A number of Focolare members (some of them are featured here) are now on their way to be recognized as examples of holiness by the Catholic Church. They themselves credited Chiara Lubich’s spirituality of unity for their personal journey towards holiness.

Several young people are on this list, some of them just beyond the threshold of childhood. Many had suffered for a certain period, but there were also a few sudden deaths. Men, women, married people, mothers and fathers—what sets these people apart was their tremendous joy.

To read these stories and view them as tales of sorrow is to miss the mark. We can almost hear Chiara Luce Badano or Daniella Zanetta exclaim, “No, no, no don’t look at the pain; we were happy!”

On her deathbed in fact, Chiara Luce advised her mom to be happy, because she was happy too.

Alberto and Carlo

Alberto Michelotti (1958-1980) and Carlo Grisolia (1960-1980) were friends as young members of the Focolare (Gen) in Genoa. They died within a month of one other. Among the Focolare youth in his city, Alberto had the great capacity to make everyone he encountered feel loved. He always chose the last place in order to serve the others. This love stemmed from his deep spiritual life.

“There was someone entering more and more deeply into my day. It was Jesus,” he wrote. Alberto had gone mountain climbing with friends in the Alps when he slipped and fell to his death on August 18, 1980.

The day after Alberto’s death, Carlo was diagnosed with a malignant tumor. With his extroverted character and love for God, he began a 40-day race to meet Jesus. The thought that Alberto was already there with him sustained him. Before dying he said to his friends: “Be ready to give your lives for one another. I offer my life for all of you, but above all for all those who are suffering, for the young people in my neighborhood, for my parish and for a united world.” He died on September 29, 1980.

Daniela

Born in Maggiora, Italy, with a rare congenital disease that covered her body with sores, Daniella Zanetta (1962-1986) needed to have medication applied to her every three hours a day, ever since her birth.

In spite of her serious illness and painful treatment, Daniela, sustained by the love of her parents and two younger brothers, was still able to go to school and obtain high grades. Her serious anemia required sudden hospitalization and transfusions, but she was always more concerned about the other children’s sufferings than her own pain, and she would regularly tell her mother, “Mama, give this thing or bring that other one to the others…”

In 1971, at age 11, she got to know the spirituality of the Focolare and was very much attracted by the possibility of Jesus’ presence among people who love one another, as the Gospel promises (Mt. 18:20). This gave her the strength to continue loving until the end.

In a letter to an Italian Catholic magazine, she wrote: “I would like to cry out to everyone that each person’s life is sacred and beautiful. With a serious skin disease, I have lost my hair, my nails and my teeth, but I believe in God, and I love him intensely. I thank him for having given me life, because every day that he gives me, is a further occasion to love him.”

Her last words were, “Thank you, thank you for everything.” (daniellazanetta.it)

Luminosa

Margarita “Luminosa” Bavosi (1941-1985), the youngest of three siblings was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. When she was 10 her mother died, and she prayed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, “You are the woman who must take her place.” Little by little, her desire for an absolute love that could satisfy her thirst for the infinite grew. At 21 she gave herself to God in the Focolare. Her spontaneous and optimistic nature, as well as her gaze – both profound and full of light, were motives for the new name she received from Chiara Lubich: Luminosa.

The spirituality of unity came to form the very center of her being. Those who knew her could see that she lived out all that she had received from Chiara and faithfully transmitted it to others. In 1981, when she first became sick, she shared with Chiara how she wanted “to become saints together.” She spent the last four years of her life perfecting love in the midst of suffering.

She would say: “Why do people fear death? Death doesn’t exist; it is only a passage, but one needs to do it well. You have to prepare for it with your life.”

Luminosa died in Rome at the age of 44, leaving as a testament to her companions a simple phrase, “Now it’s your turn,” as if to pass on to them the baton of a life lived fully for the realization of Jesus’ prayer, “May they all be one.” The Focolare’s permanent Mariapolis in New York’s Hudson Valley now proudly carries her name. (Luminosa: She kept on Playing, New City Press)

Emilie Christy and Giovanna Pompele

Last April issue, we featured the life of another Servant of God, Igino Giordani or Foco, co-founder of the Focolare Movement whose process of beatification had just concluded its diocesan phase in September 27, 2009 after five years of work on 2,500 pages of procedural documents. Investigating theologians have examined 98 books and more than 4,000 articles; historical experts have examined 120 stacks of unpublished writings, or around 60,000 pages. They have also documented more than 50 graces received through the intercession of Giordani. Then last June issue, we also featured the profile of Chiara Luce Badano’s who will soon be beatified this coming September 25.

Now, starting this issue we will feature other Focolare members, whose processes of beatification have already gotten underway in their local diocese.