We have a great responsibility

Rome, March 30, 1959 We certainly have a great responsibility. We Christians must give witness to Christ and from the way we act people should be able to grasp the message that Christ brought on earth. But at times the witness we give of Christ is weak—if not non-existent— or deformed in one way or another. Various personalities and minds averse to the action of grace project an image of Jesus that is often in their own image and likeness. Therefore, those looking on deduce what they can from the data they have: for example, that deep down, religion simply bends people’s necks but not their will. And this is because those Christians, who call themselves Christ’s disciples, since it is they who live and not Christ in them, cast a shadow that veils in their own person the religion they profess. As a result, the separation tragically continues and is perpetuated between those who are far from Christ and those who, if they were to relive the love that is

Rome, April 8, 2004 We are nearing Easter. While the world is breathing an atmosphere of fear because of the threat of terrorism, what answer may come from the mystery of Good Friday and the Easter Resurrection? Chiara Lubich: Every day is Good Friday. Looking at the news, in front of the killings and assassination attempts, one after the other, in those pictures of inhuman violence, in the cry of those sufferings, resounds the cry of abandonment which Jesus cried out to the Father on the cross: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?, his greatest trial and the darkest shadow. But it’s a cry which didn’t remain without an answer. Jesus did not remain in the abyss of that infinite pain, but, with a huge and unimaginable effort he re-abandoned himself to the Father, overcoming that immense suffering and in this way he brought people back in the bosom of the Father and in the reciprocal embrace. read the whole text

Rocca di Papa, December 6, 1973* Last summer was a rather special one because of the suffering that God had planned for me personally and as a consequence- because of unity- for some who were with me.We have always said that suffering and love must be kept secret, whereas the light that comes from our experience must be given. I believe that what has happened in these past months is of fundamental importance for us. In fact, I feel that God wanted to highlight a part of His Gospel which we had not yet considered in depth. read the whole text   * This text is the fruit of a spritual experience lived out by Chiara Lubichin 1973, when, physically struck by a very painful herniated disc and spiritually struck by other sufferings, she began to deepen on a new dimension of the Gospel. The text is in conversation form as it was originally addressed to some delegates of the Movement and it was kept that way.