"God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try" Bl. Teresa of Calcutta

Today is the Feast Day of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

The MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI TO THE YOUTH OF THE WORLD ON THE OCCASION OF THE 22ND WORLD YOUTH DAY, 2007) reminds us about the christian love. I picked the following two paragraphs for today:

Growing in love each day

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!


“Dare to love” by following the example of the saints

My dear young friends, I want to invite you to “dare to love”. Do not desire anything less for your life than a love that is strong and beautiful and that is capable of making the whole of your existence a joyful undertaking of giving yourselves as a gift to God and your brothers and sisters, in imitation of the One who vanquished hatred and death forever through love (cf Rev 5:13). Love is the only force capable of changing the heart of the human person and of all humanity, by making fruitful the relations between men and women, between rich and poor, between cultures and civilisations. This is shown to us in the lives of the saints. They are true friends of God who channel and reflect this very first love. Try to know them better, entrust yourselves to their intercession, and strive to live as they did. I shall just mention Mother Teresa. In order to respond instantly to the cry of Jesus, “I thirst”, a cry that had touched her deeply, she began to take in the people who were dying on the streets of Calcutta in India. From that time onward, the only desire of her life was to quench the thirst of love felt by Jesus, not with words, but with concrete action by recognising his disfigured countenance thirsting for love in the faces of the poorest of the poor. Blessed Teresa put the teachings of the Lord into practice: “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). The message of this humble witness of divine love has spread around the whole world. -

Sometime I look at this blog and wonder what God think about it. I am the worst 'lover'! Just think about it: If you are my friend and you are reading this, you can remember that you are the one who made the first move to our friendship. I thought about this and wonder how it came to be that I rarely [updated ... :)... friends reacted and proved me wrong :)] 'dare' to love (in clear act) first, it seems that I have always been timid. But after I lost my family in a massacre by people who were 'close friends' I think I went insane without realising it. I have forgiven them and I love everybody without any distinction. However, despite high esteem people seem to hold in me, I have a very low self-esteem. I don't seem to trust that I can give myself to others (without being asked to) and be useful. But ever since I started this deep dive into Catholicism, I realize every day that this 'passive love' is not a christian love at all. Christian love is active and provocative. We have to try. As Mother Teresa said: "God does not require us to succeed but to try".

Let's pray for each other so that this love does not remain in words, but be put to action as the Holy Father suggests.

VISITATION OF MARY

I missed posting on Pentecost (Birthday of the Church), and stories of the impressive saints; saint Rita and Saint Philomena on their feast day few days ago. I am glad to post something about the Blessed Mother in her month.

Today is the feast of the Visitation of Mary. May everyone get a special visit from her!

VISITATION OF MARY

WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 2006 (CNA)

The Visitation of Mary is
one of the many Marian feast days on the liturgical calendar. The feast of the
Visitation recalls when a pregnant Mary visits her cousin, Elizabeth, who is
also pregnant. At the sight of Mary, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb “jumped with
gladness”, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth then spoke
the words that Catholics now recite in the Hail Mary: “You are blessed among all
woman, and blessed is the child you will bear.” Soon after, Elizabeth gave birth
to her son, John

Pentecost



And stories of St. Philomena and St. Rita.

Perfect Joy

In the following video, St. Francis of Assisi says: "Blessed is he who does good to others and desires not that others do good to him". When I read things first, I felt revolted that he said that a person can desired not that people do good to him. It sound uncharitable because if we love people and we would like them to be good or to see their goodness, we should somehow be frustated if they are not good, even to us. Not out of selfsheness, but because we would like them to be good and charitable people.

I tought seriously about St. Francis words because they seem to speak to me. Sometimes we are precisely frustated by others' ungoodness and we try to show it thinking that they will notice that their attitude is not charitable and that they will try to correct it and be good. But here St. Francis propose a different attitude. Instead of expecting others to be good. How about not even questioning their state of goodness. It may sound like not caring, but when I looked at it, it is actually the best way we escape the temptation of being judgemental. It is not a surprise that it is the same Francis who said that we should "preach the Gospel (and somehow, only) use words if necessary". What he tried to say was. We should live according to the Gospel, and if someone whould question us about why we live this particular way, then we should use words and explain why. This way we can preach the Gospel without sounding judgmental or even being judgmental.

