“Let us help one another to keep in love”

 (…) That Sunday of January 7, 1945 was a day of meeting with Chiara at the “Collegetto”, the seminar of the Capuchin friars. Father Casimiro, who was the director of the Franciscan Third Order, began the meeting with beautiful words.

Then when Chiara started, we girls all huddled in a group around her. She talked about simple things.

She spoke of love. It was as if, in my heart, I was always expecting those words.

'We look at the perpetual motion of the stars in the sky” – she said amongst other things – “if they stop, it would be a disaster”.

So we too must remain in love, never stop.

If we remain in love, we are always living.”(…)

How easy it is to stop loving our neighbour by simply stopping at a different way of thinking, of doing things! We are all different and often we take that difference as a barrier rather than enrichment. The eyes of love will look at everything as a gift. God is love and so everything he does, he creates is love. The person next to me in the present moment is his love for me, the situations I find myself in now in this present moment is his love for me! There isn't anything that is not God’s love for me. And if I find it difficult to believe, I am not alone, if I communicate I am not alone on this road. 

A game of love

“Carry the other’s burdens”

I came across this little reflection:

[...] But what happens if we act like this?

Such was the case, noting the great problems in many parts of the developing world, which were in the clutches of misery, lack of housing, clothing, employment, etc. We understood that we could not expect that these people think, for example, to create a culture or will rise in the spirit of prayer.

First you must make sure that they are freed from the weight of poverty that crushes them, then you can also think about everything that concerns the life of the human person:  education, the whole of a person’s development, etc.

The same thing happens with individuals when we love them by “making ourselves one” putting ourselves into their shoes! First we remove what occupies their heart and which can be a cause of anxiety. Then they sense we will take on what weighs them down, and feel free. [...]

But in order to have such love I have to be completely free, free from myself and my own little world. Yesterday I was asked by a group of confirmation candidates how I know that God loves me and it struck me that with my intellect I might not actually get there to explain this, because it is actually a mystery! And does it matter? Is not the most important thing that God loves me rather than why he loves me? God is love and the nature of his love to give everything of himself that is in order to become like us he gives his divine nature to become human! Visible sign for this is Jesus on the Cross, son of God, God, become man! I am very attracted by the notion of being nothing out of love. Where there is something however small, there can’t be anything else! Where there is me or even a small part of me, God can’t be there!

I wrote to the Bright Lights Core Group, proposing to invite non-catholic speakers for workshops in occasion of the World Youth Day. I think it is important, but now I have to give it to God, forget about it, lose it out of love so that it is not me who wants it but God. It is really a game of love, a game to discover God's plan. And that we can only do together. 

Love your enemies

This really is a powerful thing to say! This really is something that completely overturns our way of thinking, making us switch direction in our lives!

Let's face it. We all have some enemies of one kind or another. My enemy may be next door, in that unpleasant, meddlesome woman I try to avoid meeting in the lift... My enemy could be that relative who mistreated my father thirty years ago and who I've not spoken to since... It could be that classmate you've refused to look at ever since he got you into trouble with the teacher... It could be the girlfriend who dropped you to go out with someone else... It could be the salesman who cheated you... Our enemies are those in politics who don't see things as we do.... Just as there are those, and they always exist, who see the clergy as enemies and hate the Church.

Well then, all of these, and many, many others we call enemies, are to be loved.

Loved?

Yes. They are to be loved! And don't think it's enough merely to change the feeling of hatred into something kinder. We have to do much more than that.

Listen to what Jesus says: 

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 

Do you see? Jesus wants us to overcome evil with good. He wants a love that is turned into action.

We find ourselves asking: why does Jesus give such a command?

The fact is he wants to model our conduct on that of God, his Father, who 'makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous'. (Matt. 5:45)

This is the point. We are not alone in the world: we have a Father and we should be like him. Not only this, but God has the right to make such a demand because while we were his enemies, while we were still in darkness, he first loved us by sending us his Son who died in such a terrible way for each one of us.

Elizabeth, a young girl from Florence, was climbing the steps of a church to go to Mass when a group of youngsters her own age started to make fun of her! It really upset her. She wanted to react, but instead she smiled, went into church and prayed very much for them. As she was leaving, they came up and asked her why she had behaved like that. She explained that she was a Christian and so she had to love all the time. She said this with great conviction. Her witness bore fruit. When she got to church next Sunday the very same group was sitting attentively in the first pew.

