no. 4). Both John Paul II and Benedict XVI went so far as to speak of the “coessentiality” of these gifts, while recently Pope Francis stressed how the action of the Holy Spirit produces “harmony” between the different gifts, recalling charismatic aggregations to missionary openness and synodality. Dr. Gillet, what questions led you to organize this conference? One may wonder if it is too daring to parallel two such different events. What relationship could there be between an ecumenical Council that saw 3,000 bishops and great theologians intervene with prophetic visions for the Church and a charism given to a young woman twenty years earlier, from which a worldwide Movement was born? To answer this, let us first note the harmony in their origin: the Holy Spirit who wanted to speak to the world on the threshold of the third millennium. Then these are two ongoing events that must increasingly fertilize each other: the Second Vatican Council has not yet been fully received, even if its reception is now significantly in progress in the synodal process desired by Pope Francis. The Holy Spirit still has surprises in store. The charism of unity has also yet to reveal all its potential. It must be translated into life in the people of God. In short, it is only at the beginning as the Pope also said during his visit to Loppiano in 2018. Prof. Di Pilato, how can we reread Chiara Lubich’s charism of unity in the light of what is happening in the world today? If the pandemic seemed to be the deadly context in which the conference should initially have been held, the decision to postpone it suddenly catapulted us into another, no less dramatic scenario. In this sense, the paradigmatic experience of Chiara Lubich and her first companions in Trento, during the Second World War, offers us a key to interpreting the conference. Everyone is aware of the role that the Word of God assumed for those young women at a time marked by the collapse of the ideals with which they had grown up. The light that emerged from the pages of that little book of the Gospel that they carried with them during the bombings, guided them to heal physical and existential wounds, to inspire millions of people in the world and to involve them in the realization of God’s dream: universal brotherhood, “that all may be one”. And it was the Word of God translated into social commitment on behalf of the poor and the most needy that generated a living Church, as their Bishop of that time was able to confirm, with amazement and great joy. Even today, while everything seems to collapse again under the blows of a short-sighted and forgetful policy, there is nothing left in our hands but the Word of Life, the only thing capable of regenerating the Church. And it is on this witness of life that the Church can become for the whole world, an authoritative Word of peace and unity. To follow the event via live streaming: https://live.focolare.org/firenze2022.

Maria Grazia Berretta

Press Release Program bochure

Chiara Lubich: the beauty of Christianity

Mar 7, 2022 | Non categorizzato

The Word of Life for March 2022 invites us to put into practice a phrase we recite every day in the Our Father: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. But how can we forgive? Forgive. Always forgive. Forgiveness is not forgetfulness, which often means reluctance to face a situation. Forgiveness is not a sign of weakness, whereby we ignore an injustice we have suffered out of fear of the stronger person who committed it. Forgiveness does not mean saying that something serious is just a trifle or that something evil is good. Forgiveness is not indifference. Forgiveness is a conscious act of will, and therefore, a free act. It consists in accepting our neighbours as they are, despite the wrong done to us, just as God accepts us sinners, despite our faults. Forgiveness consists in not responding to an injury with another injury, but in doing what Paul says: “Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.”^[1] Forgiveness consists in offering the person who has wronged you the opportunity of a new relationship with you. It makes it possible for both of you to start over again and to experience a future in which evil does not have the last word. … You should act this way, first of all, towards those who share your faith – in your family, at work, at school, or in your community, if you belong to one. And you know that even people who live in the same household often hurt one another because of differences in personality, nervous tension, or other causes. Therefore, you must remember that only a constantly renewed attitude of forgiveness can maintain peace and unity among everyone. You will always tend to think about other people’s faults, to remember their past, to wish they were different from the way they are. Instead, you should develop the habit of seeing them with new eyes, of seeing them as new people, accepting them always and immediately and just as they are, even if they do not repent or change. You may say: “But that’s hard!” And you are right. However, this is the beauty of Christianity. In fact, it is not by chance that are you following a God who, as he was dying on the cross, asked his Father to forgive those who had caused his death. Take heart! Start living like this. I assure you that you will experience peace and joy that you have never known before.

