In the autumn of 1949, when Chiara returned to Rome, not only did she start to review the experiences she had lived during the summer, thus making the first attempts to develop a doctrine from it, but she also witnessed an accelerated development of the Movement that had sprung up only six years previously. Until then, Chiara had never thought of structuring the Movement in any way. Indeed, on October 21, she said as much to the archbishop of Trent, Carlo de Ferrari, who had asked her for a detailed report about the Movement, including statistics of the people who were involved in it. She admitted that she had never given any thought to the organizational aspect. Instead, she just wanted “to let the Lord see what had been done, or rather, what he had done in our midst. Not only that, but because of a certain repugnance for empty lists and other external forms without a spirit, we had indeed neglected the organizational side. We had concentrated on loving God and helping others to love him, too, using concrete actions rather than words.”

From that moment on, however, the development and the life of the Movement were in harmony with the light of Paradise, which continued to enlighten her even back in Rome. In the writings of that period, the mystical illumination and the organization of what would later be called “the Work of Mary,” started to interact in a profound way. Years later, in her dialogues with the members of the Abba School,[1] Chiara asked: “In 1949, did we see Paradise or did we see the Work of Mary?” She concluded that the two realities were intertwined.

We are at the final stage of our journey, and to keep to the image of a flight on an airplane, this is the landing stage. In the final pages of the book that we are reading together, Paradise ‘49 sheds light on the Work of Mary, on its members, on its organization and structures. Indeed, everything acquired a touch of heaven. Chiara once commented: “In these last pages, I can discern the first illuminations about the life of the Work of Mary, starting from its first and smallest structure: the focolare [household].” The life of the focolare household,[2] which became the prototype of all the other communities, gave rise to the clearest and most profound ideas, above all, those about relationships modeled on the Trinitarian law of mutual love, which results in an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Chiara also understood what she called the “designs,” that is, the plan of God for each of the first focolarinas and focolarinos, for Igino Giordani and for Fr. Pasquale Foresi. Looking at these individuals, who formed the first nucleus of the Movement around her, she discerned God’s plan for each one of them and saw their particular contribution projected on the whole Work of Mary. Chiara never invented tasks, structures, or lifestyles based on some abstract considerations. In this case, she perceived in these persons a role attuned to their respective personalities, qualities already present and active in those called by God to be with her in forming the Movement.

Even the manner of exercising a leadership role in the Work of Mary was a fruit of this contemplation. Years later, to the members of the Abba School, she explained: “I understood that the Movement had to be governed by a Center that lives according to the model of the Trinity.” Already on July 23, 1949, she had understood the kind of relationships, the interplay of unity and distinction, that had to bind together the members of the new Movement. She expressed this with the image of a rose with many petals:

“In the unity of ‘us’ [referring to the initial unity between Igino Giordani and herself] with the focolarinas, every now and then, all the focolarinas will unite themselves to us to form, as it were, the bud of a mystical rose. Then from the Center [of the Movement] they will become distinct, detaching themselves – in praise and in imitation of the life of the Trinity – into many petals, each of which will take the form of a rose, of a rosebud, with other petals that will subdivide, separating and forming in their turn other rosebuds. (…) The whole [formation of rosebuds] then will return to the central bud. (…) The rose then will open up in still other ways, according to other relationships among the souls, and the patterns and the harmonies will be perennially new.”

In the summer of 1950, she described her vision of the structure of the Movement and the relationships among its members in a fable (yes, Paradise ’49, among its many literary genres, also includes a fable). She called it “The fable that blossomed along the Foco trail.” It tells a tale of some potted flowers placed on the windowsill of a mountain cabin that, in an imaginative play, could move about, die, be re-born, and blossom with flowers of the most varied colors… Thus, as in a prophecy, with that light-heartedness that is a characteristic of the Work of Mary, she hinted at how the Movement was being formed, following a mysterious divine plan.

To conclude this series of articles about Paradise ’49, I would like to underline the first and last words that open and close the text. I feel they are highly significant in the trajectory of this extraordinary journey. The first, which marks the beginning of the journey, is “Abba, Father,” being in the heart of the Father, in Paradise. The last word, which marks the end of the journey, is “man,” meaning human beings completely fulfilled in Christ. “Jesus is Love because he is God. But an excess of love made him Jesus Forsaken who seems to be merely a man.” We are on earth, with the whole of Paradise within us. It is as if the earth is in heaven, and heaven is on earth. Thus, Paradise continues even today, among us…

Fr. Fabio Ciardi, OMI

(Living City, USA)

A Taste of Paradise ’49

“When we are united and he is among us, we are no longer two, but one. In fact, what I say is not said by me, but by me, Jesus, and you in me. And when you speak, it is not you, but you, Jesus, and I in you. We are a single Jesus and also distinct: I (with you in me and Jesus), you (with me in you and Jesus), Jesus among us, in whom we are, I and you.”

This is the life of the focolare, that is, of all those who are called to live in unity with one another. Chiara said, “If we live this way, we are already in paradise. There’s nothing better than to feel loved. When you see yourself in the other, and the other person sees him or herself in you, we feel completely understood.”

[1] The Focolare Movement’s center for interdisciplinary studies

[2] A house or center in which a small group of consecrated men or women of the Movement live. Men and women live in distinct centers at the heart of the wider community of the Movement in different parts of the world.