A real gift

Whenever I make a broadcast like this one, I’m acutely aware of the gap between what I’m seeing here and what you’re looking at, at home.  You see me now sitting quietly in my study. What I’m seeing is a small crowd of wonderfully expert and efficient technicians doing the filming, meticulously checking the pictures and the sound.  What we see happening is only a small part of what’s going on in order to make it happen.

I read the last broadcast
(http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/2777/archbishop-appreciate-the-silent-conspiracy-of-generous-dedication) of Dr Rowan Williams and it struck me quite profoundly in many ways. He points to a fundamental human condition of being limited by time and space which lead me to reflect that I on my own I cannot have a complete picture of the reality around me as God sees it. Below is the link to the full text. Thinking of being love for my neighbour I realise that I need to be in God and I need to live in communion with my neighbour, both of which Dr Williams is! 

It is amazing how quickly I make judgements based on incomplete information! Is this love and is this the love with which God love me? Are time and space the only dimensions in my life? Below he gives the answer that come from a deep relationship with God. 

And as we think about this silent groundswell, perhaps our minds can begin to open up to the deepest secret of all – the trust that the entire universe is held together by the quiet, unfailing generosity of God.  What we see and grasp isn’t the whole story – but just occasionally we can get a glimpse.  I hope there will be lots of joyful glimpses like that for you in the year ahead.

Yes we can see a glimpse of the dimension of God’s life, his love for us, if we are that reality, ie if I am ready to love my neighbour without expecting anything in return, giving all I have in the present moment and thereby being always in relationship with God! But it all encourages me to live evermore in communion with my neighbour, because in giving, out of love I can not only glimpse the reality, but together we can be that divine reality. I was quite moved by the broadcast, because it gives the true vision, which includes the way God sees things! What seems a contradiction suddenly shows me the way to being more complete in my vision and in that Dr Williams has been a real gift! 

If I love with God’s love, that love is eternal! What an opportunity!

I read this month’s Word of life (http://www.focolare.org.uk/word-of-life.html), and was quite struck by the gospel. It is amazing how quickly I can fall into a sort of mediocrity, being quite content and stopping at the means to love God rather than to love him.  

Jesus wants love, and mercy is one of its expressions.

He wants Christians to live like this, above all else because God is like this.

In Jesus’ eyes, God is, in first place, the Merciful One, the Father who loves everyone and who makes the sun rise and rain fall on the good and the bad.

Because Jesus loves everyone, he is not afraid of associating with sinners, and in this way he reveals to us who God is.

If God, then, is like this, if Jesus is like this, you too must have the same feelings.

I noticed that it is very easy to slip into the formal “bits” as a matter of routine, a habit without thinking. So, I say my prayers thinking of something else, perhaps even as quickly as possible. I go to mass hoping it will be short, I say to my brother or sister: Let’s love one another so that Jesus can be present amongst us as a solution to any conflict! Sometimes I have the impressions that my way of praying, of using the means God has given me to spend time with him is more of an inconvenience for me that I have to get through in order to do other things. And yet the most import thing is to love with the love God loves me, us, that is a universal love. 

Do not discriminate between the people you are in touch with, do not treat anyone as less important, but offer everyone as much as you can give, imitating God the Father. Patch up minor or major disagreements which are displeasing to heaven and bring bitterness to your life. As Scripture says, do not let the sun set on your anger with anyone (see Eph. 4:26).

How easy it is to fall into an exclusive love, without intending it: I spend time with someone more than someone else because I like them, because s/he belongs to my community of the focolare, because s/he belongs to the same Church, because, I feel understood, because… I understood that God’s love is universal because in loving he gives all of himself, without reserve! My love is limited in time and space and I need to enlarge my heart to that of the heart of Jesus, throwing over board the artificial categories that I have within me as a creature subject to time and space. Only in unity with my brothers and sisters can I enter into the divine dimension of God’s love which allows me to overcome my limited categories. I remember that Jesus did not say: that all believers, all Christians, or in my case all Catholics, may be one. He did say: That all may be one!