Chiara Lubich

(Chiara Lubich, in Parole di Vita, [Words of Life] Città Nuova, 2017, pp. 218-219)  [1]     Rom 12:21.

Next door

Mar 4, 2022 | Non categorizzato

Living next door to one another and being strangers. This is what often  happens. All it takes is courage and  simple actions to begin to really get to know one another.  This is what the Scariolo family did. “Meeting other people  is  mutually enriching –  beyond cultures, religions and ideologies. When we do this, we discover that the other person was created as a gift of love for us and we for them.” These are the words used by Adriana and Francesco Scariolo, Swiss focolarini, who have been married for 42 years, to describe a particularly enriching experience they had a few months ago. “We live in Canton Ticino, in the Italian part of Switzerland, and for a year and a half we have been living in a building that consists of thirteen flats. In the days leading up to Christmas 2021, we thought we could  go door-to-door to share Christmas greetings. The surprise and gratitude of all the neighbours was great: ‘I was the first tenant to come to live in this building and this has never happened before – it’s the first time someone has come to wish us well at Christmas,’ said one of them. ‘We are Muslims, but we want to wish you a Merry Christmas too,’ added another. We also distributed an invitation to everyone to celebrate the end of the year in our home and to wish them a Happy 2022. So on 29 December we held an aperitif-dinner with three families, one Muslim and two Christian, one Evangelical and one Catholic, respecting safety regulations and wearing masks. It was a nice occasion when everyone got to know one other quite spontaneously. ‘It’s good to know that there are neighbours to help out, to say hello to,’ said the husband of the Muslim woman. ‘It makes us feel less alone.’” Is this something you have done before? “Yes, it’s not the first time we’ve tried to create relationships with other people in  apartment blocks. It all started many years ago when we heard about the ‘neighbours’ party’, an initiative proposed to give people a chance to meet each other. We realised that we also needed a bit of courage and imagination to do our part, so we tried. The first thing we did was to take advantage of the new year and put a greeting card in the letter boxes, then, depending on people’s reaction and by  making more friends, we organised a lunch in the garden all together before the summer. Then we left that block of flats for a 7-year volunteer programme working abroad.  When we came back, since we are in this new building, we wanted to keep up the tradition.” What surprised you about their reactions? “Seeing their smiling faces. They didn’t expect it, especially in such a sensitive period because of the pandemic. It also seemed like a gift to be able to end the last days of 2021 with a moment of socialising after so much isolation, a sign that gives hope and does not dampen the desire to love others and build fraternal relationships. On 2 January 2022, we were waiting for other families who had said they would like to come to us. Due to the social distancing, it was not possible to host them at the same time as the others. Some were affected by covid and therefore could not come, but the dinner with them is only postponed until better times.” What does it mean for you to meet your brother or sister? “It means reaching out to today’s humanity through simple, everyday gestures of love. For example, helping the neighbour who sometimes has problems with the TV, listening to the couple who have just had a baby, breaking down the walls of indifference  and anonymity that the pandemic has increased because they are obstacles to relationships. Jesus’ phrase “Whatever you do to one of my least brothers, you do to me” challenges us. So every neighbour is really the person God puts next to us to be welcomed and loved. And who is closer than our neighbours?”

