Riccardi

Rocca di Papa, 20 December 1984 In this telephone conference call, Chiara Lubich stresses the importance and value of charity, following the example of St Augustine and St Jerome. Dear All, … We have been called, above all, to give the world a show of perfect charity, charity which is love for God and which is proved by love of neighbour.We also spoke about charity in the last conference call and many of us were struck when we understood that love for our neighbours does not mean being ready to die for them but to actually die, not being ourselves so as to be the other, to live the others. The impression it left seemed so strong and beneficial that I was doubtful about offering a new thought for our journey. I was doubtful but then I became convinced that it is a good idea to stay with this concept a little longer so as to assimilate it better and to try and try again to put it into practice.So, in

Naples, May 4, 1996 Chiara Lubich answered this question put to her during a press conference. Question: You have chosen God as Your ideal, and Mary as your model. In fact, you have established that the president of your Movement will always be a woman. Chiara: We think of Mary in the same way as the Church thinks of her. We are not a Marian Movement like the Daughters of Mary, for example. …Our view of Mary is Christ-centred. Certainly, ours is not just devotion; we want to imitate Mary, because devotion is not enough for us. We feel that it wouldn’t be right to have a devotion, and then to lead our lives as usual. We see her as our model. Even as a little girl, she gave herself completely to God. Then she lived as a young woman, a fiancée, a wife, a mother, a virgin and a widow. Therefore, we see her as the model for every time of life, both for women and men.Then, we consider her in

Brig, 11 August 1989 Each year, on the feast of St. Clare of Assisi, Chiara Lubich used to speak about a subject related to the life or spirituality of this great saint whose name she adopted. Here she emphasized St Clare’s “faithfulness to the charism God gave her”, inviting everyone to imitate her in living the charism of unity.  … Last year we left one another thinking about this feast day, about St. Clare and her spirituality. Having looked over the previous years and all the thoughts that St. Clare and her spirituality have given us over the years, we said: “Well, we are leaving and we want to be faithful to our charism as she was faithful to hers. Hers was poverty, ours is unity.” So, this is what I would like: for us to go home with this faithfulness. And the focolarini here have made themselves one: [we can’t want] more than that... Unity. I would like us to pursue unity on three fronts this year.First of all unity with

Castel Gandolfo, December 31, 1998 Chiara Lubich answers a question of a seminarian. … Considering today’s society, we often ask ourselves if we are sufficiently equipped to bring the Gospel to the men and women of our times.How can we offer people the Christian message in such a way that it will really answer their questions and problems? Chiara: Well, first of all, the questions that some of them will ask you are general questions, which we too know or our people who are close to them know, so they aren’t really difficult questions. In any case, the answer to everything is the Word of God! You cannot imagine what the Word of God is. It’s the answer to everything, the answer to everything. In fact, it is God who answers us through his Son.  What matters for us is that we re-evangelize ourselves by living the Words of Life month after month, that we re-evangelize ourselves, really and truly. Not every now and then, but being living Gospels, allowing the Word