Truth on trial: First Station: Jesus is condemned to death

Adam was created in the image of God

His nature, the human nature is to magnify the truth.
Adam failed, we fail all the time to magnify the truth.
When scared to death, we rather betray the truth than die.
Jesus the perfect man, he rather die than betray the truth.

Real Life is in the truth not in the flesh
Adam separated from truth and become corruptible and died.
Jesus holds our nature in the truth and restores it into incorruptibility
His divine power is not about preserving us in the flesh, but in the truth
Man experience God's greatest powers when his sins are forgiven.

So much violence because we are trying to preserve our flesh like Adam
Yet our flesh does not hold us together or gives us peace.
Truth holds us together and harmonizes us
We should struggle to stay in the truth, to stay honest, to keep our integrity
We should struggle to magnify the Lord like Mary
Magnifying the Lord is the vacation of mankind.
Truth is the narrow way to paradise

It is so easy to drift away from the truth and loose our way to paradise
Sometimes under pressure, we even convince ourselves it can be okay to lie
Yes, the devil the liar and murder from the beginning knows how to scares us to death
The devil gives us two choices: lies or death
But there is an other choice: prayer, and wait for the Lord.
The devil can only offer lies and death, but God always offers life if we remains in the truth.
In truth, even if there is temporal death, there will be life again.
Jesus is set to prove this for he is the truth itself, and the way, and the life.
So at various occasions from the beginning in Gethsemane he showed the weakness of human nature
But he also showed the strength of his divinity by holding on to faith in the Father
At every turn, he strengthen humanity in the faith that there is no death in the truth.

Temporal life dwells in the flesh and in the world
But eternal life dwells in the truth
And we should aim for that which is eternal and not permit the evil one to deceive us.
When we want to save lives, we should ask ourselves what life we want to save:
Temporal life or eternal life?
Will saving temporal life save eternal life as well or will the contrary happen?
When we lie to save temporal life, we loose eternal life, so what is the point?
The devil deceives us that we have to lie if we love
He tells us that we can lie and save lives
But when we accept, we may save the temporal but the eternal is lost.
Like those who condemned Jesus, we choose man over God
But eternal life is in God not in man.
Now it is clear why Jesus would choose death
What point is he making?
Him who rose the dead back to life is accepting death and commending it
He tells us that if we want to be with him, we have to pick up our crosses
Adam refused the cross by avoiding confrontation with the serpent
He accepted to leave the path of truth choosing the lie of the devil
He believed that the creature cared more about him than the Creator
He observed the parade of the animals and went for life in the flesh forsaking life in the Spirit
He abandoned truth and became corruptible

Jesus undid this fall of Adam by accepting the cross
Jesus reopened the way to paradise that Adam closed after him.
The way to paradise is the way of the cross.
Paradise is protected by flaming swords of cherubim.
To cross that fire we have to be incorruptible for that fire will destroy every corruptible thing.
Or we have to cross that fire if we want all our corruption to be destroyed so that only the pure remains.
And the pure is the truth
The truth is Jesus,
Only he can pass through the fire and live
Only he can enter death and transform it
Only in him we can cross over to Paradise

 

[1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] The same was in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made. [4] In him was life, and the life was the light of men. [5] And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. - John 1.

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. " - Jhn 14.6

Meditations:
1. link1
2. link 2
3. Short meditations and prayers

The Glory of Jesus is the Glory of Love

Intro of "Charity in Truth"

1. Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity. Love — caritas — is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and peace. It is a force that has its origin in God, Eternal Love and Absolute Truth. Each person finds his good by adherence to God's plan for him, in order to realize it fully: in this plan, he finds his truth, and through adherence to this truth he becomes free (cf. Jn 8:22). To defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction, and to bear witness to it in life are therefore exacting and indispensable forms of charity. Charity, in fact, “rejoices in the truth” (1 Cor 13:6). All people feel the interior impulse to love authentically: love and truth never abandon them completely, because these are the vocation planted by God in the heart and mind of every human person. The search for love and truth is purified and liberated by Jesus Christ from the impoverishment that our humanity brings to it, and he reveals to us in all its fullness the initiative of love and the plan for true life that God has prepared for us. In Christ, charity in truth becomes the Face of his Person, a vocation for us to love our brothers and sisters in the truth of his plan. Indeed, he himself is the Truth (cf. Jn 14:6).