This is how children take God's word seriously. This is why they are big in his eyes.

Perhaps we too should take steps to remedy certain situations in our own lives, all the more so since we will be judged by the way we judge others. We are the ones who give God the measure by which he will measure us. (See Matt. 7:2) Don't we often pray, 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us'? So let's love our enemies! Only by doing this can we heal disunity, break down barriers and build the Christian community.

Is it difficult? Painful? Does the mere thought of it keep us awake at night? Take courage. It is not the end of the world after all. It takes just a little effort on our part, and then God will do the remaining ninety-nine percent... and in our hearts there will be a flood of joy.                                                                                                                                                                    

“Have an heroic love”

How should our love be so that it is in accordance with what Jesus demands from us?

We know a love that has death as a measure: to be willing to die for the other, for each neighbour.

A heroic love then: nothing less.

This is love: "... as I have loved you."

It is in this kind of love, conceived and lived in this way,

that we find a way to sanctify us in life.

It sounds dramatic and often we are not asked to give our lives every time, but it is the measure of loving my neighbour! Why? Because in every neighbour I can see Jesus, because every person that passes me by in the present moment is a gift for me, an expression of God’s love for me! If I want to love my neighbour the way God loves me, I have to be willing to give my life as he gave his life on the cross! 

Give joy and rejoice always

“Give joy”

I came across this reflection by Chiara Lubich, which struck me today:

                                                                                                      

These words of encouragement are found at the end of the first letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 5:16).. The invitation to be joyful often recurs in St. Paul's letters. It is one of the themes of his preaching. When writing to the Philippians he says: 'Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice' (Phil. 4:4).

There is no doubt that for St. Paul joy is one of the most beautiful expressions of Christian life. One could say it is the most distinctive mark of the Christian life and that it is also the most effective means to witness it. Nothing impresses and attracts people more than someone who is truly joyful.

At first view what is striking is the form of invitation or rather command that the Apostle uses. We might ask, 'can you command someone to be joyful?' Besides we know that life is full of problems and worries, which don't exactly help us to be always joyful. You can encourage a person to accept what happens in good spirit... but joy is something different. Joy is a feeling that springs spontaneously from the soul.

Yet for St. Paul there is reason we should always be joyful, despite all the difficulties. It is a consequence of taking the Christian life seriously. Through this life Jesus lives fully within us and with him we are bound to be joyful.

Jesus is the source of true joy, because he gives meaning to our life; he guides us with his light, frees us from every fear both regarding the past and also what is still to come; Jesus gives us the strength to overcome all the difficulties, temptations and trials that we may meet.

There is a secret to always being joyful. It is to concentrate on Jesus, so that he may always shine out on us.

We know the path to take. Jesus lives in us if we try to put his word into practice, in particular if we love him in each brother and sister, ready to give our life for each person, as he did.

If then our brother and sister loves Jesus in us, then our joy will be full (cf. Jn. 15, 11) because Jesus will shine in our midst too.

Let us build peace

Let us live this motto today starting to bring peace to our homes, in offices, in Parliaments, wherever we are... and be true builders of peace

[...] But what does this programme mean?

It means to work to get to know each other to discover the positive in every one, it means listen to and understand each other.

It means to look at one another with love, by covering with mercy any past mistakes,

accept ourselves and each other to build a common foundation of respect, esteem and mutual trust.

For this we should " exercise"  more and more in loving one another together with many other people so that we grow in that love that does not look to itself,

that does not want its own interest, that knows how to overcome every obstacle set up by traditional differences;

a love that is stronger than anything else.

It will be a complete reversal of mindset, but it is necessary. (...)

Yes it is a going against the current, standing out, not necessarily going with the crowd. But if we communicate our experience in doing this, if we do not “go it alone”, that reality of love, that presence of God amongst us will grow and we will find that it is God himself who will intervene transforming us into true gifts of love for on another. He who is love will be there with us and amongst us! 

Do not look at the “speck” in another’s eye

“‘Then, there were the difficulties caused by our own imperfections that each one had and with one another, so we decided not to see one another with human eyes, which only notice the speck in the other, forgetting the plank in their own, but those eyes that forgive all and forget all. We felt we had to forgive each other, imitating merciful God, so we made between us a sort of pact of mercy: that is to get up each morning and see one another as ‘new’, as if those ‘defects’ never existed. as ‘new’, as if those ‘defects’ never existed.”