So we should not care too much about expecting others to be good to us, because after all, how do we know if they are not being good to us. Sometimes they may be, and we may not noticed it. But some other time they may really be bad to us. In both case we can find perfect Joy when we worry only about what comes out of our hearts. And we make sure what ever comes of it is love and is for the good of others, however it may look like. Like St. Augustine said: "Love and do what you want...". And since if we really love, we can not want a bad thing, then we will only do good things.




At the end St. Francis teaches as how to descover or recover perfect innocence which gives us perfect Joy. And this is the good news, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. This is how we can find, share, and enjoy his peace even in middle of sufferings or other unlikely situation. A christian can always Joyfull not matter what he has experienced or he is experiencing. Somehow, we can be Joyfull even when we are not Happy.

Faith of Abraham!

The Hospitality of Abraham Icon while expressing his hospitality to the three men who visited him, it also express the sacrifice of Abraham. With this sacrifice Abraham was blessed to be the Father of all believers. I was pondering what does it mean to be a 'believer'. What does it mean to have reel Faith? And what is its basis not true Love?

The sacrifice of Abraham was really great, that was a strong Faith. He believed in the God who didn't have a name yet - Israelites had not yet existed, and they had not yet asked his name-. To me it seems that Abraham did believe what christians to day believe that God is Love. After all it would be foolishness to sacrifice your most beloved unless you know that you are sacrificing him to Love itself. I think this is where the confidence and trust of Abraham came from. He knew God would not abandon him or his son. Even though he may have not known what happens after death, he new that the Creator is Love itself and would take care even where human understanding can not reach. This is to me the only way the sacrifice of Abraham can make sens. And surely enough God who is love intervened to return the love to Abraham by giving him back his son.

Abraham could not have worked toward the unknown land by Faith alone if he did not know that God is Love itself, and that whatever was going to happen was going to happen out of love of/from God and that would be most glorious and worth it if it was really a sacrifice out of love. So I think this is the reel meaning Faith. St. Paul confirmed this when he said that faith without charity is dead. True Faith is shown by the way of living which is filled with charity.

Anyone who decide to 'believe' in the God of Abraham, in a sens, he takes the same Abraham journey to the unknown. He walks more and more "by faith not by sight". It is a life which seems to approch more and more into eternity, into the house of Love. And the words of Jesus gets more and more accomplished:

If any one love me, he
will keep my word. And my Father will love him and we will come to him and will
make our abode with him. John XIV 14:23

Jesus commandements was to love God above all and to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. Even though this commandement was not formulated yet, Abraham surely lived it. And this is illustrated most when he received a visit from the three 'men' that he called 'Lord'. While the situation is surely confusing, it surely shows how much devotion Abraham had for Love. One can say that he always did the Will of Love.

When Jesus told us that he always does the will of the Father, and that him and the father are One, I think he was slowly formulating a new revelation of God to us: the Trinity. Jesus sacrificed himself and called all who are baptised in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit to do the same. Why? Because, like him, now they are of the house of Love. They participate in the life of the Trinity. This how a christian can be a co-redemptor like Mary:
"In my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the Church." Colossians 1:24

So our sacrifices whether perfect or way less, can be useful to us and to others when we offer them up to God.

When we truly love, we can make mistakes because we are not perfect, but Love can help us fix those same mistakes and do even more virtuous deeds.

Love is still a mystery. Even though some christians think that one have to be christians in order to be saved. The Catholic Church believes that salvation is possible to some non-christians. How? Mark Shea reminds us of an important fact:

It is worth noting that the description of judgment in the parable of the Sheep
and the Goats says nothing about having figured out correct doctrine. It
is all about people responding as best they can to the light they have.
Indeed, the mark of the saved sheep in that parable is surprise. By Jesus'
account, none of his followers among the "nations" (those outside the visible
covenant community) had the slightest idea they were serving him: "Then the
righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed
you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome
you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit
you?'" (Matthew 25:37-39).

It is interesting to note those judgement words (Matthew 25:32-46). As Mark Shea, I can conclude that: "We know where the Church is. We do not know where it is not."