God is Love

God is Love
218 In the course of its history, Israel was able to discover that God had only one reason to reveal himself to them, a single motive for choosing them from among all peoples as his special possession: his sheer gratuitous love.38 And thanks to the prophets Israel understood that it was again out of love that God never stopped saving them and pardoning their unfaithfulness and sins.39
219 God's love for Israel is compared to a father's love for his son. His love for his people is stronger than a mother's for her children. God loves his people more than a bridegroom his beloved; his love will be victorious over even the worst infidelities and will extend to his most precious gift: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son."40
220 God's love is "everlasting":41 "For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you."42 Through Jeremiah, God declares to his people, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you."43
221 But St. John goes even further when he affirms that "God is love":44 God's very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret:45 God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.

GOD, "HE WHO IS", IS TRUTH AND LOVE

III. GOD, "HE WHO IS", IS TRUTH AND LOVE
214 God, "HE WHO IS", revealed himself to Israel as the one "abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness".27 These two terms express summarily the riches of the divine name. In all his works God displays, not only his kindness, goodness, grace and steadfast love, but also his trustworthiness, constancy, faithfulness and truth. "I give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness."28 He is the Truth, for "God is light and in him there is no darkness"; "God is love", as the apostle John teaches.29

The Most Holy Trinity: a Union of Love

It is said that a people's values can be seen in the god they worship. For Christians, ``God is love'' (1 Jn 4:8). But a God who is love seems like a philosophical impossibility. How can one God, who is perfect, lacking nothing in himself and possessed of no dependence on creatures, be love when love necessitates a relation to another?
The resolution of this paradox God himself has revealed to us: God is perfect unity, but a unity of three Divine Persons-- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-- who are each equally divine. The Father, Son, and Spirit exist from all eternity. None precedes the other in time, but each are related to the others by a relationship that orders them with respect to the others.
The ever-living, all-knowing, almighty God the Father exists from all eternity and is the source of all perfection created and uncreated. The self-conception and self-expression of the perfect Being is so complete that it is another person: God the Son, the image of the invisible Father, ``the only-begotten Son of God, begotten from the Father before all the ages, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father, through whom all things came to be'' (Nicene-Constantipolitan Creed). The love between the Father and the Son is so perfect that it too is another person: the Holy Spirit ``the holy, the lordly and life-giving one, proceeding forth from the Father [and the Son], co-worshipped and co-glorified with Father and Son'' (ibid.).
But if the Holy Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son, how can God as a whole be called Love? Each person shares equally in the divine nature, so that each person shares equally in the perfections of the others. The only distinction between the persons of the Trinity is their mutual relations. None of the persons exists in respect to himself alone, but each exists relatively to the other two:
...the ``three persons'' who exist in God are the reality of word and love in their attachment to each other. They are not substances, personalities in the modern sense, but the relatedness whose pure actuality... does not impair unity of the highest being but fills it out. St Augustine once enshrined this idea in the following formula: ``He is not called Father with reference to himself but only in relation to the Son; seen by himself he is simply God.'' Here the decisive point comes beautifully to light. ``Father'' is purely a concept of relationship. Only in being-for the other is he Father; in his own being-in-himself he is simply God. Person is the pure relation of being related, nothing else. Relationship is not something extra added to the person, as it is with us; it only exists at all as relatedness.
....the First Person [the Father] does not beget the Son in the sense of the act of begetting coming on top of the finished Person; it is the act of begetting, of giving oneself, of streaming forth. It is identical with the act of giving. (Joseph Ratzinger Introduction to Christianity, pp. 131-132; cf. Augustine, Enarationes in Psalmos 68; De Trinitate VII, 1, 2.) Each of the persons of the Trinity lives completely for the others; each is a complete gift of self to the others. The complete self-giving not only constitutes the individual persons of the Trinity, but also their inseparable oneness.
Thus, for Christians the very basis of all reality is the loving communion of persons that is the Holy Trinity.