There is a completely different way of considering my neighbour, which for me is a real revolution and challenge. If I consider that all God creates he does out of love, because his very nature is love, I have to look at my neighbour as God’s love for me! How can God’s love have defects? Looking at all that surrounds us with the eyes of God’s love changes my life, because I am no longer looking at the world around me with my eyes but with those who created the world!

Embrace the sufferings of our neighbour

“Being one with our neighbours means to absolutely forget oneself, forever. Never find ourselves again. It was to lose everything, even our own soul, in order to live the sufferings and joys of the others so as to show Jesus our love: to be crucified with Him who is living in our neighbours and to rejoice with Him.

Our neighbours were our convent where our soul always had to gather. Our neighbours were our penance, the mortifications, because our loving them required the total death of our ego...

And we saw that this “entering” in our neighbours brought about their rebirth.

Only love counts. In this way, becoming sin with our sinner  neighbours, error with our errant neighbours, hungry with our hungry neighbours, excommunicated with our excommunicated neighbours, the Life that was in us passed on to them and they loved us in return. They saw the Light again because they felt the love and in the light, hope that removed desperation, and charity towards us and towards everyone. The Spirit of Jesus invaded other members of his Mystical Body.

It was reliving Jesus’ Life. Continuing His Life. He made himself one with us to lead us to the Father, becoming darkness with us who are in the dark in order to give us the light, sin with us sinners , suffering with us who suffer, death with us who are “dead” in order to give us life and make us rise with Him who rose , so that our life is in touch with every neighbour that passes us by.  Making ourselves the neighbours, like Jesus, in order to make them us. To give them the fullness of joy that community life had given us in mutual love.”

Reading this reflection written by Chiara Lubich gives me the measure of what it really means to love my neighbour. It is not just being polite, doing a good turn, be nice. It is rather to love with the same measure that God loves me, still now in this present moment. It is Jesus that I find in each of my neighbours in the present moment and with him a constant opportunity to carry on a conversation that never ends. I live like this what more can I ask for:  A God who out of love for me has become like me! I am not even sure whether I can possibly appreciate what it means for God to become like me! I sometimes wonder whether we who believe, know what treasure we have in our hands!

Recognize the merits of our neighbour

All too often in my experience we tend to home in on the negatives of our neighbor, those things that are different from our way of thinking or doing.  In fact I find myself overlooking the positive contributions and talents each one of us has.

God’s love for us is really always there, if we would only see it in all the people that we come into contact with in each present moment and if we would only see it in everything that happens to us!

All must be loved in the same way, but not in the same manner! As God loves us with the same love, that love is very individual.

Recently I read the following reflection:

"The strength and originality of Christianity lies in the bringing together of the love of God and the love of man. Christianity will never be destroyed as long as there are still people who firmly believe this and witness it with their lives. It is like the salt of the earth".

Moreover, if Christians are not like this, they are like salt without taste, fit only to be thrown away. "Who does not love the brother, that he can see, cannot love God, whom he has never seen," says St. John.

We can give the name love to a variety of things, but true love, the love which God has given to us, and which he recognises as the only authentic love, is indivisible, completely one. If love is real, it goes out to everyone and everything, to God and to man, with an infinite number of expressions, which are substantially the same. If our love is not for everyone it means, that at least for that moment, God's love is not present in our souls.

Conversely, love for man assumes love for God. St John's letter continues, "We can be sure that we love God's children if we love God himself and do what he has commanded us." It is a single reality. St. John is however definitely insisting that those who say they love God should prove it, by loving their brothers in a practical way. "Anyone who says, 'I love God', and hates his brother, is a liar and "who hates his brother, is a murderer."

"Hatred" is a strong word. Perhaps in our daily life the danger is not so much that our love is killed by hatred, but rather that it is stifled by our daily affairs, worries, and routine, or that it becomes frail and withered like a plant without water. Reminding ourselves every day of the words of St. John could prove to be the life-giving water which produces new buds.

In fact, every time that we start again to love our neighbour, it is as if we were taking the gospel seriously for the first time. "We have passed out of death and into life", in the words of St. John. We feel the fullness of life, and union with God, entering us once again.

This is, after all, something unexpected, for love means giving, giving oneself, and in some way depriving ourselves of something for another person. But every time that we give ourselves out of love, we possess love, and every time that we deny ourselves a little for someone else, and it seems that we have lost something, we have in fact, gained, because love has grown in us. Love is our true personality.

