Riccardi

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 June 2011|

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 June 2011|

Non conformatevi alla mentalità di questo secolo…

Commento alla Parola di Vita: Non conformatevi alla mentalità di questo secolo, ma trasformatevi rinnovando la vostra mente, per poter discernere la volontà di Dio, ciò che è buono, a lui gradito e perfetto (Rm 12,2) Ci troviamo nella seconda parte della lettera di san Paolo ai Romani, dove l’apostolo ci descrive l’agire cristiano come espressione della nuova vita, del vero amore, della vera gioia, della vera libertà, che Cristo ci ha donato; è la vita cristiana come nuovo modo di affrontare, con la luce e la forza dello Spirito Santo, i vari compiti e problemi di fronte ai quali possiamo venirci a trovare. In questo versetto, strettamente legato al precedente, l’apostolo enuncia lo scopo e l’atteggiamento di fondo che dovrebbero caratterizzare ogni nostro comportamento: fare della nostra vita una lode a Dio, un atto di amore disteso nel tempo, nella costante ricerca della sua volontà, di ciò che gli è più gradito. Non conformatevi alla mentalità di questo secolo, ma trasformatevi rinnovando la vostra mente, per poter discernere la volontà

Riccardi2021-08-31T02:02:03+02:001 June 2011|

Do not conform yourself to this age…

Commetary on the Word of Life: Do not conform yourself to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. (Rm 12:2) This word of life is found in the second part of Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans. The apostle is describing the actions of a Christian as the expression of the new life — real love, real joy and real freedom — that God has given to us. It is Christian life understood as a new way of facing the various situations and problems encountered in everyday life with the light and the strength of the Holy Spirit. In this verse, which is closely connected to the preceding one, the apostle describes the goal and underlying attitude that should characterize our behavior, that is, to make of our lives a song of praise to God, an act of love carried out across time in the constant quest of his will,

Riccardi2021-08-15T23:29:26+02:001 June 2011|

Quella voce

Non debbo mai dimenticarmi che la Realtà è dentro di me e che io debbo dare ai fratelli soprattutto la linfa che sale dal fondo dell’anima, che è la voce sottile di Dio che sprona ed illumina. Occorre far tacere tutto in noi per scoprirvi la voce di lui. E bisogna estrarre questa voce come si toglie un diamante dal fango: ripulirla, metterla in mostra e donarla a tempo opportuno, perché è amore e l’amore va dato: è come il fuoco che, comunicato con paglia o altro, arde, altrimenti si spegne. Corriamo, ché la luce sta accesa solo nell’anima in cui l’amore è in moto, è vivo. La dottrina spirituale, Mondadori 2001

Riccardi2021-08-31T02:02:03+02:0028 May 2011|

That Voice

I must never forget that Reality lives in me and that I must give to my brothers and sisters, above all, the vital fluid that rises from the depths of my soul, which is the subtle voice of God that urges and enlightens. We have to silence everything in us in order to discover his voice. And we have to extract this voice, as we would take a diamond out of the mud, clean it, place it in view and give it when opportune, because it is love, and love must be given. Like a fire fed with straw, love blazes when it is communicated, otherwise it will die out. Let’s run because the light remains lit only in the soul where love is in motion, is alive. from Essential Writings, (La Dottrina Spirituale, Mondadori 2001)

Riccardi2021-08-15T23:29:38+02:0028 May 2011|

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Centro Chiara Lubich