- Augustine Club@columbia.edu

Feast of Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Today I thought about the fact that Jesus suffered so that we may be happy, joyful, that we may have life abundantly. So today I think we should celebrate God's Mercy. Sr. Patricia Proctor likes to say that we should celebrate God's mercy. We should not be like the 'big brother' who seem to have had a bad rest of the day when everybody else was rejoicing celebrating reconciliation. Well, she has a blog about this and if you subscribe to her Joy Notes you can get them every day freely.

Again about this day, 'Civilization of Love' has good posts relevant for today. I also read 'A Beggar for Love', where I found good quotes from the message of the Pope to the youth in Lorreto (in the meeting they had earlier this moth). Here are some of them to remind us that we are on the Winner's side. We should not be afraid...


Let me tell you again this evening: if you stay united with Christ, each one of
you will be able to do great things. This is why, dear friends, you must not be
afraid to dream with your eyes open of important projects of good and you must
not let yourselves be discouraged by difficulties. Christ has confidence in you
and wants you to be able to realize all your most noble and lofty dreams of
genuine happiness. Nothing is impossible for those who trust in God and entrust
themselves to him.
-Prayer Vigil with Young People, 1 September 2007



With love and conviction, I repeat to you young people present here, and through you to your
peers throughout the world: Do not be afraid, Christ can fill your heart's
deepest aspirations! Are there dreams that cannot come true when it is God's
Spirit who inspires and nourishes them in your heart? Can anything block our
enthusiasm when we are united with Christ? Nothing and no one, the Apostle Paul
would say, will ever separate us from God's love, in Christ Jesus Our Lord (cf.
Rom 8: 35-39).
-Prayer Vigil with Young People, 1 September 2007

The price of Divine Love is not to be appreciated; for it suffices to obtain the Kingdom of Heaven, and the love of Him who has loved us so much merits the highest degree of our love.
-- St. Francis of Assisi.

The Eucharistic Kingdom

(Edited Sept 14)

Today we are remembering 9/11! The world and especially America experienced the evil in a very unique way. It is said that many people returned to God in those days. People generally remember that God exists when they recognize the reality of the Evil One. Other people ask why would a good God allow such a thing to happen. Saints would tell us that He only allow it when He can bring a greater good out of it. Now, every 9/11 people remember..., they ask question about good and evil, why would people cultivate such a hatred?, how about God?

Even though sometimes we don't understand everything involved, Christians know that every things work for good for those who love God. God is all good and everything that happens it is for good. The greatest evil that ever happened was the Crucifixion of God's own Son Jesus Christ. If God is more loving, more perfect and perfectionist than we are, how can he make sens of what happened to his Son? How can He allow it to happen? Where is the power of God? How does He used it and in what direction?

Man makes war to protect himself, he is willing to 'kill and crucify' in order to save his temporal life and his temporal possessions. But Jesus has taught us a different way of making war against the evil one. His general commandment was "Love one an other as I have loved you". He loved us by taking risks one after an other. He came into the world as a fragile baby at our mercy, we sent him to exile, we persecuted him, and we eventually killed him. But He who is Truth can not stay in the dead, Truth is always victorious, He rose from the dead and He is alive with the Father.

He is the Way. He showed us the way to make true war against evil. We need to go to the School of the Eucharist (this link is a rap song by Fr. Stan Fortuna...see video...quite interesting:) )in order to know how to built a 'civilization of love' and bring peace in the World.




"You have to make your life essentially, totally eucharistic."
St. Josemaria Escriva, The Forge, #826

This picture caught my attention few months ago. I made it my desktop picture. It helps me to meditate on the mysteries of the Cross, the Eucharist, and the Sacred Heart and our human heart. This is our King and this is how He conquers. It reminds me of the importance of the Crucifix in the Church or in our homes. It pains me when I realize where/when/how I failed, but it is also comforting because it shows the great Mercy of God. It reminds me be merciful to others, to make efforts to do God's will in all things everyday. Eucharistic life is about everyday sanctity. EWTN has an interesting show about this: Eucharistic Journey.

By looking at it I realize what true love is. How true love conquers. It reminds me that Eucharist I receive is the heart of Jesus. It reminds me to check my heart to see if I can feel any fire. The fire that Jesus brought into the world. The fire that Christians are supposed to spread around the world. Of course this is only possible when one is in a state of grace.