We could ask ourselves, "Who, then, is my neighbour?", and Jesus might answer, as he did when a doctor of the law asked him about his "neighbour", with the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Certainly, in this reading from St. John, "brother" means first and foremost another Christian, someone with the same faith. It reminds us what a glorious discovery it was for the first Christians, and what an important reality, which seems to us at times a word without meaning.

In one of St. Peter's letters, he uses the word "brotherhood" twice, when referring to the Christian community, and in many New Testament writings the bond between Christians is called "philadelphia", or brotherly love. Until that time these two words were used only for blood relations, and this fact alone tells us how much the members of the primitive church felt themselves to be a united family. It depends on us to make it like that once again.

Another thing that is stressed in this Word of Life is to love the brother "that we can see". This means in a particular way the person right before us, the person we pass our day with, the person with whom we work, the person we live with, or indeed any person who passes us by, even for a fleeting instant, but who nevertheless is near, and before our eyes. If I do not love that person, just as he or she is, with his or her gifts or defects, I cannot love God who I do not see. This thought alone should lead us to continually convert ourselves and lead us to a committal which can continually renew our lives, far more than any individualistic ascetical practice.

The stress laid on the "brother" close at hand, or the "brother" member of the same church, does not mean that we should lose that universal vision which Paul VI summed up in his now famous phrase, "every man is my brother". If we ask ourselves how our love for all men should be, the answer is that the love of God, brought down into a human heart, is Jesus' love. We have our yardstick in what he said, "... as I have loved you".

 For this reason "brother" for us also means any stranger, with whom we wish to overcome any racial separation or discrimination. Our enemy is, at least in intention, our brother. If I have true love in me, my first desire, even before self-defence, is to be reconciled with him, and to win him back as a brother.

Our dearest brothers are those whom Jesus loved the most-the poor, the needy, the oppressed, the old, children, orphans, the sick, the hungry, sinners, those who have lost their faith, and those who have lost all hope.

Both people in the singular, and peoples, are our brothers. If we have love in us, no problem, be it religious, spiritual, social, economical, or cultural, is alien to us.

It has been said that men can be an obstacle for those who wish to remain united to God. If, however, we remain in love, the opposite happens: every brother that we meet can become a door through which we go to meet God.

Become weak with the weak

For the weak I made myself weak. I made myself all things to all people in order to save some at any cost.

But who are the 'weak'? They are Christians who had a  fragile conscience and not much knowledge and who were easily scandalised. For example, there was the question of whether or not Christians could eat the meat of animals that had been sacrificed to idols. Paul knows that there is only one God and that idols do not exist. Therefore, there is no such thing as meat sacrificed to idols. But the 'weak', who were used to a certain way of reasoning and who had not had much instruction, could think the very opposite and be confused. Paul places himself in the fragile reasoning of these Christians and, so as to avoid troubling their consciences, he considers it best not to eat that meat.

What makes Paul act like this? Although he has the freedom of the Christianity that he announces, he feels the need, indeed the imperative, to make himself the slave of someone, of his brothers and sisters, and of every neighbour, because his model is the crucified Christ.

By becoming man, God drew close to every human being. But on the cross he became one with each one of us sinners, with our weakness, our suffering, our anguish and our ignorance, with our forsakenness, our questions and our burdens...

Paul wants to live in the same way and for this reason he affirms:

For the weak I made myself weak. I made myself all things to all people in order to save some at any cost.

How, then, can we too live this new Word of Life? We know that the purpose of our life and of each day is to reach God. We should not do this alone but with our brothers and sisters. As Christians we have received a call from God similar to Paul's. Like him, we must 'win' someone, we must 'save some at any cost'.

And what is the way? By 'making ourselves one' with our neighbours, whether they are young or old, uneducated or learned, rich or poor, men or women, people from our own country or foreigners. There are the people we meet on the street, the ones we talk to on the phone, those we work for.

We must love everyone. But prefer the weakest ones. To 'make ourselves weak with the weak, to win the weak' going towards those whose faith is frail, who are indifferent, those who say they are atheists, those who pour scorn on religion.

If we make ourselves one with them, we will experience Paul's infallible apostolic method: we will give a witness to God that will fascinate them.

