{"id":329250,"date":"2017-06-10T01:03:45","date_gmt":"2017-06-09T23:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/here-is-the-hand-of-god\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T15:07:32","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T13:07:32","slug":"here-is-the-hand-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/here-is-the-hand-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Here is the hand of God"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chiara-Lubich-Carlo-de-Ferrari-02\"The then Archbishop of Trento, Msgr. Carlo de Ferrari<\/strong>, had the task of first assessing and approving the Focolare Movement at the diocesan level. The title of the recent book published by Citt\u00e0 Nuova Publishing House \u201cQui c\u2019\u00e8 il dito di Dio\u201d (Here Is the Hand of God<\/strong>), recalls the expression he used in reference to the evangelical experience that Chiara Lubich and her first companions were living. The context is 1951<\/strong>, a period when not everyone in the Church thought the same as the archbishop of Trent. Indeed, there were many ecclesiastical perplexities and suspicions, in pre-Vatican Council times, with regards to this young lay woman, who had as her followers\u00a0priests, men and women religious, lay men and women, young people and not so young. Prudence suggested distancing her and perhaps replacing her with a priest. It was through these circumstances that Chiara’s decisive relationship with her bishop began. The book opens with a letter from Chiara Lubich, written from Rome, to Archbishop Carlo de Ferrari. <\/strong>The letter is dated January 5, 1951 and the period of trial that the nascent Movement and Chiara herself were experiencing shines through every line of the text. \"Chiara-Lubich-Carlo-de-Ferrari-01\"<\/a><\/strong>Most Reverend Highness, <\/strong>[1]<\/a> It’s so true. The cross was heavy and still is, and in these days I understood why Jesus \u201cfell\u201d under the weight of the cross. But, Your Highness, I\u2019m happy, truly happy. I\u2019ve obtained the grace from Jesus to be ready for every decision made by the Church. Not only that, but to leave \u201cmy own\u201d (I can still call them that for a while longer), fifty men and women focolarini in such perfect unity that they will be able to pursue their path without anyone even noticing that anything has changed. I\u2019m happy, Highness, to be able to give God all that He has done through me in the supernatural field. I assure You that no matter what happens You can always be assured of my faithfulness to my Jesus forsaken and obedience to the Church. I\u2019ve come this far precisely because I\u2019ve never wanted, on my part, to break unity with the Church, or better, with whoever represented it. If I hadn\u2019t done as I did, perhaps the Movement wouldn\u2019t exist. But the Lord God gave me resistance even against the unimaginable. Now the Movement exists and it will never die. That it is the work of God will be shown perhaps by the fact that I will have to distance myself from it. If I must testify to Him by becoming nothing, after having borne witness to Him through Unity, I\u2019m happy. The culmination of of the life of Jesus was spent in loving was death: and no one has greater love than to give their life for their friends. You, Father, were truly a Father to me, and you showed me (what I believed only through faith) that the Church is a Mother. I will always keep You as Father whatever the Will of God will be for me. <\/strong>No one can forbid me from obeying You, which means obeying the Church. What matters in becoming holy is to obey: to be one. Little does it matter whether they command us to act or not act in one way or another. Isn\u2019t that true, Father? Father Tomasi is a holy man. He\u2019s suffering very much at the moment and is not eating. He is suffering for me… I would never have thought that he could have such feelings.But don\u2019t worry, Your Highness, <\/strong>because we are supporting him and in his presence I also feel lighthearted. In conclusion, I can only tell you one thing: I\u2019m very happy, immensely happy. And I can assure You that Jesus Forsaken will carry me through. Besides: \u2018Blessed are you when they separate you and ‘lying, say all manner of evil against you. Rejoice and be glad because your reward in Heaven is great.’ Bless me now and forever, your daughter, Chiara.<\/strong>\u201d Da \u201cQui c\u2019\u00e8 il dito di Dio<\/em><\/a>\u201d, (Rome: Ed. Citt\u00e0 Nuova<\/a>, 2017)   [1]<\/a> In those years, the archbishop of Trent was addressed as “Your Highness”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Presentation of Lucia Abignente\u2019s book on the relationship between Chiara Lubich and the Archbishop of Trent, Carlo de Ferrari at the beginning of the Focolare Movement.<\/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-329250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329250","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=329250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}