When Peter attempted to defend Jesus with a sword, Jesus stopped him. Pope John Paul II has asked forgiveness for sins of the crusaders. True love conquers by the cross; by sacrifice. I like to call our great saints Generals of God. They have conquered by offering their lives as sacrifices for their brothers and sisters. They did not do it their ways, but the way of Jesus. They conquered like Jesus and in Jesus. Now many Holy Orders are like armies aligned behind the Cross of Christ. It is in those Holy Orders or Movements that we are at/become our best in being Christians.

In those spiritual organization we learn more about Reality. We grow to know what real evil is. There is a very very interesting topic on CAF about spiritual warfare. Some times we seem not to be aware of the fact that we are constantly at war.

The Eucharistic Kingdom is built on self-sacrifices. It is not at all easy to sacrifice ourselves. We need to pray unceasingly in order to be able to 'believe' and to follow Jesus until the end. We need the help of each other, the help of the Church and of Angels.

Too many times we wonder why things go wrong, why even simple things seem harder to be done. We have to remember the disciples falling asleep failing to pray with Jesus at the critical point of his life.

I think demons put all their weight in preventing even a simple act from being done if it is to be done with love and in the name of Christ. He knows that that simple act can turn out to be the mustard seed. Think of how much resistance Jesus accountered. Think of his experience in the Garden of sorrow. But we know that He has conquered the world, this should be the reason for our joy, our courage, and our hope.

With the help of our allies (angels, saints,...) we should engage in a proper holy war against the right enemy: the one who is the Liar, the Murderer, and the Accuser from the Beginning!

Christus vincit,
Christus regnat,
Christus, Christus ímperat.

Christ is the victor, Christ is King,Christ is the ruler of the world.

May good times come,

May the peace of Christ come,

May the kingdom of Christ come.

.

Grey areas and "Abandonment to Divine Providence"

- Man Must Learn to Hear Truth, Says Pope -

Growing in charity is also a matter of knowing how to make a difference between what is right and what is wrong with certainty. And also how to power ourselves up for the good action. Both of these are accomplished by abandonment of ourselves to the will of God. But how do we know the will of God? This book go throught it all. Below are few quotes. I like how it sound schoenstatt. Those quotes themselves explains something of the schoenstatt picture of grace of the MTA.

On then, my soul, on with head uplifted above earthly things, always satisfied
with God, with everything He does, or makes you do. Take good care not to
imprudently entertain a crowd of anxious reflexions which, like so many
trackless ways, carry our footsteps far and wide until we are hopelessly astray.
Let us go through that labyrinth of self-love by leaping over it, instead of
traversing its interminable windings.

On, my soul, through despondency, illness,
aridity, uncertain tempers, weakness of disposition, snares of the devil and of
men; through suspicions, jealousies, evil imaginations and prejudices. Let us
soar like the eagle above all these clouds with eyes always fixed on the sun,
and on its ways, which represent our obligations. All this we must needs feel,
but we must, at the same time, remember that ours is not a life of mere
sentiment, and that it does not depend upon us either to feel, or to be callous.

Let us live in the higher regions of the soul in which God and His will form
an eternity ever equal, ever the same, ever unchanging. In this dwelling
entirely spiritual, wherein the uncreated, immeasurable and ineffable holds the
soul at an infinite distance from all that is specific in shadows and created
atoms, it remains calm, even when the senses are tossed about by tempests. It
has become independent of the senses; their troubles and agitations and
innumerable vicissitudes no more affect it, than the clouds that obscure the sky
for a moment and then fade away, affect the sun.

On the Priest for Life show on EWTN at this moment, you can read on screen the number of abortions as they (the Show people) speak. It increases by 3-6 every second.

Abortion is one of the things that some people even some churches are still confused about their evilnes. Fr. Corapi likes to say that the Devil's favorite color is not black as we usually think: It is gray!
The Devil confuses people. In all kinds of moral situation people don't know exactly if something is bad. If they feel that it arranges them, then they conclude that it must be okay since...this and that...even God can undestand this particular situation...etc.

The good thing about being Catholic is that our Church is not one of those ones who are confused about 'gray' issues. Dispite the largeness, or how many traditions, spiritualities, etc, the entire universal Church knows exactly what it wrong what is right in matters of morals and faiths. Jesus is with us. And He would never fail to answer you question cleary and to find a solution for it.

