Focolare Movement
Prevention of Abuse
Media Area
Contacts
Focolare Worldwide

We can feel the nails

Apr 3, 2015

Holy Saturday, in anticipation of the event which will change history. A reflection by Klaus Hemmerle.

26“Oh, there’s a light with nails on it!

So exclaims a child in front of the Paschal candle.

We can feel the nails.

But can we see the Light?

And what about us … do we give out light?

We are nailed

to ourselves and to others;

to our time and our responsibilities.

The Holy One has allowed himself to be nailed to our cross.

And it was from there that he come down.

He was nailed right up until he died.

In this way he became light for everyone;

that light which penetrates closed doors.

He is risen

and shows the signs of the nails.

Light which was nailed.

We feel the nails.

But can we see the Light? And what about us … do we give light?

(From a pastoral letter on the occasion of Easter 1984)

 

Klaus Hemmerle, “La luce dentro le cose”, Città Nuova, Rome 1998, p. 109.

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to Newsletter

Thought of the day

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.

Related post

A precious legacy: Chiara Lubich’s ‘Paradise ’49’

A precious legacy: Chiara Lubich’s ‘Paradise ’49’

Jul 16, 2026

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?”

Chiara Lubich: “Do you know where we are?”

Jul 15, 2026

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.