A debt of love to the Holy Spirit
One divine reality that touches and interests my soul the most these days is the Holy Spirit.
I understand that I should love him more and that I have loved him so little in life. I want to make up for that now.
We, members of the Focolare, have a great debt to the Holy Spirit.
Indeed, he is the one who binds in unity the members of the Mystical Body.
He is the one Jesus sent down on the apostles and now on us, so that we can fulfill his prayer for unity.
It was the Holy Spirit who lavished the charism on us, and therefore, everything we call the “Ideal.”
It is and always will be the Holy Spirit who makes us holy.
We ask the Father, in the name of Jesus, for his help whenever we have to speak in public or face a challenging meeting.
He will bring about unity among Christians. He will illuminate those who do not know God.
He is God-Love.
Now I understand why he is, and cannot but be our protector.
And if that’s what he is, we should love him and invoke him every day.
This is what I will do every time I say the “Glory be” and I will offer him in a special way all my daily prayers.
(A diary entry written in February 8, 1981, in Holy Spirit, Manila: New City Press 2018, p. 70)
When we love, the Holy Spirit acts in us
A German youth asks Chiara, “When our friends realize how we think about certain moral issues, we feel as if a wall goes up between us and them. What is your advice? How can we help them to understand our ideas and convictions?
Chiara answers: “There is a fundamental point here, which is not only ours, but also present in other Movements (referring to other Christian movements in the Church). From the very beginning, we never spoke about moral standards, or about going to Mass, or receiving communion, or going to confession, but only about loving, loving, and loving. And people started to love. When a person loves, the Holy Spirit begins to act in him or her.
People began to love and then they started going to Mass and receiving communion and going to confession. We always told one another, “We encourage everyone to start loving, because if they love, the Holy Spirit instructs them.”
So the most important thing is to help them to start loving. Then they will feel the need to go to Mass and receive communion, and the desire to go to confession. And they go to confession, the confessor will tell them something about how to behave, and so on. So just encourage them to start loving, but you need to love them so that they will love, even if at first they don’t share our ideas about moral principles.”
(From a talk given in Ottmaring, Germany, November 30, 1998 in Holy Spirit, Manila: New City Press 2018, pp. 89-90)
