{"id":392768,"date":"2025-12-06T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/?p=392768"},"modified":"2025-12-03T11:06:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T10:06:43","slug":"7-december-1943-the-beginning-of-a-divine-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/7-december-1943-the-beginning-of-a-divine-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"7 December 1943: the beginning of a divine adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-background is-content-justification-left is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-8c890d92 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"background-color:#f2f2c8\">\n<div style=\"height:18px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong>\u2026 On the 7th of December 1943 I went to church alone. There was a violent storm outside. It really gave me the impression that I had the world against me.   <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><img alt=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1350\" src=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-392808\" style=\"width:374px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3-980x1225.jpg 980w, https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3-480x600.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1080px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong>\u2026 A small kneeler had been prepared for me before the altar, and I had a tiny missal in my hands. The priest had me pronounce the formula to give myself completely to God forever. I was so happy that I probably didn\u2019t even realize what I was doing, maybe because I was young. However, when I pronounced the formula, I had the impression that a bridge was falling behind me and that I could no longer turn back because now I belonged entirely to God, therefore, I could no longer choose. At this point, a tear fell on the tiny missal.     <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong>But my happiness was immense! Do you know why? I was marrying God, and I expected every possible good. It would be fantastic! It would be a divine, extraordinary adventure! I was marrying God! And then we saw that it was really like this.      <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong>\u2026 What is my advice? I would give this advice to myself: we have only one life. Let\u2019s aim high. Let\u2019s aim high. Let\u2019s risk everything to gain everything. It\u2019s worth it, it\u2019s worth it. \u2026 But as far as you are concerned, make this act of generosity: aim high, don\u2019t hold back!   <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\">Excerpt taken from Chiara Lubich, <em>The fourth way<\/em>, 30 December 1984<br><em>Photo: \u00a9 Horacio Conde &#8211; CSC Audiovisivi<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:18px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:175px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chiara Lubich describes the day she consecrated herself to God<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":392748,"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":[2903,2822,3286],"tags":[4193,2829,3349,3196],"class_list":["post-392768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chiara-lubich-3","category-spiritualita-2","category-testimonianze-di-vita-en","tag-7-dicembre-1943","tag-chiara-lubich-2","tag-notifiche-en","tag-ppg-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392768","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=392768"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":392811,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392768\/revisions\/392811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}