If you behave like this, all you do will be pleasing to God and will remain in eternity. Whether you are working or resting, whether you are playing or studying, whether you are with your children or going for a walk with your wife or husband, whether you are praying or making sacrifices, or fulfilling the religious practices of your Christian vocation, everything, everything, everything is raw material for the kingdom of heaven.

 

Paradise is a house we build here and dwell in there. And we build it with love.

So do I have to worry about following the rules, if I don’t have love for my neighbour? Everything I do should be an expression of love for my neighbour, any neighbour in the present moment, a love which is the raw material for the kingdom of heaven! So I follow the rules, if they are an expression of my love for my neighbour! And the incredible gift of love of God is that his love in me remains for all eternity! If I love with God’s love, that love is eternal! What an opportunity!

All past as a Gift of love for Jesus on the Cross

Today is the last day of the year and what a year it has been! I would never have thought that God would love me in such a unique way! On the face of it one can thinks it is all rather unfortunate given the illness. On the other hand if it was not for the tumour I am not sure whether I would have had the graces to be so close to him and to understand his love for me. Yes, all that happens to me is God’s love for me: Today I have to ask my companions for forgiveness, because when I got up I lost my patience, most of all with God. Inside I was fed up being ill, suffering yet another recurrence of the cold, being tired after a good night’s sleep, and not improving in getting stronger. My worries about regaining my strength for what might come was more important that loving God in my brother! The life I had given to God as gift of my love for him, that gift I had taken back and suddenly everything became dark, small without life, because everything became just me! I am confused. But the returning to live in communion with the others the subtle voice of love inside is amplified through the love of the others. What a nice voice which is so clear and brings peace. But the most amazing thing is that even in that apparent failure there is God’s love! Because Jesus died on the Cross he transformed pain and suffering into love. Where I see suffering and joy God sees love in both. I can begin again now in this present moment and every moment because God never ceases to love me. What a wonderful gift to receive, because it means that all those moments of pain and suffering in the past year I can fill with one act of love  making a parcel of all those things and give them as  a gift to Jesus on the Cross. My year becomes his and it is a year full of the God’s love for us. Today I dedicate to giving all my past year to Jesus on the Cross as a gift of love.  

Why should you, a God love me, a created being, so much to die for me?

Today, being the feast of the Holy Family, I realised how much I owe my natural and spiritual family to be the person I am. My natural family has been a real gift, with both my parents giving me all the love I needed, but also all the love to understand and start my relationship with God. Both were God’s love for me, my brother and sister. For all the adventures we went through I was fortunate enough to learn that there is no joy without pain. Both parents in their own individual way had a relationship with God which showed in their relationship with their children! 

The inevitable had to happen for me: to meet my spiritual family, the Focolare Movement, living a communitarian spirituality! A different kind of family which in 1974 was the start of a journey together with others to God full of gifts, but most of all full of love. God loves me immensely and he always has even before I was born, and he always will. Love call for love in return and in order to love him back I wanted to dedicate my whole life to him! I wanted to love him in those moments when was least loved, least attractive; least considered and so together with others I gave my life, consecrated my life, to Jesus forsaken on the Cross! I thought if I love him in his most desperate moment at least he is not so lonely. A journey began, a Holy Journey, that is still taking me to totally unexpected places.  I have received so many graces and gifts because God is never outdone in loving others. Jesus on the Cross is Jesus who is one with the Father, who is Love, a love which gives itself totally, so totally that it is no longer there because it has given itself completely! Giving my life to him I have received the life of the Trinity! Jesus, I thank you for your love over all these years of starting again, of moments of vacillation, of those moments in which I thought I had worked it all out and go without you, but most of all I thank you for the gift of perseverance, of not letting me give up, but giving me the strength to start again! But as there are moments of suffering and pain, at the same time there moments of joy and light especially when you are present amongst us! All speaks to me of your love for me, even the darkest moment, when I cannot see your love, feel it as love, but I truly believe it because you cannot but love. Here is the greatest mystery: Why should you, a God love me, a created being, so much to die for me? Is there anything greater? So, I will continue to love you in my neighbour as you teach me always! 

