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Roma 1978

Se ti guardi attorno, per certe città dove passi, rimani sgomento e ti pare che la realizzazione di una società cristiana sia lontana. Il mondo con le sue vanità sembra dominare…

E diresti utopia il testamento di Gesù se non pensassi a Lui, che pure ha visto un mondo simile a questo e, al colmo della sua vita, è parso travolto da esso, vinto dal male.

Anche Lui guardava a tutta quella folla che amava come se stesso, Lui, Dio, che l’aveva creata; ed avrebbe voluto gettare i ponti che dovevano riunirla come figli al Padre, ed unire fratello a fratello.

Every year the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is held in many parts of the world from 18th to 25th January. Elsewhere it is celebrated at Pentecost. The motto for the Week of Prayer in 2012 refers to Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15:51-58) and says ‘We shall be transformed because of the victory of Christ Jesus our Lord.’ The Word of Life for this month explores and comments upon this theme.

Commetary on the Word of Life:

If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. (Col 3:1)

Paul is speaking to the community of Colossae. A world exists, he says, where there reigns true love, full communion, justice, peace, holiness and joy. It is a world that sin and corruption can enter no more, a world where the Father's will is perfectly done. This is the world Jesus belongs to. He has opened it up for us with his resurrection, passing through the harsh trial of his passion.

December 1955

Dearest all,
prompted by different circumstances we came up with the idea to live a Word of Life every month. We feel that this practice is also suggested by the upcoming festivity that all Christians await with joy: Christmas.

Castelgandolfo, 3 October 2005

…
We’ll begin by reading some excerpts from a long letter to Duccia Calderari. It dates back, in all probability, to Advent 1944. It shows clearly the difference between the suffering of the abandonment and the other sufferings that Jesus experienced during His passion. There is a clear understanding of the special quality of this supreme suffering and that through it Jesus had given humanity the gift of His divinity.
Consequently, in this letter as in other letters from those years, we find the resolute decision to follow Him and to love Him in this greatest suffering of His which immediately appeared to us to be the expression of His greatest love. The letter reveals an awareness of the newness of the light received through the charism and the power of love for Jesus forsaken which burned in our hearts, kindled in us by His boundless love.
After a detailed description of the divine and passionate love that St. Catherine of Siena had for Jesus crucified, the letter continues:

Duccia, believe me, Love is the salvation of the twentieth century because Love is God. All life’s snares, more or less worldly, are a waste of time or they serve as a background for God’s plans....

Commetary on the Word of Life:

Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour
(Mt 25:13)

Jesus has just come out of the temple. The disciples proudly point out to him the grandeur and beauty of the building. He says to them in reply: “You see all these things, do you not? Amen, I say to you, there will not be left here a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down” (Mt 24:2). Then he goes up to the Mount of Olives, he sits down and, looking over Jerusalem, he begins to speak of the destruction of the city and the end of the world. How will the end of the world come about? the disciples ask him — and when will it be? It’s a question that subsequent generations of Christians have continued to ask, a question that every human being asks. The future is indeed mysterious and it often frightens us. Even today people consult fortune tellers and look up their horoscopes to know what will happen in the future …

Commetary on the Word of Life:

Follow me.
(Mt 9:9)

While he was coming from Capernaum, Jesus saw a tax collector by the name of Matthew seated at the customs post. Matthew had a job that made him despised by the people, for it placed him in the same category as loan sharks and those who took advantage of others to amass personal wealth. The Scribes and Pharisees put him on the same level as the public sinners and criticized Jesus for being “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” and for eating together with them (Mt 11:19; 9:10).

Rome, May 1978

Dearest Gen 3,
I can imagine that all of you - especially in Italy and Europe as well all around the world - feel the burden that violence and terrorism place on entire populations.

Young people, not much older than you, believe that they can change society by kidnapping, murdering and carrying out the most varied of crimes. They have obviously not found more positive ideals and so they have let themselves slip into the most dangerous paths.

And it’s not that these things are only seen on newspapers or on the television, they are all around us and they threaten everyone: politicians, factory owners, dads, mums, girls and children.

Many people are frightened and can’t live in peace.

What can we do, Gen? What contribution can our Movement give to today’s society?

Coimbatore, 21 January 2003

Meeting at the Avinashilingan University with youth and civil and religious authorities

Transcription

There is no translation available, please select a different language.    

Sono entrata in chiesa un giorno
e con il cuore pieno di confidenza gli chiesi :
« Perché volesti rimanere sulla terra,
su tutti i punti della terra,
nella dolcissima Eucaristia,
e non hai trovato,
Tu che sei Dio,
una forma per portarvi e lasciarvi anche Maria,
la Mamma di tutti noi che viaggiamo ? ».
Nel silenzio sembrava rispondesse :
Non l’ho portata perché la voglio rivedere in te.
Anche se non siete immacolati,
il mio amore vi verginizzerà
e tu, voi,
aprirete braccia e cuori di madri all’umanità,
che, come allora, ha sete del suo Dio
e della madre di Lui.
A voi ora
lenire i dolori, le piaghe,
asciugare le lacrime.
Canta le litanie
e cerca di rispecchiarti in quelle.

Meditazioni, Città Nuova, Roma 1959, 2000.

If one day all people, not as individuals but as nations, would learn to put themselves aside, to put aside the ideas they have about their own countries, their kingdoms, and offer them as incense to the Lord, the king of a kingdom not of this world, the guide of history, and if the would do this as the expression of the mutual love between states that God asks for, just as he asks for mutual love among individuals, that day would mark the beginning of a new era. For on that day, just as Jesus is present among two who love each other in Christ, Jesus will be alive and present among peoples, given finally his proper place as the one king, not only of individual hearts but of nations: he will be Christ the King....

the full text

Taken from Chiara Lubich, Essential Writings, New City Press, New York, 2007, pp.231-233