Maria Grazia Berretta

Hombre Mundo: artisans of peace and unity

Mar 3, 2022 | Non categorizzato

From 25 to 27 February 2022 over 3000 young people witnessed universal fraternity developing active citizenship through local and global actions, committing to the great challenges facing the planet, from peace to environment and the fight against hunger and poverty. The desire to be together, meeting to build peace, live universal fraternity, take action for the environment and the weakest in society. In the three days from 25 to 27 February the Gen3 who are the adolescents of the Focolare Movement experienced the planetary workshop known as Hombre Mundo. More than 3,000 young people from more than 600 locations around the world took part in concrete actions and were connected through an online videoconference to bear witness to a united world. They were also able to share videos and photos of their experiences through teens4unity social networks. There were numerous messages of peace and solidarity including one from the Gen3 of Siberia, from the city of Krasnojarsk in Russia who sent a message during their Hombre Mundo to say: “we are living for Peace”. A message filled with hope, especially during these days of conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The programme of the planetary workshop was divided into three stages. 25 February: Our way of life is the art of loving: how have we lived this and can we live it during the pandemic? How can we carrying on loving in the virtual world of social media? “We have understood,” said Samira from Congo, “that we have to accept one another despite our differences, which are of enormous richness. It’s a way of promoting values whilst simultaneously banishing anti-values.” And Élise from France: “in one meeting we were really struck by certain statistics concerning infant mortality around the world, mainly due to the lack of drinking water. So we organised a concert to raise funds to drill a well in Cambodia that would provide clean water for a dozen families for life”. On 26 February, the young people strengthened their commitment to integral ecology and the “Zero Hunger” Objective, to improve protection of the planet in an effective way and drastically reduce hunger and poverty until they disappear. One of the experiences shared was from the Gen3 in Austria for a reforestation project. “The money invested in the tree project was raised during the Fair Play tournament held in Vienna,” they explained. The theme was ‘Fair Play against Climate Change’. About 120 players and 100 helpers took part that day.  With the money we raised, we were able to buy around 1,500 trees”. The 27 February was dedicated to the beauty of the encounter between peoples and the common commitment to build a world of peace and unity. A worldwide live videoconference connection enabled over 3,000 young people from 600 different connection points to meet and pray for peace. Then many experiences of peace and unity despite the many difficulties were shared. Like that of a girl in Myanmar, which is going through a very difficult political situation with many families having to leave their homes and take refuge in reception centres. She really wanted to be able to do something for them. “So I made myself available to help the refugees who had been taken in by the church. Even though I was tired, I believed that God was with me, looking at me and giving me the strength to carry on and help others. Now I can say that it was a wonderful and beautiful time for me. It was unforgettable.” In Lebanon, Maria Sfeir, Ambassador of Peace from the Middle East, together with Fouad Sfeir, told how they had “incorporated the culture of peace, educating our children and raising them with good values such as love and giving to build a better society, in an environment of non-violence and justice”. Among the many talks there was also Gen Rosso who were connected from the Italian island of Lampedusa, famous for welcoming migrants: “We are here in Lampedusa to support the wonderful people who welcome those forced to leave their land because of war, hunger and violence. Lampedusa is an island of fraternity, an open port, with people who look towards the horizon and jump into the sea to reach and save those at the mercy of the waves. Lampedusa: lamp, luminous beacon that signals land.  Land that means home. From here we want to say: let us always keep the doors of our hearts wide open”. Margaret Karram, president of the Focolare Movement, then gave a message: “You have built the building site with your testimony of life”. (…) Don’t feel alone, know that the Movement throughout the world is with you and supports you. (…) I too often feel powerless in the face of the evil in the world: wars, injustice, the destruction of nature. In these moments it helps me to talk to God. It gives me strength and courage to know that He is with us. The certainty of his love warms my heart, makes me able to love, to forgive, to hold out my hand to build unity with those I meet every day. I feel that only in this way can I be a little artisan of peace”.

