FOCOLARE WORD OF LIFE January 2026  
“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling.” (Eph 4:4)

During the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity,[1] we are invited to focus our attention on a particular theme found in Paul's letter to the Ephesians. In what is called to be his “prison letters,” he urges his readers to give credible witness to their faith by being united with one another. Their unity is based on having one faith, one spirit and one hope, and only with this unity can they bear witness to Christ as “a body.”   “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling.”

Paul calls us to hope. What is hope and why are we invited to live it? It is a seed, a gift, and a task that we have the duty to protect, cultivate, and bring to fruition for the good of all. “Christian hope assigns us to that very narrow ridge, that frontier where our vocation requires us to choose, every day and every hour, to be faithful to God’s faithfulness to us.”[2] The Christian vocation is not only a relationship between the individual and God. A Christian is called to love everyone who is a neighbor in the present moment. Christ prayed in the garden just before he was crucified, “I pray for them…so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me…” (Jn 17:21)  In Chiara Lubich’s talks and writings, we often find explicit references to unity, the primary aspect of her spirituality. Unity is the fruit of the presence of Jesus among us - and his presence is a source of profound happiness. “If unity is so important for Christians, then it follows that nothing is more opposed to our vocation than failing to live unity. We sin against unity every time we yield to the temptation, which continually resurfaces, to be individualistic, to do things on our own, or to be guided only by our own judgment, personal interests, or desire for esteem. We sin against unity when we ignore or even disregard others and their needs and rights.”[3]   “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling.”   In Guatemala, there is a very active dialogue among members of different Christian Churches. Ramiro writes: “We prepared the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity with a group of people from various Churches. The program included an arts festival organized together with the youth, as well as several celebrations held in different churches. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference asked our group to continue working together to plan a moment of sharing during a meeting of Catholic bishops and leaders of different Churches, who were coming to Guatemala from many other countries to celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. Through these activities, we experienced a very strong unity among all of us and the fruits that it brings: fraternity, joy and peace." The more united Christians become, the greater the possibility for all humanity to fulfill, in a more complete way, the prayer for unity that Christ prayed in the garden.     Prepared by Patrizia Mazzola and the Word of Life team
[1] The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place throughout the northern hemisphere from January 18 to 25 and in the southern hemisphere during the week after Pentecost. This year's prayer texts were prepared by an ecumenical group coordinated by the Armenian Apostolic Church.
[2] Madeleine Delbrêl, French Catholic author, poet, and mystic, considered by many to be one of the most significant spiritual figures of the 20th century.
[3] Chiara Lubich, Founder of the Focolare Movement, Commentary to the Word of Life of July 1985.

 "Behold, I make all things new".

Welcome to the December 2025 Word of Life reflection by Fr. Tyler Mattson.
This month’s scripture phrase is:
“All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God”  Taken from Isaiah 52:10

Focolare Word of Life — December 2025

“All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” (Is 52:10).

Taken into exile in Babylon, the people of Israel lost everything: their land, their king, the temple, and thus the possibility to worship their God—the one who in the past had brought them out of Egypt.
But now, the voice of a prophet makes an astonishing announcement: it is time to return home. Once again, God will intervene with power and lead the Israelites across the desert back to Jerusalem, and all the peoples of the earth will witness this miraculous event:

“All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”

Even today, the news is filled with alarming reports: people losing jobs, health, security, and dignity; young people especially risking their future because of war, and poverty caused by climate change in their countries; peoples without land, peace, or freedom.
A tragic scenario of global proportions that takes one’s breath away and darkens the horizon. Who will save us from the destruction of all we believed we possessed? Hope seems to have no reason to exist. Yet, the prophet’s announcement is for us as well:

“All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”

His word reveals God’s action in personal and collective history and invites us to open our eyes to the signs of this plan of salvation. Indeed, it is already at work in the educational dedication of a teacher, in the honesty of an entrepreneur, in the integrity of an administrator, in the faithfulness of a married couple, in the embrace of a child, in the tenderness of a nurse, in the patience of a grandmother, in the courage of men and women who peacefully oppose crime, and in the welcoming of a community.

