Chiara Lubich and the Focolare
One of the great lights of the modern church
On 14th March this year, a
remarkable, charismatic, Christian lady died.
Her name was Chiara Lubich. It is not often that the Pope, the Archbishop
of Canterbury, and many other religious leaders worldwide line up to speak of
their sadness at the passing of a lay member of a church who was not a head of
state. Originally called Sylvia, she changed her name to the Italian version of
Clare (after the Franciscan ‘Poor Clares’) in 1939.
On a cold, windy morning in early December 1943 in war-torn Trento
in northern Italy, she felt God powerfully calling her to give her life totally
to him. This she did at once in a
private ceremony with a local Franciscan priest. She regarded her life as one of ‘a consecrated
person in the world’ (rather than for example in a convent). She later recalled of that day ‘The interior
joy was inexplicable, secret, but contagious’.
Within a short space of time other young women wanted to join Chiara, so within a few months they were a community of
twelve, and called themselves the Focolare,
Italian for ‘hearth’.
One day in May 1944, as they prayed
in a cellar with only one candle for light, the Gospel was opened at random and
the light fell on verse 21 of John’s gospel chapter 17, Jesus praying before
his passion and death, ‘Father, that all may be one’. Unity became the focus of the Focolare movement.
From those beginnings among Roman Catholics developed a worldwide
movement with 2 million followers in 182 countries. Although not the original intention, it
attracted other Christian denominations, and so became a great ecumenical
force. Thus Chiara
was invited to speak to clergy in Liverpool cathedral in 1963 (rare in those
days for a Roman Catholic, let alone for a lay person and moreover, a
woman!).
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There are several Focolare communities in Britain. The first was founded in
Liverpool in 1963, and still flourishes.
Aside from those who live within Focolare
communities, there are many more Christians in this area, including the Wirral,
who are affiliated with the Focolare movement. One of the key features has been putting the
Word of God into practice in our everyday lives, in particular the New
Commandment (where Jesus said, ‘love another as I have loved you’). Indeed, the heart of the Focolare
is love, expressed wherever two or more are together in Jesus’ name. Chiara wrote
monthly meditations based on verses from the Bible, ‘Word of Life’.
May each of us, within the church
family in West Kirby, in Caldy, or with fellow Christians across the globe, be
increasingly able to put God’s word into practice in our day-to-day lives.
particularly to find ways of being expressions of mutual love. In Chiara’s words,
‘Never place any kind of activity, whether spiritual or apostolic, before the
spirit of being a family with the brothers and sisters with whom you are
living.’ As Jesus said, ‘love one
another’...and may all who believe may be one.
Tina
Upton
October 2008