Pagina 116 – Chiara Lubich

Vegliate e pregate…

Commento alla Parola di Vita: Vegliate e pregate, per non cadere in tentazione. Lo spirito è pronto, ma la carne è debole (Mt 26,41) Queste sono parole che Gesù, durante l'agonia nel Getsemani, ha rivolto a Pietro, Giacomo e Giovanni quando li ha visti sopraffatti dal sonno. Egli aveva preso con sé questi tre apostoli - gli stessi che erano stati testimoni della sua trasfigurazione sul monte Tabor - perché gli fossero vicini in questo momento così difficile e si preparassero con la preghiera assieme a Lui, giacché quanto stava per accadere sarebbe stato una prova terribile anche per loro. Vegliate e pregate, per non cadere in tentazione. Lo spirito è pronto, ma la carne è debole Queste parole - lette alla luce delle circostanze in cui sono state pronunciate - prima ancora che una raccomandazione rivolta da Gesù ai discepoli, occorre vederle come un riflesso del suo stato d'animo, cioè del modo con cui Egli si prepara alla prova. Di fronte alla passione imminente, Egli prega, con tutte le forze

Riccardi2021-08-31T02:02:05+02:0029 Giugno 2011|

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Watch and pray…

Commetary on the Word of Life: Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Mt 26:41) These are words that Jesus addressed to Peter, James and John when he found them overcome by sleep during his agony in Gethsemane. He took these three apostles with him — the same three that had witnessed his transfiguration on Mount Tabor — to have them close to him during that extremely difficult time. This was their opportunity to prepare themselves through prayer together with Jesus, because the events about to take place would be a terrible trial for them as well. Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak In order to understand these words, we should keep in mind the circumstances in which they were said. What Jesus was giving his disciples was more than words of advice. We should see these words as reflecting his state of mind, that is,

Riccardi2021-08-15T23:29:16+02:0029 Giugno 2011|

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Working in Perfect Communion

It is wise to spend the time we have by living God's will to the full in the present moment. Sometimes, however, we worry about the past or the future. We are concerned about situations or people for whom we cannot do anything at the moment. This is when it becomes difficult to steer the ship of our lives. It takes great effort to keep to the course that God wishes us to have in that particular moment. At such times we need strong willpower, determination, and especially trust in God, sometimes to a heroic degree.Can I do nothing to resolve a certain complex situation or for a dear person who is sick or in danger? Then I will concentrate on doing well what God wants from me in the present: study, homemaking, prayer, taking care of the children ... God will take care of the rest. He will comfort the suffering and show a way out of that entangled situation. This way the task is being done by two in

Riccardi2021-08-15T23:29:44+02:0018 Giugno 2011|

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All’incontro del Santo Padre con i Movimenti ecclesiali

Piazza San Pietro, 30 maggio 1998 Dovrei esporle, Beatissimo Padre, una mia testimonianza sul Movimento dei Focolari o Opera di Maria. Ma giacché lei conosce molto bene, da decenni, questa realtà ecclesiale, permetta che la consideri dal suo cuore, che la veda con i suoi occhi. Lei ha individuato nell'amore la "scintilla ispiratrice" di tutto quello che si fa sotto il nome del Focolare. Ed è proprio così, Santo Padre. E' quella la forza del nostro Movimento. Essere amore e diffonderlo è lo scopo generale dell'Opera di Maria. Un'invasione d'amore, infatti, essa è chiamata a portare nel mondo. Anzi lei, Santità, ha affermato di individuare qui, ricordando altri Movimenti spirituali della storia, un "radicalismo dell'amore". E come non può essere così se lo sguardo di tutti coloro che fanno parte del Movimento è sempre puntato, come a modello, su Gesù crocifisso nel suo grido d'abbandono? L'amore più radicale è proprio lì, dove è il culmine del suo patire. E' in Lui - che abbandonato dal Padre si riabbandona al Padre, che

Riccardi2021-08-31T02:02:04+02:0011 Giugno 2011|

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At the meeting of the Holy Father with the Ecclesial Movements

St. Peter’s Square, May 30, 1998 Holy Father, I have been asked to give my testimony on the Focolare Movement or Work of Mary.Because you have been well acquainted with this ecclesial reality for decades, allow me to consider it from your heart, to look at it with your eyes. You identified love as being the “inspiring spark” of all that is done under the name of Focolare, and it is really true, Holy Father. It is the driving force of our Movement. Being love and spreading it is the general aim of the Work of Mary. In fact, it is called to bring an invasion of love into the world. Indeed, Your Holiness, while recalling other spiritual Movements in the course of history, you affirmed that you could recognize in ours, a “radicalism of love”. And how could it be otherwise if everyone who belongs to the Movement constantly keeps their eyes fixed on one model: Jesus crucified in his cry of abandonment? It is there that we find the most

Riccardi2021-08-16T03:47:58+02:0011 Giugno 2011|

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The Other Life Within Us

We often make resolutions. We are not always successful at keeping them. But in some rare cases you realize it is not you making them. It is Another who is calling you sweetly, but decisively, from within. It then seems you cannot but keep those resolutions. We have to thank God for these divine moments in which he calls us to Another life that lives inside of us, where every note is in harmony, every darkness is enlightened, every distortion is straightened, every emptiness is filled with him. And this can happen at any moment of the day. We feel there are two of us: he in me and I in him. Yet we are one: I, water From this source, a flower from this divine seed, the witness of his reality that fills my being. This indeed is living. God alone knows how to shape himself in us. We know only how to ruin it. from Essential Writings (La dottrina spirituale, Mondadori 2001)

Riccardi2021-08-15T23:29:52+02:004 Giugno 2011|

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Circa Riccardi

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Centro Chiara Lubich