So, I am bold enough to say to you who are reading this: do you have a wife (or husband) who does not love the Church at all, and who enjoys sitting in front of the television for hours and hours? Keep her company, as best you can, as much as you can; taking an interest in all that interests her.

Do you have a son who idolises football and has lost interest in anything else to the point of not knowing how to pray? Become a greater fan than he is. Do you have a girlfriend who loves to travel and to read and learn, but who has cast aside all religious principles? Try to understand her tastes and needs.

Make yourself one, one with everyone, in everything, as much as you can, except in sin. You will see that making yourself one with your neighbours is not time lost but time gained.

One day, in the not too distant future, they will want to know what interests you. And then, gratefully, they will discover, adore and love that God who has prompted your Christian behaviour.

Weep with those who weep

We have learned out of love for God 

to "make ourselves one" with our neighbour through charity, because it is Jesus present in our neighbour

to implement what is written in Scripture: "weep with those who weep, laugh with those who laugh."

We had to make ourselves one with the thoughts of the other, with the trials of the other, with the pain and anxiety, but also the joys and achievements. We got to know the tastes and likes even the smallest and most insignificant ones, provided they were not sin.

Like God, become human for us, and as man was died out of love on the cross, so must be  the measure of our love for our neighbour: to make us one with the other, ready to die for one another: this is the fitness regime of the spiritual life dictated by love. I have to become nothing out of love, give everything out of love for my neighbour. 

The life of the Trinity in Chicago

Take care of our neighbour! I read this experience from Chicago. Why not try it! I find this really inspiring because loving God in my neigbour becomes simple with great consequences. I could call it  the life of the Trinity in Chicago!!

There were 72 block captains, each responsible for one block of North Riverside.  I thought that the block captains should try to make each block like a family, where no one would feel alone. We adapted Chiara Lubich’s points of the art of loving into four points which I called the ‘Art of Caring’. During each captains meeting, I would take one of the points and illustrate it using an experience shared with me by one of the block captains. At first, I had to use stories based on my own family or quotations from famous persons. After a couple of years, however, some of the block captains themselves starting sharing what they had done to live the points of caring.

One of the first experiences shared by a captain was about a new resident of the block whose dogs were left outside barking from early morning until late evening. Instead of complaining to the police, the captain and the neighbours tried to “love their enemies” by reaching out to dog owner, baking cookies for her and even helping her catch her dogs when they escaped the yard. Only then did they approach her with their concerns about how the constant barking was affecting the newborn baby on the block.

Not only did the mayor encourage these individual acts of caring, but he also tried to make the village itself, through the block captains, an active force for caring.  For example, the block captains give welcome bags to new residents. They take interest in people, especially those experiencing personal suffering. They send cards, bring food, listen to people’s troubles. We use our emails to communicate these needs like in a family so we are all aware of who needs help. On a regular basis, some captains even do extra by volunteering to drive people in town to doctors, or shopping for groceries for the homebound.

Just recently, we published our twenty years of experiences, also ideas for helping anyone live the Golden Rule. It was circulated among doctors, social workers, teachers and politicians as well as individuals who want to make a difference in their corner of the world. The art of caring has even been extended by North Riverside to other towns. At one of the town meetings, the publisher of the newsletter stood up and announced, “When I tell people in my town about North Riverside, they say such a town cannot exist. And I say come and see.” 

Let ourselves be guided by God in loving our neighbour

We know how easy it is to confuse our own opinions and desires with the inner voice of the Spirit, how easy it is, therefore, to fall into arbitrariness and subjectivity.

I must never forget that the Reality is within me. I must silence everything within in order to discover the voice of God there. And I need to draw it out as if I were extracting a diamond from the mud: polish it up, highlight it and allow it to guide me. Then I can be a guide for others as well, because this subtle voice of God which urges on and enlightens, this lymph which rises up from the depths of the soul, is wisdom, it is love, and love is meant to be given.

How can we sharpen our supernatural sensitivity and evangelical intuition in order to perceive the suggestions of that voice?

First of all we need to constantly re-evangelize ourselves by becoming more and more familiar with the word of God, reading, meditating, living the Gospel, so that we increasingly acquire a Gospel mentality. We will learn to recognize God’s voice within ourselves in the measure that we get to know it from the lips of Jesus, Word of God become man. And we can ask for this in prayer.

