"My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work” (Jn 4:34)

I have been busy and distracted and lazy these last months. So I think I need all the prayers I can get. The word of life below was late too as it was last time. And today I am even a little sad. This one is the last one form Chiarra Lubich. She have just passed away. The Church is morning, the movement is mourning, and everyone who knew her. Next I will post a schoenstatt newsletter which informed me of her passing. May her soul rest in peace and eternal light shine on her. He wished all of us a good Easter, now she will celebrate hers in Heaven.

"My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work” (Jn 4:34)

march 2008

These wonderful words of Jesus can be repeated, in a sense, by every Christian and, if put into practice, they are capable of leading him or her far ahead in the Holy Journey of life.
Jesus, seated at Jacob’s well in Samaria, was concluding his conversation with the Samaritan woman. The disciples, having returned from the near-by city where they had gone for supplies, were surprised to find the Master speaking with a woman, but none of them asked him why. When the Samaritan woman left, they urged him to eat. Jesus intuited their thoughts and explained the reason behind his actions: "I have food to eat of which you do not know."
The disciples didn’t understand: they were thinking of material food and they asked one another if someone had brought food to the Master during their absence. So then Jesus said openly:

"My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.”

We need food every day to keep us alive. Jesus does not deny this. In fact, he is speaking here of food, something natural and necessary, but he does so in order to affirm the existence and need for another kind of food, a food that is more important and that he cannot do without.
Jesus came down from heaven in order “to do the will of the one who sent [him] and to finish his work.” He did not have thoughts or an agenda of his own, but only those of his Father. The words he spoke and works he did were those of the Father; he didn’t do his own will but that “of the one who sent” him. This was the life of Jesus. Doing this satisfied his hunger; doing this nourished him.
Complete adherence to the Father’s will was characteristic of his whole life, right up to his death on the cross, where he truly finished the work that the Father had entrusted to him.

"My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.”

Jesus considered doing the will of the Father as his food, because by carrying it out, “assimilating it,” “eating it,” identifying with it, he received Life.
And what was the will of the Father, his work, that Jesus had to finish?
It was to give salvation to all people, to give them the Life that does not die.
Shortly before, Jesus had communicated a seed of this Life to the Samaritan woman through his conversation with her and through his love. In fact, the disciples soon saw this Life spring forth and go out to others because the richness the Samaritan woman had discovered and received she communicated to other Samaritans: “Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?" (Jn 4:29).
In speaking to the Samaritan woman, Jesus revealed the plan of God who is Father: that all people receive the gift of his life. This is the work that Jesus urgently wanted to finish, in order to entrust it then to his disciples, to the Church.

"My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.”

Can we also live this sentence of the Gospel which is so typical of Jesus that it reflects his being, his mission, his zeal in an altogether special way?
Certainly! We also will have to live out our being sons and daughters of the Father through the Life that Christ shared with us, and in this way nourish our lives by doing his will.
We can do so by carrying out moment by moment what he wants from us, accomplishing it in a perfect way, as if we had nothing else to do. In fact, God wants nothing else.
Let us feed on what God wants from us moment after moment and we will experience that it satisfies us: it gives us peace, joy, happiness, it gives us—it’s no exaggeration to say—a foretaste of heaven.
In this way, even we can cooperate with Jesus, day by day, in finishing the work of the Father.
It will be the best way to live Easter.

Chiara Lubich

Word of life February 2008

“Whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:19).

February 2008
Jesus, surrounded by crowds of people, went up the mountain to give his famous sermon. His first words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit ... Blessed are the meek,” already signaled the novelty of the message he had come to bring. They are words of life, words of light and hope that Jesus entrusted to his disciples to enlighten them and give their lives zest and meaning. Transformed by this great message, they were invited to transmit to others the teachings they received and to put them into life.

“Whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Today our society, more than ever before, needs to know the words of the Gospel and let itself to be transformed by them. Jesus must be able to repeat once again: do not become angry with your neighbors; forgive, and you will be forgiven; tell the truth, to the point of having no need to take an oath; love your enemies; recognize that we have only one Father and are all brothers and sisters; do to others as you would have them do to you. This is the sense of some of the many words from the Sermon on the Mount. If they were lived out, it would be enough to change the world.
Jesus invites us to proclaim his Gospel. But before we “teach” his words, he asks us to “obey” them. In order to be credible, we should become experts in the Gospel, a living Gospel. Only then will we be able to witness to it with our lives and teach it with our words.

“Whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

How can we live these words? The best way is to allow Jesus himself to teach us, drawing him to us and among us through our reciprocal love. He will suggest the right words to use when approaching people; he will show us how to open passageways into our neighbor’s heart, so that we can witness to him wherever we are, even in the most difficult environments and in the most complicated situations. We will see the world change: that small part of the world where we live will be so transformed that we will find harmony, understanding and peace. What is important is to maintain his presence among us through our mutual love, to be docile in listening to his voice—the voice of our conscience that always speaks to us if we know how to silence other voices.
He will teach us to obey even the smallest laws with joy and creativity, so as to polish our life of unity to perfection. May it be said of us one day as it was of the first Christians: “Look how they love one another and how they are ready to die for one another.” As our relationships are renewed by love, the Gospel will be seen as capable of generating a new society.
We cannot keep the gift we received for ourselves. We are called to repeat with Paul: “Woe to me if I do not preach [the Gospel]!” (1 Cor 9:16). If we let ourselves be guided by our inner voice, we will discover ever-new possibilities to communicate, speak, write and dialogue. May the Gospel shine forth again, through us personally, in our homes, cities and nations. New life will flourish in us; joy will expand in our hearts; the risen Lord will shine forth with greater beauty; and he will consider us among the “greatest in the kingdom.”
The life of Ginetta Calliari demonstrates this in an outstanding way. When she arrived in Brazil in 1959 with the first group of focolarini, she was shocked at seeing the results of the country’s deep inequalities. She was determined to put reciprocal love before all else and the words of Jesus into practice. She said, “He will open the way for us.” As time passed, a community came to life and grew, a community that now numbers hundreds of thousands of people of every social class and age, inhabitants of the shanty towns and members of the well-to-do classes, people who put themselves at the service of those most in need. They have become a small and united people who continue to show that the Gospel message is true. This is the dowry that Ginetta brought with her when she left for heaven.
Chiara Lubich
(1) Tertullian, Apology, 39:7

“Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thes 5:17)

The world of life from the focolare movement this month reminds us to pray without ceasing. A great reminder for the beginning of the year. I am not doing that well in organizing myself as my resolution requires this year. Otherwise I would be blogging more frequently. And the class I have just started today is not going to make thing easy. Programming... I like and dislike programing. I like it because it is fun when the program works, I hate it because it can take all your time and then the program wouldn't work; very very frustrating. But I have to pray seriously about all this. What I will learn in this course could be very well the heart of both my career and my vocation. If my intuition/dream is right something wonderful could come out of it. Well, let's pray for God's will to be done.

Meanwhile:

“Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thes 5:17)

January 2008

This year the “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” celebrates its
centennial. The “Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity” was first celebrated from
January 18-25 in 1908. Sixty years later, in 1968, the Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity was jointly prepared by the Commission on Faith and Order of the
World Council of Churches and by the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity
of the Catholic Church. From that time on, it has become common practice for
them to meet together annually to compile the pamphlet using material with
suggestions for the celebration of the Week of Prayer prepared by Christians
from different Churches in a particular country. The words of Scripture chosen
this year by a large ecumenical group in the United States are taken from the
first letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, in Greece. They were a small
young community, and Paul felt that the unity among them had to become more and more solid. That was why he urged them: “Be at peace among yourselves. … be
patient with all. See that no one returns evil for evil; rather, always seek
what is good both for each other and for all. … Pray without ceasing..”He wanted to stress that the life of unity of the Christian community is possible
only through a life of prayer. Jesus himself prayed to the Father for the unity
of his disciples: “that they may all be one” (Jn 17:21).

“Pray without ceasing”

Why should we “pray without ceasing”? Because prayer is essential to being
human. We were created in the image of God, as a “you” of God, capable of
establishing a relationship of communion with him. Friendship with him,
spontaneous conversation with him, conversation that is simple and true – this
is prayer. It is part of our very being, allowing us to become authentic persons
with the full dignity of sons and daughters of God. Created as a “you” of God,
we can live in constant rapport with him, with our hearts filled with love by
the Holy Spirit and with the trust that one has towards one’s own father. This
is a trust that draws us to speak with God often, to tell him openly about
ourselves, our thoughts, our plans. This is a trust that makes us yearn for
those moments we dedicate to prayer – moments set aside in days filled with
other duties at work and in the family – in order to enter into a profound
connection with the One who we know loves us. We need to “pray without ceasing”
not only for our own needs, but also for our contributions to building up the
Body of Christ, and our contributions to building the full and visible communion
of the Church of Christ. We can understand something of this mystery if we think
of a series of communicating vessels. When we pour water into one of them, the
liquid level in all the others is raised as well. The same thing happens when we
pray and raise our souls to God to adore and thank him. When one of us is
elevated in prayer, the others are elevated as well.

“Pray without ceasing”

How can we “pray without ceasing,” especially when we are in the whirlpool of daily
living? To “pray without ceasing” does not mean multiplying our prayers. Rather,
it means directing our hearts and lives towards God, living out God’s will for
us, whether it be studying, working, suffering, resting or even dying for him.
We will reach the point where we will no longer be able to live our daily lives
without doing everything in agreement with him. In this way our actions will be
transformed into sacred actions and the whole day will become a prayer.It may be
helpful to offer to God everything we do by saying, “For you, Jesus,” and, in
moments of difficulties, “What really matters? To love you is what matters.” In
this way each thing we do is transformed into an act of love.And thus prayer
will be unceasing because love will be unceasing. Chiara Lubich

“Proclaim the word…”

Word of life of this month from the focolare movement. Click on the link to read the full document.

