The Building of a Civilization of Love

The third area of commitment that comes with love is that of daily life with its multiple relationships. I am particularly referring to family, studies, work and free time. Dear young friends, cultivate your talents, not only to obtain a social position, but also to help others to “grow”. Develop your capacities, not only in order to become more “competitive” and “productive”, but to be “witnesses of charity”. In addition to your professional training, also make an effort to acquire religious knowledge that will help you to carry out your mission in a responsible way. In particular, I invite you to carefully study the social doctrine of the Church so that its principles may inspire and guide your action in the world. May the Holy Spirit make you creative in charity, persevering in your commitments, and brave in your initiatives, so that you will be able to offer your contribution to the building up of the “civilisation of love”. The horizon of love is truly boundless: it is the whole world!

- Pope Benedict XVI, WYD 2007 MESSAGE, Growing in love each day


3:12. Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect: but I follow after, if I may by any means apprehend, wherein I am also apprehended by Christ Jesus.
3:13. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing I do: Forgetting the things that are behind and stretching forth myself to those that are before,
3:14. I press towards the mark, to the prize of the supernal vocation of God in Christ Jesus.

-St. Paul to Philippians

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

More on InterFaith dialogue

I used to be obsessed to reading the news from my country. I think I had arrived at the point when I knew enough of any politician and political party to be a sort of political advisor for citizen while voting. As about my Faith, I though I knew just enough to keep me sane. But I come to realize that I can't really know enough. One realize this fact when confronted with different situation in life when more and more faith need to be applied. We can't really say 'I believe' if our lives are not a reflection of what we believe. May be we should let our lives speak the credo for us. As a catholic I realize I have to seat down and read not only the Bible regularly but also the Catechism, the Social Doctrine of the Church, Encyclicals,... In few words I should be able feel that I 'live by Faith'. It is a shame how we can say that we are Christians while we don't even know what a christian really is. If we don't know our Faith, we can't even begin to understand other Faiths. Interreligious dialogues aim at bringing peace in the world. We can help them by living our Faith. Living our own Faith is the first step toward peace in the world.

Around the world:
- The Pope opened an interreligious meeting. Theme: "Toward a World Without Violence: Religions and Cultures in Dialogue."
- "Faith Needs Reason, But Also Love, Says Expert". An interesting article. Few quotes:
  1. "Nihilism and fundamentalism agree in their scorn for God and man: the former because it denies the truth, the latter because it wants to impose the truth."
  2. "You will not be brothers until you love each other."
  3. "there are no fanatical religions only fanatical people."
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)