10 April 1970

Città Nuova

Heaven Protests by Chiara Lubich Our days abound with problems: this is what we can read on the faces of many we meet on the street. «My son refuses to study and will fail the year....» «My husband comes home late....» «My mother is ill....» «Will I make it to buy this dress? To put enough money together to take a vacation?».

Città Nuova, 25 July 1999

Commetary on the Word of Life:

Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord
(Luke 1:45).

These words belong to an event which is simple and sublime at the same time. It is the encounter between two expectant mothers whose spiritual and physical symbiosis with their sons is total. They lend them their lips, their sentiments. When Mary speaks, Elizabeth's son leaps with joy in her womb. When Elizabeth speaks, it seems that her words are put on her lips by her son, the Precursor. But while the first words of her hymn of praise to Mary are addressed personally to “the mother of the Lord” (1:43), the final ones are in the third person: "Blessed is she who believed."

Thus her "affirmation acquires the character of universal truth: beatitude applies to all believers; it concerns those who accept the Word of God and put it into practice, and who find in Mary their model.”

25 February 1978

Città Nuova

Open Dialogue (question to Chiara) We are living through years in which human thought is rapidly changing, even the very concept of God. What is the true countenance of God that we should believe in? R.B. - Rome

Rocca di Papa, 23 November 1977

Jean-Claude:

I would really like to hear about the story of the bottle of milk, which you have told many times. What exactly happened?

Chiara Lubich: Something very simple. We were at home, I was with my two younger sisters and my mother. Everyday we had to go and fetch some milk, going along a big road, which means a tarred road that was a bit on the outskirts of the city. I don’t know, it must have been about a kilometre and a half, maybe two, I can’t really tell, and it was at a farm.

25 June 1999

Commetary on the Word of Life:

The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it
(Mt. 13:45-46)

In this very brief parable, Jesus captures the imagination of his listeners. Everyone knew the value of pearls: along with gold, they were the most precious things one could possess.
The Scriptures also spoke of wisdom, that is, of the knowledge of God, as something that was so valuable that it could not be compared to “any priceless gem" (Wis 7:9).

25 February 1976

Città Nuova

OPEN DIALOGUE
by Chiara Lubich

You have chosen God as the Ideal of your life, and hundreds of thousands of people the world over have discovered and chosen Him with you, in contrast to the current deep spiritual crisis. What makes this ideal of God so fascinating?

How easy it is to notice a profound desire beginning to take hold in Christians; I would even call it an urgency. They show a desire to serve the Church not so much and not only in outward, material ways but in a different manner, more in tune with their faith, more essential.
One sees, especially among laity, that the way people used to think about becoming saints is not much appreciated; indeed at times they consider it outdated. The style of sanctity for today’s Christian goes beyond that of perfection sought individually, and they often express it like this: we want to become saints together, we desire a collective sanctity.
So here and there we see committed Christians forming groups who, in unity, go toward God.
In fact it seems to us that this is what God really wants, so long as it all has the stamp of openness, the pulse of the entire Church, a loving unity with the hierarchy.

O Holy Spirit, how much we ought to be grateful to you yet how little we are!
That you are totally one with Jesus and the Father, to whom we more often turn, consoles us, but it is no excuse.
We want to be with you who are “of comforters the best; …
the soul’s most welcome guest; sweet refreshment here below.”¹
You are light, joy, beauty.
You seize and captivate souls, you inflame hearts,
you inspire deep and decisive thoughts of sanctity
with unexpected personal commitments.
You work what many sermons cannot teach.
You sanctify.

May 1999

Commetary on the Word of Life:

"Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him" (Jn 14:21).

Love is at the center of Jesus’ farewell discourse: the love of the Father for the Son, our love for Jesus, which means keeping his commandments.

Those who were listening to Jesus could easily recognize in his words an echo of Jewish wisdom literature such as, “Love of her [i.e., Wisdom] means the keeping of her laws” (Wis 6:18; see Prov 8:15-17; Sir 24:22-23) and, “She is readily perceived by those who love her” (Wis 6:12). In particular, revealing himself to those who love finds another parallel in Book of Wisdom 1:2, where it says that the Lord will manifest himself to those who believe in him.

The point of this Word of Life is: the Father loves those who love the Son, and the Son in turn loves them and reveals himself to them.