“Proclaim the word…”

How should we live this Word of Life and proclaim the gospel even during brief
encounters? How can we share it with everyone?We can do this by loving each
person, without exception.If we are real Christians, living what the Gospel
teaches, our words will not be empty rhetoric.Our proclamation will be even more
clear if we know how to bear witness to the heart of the Gospel—unity among
us—knowing that “this is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you
have love for one another" (Jn 13:33).This is the uniform that ordinary
Christians, men and women, married and single, adults and children, the sick and
the healthy, can wear always and wherever they are, in order to give witness
with their lives to the One they believe in, to the One they want to love.

By Chiara Lubich

“Pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience..."

Today I rearranged the links on the right side for a better classification. Some people don't like the way the Church is organized, they feel a sens of dictatorship and authority which should not exist for an organization which is meant to teach how to love. But one thing we forgot very often is that 'love' is a decision, therefore true love is a response to a commandment to love. Jesus illustrated it when he said: John 13:34. A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. The words of the last judgement also remind us of our duties to others. However, we can very easily forget that we ought to love as He loved us. Learning and obeying the Will of the Father. He did not negotiate with the Father, He obeyed until the end and in all things.

So we should not be surprised that his Kingdom is an absolute monarchy. In our Faith we should not pick what is convenient to our temporal opinions, but accept the fullness of eternal Truth. We have to be in full communion with the Church if we want to be in full communion with Christ; If we listen to the successors of apostles we also listen to Him, if we reject them we also reject Him. Love seems to be something so simple. We don't realize that so easily but Jesus had to invite us into an attitude of a soldier in order to make us understand how serious the matter is. Not that love is complicated by nature, but because of our powerful enemy, life became so complicated. St. Paul reminds us of this military attitude through his writings. But an Army of love is a different kind of army and the battle a different kind of battle.

St. Josemaria Escriva says that Jesus summarized his teachings in a last sermon which he gave on the podium of the Cross. He illustrated the way a Christian is supposed to love. I liked the picture. It illustrates how God's love conquers the World. From a heart burning with love on the Cross Mary was consecrated Our Mother and the Church was born. It was also by sharing in this Eucharistic heart through centuries that men and women have become generals in the great armies of God. Some of us are part of their holy orders and movements and try to follow their steps toward the house of perfect love: the House of the Father.

But we are not always the Christians we are called to be. In the Word of Life for this month, Chira Lubich, founder of the Focolare Movement gives us an advice:

“Pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience and
gentleness.”

The experience lived out by the initial group of young women who
gave life to the Focolare Movement in Trent, back in 1944, provides us with an
insight into how we can live this Word of Life, especially the part about “love,
patience, and gentleness.”It was not always easy to live the radicality of love,
especially at the beginning. Even among ourselves, in our relationships with
each other, sometimes some dust would settle in and our unity would become less
strong. This happened, for example, when we looked at the defects and faults of
the others and we judged them, for then the current of love among us turned
cold. In order to remedy this situation, one day we thought of making a
pact together and we called it “the pact of mercy.” Every morning we made a
decision to look at all the neighbors that we would meet that day—in the
focolare, at school, at work, and other places—as if they were new, totally new,
no longer remembering their defects at all and covering everything with love.
This meant approaching each person with this total amnesty in our hearts, with
this universal forgiveness. It was a demanding commitment and all of us
took it on together. It helped us to be—as far as possible—the first to love
always, to live in imitation of our merciful God, who forgives and forgets.

by Chiara Lubich

“Let us… persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus” (Heb 12:1-2).

Word of life for the month of August 2007 by the Focolare movement

By
Fabio Ciardi and Gabriella Fallacara

The life of Christians, to whom the
letter to the Hebrews is addressed, is often marked by trials and sufferings. At
times we are tempted to become discouraged and say, “Why not choose an easier
way? Why not give up?” The author of this writing invites us, instead, to
continue on the road we have undertaken: it is difficult and costly, but it is
the way of the Gospel and that way leads to fullness of life. In fact, he urges
Christians to run and to stay on course even when they feel the weight of
suffering. We who decide to follow Jesus must do as every athlete does—in order
to reach the goal, we need to have perseverance, that is, stamina, the capacity
to stay the course, which comes from the conviction that God is with us and from
our determination to make it. Above all, we are asked to keep our eyes focused
on Jesus, who forged the way for us and is our guide. Jesus on the cross,
especially when he felt abandoned by the Father, is the model of courage, of
perseverance, of endurance: he remained steadfast when he was tested and he even
abandoned himself into the hands of that God whom he felt had abandoned him (see
Lk 23:46; Mk 15:34).

Continue with the
rest of the message...

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