Lorenzo Russo

Ukraine: agreement with Caritas-Spes to aid the population

Mar 2, 2022 | Non categorizzato

Contributions collected by Focolare Movement Emergency Coordination through the non-governmental organisations Azione per un Mondo Unito (AMU) and Azione per Famiglie Nuove (AFN) will go to support assistance activities for the Ukrainian population carried out by Caritas-Spes Ukraine. The actions of war in Ukraine show no sign of stopping, and among the population there are thousands of displaced people fleeing. Many are trying to survive between homes and emergency shelters, where they can receive initial support. With contributions collected through the appeal launched by Focolare Movement Emergency Coordination, AMU and AFN are firstly supporting the actions of Caritas-Spes Ukraine. The organisation is providing aid to thousands of people forced to abandon their homes and flee to the border, or to take refuge in underground shelters set up in the immediate area where possible. Caritas-Spes Ukraine is committed to offer safe shelter, food, medicine, hygiene products and psychological support for close to 500 displaced mothers with children housed in their centres. More than 2,500 people are also receiving aid through Caritas in the parishes and 14 soup kitchens that remain active in the areas of Kiev, Lutsk, Berdiansk, Kamenets-Podolsky, Zhytomyr, Kharkiv, Lviv, Odessa, Vinnitsa and several cities of the Transcarpathia Region. The images of the war in Ukraine every day in international media, and the testimonies of our contacts on the ground, such as Mira Milavec, a Slovenian focolarina who lives in Ukraine and collaborates with Caritas-Spes, describe the state of emergency of a population under siege. The people are defenceless in the face of the bombing, and they crowd routes to reach the borders, or take refuge in basements or shelters, where makeshift beds have been set up as they wait for a hot meal, drinking water and electricity. At the border with Poland, the line of desperate people who hope to cross the border is tens of kilometres long. Caritas-Spes in Lviv has organized special aid for mothers who try to escape with children, even very small ones, in their arms. They need everything, especially hot water to prepare meals or change diapers. In Odessa, which is under attack, shelters are being set up, even under the cathedral. The activity is punctuated by the sound of sirens announcing danger arriving or its temporary cease. In Vinnitsa a psychologist is organizing online training sessions for volunteers and operators about providing psychological help in stressful situations such as this. The first has already been attended by more than 120 people. Currently, the fundraising has already reached 100,000 euros, and the first shipment of funds has already been sent. It is being used to support the actions of Caritas-Spes for early aid to Ukrainian families. We are also evaluating the possibility of supporting the costs to take in the many Ukrainian refugees who are arriving in the surrounding countries, such as Slovakia and Poland. They are being welcomed by the generosity of local families who are opening their homes to them. Unfortunately, military activities show no signs of ceasing, and as confirmed by local contacts, needs will only increase. Frequent updates about the aid activity being carried out on the ground are available via the online and social channels of AMU and AFN. To support Ukraine and aid families devastated by the war, donate online on these sites: AMU: amu-it.eu/dona-online-3/ AFN: afnonlus.org/dona/ or through bank transfer to the following accounts: Action for a United World ONLUS (AMU) IBAN: IT 58 S 05018 03200 000011204344 at Banca Popolare Etica SWIFT/BIC: ETICIT22XXX Action for New Families ONLUS (AFN) IBAN: IT 92 J 05018 03200 000016978561 at Banca Popolare Etica SWIFT/BIC: ETICIT22XXX Reference: Ukraine Emergency