If you are confused about any matter you can be sure to get an answer. Here in the internet Catholic Answers' people can clear any doubt you may have.

On this blog, Theology of the Body, and Gospel of Life are themselves great moral resources left to us by our beloved pope John Paul II. They propose a deep and genuine undestanding of life, love, and truth based on the Bible, Reason and Faith .

An other kind of 'grey' area we often experience is about understandig the will of God at any moment of our lives. At work, and real life I always get confused on how to testify for truth without sounding judgemental, or feeling prideful.

There is a schoenstatt song we used to sing in Africa. It said:
" If Mother send you to (complete here with any charitable deed you can do for your neighbor)
Will you go right away?
Ans: Yes, I will go, of course I will go right away...

Now, some case are very easy. However, others are just 'grey'. You can feel her sending you, but you just can't figure out which way to proceed. Or, you are not well disposed to act. In either case, if something goes wrong later, you can really fell hurt. Mother sent you to her child and you failed her. You can fell the sadness. If this happened to you, this is one of the things you can do (you probably know others :)).

But it is bette to find avoid it from happening in the first place. We are told that we need to arm ourselves because the devil is always 'closer than we think'. The commandement of the King is to love. But love can be sometime very confusing. It is amazing how some acts that we may think are out of love may be precisely the opposite. From keeping silence out of 'respect' to a mother aborting her child because she is not ready (so it is good for both of them), all kind of acts and decisions may seem to be out of love. So how do we tell real love? How do we tell the reel will of God? and How do we find enough strength to do it?

In my previous post I provided links about "crashing the head of the Old Dragon". Remember that this dragon is mostly preocupied by our Mother and us who try to keep the commendements. Well, we are the strategic 'points'. We should always remember that we are in dangereous positions of the front. We are not in the occupied area, nor on the unoccupied area. We are on the frontline. Fr. Corapi has a great series on his web site about this spiritual warfare: Surrender is Not an Option. I think it is probably still running on EWTN (saturday and sundays).

Again this is the wonderfull document about Divine Providence. Read it and don't loose your blessings or miss to deliver God's blessings to others.

It is great for any christian, specially for Schoenstatters. I am not sure but it must have been written by a schoenstatter. I saw it few years ago in french but its font was not attractive and I was not in mood to read, so I missed the treasure. When I realised that I saw it, I had a feeling which might be similar to that of St. Peter after denying Jesus. The remorse of taking yourself more serious than God.

"In love lies true life" Fr. Kentenich

The french words translate: " You are a temple of life" His Holyness Pope Benedict XVI

Last night I had a very short but sweet dream where I got an unexpected wonderful smile. I wonder if it was because of this picture. I saw it yesterday and I had liked it very much.

It reminds me to be always in company of nice people. Bright and shiny. The Light shines on us and we can shine it on others. But if our light become deam we won't shine in darkenss, on the contrary darkness may overcome us.

Parce que l'Amour t'aime tu deviens amour

- Because Love loves you, you become love

Parce que l'Amour m'aime je deviens amour

- Because Love loves me, I become love

Young people of Brazil receive a rich message from their Holy Father

We, young people are very important for the future of humanity in all aspects. Pope JPII was particularly loved for gaining more youth to this realisation and especially to get them to work seriously for the cause of humanity. Young catholics thank him for that. One of his last words was addressed to thousands of young people who gathered in st. Peter Square praying for him: "I have searched for you, now you have come for me and I thank you!".
About all of the videos you view on the side bar were actually posted by young people in their 20s. And more and more are blogging about life, love, and the Church.
In his trip to Brazil, our new Pope Benedict XVI did not forget about us. Here is part of the message to the youth of Brazil:

For this reason, my dear friends, I am certain
that today the same impressions I received in Germany will be renewed here. In
1991, during his visit to Mato Grosso, the Servant of God Pope John Paul II, of
venerable memory, said that "youth are the first protagonists of the third
millennium … they are the ones who will be charged with the destiny of this new
phase in human history" (16 October 1991). Today, I feel moved to make the same
observation regarding all of you.....

