Worship, Liturgy and United Community on the Second Vatican Council's anniversary.
This is an excerpt of Chiara Lubich's diary of May 4, 1968.

'So if you are about to offer your gift at the altar and you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, go at once and make peace with him, and then come back and offer your gift to God’ (Mt. 5:23-24).
Divine worship and love among brothers and sisters, the love which creates and rebuilds unity, are absolutely inseparable. If a community does not 'fulfil' itself in Christ in full communion it is unfitted, according to the Gospel, to offer true worship to God...

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Assisi, October 26, 2000

…
Urs von Balthasar says that when the Holy Spirit sends one of his charisms, a little window is opened for the first time in heaven, through which it is possible to know truths which, although contained in the patrimony of the Church, appear to be new .
Through the charism of unity, that little window revealed to us, for as much as it is possible for us human beings to understand, many of these mysteries which are like the two sides of the same medal: Jesus forsaken and unity.

Commentary of the Word of Life:

Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. (Jn 4, 13-14)

In this “pearl” of the Gospel, Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman near Jacob’s well, he speaks of water as the simplest of elements, but one that proves to be the most desired, the most vital for whoever is familiar with the desert.
No great explanations were needed to convey the importance of water. Well water is for our natural life, whereas the living water that Jesus is speaking of is for eternal life.
Just as the desert blooms only after an abundant rainfall, similarly the seeds buried in us at baptism can bud forth only if sprinkled with the word of God.

Rocca di Papa, 24 January 1978

As you can see, this was a surprise for you, but also for me. I'm still trying to catch my breath, because I ran across the lawn so I could come here to greet you.
... I heard someone inside saying: go to greet them, go to greet them. (Applause)
Gen, I didn't even know what to tell you - but now something will come - one idea at a time.
The first idea that comes to my mind is this. The Gen Movement offers to the youth, because it is a work of God, as you know, but you will know it even more so in the future, it offers to the youth all that today's youth needs.

Rocca di Papa, November 6, 1996

Message for the 40th Anniversary of the Birth of the “Volunteers”

To all of you who are gathered in Budapest to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the birth of the “volunteers,” I send my most cordial greetings.

It is not by chance that you chose Budapest, the capital of Hungary, as the headquarters of this important meeting. This nation lit the first spark of that reality - one of the most flourishing branches of the Focolare Movement - which would soon burst into flames in Italy, in Europe and all over the world.
It was our answer to that longing for freedom, suppressed in blood by those who wanted to uproot God from society and from the hearts of men and women.

Rome, October 1948

It was a time of war.
Everything crumbled before us, young as we were, attached to our dreams for the future: a home, our studies, people dear to us, our career.
The Lord was teaching us, through events, one of his eternal truths: «All is vanity, nothing but vanity...».
It was that total and multi-fold devastation of everything that formed the objective of our small hearts, that brought forth our Ideal.    
We saw other young women launch themselves with sincere enthusiasm into working for the salvation and better future of our nation.
It was easy to talk about the Ideal in that life dead to all that could humanly attract one.
We felt that only one idea was real and immortal: God.

Interview with Chiara

You've had several audiences with Pope Paul VI. What has been your strongest impression of these audi¬ences?

The strongest impression that I had was certainly during the first audience. I felt I was in front of a person who loved in a very special way. The wisdom in the Pope's words was such that it overcame all the juridical obstacles still present; he understood; he received in his soul the whole content of the Movement that I was presenting to him. The Pope himself encouraged me to say everything, because there everything was possible.

Commentary of the Word of Life:

Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others I will deny before my heavenly Father (Mt 10,32-33).

This word of life is a source of great joy and encouragement to all Christians.
With this passage, Jesus calls us to be consistent in living out our faith in him, because our eternal destiny depends on the attitude we have assumed toward him during our lifetime. If we declare ourselves for him before others, he says, he will have reason to declare himself for us before his Father. If instead we have disowned him before others, he will disown us before his Father.

Today a lot is said about the role of the laity. And perhaps we would see more clearly who the lay person is and how the lay person is also 'Church', if a better and fuller explanation were given of certain aspects of the life of Mary. It seems to us that she is the model of the lay person, even though she is exceptional and unique.
We Catholics do not make a God of Mary, as we are often accused of doing, but, since love and faith have led us to the discovery of all that makes her special, we often place her to one side, far away from us. We place her in a sphere which is hers, but it is not the only sphere in which she belongs.

Castel Gandolfo, February 16, 1987

(...) Mary was a gate that leads to God. A gate is not a gate unless it opens and allows free passage. A door that is always closed is really a wall. Those who stop at the gate do not reach God. The gate is for Jesus.
“Hail, O Gate of the Sublime Mystery,” sounds the Akathistos hymn.
The Virgin is the one who is empty of self, utterly self-forgetful. She is the created being who knows that she is created, even when filled with God.
She was using the same method for our Movement that she had used for the Church: keeping herself in the shadows in order to highlight her Son, who is God.

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