To love one one another for a greater communion

Reflecting on the theme of the year (Love your neighbour) that Emmaus presented to the movement I realised how important it is not for me individually but also for us as a family. 

The most important aspect for me is to put love above all else, which can be quite difficult when there are lot’s of things to do and little time to do them in. But then, is that not just an excuse? I discovered that we are very quick to find short cuts  but in this case, there aren't any! There is only the daily exercise to give everything in the present moment out of love for my neighbour. Love always gives and God’s love always give all. I find there where there God’s love there is sharing and communion which is that life of God. Today I dedicate to increase our love for one  another to live in greater communion.

Making God’s love for each one of us visible

How much have I got to love my neighbour: “Love your neighbour as yourself” Jesus says.  It is a tall order! All I do can be love for my neighbour if it is a gift of love in the present. So, if I am on my own I can be ready to give everything without living in my little world. Yesterday for example I started to do the shopping online, order one or two items for the kitchen that needed replacing, carry on sorting out the computers and making a plan for the archives, which is a pretty boring job. All of this done within my new limits in the present moment. I am very conscious how much it is living together with Jesus, who is there in a phone call or an SMS or in person of somebody who comes to the door.  

Jesus taught us really two important things, which in practice I don’t always remember:

1. We have all one Father. He has made us in his image in nature. As he is Love, we are love, made, designed to love one another.  How many times do I stop at external aspect my neighbour presents such as an opinion, an appearance, a behaviour and then categorise, put into boxes what I take as truth just because I have seen it! That is not the love of my Father!

2. Because we all have one Father we are all brothers and sisters. How can I than sit in judgement over my brother or sister, when we are equal? Even more, if God loves me all the time any neighbour that I meet is there as his expression of love for me! How can I say God doesn’t love me, if he surrounds me every day with brothers and sisters, gifts of his love for me? 

I realise that my way to God is loving my neighbour: I – my neighbour – God. We go together to God being not ourselves, but in giving everything out of love for him to be present in us and amongst us. What greater gift can there be! We can live with Him all the time! It is this love that changes relationships, that comes above anything, but excludes nothing! And if I don’t “manage”, that is also his love for me, because God cannot cease loving! I am immersed in his love and it seems to me that all that happens to me is his love urging me to love him in return in the person he puts next to me! God’s love for each one becomes visible if I love my neighbour with that same love. Today I dedicate to making God’s love for each one of us visible through loving my neighbour in the present. 

The most mundane act suddenly becomes divine

It is amazing how little I can live with apparent contradictions. First I thought it was a German cultural thing, before I realised it is perhaps part of my condition as human being. I can only deal with one thing at a time. But there is another dimension The life of the Trinity, which is love. God gives himself totally out of love, totally meaning there is nothing left, out of love. If God loves us so completely he commands us to love one another so completely: Love one another as I have loved you! And he has given us the means to be perfect in that love:

a) Our spirituality of communion, ie to live our lives together, to go to God together by sharing what he does in my life, by being open to the love of my neighbour, by really putting myself into the shoes of the other losing my ideas and opinions.
b) We go to God together. I – my brother and sister – God. My neighbour is God’s love for me, warts and all!
c) Jesus on the Cross has shown me what kind of love God is living. I want to live in such a way that I can be at least a little bit of a gift of love for Jesus on the Cross.
d) The ability to have a relationship with him always through prayer, scripture, the Church, nature but most of all through his presence amongst us, when we love one another.
e) The opportunity to always start again should we have missed a moment!
f) The present moment, which is all I have to live.

There are other things to help me to love. The important thing for me is to remember they are all means to increase God’s love for my neighbour. I often find it easier to go through the “list” thinking I have done it all, but the vital ingredient is missing: Love. All I do can be an expression of love in the present which is my only way to live for eternity, because all that is done out of love will remain. God love us immensely and he wants us all to live in that knowledge, as his free sons and daughters knowing that he can be amongst us always. Is there anything greater than for us to live in the presence of God in our daily lives? Everything becomes special, full of his presence if we act, speak and move as an expression of his love for one another! In fact the most mundane act suddenly becomes divine! Today I dedicate to making simple acts divine through God’s love for us. 