Then we’ll have to allow the risen Lord to live in us, denying ourselves, waging war on our selfishness, on our “old self”, always lying in wait. This means that we must always be ready to say “no” to all that goes against God’s will and to say “yes” to all that he wants; “no” to ourselves in the moment of temptation, cutting short with its suggestions, and “yes” to carrying out what God has entrusted to us; “yes” to loving every neighbour; “yes” to the trials and difficulties we encounter.

Finally, it will be easier to discern the voice of God if we have the risen Lord in our midst that is, if we love one another, creating oases of communion, of brotherhood around us. Jesus in our midst is like the loudspeaker that amplifies the voice of God within each one of us so that we can hear it more clearly. The apostle Paul also teaches that Christian love lived in the community enriches us more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception to discern what is of value.

Our life will then be lived as if between two fires: God in us and God in our midst. In this divine furnace we will be formed and trained in listening to and following Jesus.

Each person is God’s gift,

“To see and love Jesus in my neighbour means to see and love God in my neighbour and more so to see and love my neighbour in God. Only then will I appreciate the depth, the authenticity and the eternity in my neighbour: God. Image and likeness of God, which s/he is and which s/he is called to be in communion with all human beings.” This poor translation from the Italian was written by a friend and struck me deeply, because it is a complete revolution.

·         By simply living Jesus’ new commandment I find myself in direct contact with God, God in my neighbour. Loving my neighbour in the present moment becomes a prayer a constant conversation with God.

·         God is love and all he creates is therefore love, including all my neighbours I meet in each present moment of the day! My love for God is made visible by my love for my neighbour!

·         God loves me through my neighbour! So that’s why Jesus insists on not judging my neighbour, because if I do I am judging God! And that’s definitely not love.

Treasure each person because each person is God’s gift, his expression of love for me and others as I am an expression of God’s love for others. 

Take the initiative and be the first to love

And when we take a point of the spirituality today, we must necessarily go back there, go back to those models and every time say: what does this mean for me today? Today, if there were nothing of what exists now, from where should I start? If they would ask me: “What do you want to do?” Love Jesus in my neighbour, recognize Jesus in my neighbour. This is the starting point of the Ideal, it’s the starting point of the life of the Movement, it’s the starting point of everything, it’s what set everything off, and that gave rise to everything in Chiara.

Back to the beginning in order to understand better what it means for me now! Today’s gospel struck me in the same way. Jesus is asking the apostles to follow him. They do without question. There is no “give me a minute” or “let me do this or that”. I imagine lives would be as busy then as now, perhaps with other things.

I am struck by the fact that if I only look at the things I can be aware of with my senses, I will miss one important aspect of my life, the divine dimension, the very essence I was created for: to love, to be love for my neighbour, because that’s what I am created for.

If God is Love he creates out of love. All he creates is love and my neighbour, created by God is his love for me! What a marvel and what a gift. Not only, if God is our Father, we are all brothers and sisters, equal without exception. Already this morning I had lot’s of gifts though people I met.

Back to the starting point then: Take the initiative and be the first to love as God is always the first to love us! 

The present

In a talk by Emmaus I came across an episode of a Father of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Anba Bishoy, of whom is said that he always saw Jesus and spoke with Him.  

Once his disciples said: “But why only to you? Why don’t you ask Jesus to speak with us too? Why don’t you ask Jesus to meet us as well at least once?”

                So he said. “I’ll ask Him.” He asked Jesus and Jesus replied: “All right, on such and such a day at such and such a time I’ll meet your disciples.” Naturally Anba Bishoy told his disciples: “Look, Jesus accepted this meeting, therefore on such and such a day and at such and such a time….” You can imagine everyone’s excitement; everyone had to go to that precise place. Everyone looked for the most beautiful dress, prepared themselves as best as possible for the meeting with Jesus. And they started walking to go and meet Jesus.

                Along the way there was an old man who started asking the first person: “Take me with you, I’m tired, can you help me?” And this person said: “In this moment I’m in too much of a hurry, you’ll see there’ll be someone else.” And away he went.

                “Will you take me with you?” Everyone had the good excuse that they were busy, because they had to rush immediately because Jesus was waiting for them and they didn’t stop.

                The last person who passed by was Anba Bishoy, who had compassion for this old man, he placed him on his shoulders and went on his way. And the only one who met Jesus was Anba Bishoy and all the others had lost the opportunity.

