At our monthly Focolare gathering in South Florida, in September.
“Jesus in the Midst” is how our dear friends of the Focolare Movement say it. That’s not necessarily the language of dear friends outside the movement (for the record, count me in). But we understand and embrace it among other expressions for the transcendent Spirituality of Unity.
“We were born for these words, for unity,” the late Focolare foundress Chiara Lubich once said, “to give a contribution for its realization in the world.”
Her recognition that such concepts are shared by so many of varied faith traditions — or claiming no particular faith tradition — is one reason we’re so thankful for this wonderful Catholic woman, and for the Focolare’s consistent efforts to give expression to what Jesus talked and walked.
Real Muslims, for example, revere Christ Jesus as a Word from our Creator. We pray G-d’s Peace always upon him, as upon the prophets Abraham, Moses and Muhammad, and all others before them and between.
And thanks to the late Imam W. Deen Mohammed, many of us have come to recognize the Focolare as true followers of the path of Jesus. “She’s a gift from God, to us,” America’s pre-eminent Imam once said, ” to help this world heal itself and come together so we can survive.”
That may help explain why it was such a great blessing, during one of our recent monthly Focolare meetings in South Florida, to learn of the presence of the Chiara Lubich Center.
Established before her death last year, to keep alive her memory, the center includes an online document archive, including many handwritten, plus downloadable audio, and video.
The Chiara Lubich Center is more than a tribute to one of the most influential spiritual figures of the 20th century.
It is an invaluable asset for those of us who want to pay more attention, in our daily lives, to living the Spirituality of Unity.
We thank the Almighty always for the woman Imam Mohammed called “the Blessed Lady Chiara Lubich.”
And for her witness, in her oft-spoken words from John 17:21:
“That all may be one.”
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