What a day it promises to be!

Reflecting a little I asked myself: Can I sit in judgement over what others say or do? What if I am at the receiving end of such judgement? God’s love for me is unconditional and it leaves me free, free also to act against him! This is the measure of love I must strive for and loving my neighbour as God loves me means:

a) To be the first to pass on God’s love to my neighbour in the present. If God loves me unconditionally I can’t keep that love to myself. It will die. 

b) To be in this attitude of love always. Yesterday I read the homily of Arch V Nicholls for Christmas and my first reaction was one of judging what he was saying. It was not love, or the belief that he was trying to love me and all those in entrusted to him by God. Does God see him in that light? Do I love him as God’s gift of love for me? 

c) To give everything without expecting anything in return. Yesterday I was with friends and one of them is games enthusiastic! I am not; I don’t like them anymore! I remembered my initial reaction to the proposal was a judgement: He should let go, listen to others, do something else! Then a second thought: I should let go, give all of my energy to make the thing work, perhaps even make a joke about not liking it but giving without expecting anything in return. I got the hundredfold with the opportunity to be with other people that I normally don’t see very often in such a relaxed atmosphere of deep mutual love! I spent all my physical energy being so tired that I slept all afternoon. But then, having given everything God’s love is never outdone! Gifts continue to arrive from all over:

a. A surprise phone call from Paul, Mary and Mark! It was just a joy to speak with them!
b. A surprise visit from a friend from work.
c. A surprise skype call from a friend.
d. Messages and gifts, through which God keeps telling me how much he loves us and me!

d) To love everybody in the present moment without distinction. My motto for today is “Give to each person I meet warmth, hope and light.” That I can’t do by myself because these come from the love God has for us and for me. 

Another day to be thankful for the gifts of love: for my health, a good night’s sleep, my brothers and sisters, the opportunity to be able to love God in the present moment. Today I dedicate to seeing God’s unique gift of love in each person I meet giving his warmth, hope and light. What a day it promises to be! 

God - Love, the ruby is with us

I saw a hen with a few chicks along the side of a road flanked by a wall down one side. A chick fell from the edge of the wall. The hen instead of calling the chick with the others, descended with all the chicks to become one with the lost one. This is because the chicken is ignorant. If it had been smarter ...

I can really identify with Chiara in what she says here from the point of view of a certain "logic" , but it has also opened my eyes this morning to another reality, the divine, the infinite! Yes, maybe the chicken could be more "logical", or send another chick to go alone or do something else. I was reminded of how many times I can think of a "better way" to do something, when I see somebody trying to do their best! Yet there is another dimension, the divine dimension, the dimension of love. The kind of love that gives everything until there's no more left:

I learned to descend to the level of the other so as to build unity (the same way as the Word became flesh) to descend with all in order to ascend with everyone.

Even God the Father becomes one with the Son, he enters the Son (and vice versa) in what looks like what a bowing down. It is actually an growth in love.

Today I is the feast of “making oneself one! I do not know if we are ever able to understand what it means for God to become a creature! He seems to lose his divinity to become a creature: it is perhaps the greatest expression of his love for us! I perhaps will never fully grasp the extent of such love! Should this is not already be enough for my unconditional love, a "yes" without reserve to Jesus Forsaken, my only good?

So with the souls: I in you and you in me. God then uses all the negative side: pain, nothingness, sin, and turns it into a positive (love!).

So he took advantage of the ignorance of the hen and that of the chicks who alone enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus Forsaken, how much joy, just as a result of your love for each one of us.

Yesterday I was able to stay for a meditation and communion with the other focolares and I had a very strong impression that each of us has a special gift from God. We are each a unique word of God for the good of the whole body. So I cannot say that the hand has less value than the head, or in other words, one perspective of things is more right than another! Yes, today is the feast of truly becoming one! I'll make use of everything seems negative, an apparent waste of time, a way of seeing something in an apparently complicated manner, turning it into a positive through my “mad” love for Jesus on the Cross, my all. And this is very real, visible! So I need to be careful

• not let myself go with comments that are not love,
• not to always look at the world from my perspective,
• to be more out looking towards the other,

• to take advantage of the negative side: the lack of strength, the effect of the medication (especially when I start to cry without reason), the memory loss or difficulty to follow the conversations, but also my limitations to always be in an attitude of  love, which I be always with the help of those I live with. 