I like this story, because it very much points me to live the present moment, and to love in the present moment! The only thing I have is the present: My life is now, and not yesterday or tomorrow. All that  remains for me is to give my all in the present moment.  

Nothing is too small if done out of love

Today's link up was quite moving. Going through the various items it struck me how much love there is in the world! We are building a new world, a new way of life in the way God wants it! There isn't a place where nothing good is happening!

I am living him and he is living me!

How can I not love my neighbour, if God loves me so much!! Yesterday morning on the way to the hospital my lack of patience was added to my lack of love for my brother! But even in that pain that I can find God’s love too!

God is loveand anyone who lives in love lives in God,and God lives in him.

God lives in me and in my neighbour! I am increasingly aware of the enormity of God’s love for me, just by contemplating Jesus on the Cross! He not only gave his life for me, he became like me, a created being subject to time and space, who ultimately felt totally abandoned by his father. He loved giving all of himself to the extent of being nothing, nothingness out of love! For us it is perhaps difficult to get our heads round that, but it is an amazing measure of God’s love for us, if one considers the difference between God and us, his creation!

God has given us eternal lifeand this life is in his Son;anyone who has the Son has life,anyone who does not have the Son does not have life.

The more I am united with Jesus by loving my neighbour in the way he does, I have his life! I am living in him and he in me, or better: I am living him and he is living me! 

Do we know the treasure we hold in our hands every day?

My dear people,

let us love one another

since love comes from God

and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.

Anyone who fails to love can never have known God,

because God is love.

These are the readings for today. God is love and looking at the way he loves me, us every moment of my life I have a perfect example. 

1. God loved us first and he is always the one who loves us first. So, my first love has to be Him. But he also told me how to love him when he said: love one another as I have loved you. I have given my life for you on the cross, so are you ready to love one another laying down your life for one another? If I want to love with His love I have to be the first to love 

a. God in my neighbour in the present moment. Take the initiative and go towards the other, without waiting to be approached.  b. With a love that gives everything! Suddenly life becomes quite different because God is never outdone in love! 

2. God loves everybody! There is no exclusion and his love is universal. Not only that, he has created us from all eternity out of love and he has created each one of us a gift of love for one another. So, every person I meet today is God’s love for me! Everything that happens to me is God’s love for me, because I God is love he cannot but love. It is in his nature! 

It is such a great gift to be loved in every moment by God without any conditions. I am loved simply because I am who I am! Do we know the treasure we hold in our hands every day?

A privilege

This morning I woke up with a profound sense of frustration. I had a very good night’s sleep, perhaps the longest since the second operation! I had the strongest headache yet and… a sore throat! It was clear to me that I did too much yesterday and will need some rest today. But not only that, I was conscious of the fact that I so much depended on others for all kinds of things! Things I would have done very simply and quickly would take a long time! My “old man” as St Paul would say doesn’t help either in the process! Then I remember: ‘Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” ’ Jesus, because you are on the Cross, I offer you this suffering as a gift of love! It is still painful, but it is love, your love!

Then I come across the following writing from St Francis:

“You must consider as grace all that impedes you from loving God and whoever becomes an impediment to you, whether brothers or others, even if they lay hands on you. And may you want it to be this way and not otherwise. And let this be for you the true obedience of the Lord God, (…) and love those who do those things to you and do not wish anything different from them unless it is something the Lord God shall have given you. And love them in this and do not wish them to be better Christians.

Can Jesus respond to my frustration this morning any better than this? Everything is God’s love for me! Without the pain this morning I would not have had the gift of understanding his love. Without the moment to reflect I would not have the opportunity to start again, to love to be nothing, to be in God’s hands, not to tick a box of one kind or another, but to love! Is this not the communion of Saints? Loving one another we truly link heaven and earth! My neighbour is God’s love for me, always, because from eternity that gift of love has been created for me! What a privilege! 

I am living in a true community!

‘Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” ’

How can I go to God if not through my neighbour, the person he has put next to me in the present moment? I – my neighbour – God, which is quite a challenge! Traditionally it is easy for me to retire to my room and pray. I can go to Church and fulfil my obligations and it is between me and God. I might even think I am doing all that is expected of me and in the evening I get a kind of “feel good” factor, when everything seems ok with the world and with God.