You have a crucial question -- a question that appears in this Gospel -- to put to him. It is the same question posed by the young man who ran to see Jesus: What good deed must I do, to have eternal life? I would like to take a deeper look at this question with you. It has to do with life. A life which -- in all of you -- is exuberant and beautiful. What are you to do with it? How can you live it to the full?.....

Jesus alone can give us the answer, because he alone can guarantee us eternal life. He alone, therefore, can show us the meaning of this present life and give it fullness...

These years of your life are the years which will prepare you for your future. Your "tomorrow" depends much on how you are living the "today" of your youth. Stretching out in front of you, my dear young friends, is a life that all of us hope will be long; yet it is only one life, it is unique: do not let it pass it vain; do not squander it. Live it with enthusiasm and with joy, but most of all, with a sense of responsibility......

You can be the builders of a new society if you seek to put into practice a conduct inspired by universal moral values, but also a personal commitment to a vitally important human and spiritual formation. Men and women who are ill-prepared for the real challenges presented by a correct interpretation of the Christian life in their own surroundings will easily fall prey to all the assaults of materialism and secularism, which are more and more active at all levels. Be men and women who are free and responsible; make the family a centre that radiates peace and joy; be promoters of life, from its beginning to its natural end; protect the elderly, since they deserve respect and admiration for the good they have done. The Pope also expects young people to seek to sanctify their work, carrying it out with technical skill and diligence, so as to contribute to the progress of all their brothers and sisters, and to shed the light of the Word upon all human activities (cf. Lumen Gentium, 36). But above all, the Pope wants them to set about building a more just and fraternal society, fulfilling their duties towards the State: respecting its laws; not allowing themselves to be swept along by hatred and violence; seeking to be an example of Christian conduct in their professional and social milieu, distinguishing themselves by the integrity of their social and professional relationships. They should remember that excessive ambition for wealth and power leads to corruption of oneself and others; there are no valid motives that would justify attempting to impose one's own worldly aspirations -- economic or political -- through fraud and deceit......

Above all, have great respect for the institution of the sacrament of Matrimony. There cannot be true domestic happiness unless, at the same time, there is fidelity between spouses. Marriage is an institution of natural law, which has been raised by Christ to the dignity of a sacrament; it is a great gift that God has given to mankind: respect it and honour it. At the same time, God calls you to respect one another when you fall in love and become engaged, since conjugal life, reserved by divine ordinance to married couples, will bring happiness and peace only to the extent that you are able to build your future hopes upon chastity, both within and outside marriage. I repeat here to all of you that "eros tends to rise . . . towards the Divine, to lead us beyond ourselves; yet for this very reason it calls for a path of ascent, renunciation, purification and healing" (Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est , 5). To put it briefly, it requires a spirit of sacrifice and renunciation for the sake of a greater good, namely the love of God above all things. Seek to resist forcefully the snares of evil that are found in many contexts, driving you towards a dissolute and paradoxically paradoxically empty life, causing you to lose the precious gift of your freedom and your true happiness. True love "increasingly seeks the happiness of the other, is concerned more and more with the beloved, bestows itself and wants to 'be there for' the other" (ibid., 7) and therefore will always grow in faithfulness, indissolubility and fruitfulness......

The following are videos comments in English (BBC) and the local language below.

I have also added a video in portugese (I think) for those who understand it.

"Love destroys the lover if he cannot obtain what he loves"

Does this quote ring a bell? If you lived it, you have probably wondered what is this thing we fill in our heart and does not want to let us alone and at peace unless we go with its will. For me, I am still thinking about it, and slowly I am making sens of the icon that led me to discover the article from which the quote is from.

Beside I had learned that God is Love. Of course how else can he be a jalous God? able to do anything except supporting an other god beside Him? You can check more of this divine madness in the side bar...