It struck me yesterday as various people love jokes on one or the other of these so-called negative things and suddenly what seems negative became beautiful opportunities of mutual love! Then we are carefree children of God, each with a mad love for Jesus on the Cross, each one a unique word of love of the Father, entering the Kingdom of Heaven! What a great Christmas not only for us but for the world, because the kingdom of God, the kingdom of love becomes reality in the world:  God - Love, the ruby is with us! Are we really aware of the enormity of this gift?

Giving all my love to him in every person I meet!

Yesterday I rediscovered in a big way the reality of the presence of Jesus in my neighbour! How many chances do I miss to bring to life the presence of Jesus amongst us if only I loved my neighbour in the present moment as a gift of God’s love! “Love one another as I have loved you”, not love me as I have loved you! Whatever you have done to the least of these you have done to me.” My brother and sister next to me in the present moment are the best gift of love God has given me! It is a true discovery in every moment to find that all that happens to me is an expression of His love for me in that moment. Loving him in my brother and sister by being open, giving all in the present, Jesus will not be outdone in love and it is then that “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst.” Is that presence of Jesus amongst us not worth everything? Do I really want to miss out on the life with God amongst us at the expense of my little one dimensional vision of life? When there is that presence of Jesus amongst us I discover that

1. I am truly created to love with God’s love,

2. I am an expression of his love 

3. To love I have to give, be in communion with my brothers and sisters. Love does not keep anything back and gives all! 

4. Only in loving can I be what God wants me to be: His word thought of from eternity! That is how much I am loved!

Often I put God in a box, I see him as static, I want him to be the same confining him to religion, church and liturgy. And yes God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, but at the same time he is also always new, a person who changes always and is life! He never loves us in the same way, because if I respond to his love his love for me will be different from before!  Isn't that a great gift? Today I want to dedicate to a special intention and giving all my love to him in every person I meet!

Never be discouraged starting again because God loves me always.

Reflecting further on my life with Jesus on the Cross I often forget that first and foremost Jesus is one with the Father, because he gives everything out of love. More than that, he has given me the opportunity to find him in all my limitations, my judgements of others, my physical inabilities, my physical and emotional pain. During these months I had to learn to relax when I get an injection or a line put in my body. If I tense up my muscles any injection is very painful! After a time it now comes natural to relax and when the medical staff warn you about a sharp pain, it is not there! 

This made me think of my life with Jesus on the Cross. Dare I say it, but I need to learn to make myself “comfortable” on the cross, my cross that God has given me out of love. Instead of fighting the pain and suffering, avoiding it at all costs, I look at Jesus and go beyond loving the person next to me in the present. It is contrary to all human logic! There is more: Even, if I don’t manage and fall back into my familiar behaviour, in that pain of not managing, of failure I find Jesus on the Cross who asks me to stay with him loving, going beyond! The wonder of God’s love for me is that it never ends and lets me start again all the time. The wonder of God’s love is that is only wants the best for me. Today I want to dedicate to a special intention and to never be discouraged starting again because Reflecting further on my life with Jesus on the Cross I often forget that first and foremost Jesus is one with the Father, because he gives everything out of love. More than that, he has given me the opportunity to find him in all my limitations, my judgements of others, my physical inabilities, my physical and emotional pain. During these months I had to learn to relax when I get an injection or a line put in my body. If I tense up my muscles any injection is very painful! After a time it now comes natural to relax and when the medical staff warn you about a sharp pain, it is not there!This made me think of my life with Jesus on the Cross. Dare I say it, but I need to learn to make myself “comfortable” on the cross, my cross that God has given me out of love. Instead of fighting the pain and suffering, avoiding it at all costs, I look at Jesus and go beyond loving the person next to me in the present. It is contrary to all human logic! There is more: Even, if I don’t manage and fall back into my familiar behaviour, in that pain of not managing, of failure I find Jesus on the Cross who asks me to stay with him loving, going beyond! The wonder of God’s love for me is that it never ends and lets me start again all the time. The wonder of God’s love is that is only wants the best for me. Today I want to dedicate to a special intention and to never be discouraged starting again because God loves me always. 

