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

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone.

I have just come from Holy Mass. At the end of the Mass we sang the beautiful song "Let there be peace on Earth, and let it began with me..."
One of the way to be at peace is to be better organized, this is my resolution this year. I always saw it as easy matter but it is not that easy. Well, for me I really need to make myself into a serious habit of setting priorities and sticking to them in everyday activities. A question of improving my time-management skills. But I will need great strength of the spirit. So that means lots of prayers.

On the missionary side of the christian life this have an enormous advantage. It involves listening carefully to God and serving faithfully, and of course producing many fruits for the Kingdom.

Here is a popular story about time management.

Happy New Year everyone and may the Peace of the Lord be with all of us always.

"Let there be Light"

Christmas is already here!!!
The season of love. A time to thing really seriously about others, family and friends. A time to be together. I am still not really ready as I should. I am not even feeling ready to blog even thought I want to very much. And I think I have time since I am not working next week. But again I have many things to do with some friends and phone calls to make all over.

Well, I have been meditating on different ways people are preparing for Christmas. One thing which was very interesting was listening to different local stations at work. It is amazing how we have lost the sense of Christmas. I am really blessed to have found a good christian radio to listen to for the past few months and especially this Christmas season. The following videos are illustrations of the songs that were mostly prayed on different stations (I picked three here: Praise106.5, 103.5QMFM, and The Beat 94.5). This stations are really like a two extremes and the middle one in function of what is more religious or more secular.

The song were sung mostly on Friday on the corresponding station. I should indicate that I have arranged the stations from less popular to most popular


Praise 106.5FM.

This is my favorite

Great song and interesting illustration made by someone on youtube.

103.5QM FM (2)

You may not believe it but the following song prayed about five times before noon (that is in five hours: 0700-1200) on The Beat 94.5 FM, I really wondered what going on in the minds and hearts who are asking for it at this Christmas time.

The Child that is born for us is the Light of the world. He teaches us to forgives always, because our Father forgive us always. No one should feel that it is too late to forgive or to be forgiven or to apologize. How far have we gone from Christ!!!

As you came down you have notice that many people seem to be having a depressed Christmas. Too sad. We seem to be at the point of worshiping the creature instead of the Creator. And when our god crash us down we go depressed. Let's focus our attention on the child of God. The real object of our admiration and adoration. The one we should worship and look at for forgiveness and peace in our hearts. The Light that came to us to shine in our darkness, and let's try to make this season a season of love. Joseph and Mary had all reason to be depressed considering that everyone had turned them away to the point of having no other option than the manger. But still they had great reason to rejoice. They had nothing but they had God with him. And all angels, stars and other creatures were around to celebrate. Let's pray for each other so that the command of God may be done in our hearts. That the Light of the world may come in us, incarnate in our heart and pierce all darkness.

"Mary did you know?!"

Wow, quite a long time since the last time I posted here!
I have been busy and lazy... but today I thought I would post in honour of our Lord and his Mother as we are between the feast of Christ the King and the Advent.

I like this video. It contains such powerful words of the Incarnation mysteries. Let's enter into a deep meditation as we think about each word in the song.



The little baby is the great 'I Am'!
I have been thinking of a post about how God is powerful in is apparent weakness... I guess that's what I will talk about in the next post.

Schoenstatt Vancouver is mourning!

Schoenstatt Vancouver is mourning!

Few weeks ago, I asked for prayers for a Srilankan lady who is a member of Schoenstatt. Her son is the coordinator of Schoenstatt Rosary Campaign here in Vancouver. She had been hospitalized for about two months and passed away yesterday. We believe it to be a particular blessing since yesterday is Friday and a special day for the Church and all souls. I was at the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament yesterday and we had a Mass afterwards. The priest made a special prayer in a way that I thought he was particularly praying for her. All these are signs from our MTA to console us and tell us that she was with her. It is a great consolation since both the children (my friend here in Vancouver and his sister in Wisconsin are new immigrants) of the diseased are abroad and could not make it to Srilanka because of Green Card and Visa problems.

So thanks to all who prayed. We know that God always answers our prayers. He just doesn't always give us the expected answer. But He give the best for us. And we are thankful for the consolations received.

Happy Covenant Day to Schoenstatters

Today Schoenstatt celebrates Covenant Day. Many schoenstatters remembers their covenant of love in a special way. I have been reading the CCC recently and meditating on some readings: I/we believe, the ten commandments, and others. I was a little troubled to found out how little I knew about the commandments and the Profession of Faith. But when I am reading it I have at the same time a happy feeling of doing something great for my soul/spiritual life. I had neglected it for a long time simply because I thought it was for converts, you know people who never read it (thought is was not much different form the kids one) before.

I remember how I hated to have low marks in my quiz and exams at school. When I was studying I used to tremble at the idea of not having studied enough. I think our Mother used to give me some hint about spiritual readings as well. This is what the fear of the Lord is also about. Fear of failing the quiz of daily life and the great exam of our lives. I used to console myself by the fact that I was occasionally listening to EWTN, reading some spiritual writings. But reading the Catechism is really instructing to oneself. If feels like studying for ones life.

The CCC is the basic, in fact I think before reading the Bible one should read the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This would really avoid so many mistakes people makes in interpreting the Bible. The CCC is so well and simply organized that we see the entire Christian Faith as simple as the Creed and the two great commandments. Everything to me now seem to be in there well explained in great details and at everyone satisfaction.

Well, I am sure from today the new 'schoenstatt year' will be different. My contribution to the capital of grace will have a new perfume thanks to our MTA. Here in Vancouver our work schedules are creating conflict at the point of almost preventing us to celebrate this precious day for us. So all schoenstatters united in the covenant pray for us. And to all my schoenstatt brothers and sisters. Happy Covenant Day!

Thanks for those who prayed for the last intentions I posted. Half the people we prayed for are doing fine. The schoenstatter grandma's conditions remain unchanged, and I haven't had about the little boy yet.

In all cases. Blessed be the Lord! We know he has everything under his loving care; not a hair of our head falls down without his permission. And he would never allow any bad thing to happen unless he can get a greater good out of it.


Under and with our Mother Thrice Admirable in the covenant of love let BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD.

I have been very busy lately...I looks like I will be posting less for a while...

Edited Oct 21 2007-