Riccardi

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

Amman, December 7, 1999 In December 1999 Chiara Lubich was in Amman, Jordan, where she met a small but lively group of people forming the Focolare community there. The new millennium was awaited with both hope and fear. What follows is Chiara’s answer to New Stadt magazine to the question “What is your vision for the new millennium?” Q. What is your vision for the new millennium? A. I don’t have a vision for the next millennium. I cannot have one because I am not a prophet.  But I have a great deal of hope in my heart. Undoubtedly, this is an effect of the charism which the Holy Spirit has put there for the benefit of many. I see in the Work of Mary, the Focolare Movement, such a vast, universal and impressive work of the Holy Spirit that I cannot fail to be truly optimistic about the future. Seeing what the Holy Spirit has done with us and with many other spiritual and social “enterprises” that are at work