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Rocca di Papa, April 26, 1999 In this message addressed to young people gathered at Loppiano for their annual meeting on 1st May 1999, the Founder of the Focolare Movement put before them a challenging goal, the one that inspired the first steps of the “Adventure of unity”. It is the first of May and you, young people, have come together to share joys, concerns and ideals, to consider what can be of interest to you today, who are wholly oriented towards the new millennium which belongs especially to you. You have come to pool your youthful strengths and to contemplate a dream which can become a reality: a united world. And all this despite the very sad events we hear about every day in the media.  I imagine that in these moments, even in the midst of songs, music, and dances, while sharing various experiences,hearing testimonies and spending hours inthe peaceful and enthusiastic joy which is typical of your congresses, some questions can arise in your hearts. As a matter

Castel Gandolfo, December 28, 1997 (From a talk given by Chiara Lubich to Focolare members on the Word of Life...) If people were to ask: what is your 'uniform' like, without hesitating we would give just one answer arising from the charism that God gave Chiara: mutual love, without limits. In that talk Chiara shared her own experience. She was in Switzerland when she encountered the beauty and visibility of different charisms in the life of the Church. She asked herself how the charism of unity could best be seen. It was only when she met her first companion, Natalia Dallapiccola, that she was able to reply: I understood, it is the mutual love of the Gospel: "By this all will know that you are my disciples"... “As I was walking through the streets of Einsiedeln, in Switzerland, I saw many people from different religious Orders going by. It was lovely to see the different types of habit worn by the various groups of Sisters and priests, against the background of

Castel Gandolfo, 18 June 1988 This was a question a little girl asked Chiara during a congress. Chiara shares her ‘secret’ and the fruit of suffering that has been loved. (…) “How do you spend your day, in sadness or in joy? In particular, what do you do when you are not happy? Chiara: She asks me what I do when I am not happy. This is very important. … You need to learn it by heart. … When we are not happy, we must go deep down into our hearts and say to Jesus, "Listen Jesus, I feel a suffering, but you felt suffering too. I am happy to be like you and I offer you this suffering." And then we must start to love the others right away, and the suffering will go away. Jesus takes it away. It is as if he puts it in a parcel and takes our suffering away. This slide shows a little boy who is sad, I think. But he offered up his

Bratislava, 10th May  2001 At the beginning of September we have the new Word of Life “Love your neighbour as yourself”. This is the key to practising fraternity and love, which are sure means to put an end to was and the abuse of power. This is the answer Chiara Lubich gave to a Member of the Slovak Parliament in Bratislava. She offers the witness of fraternity lived in the Movement’s communities and the ‘trump card’: the art of loving with its various requirements... Honorable Malíková is a Member of the Parliament, representing the Slovak National Party. Please come to the microphone. Thank you. Honorable Malíková: Thank you. I am very struck by Ms. Lubich’s words concerning love and universal brother and sisterhood, and how much these are needed in Europe: “What do you think about the bombing in former Yugoslavia and the contribution, in this case, of Western European countries? There is talk of building new bridges; but in this case a good number of bridges have been destroyed, both

Catelgandolfo,   February 10, 2002 This is an answer Chiara Lubich gave to Cristina, a young woman from the Castelli Romani during a meeting with the local community on 10th February 2002.  She spoke to Chiara being ready to take up the baton with all its consequences.  Chiara said: “In creating you God had a design for your life. Live the will of God in the present moment and you’ll see! You cannot live without being in love, yes, in love with a God who has looked upon you.” Later Chiara mentioned the motto that can help everyone: start again, always, until you reach the goal. Cristina: I remembered some things that the Pope and you, Chiara, said to us young people during the World Youth Day: “If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world on fire”. I realize that great people in history, like you and the Pope, count entirely on us young people. I wanted to ask you: how can we measure up to this

15-30 August 1959 In the early years of Città Nuova [Italian New City] magazine (which had started up so as to link all those who had been it the recent Mariapolises in the Dolomites, and before the Mariapolises spread throughout the world) there was atmosphere of freshness, newness and revolutionary fervour, given the mentality of the time. It was the Gospel in action.  This editorial article, signed by Chiara, thus became a manifesto of social doctrine. It is dated 30th August 1959 (the Feast of the Queenship of Mary was on 22nd) and Chiara invites all peoples to love one another to reach unity, going beyond their own frontiers... eradicating war. She speaks of a presence, a hidden bond, living within each nation. It is Mary, Queen of Peoples. If one day all people, not as individuals but as peoples; if all peopleslearned how to set themselves aside, the idea they have of their homeland and their kingdoms, and offer these as incense to the Lord, the King of a kingdom