I don’t want to lose sight of my great love: Jesus on the Cross.

Listening to Emmaus addressing the retreat of those living in the focolare communities in Rome on 22nd Nov12, I was quite moved! 

So let’s take all these vows seriously, let’s live them completely, with commitment and faithfulness. Once we say our yes to God, it must be a yes that is truly said with all heart, soul, and forever. But we must be aware that we are doing it so as to help us live our vocation, which is unity and the life of communion. The vows are for unity and the life of communion. 

It became clear to me once more that the way forward in this period for me and us is communion! If I am poor of goods, of relationships and my own will I find myself full of the gifts from God, in the midst of the most beautiful family in the world, because full of the presence of God, and loved by God! Where there is communion, sharing of the gifts God gives us, there is God because his nature is sharing out of love! It’s his nature! 

So that our vows may be a true ‘yes’ to Love, to Jesus Forsaken, the super Love. That they may support and substantiate a profound rebirth of the Trinitarian life in the focolares -, the only answer to the world’s thirst for communion.

My life is consecrated to Jesus on the Cross. It is only if I live like him, giving all out of love, going beyond the suffering toward the other person and thereby being nothing out of love, that he, God can live within me! So, then I am happy that all that is not love is taken away to leave only Love living amongst us. I am happy that all I write can circulate, because it is no longer mine, it is given out of love, And love calls for more love because God cannot be outdone in loving! And so I find myself with more unexpected gifts! 

So let’s not confuse freedom that comes from love, and freedom that comes from being able to say anything. It could also be a kind of deception when you feel free because all is said. Afterwards, what are you free from? We become prisoners of ourselves, of our way of seeing things, of our way of thinking. 

Being and not being out of love at the same time, saying things not saying things out of love, feeling free and not feeling free out of love, this is God’s life, the life of his love of the Trinity! Everything is lived out of love given as a gift for the other. Quite a challenge for me which I can only live in communion with others and with Jesus Forsaken at my side. Today I don’t want to lose sight of my great love: Jesus on the Cross.   

Do we know what we have?

I reflected today on my constant striving to be as perfect in loving my neighbour as possible! God loves me with a perfect love, so why should I not aim at the same with my neighbour? But then there is an important difference: I am not God! My very being, limited as it is will cause pain and suffering in the other and at time it will cause anger and frustration. In this pain I have a great chance to go beyond the appearance and be a little like Jesus on the Cross: go beyond the pain to love without analysing it. It remains still painful because I don’t like seeing anybody in suffering, but there is another dimension, ie that of the plan of God for me and all involved. That plan will not reveal itself unless I am in an attitude of love towards the other in the first place. My instinct often tells me that I have to defend myself, or only explain myself, my reasons, my way of thinking, but as good and right that may be, if I do this it has to be an act of love for the other! For that there needs to be the right moment, ie I need to be ready to be free from my mistake and the other needs to be free from his pain! Then, being free to love one another we are able to meet… in Jesus present amongst us. 

What I am describing needs God’s time scale, not mine or the others! Yet all too often we want to “sort things out”, “be open and honest”, have no “hidden agenda”, which is all good and positive. But if there is no love, no mutual love there is nothing gained! Beside does love towards my neighbour harbour any kind of ill feeling, or resentment? This is my daily challenge: to love with God’s love being naturally limited as his creature! The only key, model, example is Jesus Forsaken by the Father on the Cross. He became nothing out of love for me, for us and by giving all he received all: He took us to the Father. He did not analyse, justify, defend, but he “simply” loved giving his life. Living a collective spirituality his presence amongst us is an added gift to love. What more can I want: God amongst us! Do we know what we have? 