I discovered this quote when I was trying to find a better description of Rublev icon's Hospitality of Abraham. I tracked it down and find it on a blog in an article entitled: "Seeing with the Heart". A very interesting article, I think I will come back to it some day. For now, I don't have much time, but I would like to share two interesting paragraphs I noticed:

Antoine de Saint-Exupery reveals to us in the character of the fox a secret: "One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes." Anyone who has ever been in love, anyone who has ever went through trials and sufferings with hope, anyone who has compassion for the poor knows that he cannot be a materialist. Matter is not all that there is. There is something deeper, more important than what we see, what we touch. The eyes alone cannot see that which is truly important. It must be helped by the heart. The heart can penetrate through the accidents of being into its very core, its form. Only with the heart can one see that there is dignity in the unborn, hope in the suffering, and beauty in a world that seems to be so ugly. In love, the heart can perceive value. In love, motivated and caused by love, the heart can direct a person to give himself to another. This love is nothing else than the loving gaze of God who never puts His gaze away from us; our hearts beat because of the loving gaze of God. (p.1)...

... Christ was beaten, humiliated, and considered a blasphemer: the Word of God was accused of blasphemy. Even when God had become man, man would not give Him his heart. A kiss maybe, but not his heart. Even his friend betrayed him. Yet, Christ never stopped gazing: Beaten and denied, "the Lord turned and looked at Peter" (Lk. 22:61). "But the law of love is not concerned with what will be, what ought to be, what can be. Love does not reflect; it is unreasonable and knows no moderation. Love refuses to be consoled when its goal proves impossible, despises all hindrances to the attainment of its object. Love destroys the lover if he cannot obtain what he loves; love follows its own promptings, and does not think of right and wrong. Love inflames desire which impels it toward things that are forbidden" (Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 147). "Love inflames desire which impels it toward things that are forbidden"-- God to become man? God to die? What foolishness! What a stumbling block! How can man bow down to such a God? Love indeed is too risky. And it transcends reason. It cannot be abstracted, but received and given. God did not spare His Son because He loves us; His love can bear "all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Cor. 13:7). God never fails. He allowed a soldier to "thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out" (John 19:34). This is the model of a circumcised heart. (p.2).......

Marriage

I wonderful video to highlight the origins of a family where the civilization of love is supposed to be initiated for every individual.

Catholics and all mankind are expected to believe that marriage must be for ever. It is an eternal covenant at the origin of humanity. Genesis tells us that in the Beginning man was alone in the universe before the creation of the woman. Jean Paul II letf us with a clear detailed explanation of the mystery of marriage. His wonderfull collection of lectures called Theology of the Body explains everything about manhoood and womanhood. As the title implies, it gives us a clear explanation of why our own bodies and the engineering behind them are a message to us from God. Be sure to read it, you won't regreat it:
Why does the Church teaches that contraception, abortion, homosexuality, divorce, cloning, are wrong? It is all wonderfully explained. By reading it, one can not be not touched by the beauty and creativity of Love behind our own creation and our existance. We were created by love and to love. And anything less than that is intorerrable; it is a sin against Love, a sin agains the loving God who made us.

The Origin of Love

Hmm. It can be a serious problem for a person like me to decide on which should be the first post, on my first blog. So looking at the name, and thinking about what inspired me in the first place to create the blog, I think I should start with a small word about the Catholic Church.

The more I discover my catholic faith, the more I discover that it is itsself at the core of this civilization. I am not saying that people never loved before the Church come to be, or that people who never new about it never knew love. I am referring to the founder of the Church.

Jesus once said that before Abraham was, He is. And we christians take from this statement to nourish our faith in divinity of Jesus Christ. So it is true; all mankind from the beginning knew love. That is because, the Creator God himself is God. This is my faith. This is the faith of the Church. And this notion is best understood by a meditation about the Blessed Trinity. If God is Love, he was Love and loved even before He created anything.

I have heard that God is a community of three divine persons who love each other so much that they are one God. They are actually different in their personalities and yet one in their divine nature, and loving is natural activity as Love is in their essence. This explains the reality well know to us that love can not truly be present without at least three persons. Yes three, not two:). Christians would count at least two persons and God. The third necessary person can be seen as some kind of witness who testify for each of the two lovers. The person who can be the 'advisor', the 'councelor', the 'witness', etc, for each person to always give more and more strength to the relationship.

So, I am discovering that anything that happens in life, and question can be answered by a simple meditation on the above picture created by Andre Rubrev. It explains everything in the human civilization, the History of Salvation, and this Civilization of Love I will be talking about on this blog.

Love is from God and in humanity it starts from marriage! More insight on this article were the icon was taken from.