{"id":404920,"date":"2026-07-15T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/?p=404920"},"modified":"2026-07-15T05:00:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T03:00:47","slug":"chiara-lubich-do-you-know-where-we-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/chiara-lubich-do-you-know-where-we-are\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiara Lubich: \u201cDo you know where we are?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHere is a summary of the event (of the 16th of July) that Chiara offers us, restoring its enchanting Gospel-based inspiration. When Igino Giordani (Foco) suggested (to Chiara Lubich) that they \u2018bind themselves closely\u2019 to each other in order to follow Jesus more closely \u2013 as Saint Catherine did with her followers \u2013 Chiara felt prompted to respond by inviting him to make a \u2018pact\u2019, in faithfulness to the Gospel principles to which she had learned to conform her life <a href=\"#_ftn1\" id=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou know my life: I am nothing. I want to live, indeed, like Jesus Forsaken, who annihilated himself completely. You too are nothing because you live in the same way. So then, we will go to church tomorrow and I will say to Jesus-Eucharist who will come into my heart, as into an empty chalice: \u2018On the nothingness of me may you seal a pact of unity with Jesus-Eucharist in Foco\u2019s heart. And, Jesus, bring about between us the bond which is known to you.\u2019 \u2026 \u2018And you, Foco, do the same.\u2019\u201d (Translation of the Italian &#8211; verses 24 and 25 of the text of Chiara Lubich published in \u201c<em>Paradise \u201849<\/em>\u201d, Citt\u00e0 Nuova, Rome 2026). <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The narrative is concise and extremely simple. The event that then came as a gift, once the pact had been made and had borne witness, exceeds all human expectations. And in this form, it is also unprecedented in the history of Christian experience.  <\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignright is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Chiara Lubich: \u201cDo you know where we are?\u201d\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YviAdRSIgE8?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We could try to discern its meaning from what Chiara first of all tells Foco, in order to \u201cexplain to him\u201d \u2013 as she wrote \u2013 what had happened. \u201cDo you know where we are?\u201d She begins with this question, inviting him to join her in opening the eyes of his soul to the scene that has unfolded through the pact. It is clear from this that the pact prepared the conditions for God\u2019s grace to be made manifest: the mystical perception of the presence of Jesus in Chiara and Foco (and immediately afterwards in those to whom the pact is extended) becoming \u201cone\u201d \u2013 brought about in Jesus and by Jesus, through the lived Word and through the Eucharist. And it is so in each of them. Certainly, the lived and perceived identification of Chiara with Jesus, expresses the extraordinary grace common to all authentic mystical experiences attested to throughout the history of the Church. But what comes to light in the experience described here, is that this takes place <em>for Chiara in the unity in and through Jesus, that she lived with Foco<\/em>, and then gradually with the other people to whom the experience is communicated. To such an extent that they too are drawn into it.      <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Piero Coda<\/em><br \/>(Translation of the Italian text taken from <em>Paradiso \u201949<\/em> [Paradise \u201849], Works of Chiara Lubich, edited by Piero Coda \u2013 Alba Sgariglia, Citt\u00e0 Nuova, Rome 2026)<br \/>Photo: <em>Baita Paradiso<\/em>. A cottage in Tonadico, Italy, where Chiara Lubich and some of her first companions<br \/>stayed during the period known as \u2018Paradiso \u201949\u2019. \u00a9 Jes\u00fas Mar\u00eda Zamora   <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" id=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> Here we have a specific description of the Christian experience brought about by the charism of unity: the \u201cpact\u201d. Whatever its origin in Chiara\u2019s thought and practice, it is clear that the dynamic of \u201csealing a pact\u201d, implies sharing with those involved in it, the fundamental focus of one\u2019s existence in God and the decision to carry out his will together. In this way, the pact, among those who live it, becomes an expression of the pact with which God himself established a covenant with his people in the Old Testament, and as \u201conce and for all\u201d renewed it eschatologically in Jesus. Therefore, we see this as a \u201cfundamental\u201d aspect of the experience of Revelation. &#8220;Before then,&#8221; Chiara recalls in a footnote, &#8220;we had lived other pacts, such as the pact of mutual love. This had brought about a qualitative leap in our life, making us experience the presence of Jesus in our midst with the gifts of the Spirit he brings with him: peace, joy, light, strength. Then the pact of mercy (as we called the pact by which we focolarine took the commitment to see each other new every day, without remembering each other\u2019s defects, as if we were meeting each other for the first time) helped us in perfecting our love for one another\u201d (footnote 30). The pact of unity, inspired by Foco\u2019s request and lived out according to the method described by Chiara, brings about a further and decisive \u201cqualitative leap\u201d \u2013 in keeping with the unfolding of the charism of unity as a gift from God \u2013 namely, that of the identification given and experienced with Jesus, and of finding oneself in the Bosom of the Father.    <\/p>\n\n<div style=\"height:167px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 \u201cParadise \u201949\u201d, 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 \u201cFor a theological reading\u201d 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.      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":404919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2893,2903,1,2822],"tags":[3349,4385,4436,3196],"class_list":["post-404920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-centro-internazionale-2","category-chiara-lubich-3","category-non-categorizzato","category-spiritualita-2","tag-notifiche-en","tag-paradiso-49","tag-patto-di-unita","tag-ppg-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404920","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=404920"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":405192,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404920\/revisions\/405192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}