His time not mine

St Paul wrote in today’s readings:

There is no need to worry; but if there is anything you need, pray for it, asking God for it with prayer and thanksgiving, and that peace of God, which is so much greater than we can understand, will guard your hearts and your thoughts, in Christ Jesus.

In these last few days I have been wondering about this “peace” business, especially in the light of the many things that surround us, the many things that ”need to be done”. Again and again I hear that “spiritually” we need to be at peace with God and with one another, but when it comes to the “putting into practice” side of things it does not always work.  In fact often we get very agitated in conversations about how to do things, what is best, who has the most appropriate proposal to proceed. Often, in that process we lose our peace, I suspect, because we lose the relationship of mutual love with one another! We get caught up in our thinking and ways of doing things without intention! It’s part of our human condition! It is then that one dominates over the other, that I am more right than the other, that nobody really understands me fully, that I have rights too, etc. All familiar arguments which all point to me. But if I AM, God cannot be in me!

Yesterday, before going to bed, being absolutely tired out, physically almost incapable to keep my eye open I had the most amazing Skype call, a profound exchange, which left us both in great peace. Giving everything out of love in that present moment I realised more than ever that in order to be at peace I need to love, first of all I need to love Jesus on the Cross more than ever! He is my everything, because through him can I live. There is no life outside of him!  

So, when I want to revise a document or put a plan into action, first of all do it with him! Why do it in a hurry as if the world depends on it? God’s time scales are so different than mine. Do I not often want to do things quickly, again for the best of reasons, but thereby lose the other person and am no longer at peace? Our spirituality is a great gift for today, when everything demands an answer immediately and leads to lot of struggle. If I believe that I am like everybody else God’s instrument of love I can be at peace because creation is his work even now. Besides, on my own I am nothing and I can do nothing. It is with his presence amongst us, that I am capable of great things, because giving all of myself, being nothing out of love for Jesus on the Cross and in the other in that present moment; I am free for God to live amongst us! What greater opportunity to bring to life what he wants! If there is anything we need, we just need to ask! He does answer!

Look outside of you and not within you, not at the things around you, not at the other to possess, but look to God outside of yourself to be united with him.

Today I want to dedicate to look at God outside of me in the practical things discovering his time frame not mine and thus being at peace. 

Let Jesus fill in my programme for the day

How easy it is for me to get caught up in the daily detail slipping into my mental categories, my humanity made up of quick judgements, opinions, habits of life, including being ill and the routines of life that come with it such as meditations, prayers, my tasks in focolare, in the movement and linked with that my expectations? Then I find myself in something Chiara wrote: 

Many - erring - look at other people and at things wanting to possess them! And their look is selfish or envious or in any case sin. Or they look within themselves for something or to possess their souls, and their looks are empty because they are weary or upset.

So, does that mean all these things that come so natural to me are not good? No, but it is important to be balanced! All that is done out of love is very precious. I am ill out of love. Do I pray out of love? A sure sign of doing things out of love is the lack of attachment, ready to give everything in the present moment out of love. Once again Chiara provides me with the answer:

Look outside of you and not within you, not at the things around you, not at the other to possess, but look to God outside of yourself to be united with him.

I remember her saying elsewhere that we should have no thoughts and no will so we can have God’s thoughts and do his will! Life even on a practical level becomes very simple and yet challenging, because my only interest is to give, not have any interests out of love. Despite all the external pressure and indications of urgency I have to learn to do things according to God’s time frame and not mine! Today I want to dedicate to live according to God’s time table to help my neighbour to love in the present moment. Let him fill my diary from now on. I will put something into start with. 

Be love and stop at the means to become that love

Yesterday I was upgrading a computer which I had prepared for days for this. So I thought after a relay profound reflections in the morning of having a good god at it when the time was right offering everything. Then the time came, there were unexpected difficulties, which meant I had to spent more time and energy on the matter. I could get myself feeling angry, upset, obsessed with the whole thing! Then, once taken the step of entrusting it all to God, just before going to bed it fell into the right place. 

