Formative relationships in the thought and spirituality of Chiara Lubich

Abstract

This study proposes Chiara Lubich’s thought and spirituality as a model to enhance relationships that form the person holistically in the spiritual, as well as the human dimension. The human person, created as ‘imago dei’ is destined to partake of the dynamic relationship of the persons of the Holy Trinity. The study traces how a deepening relationship with God who is Love, by living the Word, as the Holy Spirit suggests, is bound to love of neighbour and leads to relationships with others on the model of the Trinity – the perfect model of communion. Through a bibliographical (literature review) approach, the study traces the formation of Chiara Lubich’s spirituality together with other individuals, making it a spirituality of communion which by its nature, is relational. Lubich’s intuitions as to how to relate to others and be formed – fruit of a lived experience – are expounded in the work. The call to “May they all be one” (Jn 17:21), the hallmark of the Work of Mary or Focolare Movement is pivotal and can be a valid contribution to the contemporary Church in its journey, marked by synodality. The work studies how one can be formed to an openness to the other, by giving space to the other, to be able to freely make yourself one with the other, despite diversity, to the point of a reciprocal indwelling in the dynamic of love itself.