News from the Focolare in Ukraine

Mar 1, 2022 | Non categorizzato

Donatella Rafanelli told Maria Chiara Biagioni of the Italian news agency “SIR” about the life of the Focolare community in Ukraine in recent days. A 29-hour trip from Kiev. “Now our dream is to go back there”. A 29-hour drive out of Kyiv to reach Mukachevo, a town in the west of Ukraine. Heavy traffic on the roads, long queues at cash machines and petrol stations, tanks and people along the way asking for a lift. Donatella Rafanelli is a focolarina, from Pistoia in Italy, who has lived in a Focolare community in Kyiv since 2019. She spoke to “SIR” about that journey along the ‘route’ of internally displaced persons. Donatella told us, “We were in Kyiv when we received a phone call on Thursday morning advising us to pack quickly because there was shooting 70 kilometres from the capital. We didn’t know what to do because for all of us it was the first time that we were in that kind of situation. We went to look for the closest shelter to our house and were directed to an underground carpark. We went home and rang the Italian embassy on an emergency number. They told us to stay home and go to the shelter only if there was an alarm. Everything seemed normal. People had been talking about the possibility of an attack on Kyiv for days, but when it happened, the first thing we did was look each other in the eyes. We said, here we go, we’re at war. And we prayed. We asked Jesus to give us strength and to give us peace. From then on, it was all a race against time. We put a few things together in a small bag. We took very little, the bare essentials and personal documents. We tried to get train tickets so we could go to the west, but they were sold out. The airport was closed. So we decided to take the car. The roads out of Kyiv were blocked. There were very long queues at the bank to get money and at the supermarkets. It took a long time just to get out of the city. We stopped twice for petrol. At the first petrol station we queued for an hour. And while we were there, waiting, we heard the shots. It was an emotional moment. We stood still, in silence. When we set off again, you could see tanks and people hitchhiking for a lift. Our phones were constantly receiving and sending messages and calls: from those who had left, from who had decided to stay. We were sharing news and putting the people who were trying to leave in contact with the Focolare communities in Slovakia and Poland, who had offered a welcome. Only as we were travelling, did we realize what had happened to us. We weren’t in the car to go to an appointment or a trip. We were leaving a city, our home. We would never have wanted to leave. But we realized it was impossible to stay.” In Mukachevo, Donatella and her companions were welcomed by a Parish Priest and by the community of the Focolare there. “We are still in Ukraine; this is very important to us. We didn’t run away. We want to continue living in this country. We’ve been offered lots of places to go. The fact that we left Kyiv is just because it’s dangerous right now. There was no point in staying under the bombing. But now our dream is to go back there.” She continued, “War? It’s madness, no one has the right to take someone else’s life or rob them of the chance to live a normal life. People here have made a lot of sacrifices to buy a house, save money. And now with the war, their plans for the future are jeopardized, their dreams are shattered. We are praying that this madness will end as soon as possible. We are following the news of the talks between the delegations and of the efforts being made at the level of international diplomacy. I think the only thing that can help us is a miracle. It really helps us to hear all the news from people who pray for us and who demonstrate in the streets for peace. We need a miracle.”

Maria Chiara Biagioni

Walking together: the synodal pathway in the Holy Land

Mar 1, 2022 | Non categorizzato

The 2021-2023 Synod convened by Pope Francis is an opportunity to listen to and dialogue with others; a moment to rediscover the true identity of the Church, the “universality” from the beginning. The pathway involves all the dioceses of the world, including the Holy Land. “As we set out on this journey, we are more aware than ever that together, as disciples of Christ on  this earth which is his home, we are all called to be his witnesses. Let us remember that his greatest desire is that we are one.”  (cf. Jn 17). This is what we read in the letter of 26 January 2022 sent by the Catholic Ordinaries to the heads of the Christian Churches in the Holy Land regarding the 2021-23 Synod which has been  convened by Pope Francis and is entitled “For a Synodal Church: communion, participation, mission”. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem,  signed the letter which had the explicit aim of informing and involving brothers and sisters in various local ecclesial communities about the synodal journey that has begun in the Holy Land. He underlined the importance of listening to each other in order to grow closer  together on this fraternal journey. Reference was made to the missionary nature of a “universal” Church, in Jerusalem, in particular. During a meeting held on 9 November 2021 after the opening of the Synodal Pathway, the Patriarch had spoken about this with the ecclesial movements and new communities present in the Holy Land. “Our Church, the Church of Jerusalem, began life in the Upper Room at Pentecost, and, even then, it was both local and universal (…) especially in recent years, it has been enriched by many more charisms. For this reason, your presence here is not only a gift and  a sign of God’s providence (…), but it is also a contribution to the fulfilment of what God, the Lord, desires.” The participants all listened to each other and spoke of their own experiences.  The valuable help of the Patriarch enabled them to  better understand how to approach the Synod at a local level. Answering various questions, Mgr Pizzaballa shared his thoughts on synodality which “is a style – he said – a way of being, in the Church, but also outside the Church. It is an attitude.  Listening and dialogue are  expressions of this (…)”. The movements and new communities – says the Patriarch- need to work in “cross platforms”, going to the heart of the experience of “communion” of the universal Church, the experience that, more than others, seems really difficult to live in the Holy Land. “By communion I mean the awareness of belonging, of having freely received this gift, of having a life that is ‘inserted’  into other lives (…). All this stems from the experience of the encounter with Jesus. (…) after having met the Lord and experienced salvation, you understand that this experience becomes complete and  profound, when it is shared in a community (…). This letter sent by the Catholic Ordinaries to the heads of the various Christian Churches in the Holy Land  renewed a deep longing in many people and opened up new horizons by underlining the desire to grow in fraternity and be enriched by the wisdom of others. The hope of the Synodal Journey is that we should all experience ‘being together’ in  the atmosphere  similar to a shared meal where the group not only embraces suffering together but wants to immediately speak of the joys that life offers. It would be like the disciples’ journey to  Emmaus.  Although they were disappointed and sad, they  walked together and, in communion, supported each other until the Risen Lord came to them. An opportunity not to be missed, to recognise him in our midst.