“All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”

Christmas is approaching. In the sign of the unarmed innocence of the Child, we can once again recognize God’s patient and merciful presence in human history and bear witness to it through our countercultural choices: “[…] to a world like ours, where struggle is theorized, where the law of the strongest, the cleverest, the most unscrupulous prevails, and where sometimes everything seems paralyzed by materialism and selfishness, the answer to give is love of neighbor. Love for others is the true remedy that can heal a world caught in conflict, selfishness, and struggle. It spreads like a warm wave of divine presence, touching and transforming relationships between individuals and communities. Over time, this love gently changes society, making it more compassionate and united.”¹ Just as for the people of Israel, this is also the moment for us to set out on a journey. A journey that gives us a favorable opportunity to take a decisive step forward toward those who—whether young or elderly, poor or migrants, unemployed or homeless, sick or imprisoned—are waiting for a gesture of care and closeness, a testimony to the gentle yet effective presence of God’s love among us. Today, the boundaries where we need to share this message of hope include not only physical borders, which too often turn into walls or painful lines of conflict, but also cultural and personal divides. Additionally, digital communities; online spaces where people, especially young people, connect and interact can play an important role to overcome aggression, loneliness, and exclusion. Edited by Letizia Magri and the Word of Life team

1  C. Lubich, Word of Life, May 1985, in Words of Life, edited by Fabio Ciardi, (Works of Chiara Lubich, Vol. 5), Città Nuova, Rome, 2017, pp. 323-324

In this episode, you’ll hear three inspiring stories of peace in action. Marie shares how a peaceful demonstration at her school became a moment of real transformation. Anton offers a delightful story filled with the simple wisdom of peacemaking. And Miguel reflects on how patience and understanding helped him build a more peaceful relationship.

Welcome to this month’s Word of Life reflection by Fr. Tyler Mattson.
The Word of Life for NOVEMBER 2025 is:
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Matthew Chapter 5, verse 9)

To watch the video version of this reflection, visit the Focolare Media YouTube channel.
And to listen to the commentary on the Word of Life just go to the previous episode of this podcast. There you can also listen to experiences on the word of life.

“Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost” (Luke 15:6).

In ancient times in the Middle East, shepherds used to count their sheep when they returned from pasture, ready to search for even one that might be missing. They would even venture out into the desert at night to find any that had strayed. This parable is a story of loss and recovery that highlights the love of the shepherd. He notices that a sheep is missing, searches for it, finds it, and carries it back on his shoulders because it is weak and frightened, perhaps wounded, and unable to follow the shepherd on its own. He brings it home to safety and then, filled with joy, invites his neighbors to celebrate together.

“Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.”

The recurring themes in this story can be summarized in three actions: getting lost, being found, and celebrating. Getting lost. The good news is that the Lord goes in search of those who are lost. We often lose ourselves in the various deserts around us, or in which we are forced to live, or in which we take refuge: the deserts of abandonment, marginalization, poverty, misunderstanding and disunity. The Shepherd seeks us even there, and even if we lose sight of him, he will always find us again. Being found. Let’s try to imagine the scene of the shepherd's frantic search in the desert. It’s an image that strikes us with its expressive power. We can understand the joy felt by both the shepherd and the sheep, and this encounter restores in the sheep the sense of being safe after escaping danger. “To be found” is truly an act of divine mercy. Celebrating. The shepherd gathers his friends to celebrate because he wants to share his joy, as in the other two parables that follow this one, that of the lost coin and that of the merciful father.1 Jesus wants us to understand the importance of sharing joy with everyone, and he also wants to “immunize” us against the temptation of judging others. We are all “found.”

“Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.”

This Word of Life is an invitation to be grateful for the mercy that God has for each of us personally. The fact that we rejoice and celebrate together presents an image of unity, where there is no opposition between those who are “righteous” and those who are “sinners,” but rather we share in each other's joy. Chiara Lubich commented on this phrase: “It’s an invitation to understand the heart of God, to believe in his love. Inclined as we are to measure and calculate, at times we think that God’s love for us is like that, too. We think that God will tire of us and say, ‘That’s enough!’ But God's logic is not like ours. (…) God is always waiting for us; indeed, we give him immense joy every time we return to him, even countless times.”2 

“Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.”

Sometimes we can be those shepherds, those guardians of one another who lovingly go in search of those who have strayed from us, from our friendship, from our community, in search of the marginalized, the lost, the little ones whom the trials of life have pushed to the margins of society. “Some students attended classes only sporadically,” a teacher tells us. “During my free periods, I would go to the market near the school, hoping to find them there, because I had heard that’s where they worked to earn a little money. One day, I finally saw them, and they were surprised that I had come personally to look for them. They were struck to learn how important they were to the entire school community. They started coming to school regularly again, and it was truly a celebration for everyone."

Prepared by Patrizia Mazzola and the Word of Life Team