{"id":327050,"date":"2015-02-02T07:45:49","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T06:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/chiara-lubich-and-the-family\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T14:59:28","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T12:59:28","slug":"chiara-lubich-and-the-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/chiara-lubich-and-the-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiara Lubich and the Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"20150202-01\"<\/a>\u201c<\/strong>Chiara Lubich<\/a>\u2019s spirituality invites us to be open to communion first of all in our own families and, <\/strong>once there\u2019s unity in our own families, to open ourselves to other families. No family is an island. We all feel the need to share our spiritual and material possessions, our time and our abilities, so that a network is built that is doing something that helps the world that is waiting for a love won\u2019t give up, and always begin again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anna and Alberto Friso sounded quite delighted as they remarked on the opening of the Cause of Beatification<\/a> of Chiara Lubich last January 27, 2015 in Frascati, Italy. They knew the foundress of the Focolare Movement personally and for twelve years were in charge of the New Families Movement<\/a>, one of the Movement\u2019s first family associations. They took on that role just after marrying and travelling from Padua to Rocca di Papa to take part in a family conference with their first newborn son.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very struck that a consecrated woman could have the family so much at heart <\/strong>and that her ideal could also be applied to our vocation as a married couple,\u201d they recalled. Not only: \u201cChiara was a modern woman, pretty but not flashy, elegant but not affected, with an appealing and harmonious way of expressing herself,\u201d the Frisos noted. \u201cWe were coming from the province, two simple working people, clumsy. With great simplicity and firm conviction she told us that Jesus was also counting on us, as individuals, but also as a family.\u201d Lubich was indeed convinced that her spirituality was especially suited for families, because in its original design, it was a small community of people united by love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, Alberto and Anna take care of the non-profit \u201c<\/strong>Action for new families<\/a>\u201d group, <\/strong>which provides adoption at a distance in the world\u2019s southern hemishpere. When they were in charge of the New Families they would meet with the foundress regularly: \u201cShe listened to the problems and the projects, but mostly she gave us the courage without which it would have proven difficult for two poor creatures like us to carry ahead a movement made of so many families, and on the global level. She offered guidelines, affirmed and dreamt with us. But most often she expressed her trust and confidence in us married people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the Pontifical Council for the Family <\/strong>the Friso\u2019s had also been invited by Chiara to give attention to separated couples, divorced and remarried people, which she described as \u201cthe face of Jesus crucified and forsaken.<\/a>\u201d Chiara\u2019s charism continues to announce God\u2019s divine love for each and everyone,\u201ca conviction not only found in Scripture, but in the proofs of personal experience, from our own lives. It\u2019s an announcement that turns out to be efficacious also for those who have perhaps lost hope or faith, or think that separation is already inevitable. If God loves me, if he gave his life for me, then I should \u2013 I can! \u2013 respond to that love by loving the person next to me. And who are more next to one another than a married couple, their children and other family members?\u201dAlberto and Anna argued: \u201cIf we sincerely place ourselves on a ray of love that draws on the Absolute, then everything becomes possible: acceptance, service, listening, disinterested love, free-giving and forgiveness. . .\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interview by Laura Badaraccchi from Italy\u2019s Avvenire newspaper with Alberto and Anna Friso, who were close collaborators of Chiara Lubich for the family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}