Riccardi

21 April 1984 The family: a lofty and recurring topic in the thought and life of Chiara Lubich. This writing of 1984 places the family in its design, in its being a domestic church in God’s plan, “a welcoming dwelling place for all the lost children.” Therefore let’s look at Mary, so as to live with her help and example “the luminous and fascinating plan of God on the family in all its expressions.”  On the occasion of the Holy Year of Jubilee for the families, John Paul II consecrated and entrusted the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It was also the day of the Annunciation. The coincidence of events is certainly not by chance. In fact, there are deep relationships between Mary and the family, at least for the fact that both are great experts in love. Mary got to know the family in her heart, already simply on the natural level, in her various aspects as daughter, fiancée, wife, mother though always a virgin, and widow. The

Mollens, 25 August 1988 A new charism in the Church like the one God generously gave to Chiara Lubich does not overrule the previous Christian practices, but rereads them in the light of God’s gift, of its own evangelical perspective.  I had an opportunity to do some reading on great saints the Church honours, and also to watch some films about them. One of the strongest impressions I took away was the harsh, very harsh life of penance that some of them lived; they often wore the most uncomfortable hairshirts, practiced continual fasts, painful vigils, interminable silences, sleeping on the bare ground or on boards. It was also on the strength of these penances that these saints became what they were.  Naturally I asked myself: What about us? What do we do? Don’t we too want to become saints? And immediately, in my soul, I got a clear answer: “You (individually and collectively) must look to Mary. It is she who is your model. About her, who lived in the midst