Prague 30th April 2001
Chiara Lubich’s answer to a question put to her at the meeting with the community of the Focolare Movement in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Marie: “Chiara, you have a special relationship with the Holy Spirit. Could you tell us about this?”
Chiara: With regard to the Holy Spirit, I must admit I have a relationship with the Holy Spirit which arises out of love, certainly, but also out of necessity. What would I do without the Holy Spirit? It would be useless for me to go and speak; it would be useless to….
For example, I ask the Holy Spirit for help many times a day, and above all, I do this with the other focolarine and focolarini, because Jesus said that if we ask together, it is easier to obtain the Holy Spirit.
Jesus also told us it is easy to obtain the Holy Spirit, because if a father does not give you a scorpion instead of bread, but gives you bread, so too your Heavenly Father will give you the Holy Spirit if you ask him. So we must be convinced of this – thank God I am quite aware of this – it’s enough for us to ask and the Father gives him to us, especially if we ask him in the name of Jesus, even more so if we ask him with Jesus in our midst.
For example, I am often asked to give talks, I must prepare as many as 30, 40, 50 talks a month. I must prepare these talks and it is not that you can go to a Parliament and tell jokes. You have to give a serious talk. It is the same for other places, we must do things very seriously.
So before writing these talks, I ask the Holy Spirit for help and what have I noticed? I notice that before asking for the Holy Spirit… I might be there waiting for him to suggest something to me. I notice that he gives me many beautiful ideas, but at times, before praying, I don’t find the right words to express these ideas. When I ask for the Holy Spirit – try it and you’ll see its true – the words come, the words come to me. He’s there, he’s there, he’s there, he’s there. So when the theme, the talk I am preparing is finished, it’s a great joy for me to know that I have done something with the Holy Spirit. I feel that I have given life to something – it’s a great joy.
The focolarine who are with me know that when I come out of that room, I always say: the greatest joy for me is to be with the Holy Spirit, to be with the Holy Spirit.
It’s the same thing, naturally, when I am talking with someone as I am doing with you now. Before coming here I prayed to the Holy Spirit. So we must do our part, make ourselves empty and listen, to see what you want, right to the end, without thinking what to say. Then, when the others stop speaking because they have said everything, you feel that he gives you the answer, and it’s the right one, the one that resolves the problem.
The Holy Spirit is phenomenal, phenomenal, phenomenal! He answers everything, he resolves everything, he makes everything new, and he gives new life to everything. It’s extraordinary. This is the answer. Ciao.
