Mary

This year the whole Focolare Movement deepens one of the cardinal points of its spirituality which is about Mary, New City Press offers this book for everyone to come to know better Mary, and to know how the Focolare Movement, which is officially known in the Catholic Church as the Work of Mary, has experienced and is following the example of Mary.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, the mother of God. She is the woman most often mentioned in the Gospel. More than any other woman in history, she has inspired individuals, families and nations. Indeed, throughout the centuries, countless girls have been named after her. And oceans of prayers have been addressed to her. Some countries even bear witness to her presence in critical moments of their history. Just think of how much Our Lady of Guadalupe, The Morenita, who appeared in 1531 to Juan Diego, means for Mexicans, and indeed to all of South America, right up to today.

From the very beginnings of the Christian story, Mary has inspired poets, song writers and theologians. The ancient Oriental hymn known as the Akatisthos is a fine example. In the second millennium, the figure of Mary impacted Western culture in so many ways. Here we note how St Bernard praised her in the final song of Dante’s Paradise: ‘Virgin mother, daughter of your son’, or Martin Luther’s striking commentary on the Magnificat.

Chiara Lubich
Chiara Lubich

And, of course, we are all familiar with the numerous frescoes and paintings, altar sculptures and statues with a Marian theme found in churches and art galleries all over the world, not to mention the sublime Marian icons in the Orthodox tradition. The era in which we now live, compared to others, is characterized by secularism. And yet, still today Our Lady is a reference point for many. Marian shrines still attract great crowds. In India, for example, the Basilica of St. Mary of the Mount in Bandra, a suburb of Mumbai, is always crowded, not only with Christians, but also with Hindus and Muslims.

Mary, as often noted, is mentioned 34 times in the Qur’an. When it comes to contemporary art, music, film and literature, we might be surprised to note just how many references there are to Mary. The rock band U2’s Magnificent is partly inspired by Mary’s Magnificat. Colm Tóibín’s The Testament of Mary, shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize, reflects on Mary in Ephesus. In the film, The Passion of Christ, Mel Gibson views the passion through Mary’s eyes. And right around the world, we find modern artistic representations of Our Lady: the works of Ismael Saincilus in Haiti, Balagtas in the Philippines, Andy Warhol in the United States and the Jesus Mafa project in the Cameroon.

So, yes, Mary continues to attract great attention and veneration today. Nevertheless, there are also criticisms about Marian devotion.

It is sometimes said that traditional Marian piety is the result of a patriarchal and clerical culture that presents Mary, on the one hand, as a submissive, servile type of person or, on the other hand, as a person honoured with so many exalted privileges and titles that she becomes distant from us.

In recent decades, attempts have been made to ‘update’ the understanding of Mary. For example, the Second Vatican Council depicted Mary no longer as an isolated individual, but rather within the people of God and as the model of the Church. And in the Churches of the Reformation, there’s something of a rediscovery of Mary, after several centuries in which her role was a source of controversy on account of some exaggerations in Catholic devotional piety that seemed to obscure the primacy of Jesus Christ as the one mediator.

Chiara Lubich (1920-2008), founder of the Focolare Movement, didn’t set out to offer an updated reflection on Mary and yet, in many ways, through her spiritual experience that has touched millions of men and women across the world, she has helped many, and not just Catholics, to rediscover and understand Mary in a new, modern way. Gifted with a particular charism, a gift of the Spirit, Chiara’s experience marked the twentieth century and beyond.

As a brush in the hands of a painter, with the humility of knowing herself to be ‘nothing’, Chiara Lubich, with all her creativity, was chosen by God to give life to a Movement that is now recognized as the ‘Work of Mary’, when it received official approval from the Catholic Church. The upshot of all this is a prophetic experience that has helped and still helps many to notice the contemporary relevance of Mary in a new way.

‘Mary’ is one of the distinctive points of the spirituality of unity that characterizes the Focolare Movement – yet she is much more than that. She is at the heart of Chiara Lubich’s spiritual doctrine. One can sense the discreet presence of Mary, the mother of God, her
‘style’, as it were, throughout all
of Chiara’s life and in her writings. As she herself remarked on one occasion to people following her spiritual pathway: ‘My vocation, which is also yours, more than speaking with Mary (…) is to live Mary, to be her, to do as she did, and, above all, that she should relive in us.’

And on another occasion, ‘Mary, mother of the Movement. This says it all. God has given her to us and we have always felt her maternity. As a child’s instinctive first word is
“mommy”, so the Movement, right from its birth – and, we would say, through the promptings of the Holy Spirit – was unable to give itself any name other than that of Mary: the Work of Mary.’

This book is a collection of texts on Mary as she was contemplated by Chiara Lubich on various occasions and at different points in her life. We have drawn on published and unpublished writings, diary entries and meditations, as well as extracts from talks given to various groups, and spiritual thoughts offered through regular telephone conference calls.

While, on the one hand, it is true that Chiara Lubich presents the mother of Jesus as the ‘silence’ upon which ‘God pronounces himself’, on the other hand, the picture of Mary that emerges in this anthology of texts is not at all that of a servile, passive or submissive person. Exhibiting both a ‘passive’ openness and an ‘active’ willingness in doing the
will of God, and in loving, Mary is portrayed by Chiara Lubich as a vibrant, engaging model for all. She is ‘the flower of humanity’. More specifically, and in what seems a new perspective, Chiara proposes Mary as a model for those who set out on a communitarian spiritual journey.

She highlights a Marian dynamic of faith and love that facilitates giving birth to Jesus not only ‘within’ us, but also ‘among us’ in our relationships. And this is a dimension that resonates very much with contemporary culture.

From the Introduction to the book, Mary by Chiara Lubich, as edited by Brendan Leahy and Judith Povilus 

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