From Nigeria

We are a congregation with more than 600 sisters in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Kenya. After the Second Vatican Council we tried to deepen our devotion to Our Lady. The meeting with the Focolare Movement brought us to live in a new way the strongest aspect of our vocation, of our mission: the promotion of women’s rights in Africa. We saw a new type of fulfilled woman, one who is born from the teaching of Jesus. Meeting Jesus and discovering the great dignity that comes from being a child of God, the African woman too discovers who she is. With her great capacity to love and to suffer she puts this energy at the service of her people.
We have understood in a deeper way how to be like Mary today – that is to generate other children of God wherever we are, wherever we work – in schools, in hospitals, in villages, above all with marginalised people, such as widows for example. In fact widows, particularly if they are without children, lack every possession and every right. No one cares for them any more and some, in order to survive, turn to prostitution.
Our sisters share their conditions; they work together with them; they organise groups to help them to look after themselves and become self sufficient. To overcome loneliness they encourage them to meet other widows so that they can help each other if someone becomes ill.
We have helped them to start small food processing industries, like palm products. We have also begun small farming cooperatives and organised markets for selling produce. We have obtained funds and made both the Church and civil authorities aware of this serious problem. We are aware that the greatest gift we can share with these women is for us, in a certain way, to be like another "little Mary" for them.
This experience was so strong and enriching that I felt urged to invite Vale Ronchetti, the focolarina designated by Chiara Lubich for the sisters, to come to Nigeria so that she could speak to all our sisters present for an assembly that we hold every six years. I shared this wish with other major superiors in Nigeria and a commitment was made to organize the visit, not only for one congregation, but for many. The program involved more than 1000 Nigerian sisters from 14 different religious orders.
Through the Work of Mary we have seen come to life a strong united body of Nigerian sisters who now have the same vision. Chiara, in listening to the Holy Spirit, helped us to get to know Our Lady more deeply. Mary, the fulfilled woman.

From England

In April 1965 the first group of Anglicans took part in an ecumenical meeting in Rome and Mother Julian, an Anglican Superior, had the opportunity to meet Chiara Lubich. Since then our relationship with the Focolare Movement has grown even more deeply.
In 1983, with the opening of the Mariapolis Centre (called "Centre for Unity) in Welwyn Garden City ((near London) the meetings for sisters began. I have a very vivid memory of the first weekend meeting we had there. On my return from that weekend naturally all the other sisters wanted to know what we had talked about. I had received a strong light but it was not easy to communicate it in words. I felt however I should say at least something, so I said: "I found Jesus". One of the sisters replied, "How is that possible? You wouldn’t be in a community if you hadn’t already found Jesus". "Not necessarily," I added, "even living in a community, you may not have found Jesus, at least not what I call Jesus". This is how it all began.
At each of the following meetings, we went a little more into depth. Even now I do not understand everything immediately, but I do afterwards, because the light of Jesus in the midst guides me more and more. Every time I go there or take part at a meeting I receive a warm welcome. I feel completely free as if all my problems and fears had disappeared.
The Centre for Unity has become a meeting point for the Movement in Great Britain for people of different Christian denominations and it is a constant witness of mutual love among everyone. I feel that we are living special times in the ecumenical field. As Chiara said some years ago, I am sure that in the same way as the walls between East and West have crumbled, so God will make the walls which divide Christians crumble.
I always pray for all the activities that are taking place in the Movement throughout the world, so that the Testament of Jesus "That all may be one" may be achieved.

From Myanmar

Our country is a predominantly Buddhist country. The Catholics are about 1.1 percent of the population; we are therefore immersed in a Buddhist society with very deep traditions. Ever since my childhood I learned that we must live in harmony with our Buddhist neighbours, but in reality we had many prejudices against them.
About 20 years ago I met the spirituality of unity and I tried immediately to put in into practice in my community, being an instrument of unity among my sisters. The Focolare Movement’s direction of life and love with the faithful of the Great World Religions opened up in my heart and in that of many other sisters a new dimension of love for our Buddhist brothers and sisters. If I really wanted to live the testament of Jesus, I had to begin with whoever was near me, with my neighbour. I understood that not only should I not avoid my neighbour if that person were a Buddhist, but I should welcome him with a respectful, practical love. From that time on I have been going above all to meet Buddhist sisters in their convent. I talk with them and try to love them. We have reached a rich, deep spiritual dialogue, which becomes stronger as time goes on.
Today the majority of friends that my sisters and I have are Buddhists: Buddhist sisters, monks and lay people of every social class but above all the poor. We got to know two sisters in a family who live in a hut near a Buddhist cemetery. They help their father to sell from a barrel that they push along the road. Every day on their route they pass our house. At times we have seen them pushing it with difficulty because their father is sick and they are very young. When we first met them, one of them was 7 and the other was 9 years old. They were thin and starving and their clothes were old and shabby. After getting to know them and offering them food and clothing, we became friends. Once they brought us a cup of coffee in a plastic bag with some sweets. Their mother had suggested this to them. Another time their parents sent us three chrysanthemums for "our God", as they said.
One evening I had to urgently call our doctor, who is a Buddhist. While we were deciding on the best course of treatment, he expressed his great respect and admiration for the sisters who give their life for the others with such great love and courage. And to my surprise, he added that he was also ready to give his life for me because he knew that many sisters, orphans and poor people rely on my help. I was quite surprised by this great compliment coming from a Buddhist.
I thank God because through the Focolare Movement, I have been helped not only to live my vocation as a Christian and as a religious sister, but also to be an instrument of dialogue and unity in my country.

