Riccardi

Florence, 17 September 2000 How do we take the right path for our life? An answer of Chiara Lubich. I want to correspond with all my being to God’s love for me. It’s not clear to me yet which way I should follow. How can I grow every day in choosing him in a radical and absolute way? Chiara: She’s asking two questions. First, how can I understand my way? In other words: I don’t know my way… and I’d like to know it (...) In order to understand your way – she intends the right way, the will of God for her – you must first of all pray, because if you are serious about following God’s will, you become a laborer of Jesus, one of those laborers Jesus mentioned when he said that the harvest is abundant but the laborers are few, and he said "pray", so we must pray. So, to understand your way, those among you who might not know your way, remember that it is necessary

Rome, 25 december 1996 Commentary of the Word of Life: We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20). This is Paul’s appeal to the Corinthians following his great proclamation, which is the heart of the whole Gospel: God has reconciled the world to himself through Christ (see 2 Cor. 5:19).On the cross, in the death of his Son, God has given us the greatest proof of his love. Through the cross of Christ, he has reconciled us to himself. This fundamental truth of our faith has much to say to our times. It’s the revelation that all humanity is waiting for. Yes, God is near to everyone with his love and he loves each person passionately. Our world needs to hear this, but we can say it if first we proclaim it, again and again, to ourselves, so that we really do feel enveloped by this love, even when everything could make us think otherwise. We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

20 November 1958 John XXIII is the Pope who signed the approval of the Focolare Movement in 1962. This is how Chiara Lubich remembers him in an article of the “Città Nuova” magazine" ...Jesus is genuinely and wholeheartedly present in John XXIII. This is Jesus, who with much pain and love, tells his disciples: “My dear children, love one another." But since love is not love if it’s not substantial,  he immediately made it concrete and real, incarnating those words: “Coepit facere et docere” (he began to do and then to teach), so as to make the Church one family, conveying universal love for everyone and especially for each one. We see such sublime gifts of humility and simplicity in John XXIII that upset many people, people who are deceived by extravagant lifestyles or by the boom of a science that proves useless in life and only builds up pride. In him Jesus wishes to gather together in one sheepfold all the little sheep, even those who are wandering around outside.