Then I came across this word and suddenly all is put in question, because it is no longer following what I would think to be true.  God is present in my brother and sister! That makes a huge difference! “Anyone who says 'I love God' and hates his brother, is a liar, since whoever does not love the brother whom he can see cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (Jn 4,20) God is present in each neighbour! As I was struggling this morning with the mystery of my lost glasses I realized how quickly I could obsessed by this at the expense of loving my neighbour who just got up. So, what it is more important to forget about my glasses and greet the other! Choosing to love in the present as Jesus did on the Cross, by going beyond the pain of the lost glasses there was peace amongst us! When looking for the glasses I noticed my room could do with good clean. Hovering and cleaning the room the glasses turned up. God always find ways of doing things well. Thus, he gave me an opportunity to clean and air my room whilst finding my glasses under my bed.

I go to God together with others and in loving one another He himself is there! So I am already living the life of God, of the Trinity, of Paradise! Together with my neighbour I see the world with the eyes of its loving creator in our midst! I will discover a totally different dimension, a divine dimension, in which all things are created out of love for each other! So, today when I received some visitors, it was my brothers who helped me to keep track of time. It is then I understood that it was God’s will to let the visitors go. Had I not listened I would not have been able to speak to a dear friend from Italy and I would not have been able to see two friends from Scotland. I want to be open to the other in the present moment, because s/he is God’s love for me in that moment! Isn't it marvellous to know that that God loves each one of us in each moment in a new way? So, all that is left for me to do to love him in every person I meet, knowing he is there!! This travelling together, being open to each other suddenly creates a community because at is root is the life of the Trinity! What a joy! I am living in  a true community!

Sharing the journey

As I am getting better I tend to forget that I'm still seriously ill and need to be calm and patient! Yet again I am amazed how short my memory can be! God, I think I can just about understand the patience you must have with the likes of me. Just because I had a few good nights’ sleep I think I can run a marathon. I really need to concentrate on doing what God wants, not what I think is right or convenient. That’s why I am so grateful for my neighbour, who gives me the light to understand what you want.

The more I go ahead on this journey, the more I two fundamental aspects of my relationship with God:

a)     His love for humanity and each one of us is endless and without precedent.  There no greater love! The drama of it all is that I suspect we are not at all aware of the enormity of his love for us! He has given us his life, a communitarian way to go to him, a new way of looking at many things.

b)    In order to have a glimpse of the way God love us I need to go with him on the Cross taking with me the sufferings and pains, but also the joys and gifts as my “present” for him. There I gain a completely different perspective of the life, because God allows me to see things from his perspective, which is love.  

 I want to explore the notion of the communitarian spirituality because it is such an inspiration, a new way of looking at it and most of all I want to look at it from my experience of trying to live this spirituality in the context of the Focolare community, by way of sharing my own journey towards God. 

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!

I realised that I am much more ready to accept anything as God’s gift if it is something positive, ie if I am well or if I had nice present, I am healthy and feeling good, I see that things are going right for me. Then God loves me and the world is ok. When things are not going so well, when I don’t understand what’s happening or have no control over what might be happening I start praying like mad asking God for this and that. Also I note that all of a sudden my life of prayer is more consistent I might go to mass in a more attentive manner. I wonder how much this sound familiar. 

My experience over the past few months has been different from previous one. I soon realised that everything that happens to me is an expression of God’s love for me, including the brain tumour! And when I look at it from that viewpoint there have been lots of fruits:

1. My relationship with God has grown and I am learning to love him without expecting anything in return giving everything to him, my life, my all in order to do his will. 

2. Like Jesus on the Cross has given everything to the point of being nothing out of love for Him, so I must stay in this divine dimension, giving without looking to receive, being totally in donation!

3. Suffering and love in God are the same reality: They are both love and Jesus on the Cross transforms suffering into love by going beyond the wounds to continue to love the other in the present. 

4. In my relationship with Jesus he wants me to become more like him! So gradually he removes my abilities, or better he gives me an opportunity to give them as a gift of love. I realise that before I was very active, now I can hardly move, before I was quick and busy, now I am slow and deliberate. 

5. As the illness progresses life becomes simpler because the only thing that remains is God. So, I live more and more in that dimension. 

But whilst that may sound ok it is some time very hard to live because it is very real. The limitations and frustrations resulting from being limited are God’s love for me, even if I kick off in frustration against them! It is a real journey with its trials and every morning I have to offer the day to God as gift of love. I have to stay in the divine dimension in order to be love and do his will not mine. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!