From Italy

During the years 1968-1969 I had distanced myself from the Church, even though I had received a Christian education. Yet within me I felt a strong call to do something for others, to work for solidarity.
I was twenty years old and I came into contact with the Focolare Movement through a group of young people in the parish where I was teaching. They invited me to a meeting and I accepted thinking it would give me a chance to visit the city of Turin. Instead, I ended up in a parish, Vallo Torinese, which was animated by the spirit of the Focolare.
From the moment I arrived I was overwhelmed by the atmosphere and by the welcome I received. During the meeting, which was held in a hall, we heard people sharing about moments in their life lived in the light of the Gospel. They spoke of God as someone who is near to us and who is love, and that when we encounter him, he leads us to see his presence in every neighbour. It was the first time anyone had ever spoken to me of God as someone who took a personal interest in me, in each one of us. I had always imagined God as a judge somewhere up there in heaven. Something happened in my heart that day. I met Jesus alive amongst his people.
During Mass, which was celebrated towards the end of the day, I found myself praying these words to God: "If you truly are the way they spoke about you today, if you truly make people as happy as these people I have seen today, I too want to be like them and I choose you as the ideal of my life. Tell me how I can follow you."
I returned to my daily life and I tried to love Jesus in my pupils. I never lost contact with those young people. I espoused the ideal of unity with all the enthusiasm of my twenty years. At a certain point I became aware that among my colleagues were some religious who expressed freedom and joy in loving. I began to look at them with different eyes and within me the call to a consecrated life became more insistent: the call to follow Jesus forever.
Throughout the years of formation in my congregation, I have always had the possibility of maintaining contact with the Movement. During my novitiate, my novice mistress and I participated in the first international congress for young religious sisters at the Mariapolis Centre, which at that time was situated at Rocca di Papa, Rome. Chiara Lubich gave us, the new generation of religious sisters, a mandate: to return to the source of our charisms, as the Second Vatican Council asked of all religious congregations. She invited us to rediscover our founders, to take up their writings again, to relive our founders in today’s world.
I felt very excited about this. Our founder lived in the year 1600 and I immediately decided to put Chiara’s mandate into action. Chiara also gave us her secret: to choose Jesus Forsaken as our Spouse and to love him in every suffering, in every disunity.
When I returned home, I asked if I could immediately visit our first convent founded in Italy. The superior of this convent looked at me in astonishment when, on my arrival, I asked her where I could find the books on our founder. She thought it very strange that a novice would request such a thing!
What a marvellous patrimony I found! The books were covered in dust, obviously neglected, and yet so precious. I picked up one of them, but as soon as the superior realised what book it was, she whisked it away. As it turned out, it was the only copy in Italy of that work –nobody knew we even had this book! I was so happy about this and told the other sisters who also shared the ideal of unity.

We all started to meditate on these writings of our founder. They filled us with light. Those words, written 330 years earlier, became alive, up to date, full of wisdom. When we met among ourselves, together with our Provincial Superior, who also lived the ideal of unity, we understood, through Jesus in our midst (Matt. 18:20), that the very first sisters of our congregation had lived some aspects of religious life which are also emphasised by the spirituality of unity. For example, according to our founder, charity, when lived, "is the source of blessing for the congregation". And it had been the "union of spirit, heart and mission" which had sustained the newly born institute. It went ahead for 200 years without anyone taking any vows (even though these were lived) because its mission was focussed entirely on the poor and uneducated children and youth.
Our text books from those years of our novitiate, all have notes referring to the ideal of unity. They were all new ideas at the time.

Some years passed and in 1977 the general chapter of our congregation recognised in some of our intuitions the key points of our charism. This light was a free gift we had received. I felt a strong urge to give my own specific contribution to the Focolare Movement and so at every opportunity I would share, for example, how I tried to live my total abandonment to a providential God; I would share about my work to educate the young, especially the disadvantaged and the poor.
I tried not to rely on my own strength but on God’s love. And so it wasn’t difficult for me to offer my services to my superiors in difficult situations.

It’s quite significant that, in our congregation, all those who participate in the life of the Focolare Movement have been, or are presently, entrusted with the role of formation: the initial formation of novices, the study of our charism, the responsibility for the entire province – a position I am currently holding.

I feel I can say that I am fully a member of my religious congregation. The meeting between our charism and the charism of unity has been very fruitful. "Jesus in the Midst" and "Jesus Forsaken", in my opinion, are the key to the rediscovery of our charisms and of consecrated life.

Today I thank the Holy Spirit for the gift of meeting two people touched in a special way by God’s grace: my founder and Chiara Lubich. The founder of the congregation, Fr Nicola Barré, will be beatified on 7 March 1999.

Sr A. M. - Sister of the Child Jesus of Nicola Barré