Every neighbour is a gift

I found this explanation of the communitarian spirituality, which in a simple way shows how my neighbour is indispensable for my life. I not alone in my journey to God! He is with me in my neighbour!

In the individual spiritualities it is like being in a magnificent garden looking with admiration at a single flower, the presence of God within. In a collective spirituality we love and admire all the flowers in the garden, every presence of Christ in others. And we love in others as we love him within ourselves.

Since communitarian life must be fully personal as well, it is our general experience when we are alone that, after loving our brothers and sisters, we become aware of our union with God. We may, in fact, pick up a book to meditate , only to find that he wants to speak within us.

So, it can be said that when we go to our brothers and sisters in the right way, by loving as the gospel teaches, we become more Christ, more truly human.

And since we try to be united with our brothers and sisters, in addition to silence we have a special love for the word, as means of communication. We speak in order to become one with others.

We speak in the Movement, in order to share our experiences of living the word or of our own spiritual life, aware that the fire that does not grow is extinguished and that this communion of soul has great spiritual value (…).we speak at major gatherings in order to keep alive the fire of God’s love in everyone.

When we do not speak, we write: we write letters, articles, books, diaries to advance the kingdom of Godin our hearts. We use all the modern means of communication. And we dress like everyone else to avoid a sense of separateness from others.

In the Movement we also practise those mortifications that are indispensable for every Christian life. We do penance as recommended by the Church, but we have special regard for those penances that a life of unity with others entails.

That is not easy, for the “old self”, as Paul calls it, “is always ready to find its way back into us.

Fraternal unity is not established once for all; it must be renewed continually.  When there is unity and through it Jesus in our midst, we experience great joy, as promised by Jesus in his prayer for unity. When unity compromised, the shadows and confusion return and we live in a kind of purgatory. That is the kind of penance we must be ready to practise.