The Focolare Movement
Kathy Moriarty
Focolare is a lay ecclesial Movement of the Church, founded by Chiara Lubich in 1943. Our statutes note that the ‘Work of Mary’ – our formal official title – wishes to be as much as possible a presence of Mary here on earth, almost her continuation.
Some years ago Chiara wrote, ‘How can I live like Mary in her mystical silence when our vocation at times is to speak in order to evangelise, always exposed in every kind of place, rich and poor, from cellars to streets, to schools, everywhere?
‘Our Mother also spoke. And she gave Jesus. There has never been a greater apostle in the world. No one ever spoke such words as she, who gave the Word.
‘She kept silent because the two could not speak at once. The word must always rest against a silence, like a painting against a background.
‘…How then, can I live Mary…?
‘By silencing the human in me, and upon this silence letting the Spirit of the Lord speak.
‘In this way I live Mary and I live Jesus.’
At our annual Focolare gathering in March this year, the Mariapolis (a small, temporary City of Mary), 150 of us – adults, youth and children from all over New Zealand and a few from Australia – gathered at Rotorua to share our experiences of living the Gospel in our workplaces, in our schools, in our families, in society and on the peripheries of where we live. It was a collective witness of the many ways of living the presence of Mary and Jesus.
Please visit www.focolare.org for more information.
Kathy Moriarty is a member of the Focolare Movement and a parishioner at St Joseph’s, Mt Victoria, Wellington.