Maria Grazia Berretta

Chiara Lubich: the relevance of the Gospel

Feb 28, 2022 | Non categorizzato

Encountering the Gospel today means finding the living Word of God. Chiara Lubich, through her experience with the first community of the Movement in Trent, makes us appreciate the effects of putting the Gospel into practice. If God speaks to us, how can we not welcome his Word? In the Bible there are 1,153 instances when God repeats the invitation to listen to him. It is the same invitation that the Father extended to the disciples when the Word, his Son, came to live among us. He said: “Listen to him.”^[1] The listening that the Bible speaks about, however, is done more with our hearts than with our ears. It means adhering completely to what God tells us, making it our own, obeying him with the same trust as children who abandon themselves into their mother’s arms, letting her carry them. … In this, we hear an echo of Jesus’ teaching when he calls blessed those who hear the Word of God and obey it, ^[2] and also when he acknowledges as his mother, his brothers and sisters, all those who hear his Word and put it into practice.^[3] Jesus said that a person who listens well to the Word is the one who puts it into practice, thus giving a firm foundation to their life, like building a house on rock.^[4] In every one of his Words, Jesus expresses all his love for us. Let’s incarnate his Word in our lives and make it our own. If we put it into practice, we will experience the enormous potential for life it brings forth both within in and around us. Let’s fall in love with the Gospel to the point of allowing it to transform us and overflow onto others. This is our way to love Jesus in return. It will no longer be we who live, but Christ will be formed in us. We will experience first-hand what it means to be freed from ourselves, from our limitations and all the things that tie us down. Moreover, we will see the revolution of love that Jesus, now free to live within us, will bring about in society around us. This was our experience at the beginning of the Movement in Trent, during World War II, when we often had to run to the air-raid shelters, taking with us only a small copy of the Gospels. We opened it and read it and, due to a particular grace of God, I believe, those words, which we had heard so many times before, shone out for us with a totally new light. These were Words of life, words that could be transformed into life. … We witnessed the growth of a living community around us, which after only a few months numbered some five hundred people. All this was the fruit of our living contact with the Word, which was constant, dynamic, moment by moment. We were “inebriated” with the Word; we could say that the Word lived us. We would ask one another: “Are you living the Word?” “Are you a living Word?” And that would be enough to increase our swiftness in living it. We should go back to living as we did then. The Gospel is always relevant. It’s up to us to believe in it and experience it.

Chiara Lubich

(Chiara Lubich, in Parole di Vita, [Words of Life] Città Nuova, 2017, pp. 789-791) [1]     Mt 17:5. [2]     See Lk 11:28. [3]     See Lk 8:20-21. [4]     See Mt 7:24.