She is: Betsy Dugas, vowed member of the international Focolare Movement (“The Work of Mary” in the church). Lives here in the Focolare Center in Hyde Park with five other women focolarinas. (There’s a men’s center in Berwyn.) She works downtown as a systems analyst in a finance firm. A ‘lay ecclesial movement’: “A movement has all the vocations of the church, that’s why it’s ‘ecclesial.’ It includes bishops, priests, men and women religious, married and single focolarini, lay people, families, the elderly, children. Each of the ecclesial movements [22 in the archdiocese] has a different charism. The Focolare’s is taken from the prayer of Jesus, ‘Father, may they all be one.’ It’s unity -- in the human family, within the church, among Christians and Catholics, with people of the great religions, and with people of good will who want to dialogue and work towards building a more peaceful and fraternal world.” [Focolare is “fireside” in Italian.] Youth: “I grew up in a suburb of New Orleans with three siblings. Dad worked for the Food & Drug Administration in personnel. Mom said she always thought I had a religious vocation of some kind. My parents were supportive of anything we wanted to pursue. They loved and trusted us.” Career and call: “I went to the University of Southwestern Louisiana and studied computer science. At first my dream was to graduate with honors and work for IBM in research and development. (I was cum laude, not sum laude.) God had other plans. “While in college I’d gone on a Cursillo retreat. I even stayed at a convent for a weekend of discernment, but that wasn’t for me. All I knew was, ‘Betsy, you’ve chosen God. He’s got to have the first place in your heart.’ One of my classmates in grad school belonged to the young adult branch of the Focolare Movement. He gave me a book by Chiara Lubich (now Servant of God), the founder. Instead of grading papers that night I couldn’t put the book down until I finished it. I came away saying, ‘Maybe this is what I’m looking for.’ “A Houston computer company interviewed students at my school and hired me. My classmate was also going to Houston, so we went together. While living in Texas I met families and other members involved in the Focolare. Those words, ‘They will know we are Christians by our love …’ echoed in my head. I wanted to be like them.” During her year with the firm she also learned more about the movement and participated in its life. “Over time, at age 23, I told my spiritual director, ‘Sharry, I think I have a vocation to the Focolare.’ And she said, ‘I think so, too.’” That decision brought her to study at several Focolare formation centers over a period of years. “Luminosa near Hyde Park, New York, is one of our little ‘cities,’ where all the vocations have a home -- the world in microcosm. Anyone can come there to rediscover the Gospel. It also has a house of formation for young women and one for young men who feel they have a vocation to the Focolare. After a while I traveled to their little international city ‘Loppiano’ in Italy and in Montet, Switzerland. Our formation period is long. It can be six years before we take first vows.” Living in community: “I’ve been in Chicago 15 years and was in our Focolare in Ohio seven years. It’s interesting, because we live with a variety of cultures. In our house right now there’s Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, and two Americans. Recently we had a small interreligious dinner here at our house. We had four of our Muslim friends, and three of our Jewish friends come. Two of our Muslim friends drove down from Milwaukee and spent the whole day here. We make ourselves available to whatever needs to be done, like a family. “It’s a collective spirituality. As focolarinas, first and foremost we live mutual love among us -- then we can go out, go to work and be involved in the local events of the movement. We make our plans together so that everything is done out of love. Even shopping for groceries, we try to think of what the others would like. “For example, I share a room. It’s everything that comes with ‘sharing.’ I want the window open, she wants it closed, and vice versa. But what comes through is ‘to love the other person.’ It means picking up my stuff, not for me, but out of love for the Jesus in her. In the morning we wake up and try to see the other as a ‘new’ person.” Favorite saying: “‘Be the first to love.’ That’s what we strive to do even if we don’t always succeed.”