Two things struck me during Holy Week: Jesus’ fear – “He began to feel fear” (Mk 14:33) – and his plea to the Father to be freed of the enormous burden that was overwhelming him.
We are in Lent. Why is it so difficult to talk about penance in our modern times? Good people, in certain areas, especially country people, and above all, women, still accept the parish priest's invitation to penance. And do it.
Chiara was born on the 22nd of January. On that very date, in 2000, she received honorary Roman citizenship. That morning she had written in her diary:
Today 80 years old at 6:30 AM. Today Roman citizenship. Infinite thanks, Jesus, Father, Holy Spirit.
She received the following letter from Pope John Paul II:
To Miss Chiara Lubich Foundress and President of the Focolare Movement
I was very happy to learn that on January 22, on the occasion of your 80th birthday, the Municipal Administration of Rome intends to solemnly confer you with honorary citizenship...
"Benedict XVI focused his message for this year's World Day of Peace on protecting creation. We echo his words with a letter taken from a letter exchange on this topic between Chiara Lubich and Nikkyo Niwano, founder of the Buddhist Movement Rissho Kosei-kai."
Rocca di Papa, March 8, 1990
Dear Mr. Niwano,
First of all, I hope this letter finds you in the best of health. Cordial greetings also to the members of your family whom I remember with great esteem and who are present in my prayers. I hope that you have received good news from your grand-daughter, Mitsuyo, who is the guest of one of our families in Paris. Since I received your letter in October, we have been very busy following the great changes that have taken place in Eastern Europe, which have probably had noteworthy repercussions also beyond the boundaries of our continent.
Every year the Day for Peace is celebrated on 1 January. We're publishing some notes that Chiara prepared on this topic in answering two questions asked by the young people of the Buddhist Movement Rissho Kosei-kai.
Peace is an effect of unity. When there is unity between God and the human person, we have inner peace. When there is unity among brothers and sisters, there is peace among brothers and sisters. When there is unity among peoples, there is peace in the world.
The text is a second draft with respect to the original
It’s more than a month before Christmas and the city streets of Zurich are already covered in lights. Bahnhofstrasse and parallel streets. A never-ending row of shops, a sophisticated but exorbitant richness.We are in what is perhaps the richest country of the world.
To the left of our car a row of shop windows catches our attention. Through the window it is snowing gently: an optical illusion.
I love you not because I have learned to tell you so; not because my heart suggests these words, not even because faith has made me believe that you are love; and not even because you died for me. I love you because you have entered into my life more than the air in my lungs, more than the blood in my veins.
At times, a certain preoccupation comes to the soul. How do I appear to God? What and how much dust covers my soul? Even though it seemed to me that I had not committed any deliberate sins, neither mortal nor venial, how ugly I must be?
At times we are filled with nostalgia for heaven. At times we feel the weight of life here on earth and of the waiting. But then Someone immediately calls us from within to recollect ourselves and be alone with the Eternal One; He calls us to be consoled and to be resigned to continuing like this for as long as He wants...
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