This morning I realised how far I am from really being nothing out of love! There is always the illusion that a good reflection, a good morning or evening prayer, or anything that is positive for my union with God is that union with God. Chiara showed me this morning that fundamental truth that I can read and meditate all the gospels, the whole scripture, I can never miss a prayer, feel actually quite good, being in union with God at the time and for the rest of the day… It made me think of the need to be clear about the forms and means that help me to be more in union with him and the reality to be in union with him. I seem to remember St Paul saying something like that. The balance is always being love, being nothing so that he can be in me. 

Today, I dedicate to being that love and not stop at the means to become that love

Joy of God by loving through the gifts he has given me

Today I was struck by the fact that God has thought of each one of us since all eternity! He did not come with idea when I was born, and that tells me even more about the immensity of his love for each one of us. As he is love by nature all he creates is love. I am an expression of his love as is everybody else! If I love with God’s love, I can bring him to my neighbour in the present moment, but I can also be the joy of God! It is when I am living for myself that I become empty and nothing makes sense. But even if that happens, God loves me so much that he has given me his son. This morning I was struck by the thought, that the saints are different from me in one way: they always start again to love whenever they stopped. Jesus on the cross started again to love and so can I always with him. 

But if God has thought of me forever, I am already complete in his mind in heaven! Loving him in my neighbour in the present he allows us together to discover the plan as we go along. So, it’s not just me understanding what he has in mind for me, but in loving the other, we understand our talents for each other. That means that in giving my particular gift out of love, I bring God and I am the joy of God, because it is not me and my ability, but having given the talent out of love God can be in me. Today I will dedicate to being the joy of God by loving through the gifts he has given me

A channel of God's love

Be a gift for the other. I was reflecting on God’s love for me. He is always a gift and he is always the first to love! Yesterday was quite a challenge to be the first to love. When I went to the GP I was more or less greeted by a very routine going through the motions attitude. No question about how I was coping, or anything I needed help with, etc. We very quickly went through the medication and I was told to get bloods done and An appointment would be made to look at my reducing prescription. I left with many a quick judgement. When I came home I decide to get some sleep, without even looking at anybody else’s needs, or even being open to others. I am tired, I am ill, I need to sleep. Not an attitude of being the first to love. The day carried on like this and I realised that I was getting more and more caught up with myself.  I wasn’t even discovering God in everything and everyone! I had lost him! But even then, I towards the end of the day I realised that there was a great opportunity to offer all as on gift of love to Jesus on the Cross. Jesus Forsaken at least let me love you with all the misery and pain I caused so that the day is not lived in vain. All has immense value if done out of love.

Today I want to dedicate to being a channel of God’s love no matter what.  

Discovering God’s love in everything and everyone.

I was struck by the fact that loving one another with God’s love means to create totally new relationships and to discover that to love like this is living the life of the Trinity! As brothers and sisters, having one Father, he has made us like him: “Designed” to love one another, to be there for one another in the present, to be in communion with each other, not to keep his gifts for ourselves but give them freely as an act of love. Despite the distinctions I make the separations I create, that love continue to be there for me. I can be sure that my Father loves me immensely. I always find the New Commandment more logical: Love one another, as I have loved you! If I, your big brother, have shown you how to love, I don’t expect anything in return. Then my love would be such. No, give that gift you have received to your brother or sister with the same expectation. There is a good description of the characteristics of God’s love for us:

1. God is always the first to love

2. God loves everybody

3. God loves always 

4. God loves putting himself in my condition ready to die for me

5. God’s love has no interest or expectations

Today I want to dedicate to discovering God’s love in everything and everyone.

Being God's love to the others

“Don’t think about yourself but others”. This is the essence loving one another! If I love my neighbour, I give and I am concerned about the person next to me in the present moment. But more than that actually: God created us as an expression of his love. So, he is present in each one of us! How can I than not treat the other person with that same love God treats me with? A love that gives all, is always new and yet the same in nature. Today I have to go to hospital, because of the cold to get things checked out, love that is always new, but I that love thinks of others, the person, who is taking me, the person on the telephone, the medical staff, anybody who I come in contact with in the present moment, love that is always constant! Today, I want to dedicate to being God’s love to others in the present moment.