Theologians and leaders from many Churches and from the major world religions, including the last four popes, have acknowledged as unique in Christian history the spiritual gifts poured forth through Chiara Lubich. Her spirituality of unity has the ultimate goal of contributing to the unity for which Jesus prayed to his Father: May they all be one (Jn 17:21). This volume gathers her essential writings and for the first time presents them in a systematic fashion. It is a summa of the charism of unity, which will lead readers to ponder, understand and experience a spirituality particularly suited to the era in which we live. The history of the Church has seen many radicalisms of love ... that of Francis of Assisi, of Ignatius of Loyola. There is also Chiaras radicalism ... which seeks to make this love victorious in every circumstance. Pope John Paul II

This volume contains Chiara Lubich's thought and experience on "Unity." Unity is a gift from God to the entire world. It is a supernatural gift because unity is the presence of God among people.Chiara points out that Jesus came on earth to bring about unity. Jesus asked the Father for unity and having asked for it he also obtained it by giving his life and dying on the cross.Unity is also a key word in contemporary Christianity, which after centuries of struggle, has rediscovered the yearning to return to a time when we were "one heart and one mind," brothers and sisters in Christ, not rivals and enemies.Unity offers the reader the opportunity to develop a deeper appreciation of the communal aspect of Christian life, and the implications of a communitarian spirituality for the Church and humanity. The ultimate message of this book is that unity is built by loving one another, by lighting fires of love together instead of fires of division and hatred.Donato Falmi and Florence Gillet provide an excellent introduction and clarifying notes to accompany this work which provides a deeper and more personal understanding of Chiara Lubich's life and thought.

This series focuses on Jesus' prayer, "May they all be one." It presents, among others, the writings of Chiara Lubich, foundress of the Focolare Movement, whose profound and modern spirituality addresses the need of unity in our times.

Christ's suffering gives light and meaning to every human suffering and reveals the secret of uniting all people to God and to one another. Lubich retraces her spiritual journey as it relates to Jesus forsaken, weaving together spirituality and theology, prayer and history.

What does love for Jesus forsaken entail? What place should it have in the practice of the Christian life? The purpose of this book is to show that love for Jesus forsaken is an act of theological faith; as a consequence, it has ecclesial, sacramental, and social dimensions.In the first part the author analyses what constitutes love for Jesus forsaken according to Chiara Lubich. She then tries to understand how the faithful can participate in this mystery of Christ by studying two authors of the New Testament, St. Paul and St. John. The author is Florence Gillet with an introduction by Piero Coda. Translated by Bill Hartnett from the book published in Italy by Citta Nuova.

Chiara Lubich is now being called a great Catholic mystic of our times. In these letters we encounter this mystical side of Chiara who is also the bearer of a charism, a gift from the Holy Spirit in response to the special needs of the Church and of the world. Chiara's charism is unity, the unity that Jesus asked for us from his Father: "May they all be one as we are one - I in them and you in me - so that they may be brought to complete unity" (Jn 17: 22-23). Chiara saw God's love in everyone and everything. The light of this discovery enveloped her, and she felt like she was at the centre of the Father's love. This discovery is at the foundation of Chiara's spirituality which emerges from these early letters. They were written to the young women and others who were drawn by the way she presented the Christian life as a response to God's love, which was shown to her in Jesus, most especially in his abandonment and death on the Cross. In these letters, the God that Chiara invites us to believe in is Love. The conversion she asks of us is a conversion to Love. Often using the language and style of the saints and mystics of other ages (like Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Francis of Assisi), Chiara communicates her burning desire that "Love be loved," that "all the world be set ablaze by the fire of Love." Her words are full of fervour, but also simplicity and practical common sense.

The history of spirituality has never seen a way to God like this one. Till now all forms of spiritual growth have focused on the individuals discovery of the Beauty of Beauties, the God who fascinates the human heart. And they have striven to find ways in which individuals can be transformed, ways in which they can enter into the ultimate experience. In essence none of this disappears. But the spirituality that Chiara Lubich and her companions have discovered is a new way in which people go to God not primarily as individuals, but together. It is a spirituality of communion, as described by John Paul II. No longer is the spiritual life about withdrawing from other people, nor just about serving them. It is about living with them in unity, growing together in God. What do I wish for this book? That it may become nourishment for the lives of many and that it may contribute to making the Church beautiful, so that for the salvation of the world and for the glory of God the Church may live among men and women, as a sign of and a pointer towards happiness. Cardinal Miloslav Vlk Archbishop of Prague

In disarmingly simple down-to-earth language Chiara Lubich draws her readers into the very heart of evangelical love and gently challenges them to start living it. She never tired of repeating the ideas that shine through each of the texts collected in this volume. Even as she lay dying, she urged those around her to spread the gospel message of unity and peace to everyone. The few simple phrases that compose her "Art of Loving", drawn from the gospels, disclose the secret of human fulfillment found in divine love: 'Love everyone', 'Be the first to love', 'Love your neighbour as yourself', 'Love each other as I have loved you', and 'Make yourself one'. "The Golden Rule", the universal message of Christianity and the essence of every great religion, is written into the spiritual DNA of every person, even those who seem far from God. In today's ever-changing society "The Art of Loving" can serve as a daily handbook for anyone who wishes to heed what Chiara Lubich understood to be the primary vocation of every human person and the source of personal and collective fulfillment: the call of Love.