Withdrawal from ACSE pp. Passionist 20 -2 - 2011 Rome, via Claudio, 60 - Behind the Coliseum .
SHORT STORY: At 9.15 am on February 20 we had to find the front door of P. Passionist Mount Celio in Rome. But ...: One of the volunteers stayed at home with a bad case of influnenza, another has missed the train and has a tezo persol way, the devil has put its tail and the gates closed on the Panda p. Claudio, crawling. From these facts we could now face the practical issue first: "DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PROJECTS AND IMPLEMENTATION" or in other words, "In life we \u200b\u200bmust be ready for any surprise!" ... In fact, 8 out of 13 volunteers present at the expected withdrawal, but all we were very pleased and we decided to have other meetings in the future.
We then moved on to address the theme "Faith, Hope and Charity" in the documents of the Pope and in our lives. This was made possible through the generosity of the Passionist Fathers who generously welcomed us into their home and hosted. God bless them. The goal of the retreat was: "The need to reflect on our lives as Christians chedi," but what Jesus has given us? "" Each of us where we are going? What am I doing with my life? "
We concluded with a very informative chat to get ideas for the next retreat which will, for now, at least once every three months, always in the house of the Fathers Pasion. We need to strengthen our faith and become apostles of Jesus in the world, full of joy and gratitude for "the love God has for us." We also talked about what happens to their faith and Arabic. We have seen that we have to study the problems of witchcraft in Africa and the world. A talk really informative and full of vitality. Here are the texts analyzed in the "withdrawal"
THEME: FAITH HOPE AND CHARITY 'hinges our lives. Whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel will save it.
Gospel Gospel according to Mark + 8.34 to 9.1
At that time, called the crowd with his disciples, Jesus said to them
"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel will save it.
For what advantage there is that a man gains the whole world and lose his own life? What could a man give in exchange for his life?
whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this generation adulterous and sinful, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. "
he said to them: "Verily I say unto you, there are some here who will not die until they see the kingdom of God come in power."
Word of the Lord in Holy Mass, we also prayed
prayer of the faithful are aware that we will be judged on the active witness of the Gospel, we pray to the Father, saying together:
Make us witnesses of the Gospel, the Lord.
Accompany us, O Lord, our walk towards you. It purifies our faith, so that what we say matches what do. Let us pray:
Make, O Lord, your Church's fervent social and charitable works. Make it thoughtful and sensitive to those needs which the company still fails. Let us pray:
Strengthen, O Lord, the community of 'ACSE in the footsteps of your Christ. The serenity and peace are the result of the confidence placed in him. Let us pray:
God of salvation, which we are called to courageous witness to our faith help us to bring our name proudly and openly Christian, because Jesus your Son, we may one day be recognized in front of you who are God and live and reign forever and ever. Amen.
finally are we addressed the encyclical letter of Pope Benedict XVI:
"Deus Caritas Est" God is love ": COMMENTS are taken from the Vatican Radio with certain actions of p. Claudio 's ACSE:
"Love is the center of the Christian faith." God loves each other, "his creature - the Pope writes:" ... is moved by pity is stirred, it is love that never leaves when he is betrayed, "is forgiving love" and "the mystery of the Cross: God loves the 'man by becoming man he follows him even into death, and so reconciles justice and love. " We have believed "passionate love of God "- writes the Pope And this means that" being Christian is an encounter with a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction "
1)
" Faith is not a theory that can take up or lay aside. It is something very concrete: It is the criterion that decides our lifestyle. In an age in which hostility and greed have become superpowers, an age in which we witness the abuse of religion up in hatred, neutral rationality alone can not protect us. We need the living God, who loved us unto death. " So the center is love, a word often abused 1, eros, love "the world", basically love between man and woman. 2 ° to agape love based on faith But agape is not against the corporate '- the Pope said the 3rd even these two dimensions should be harmonized.
2)
"I wanted to show the humanity of faith, ... the 'yes' to his corporeal nature created by God, a 'yes' that in the indissoluble marriage between man and woman finds its form rooted in creation. And there is also the case that eros is transformed into agape - that love for each other no longer seeks itself, but becomes concern for others, willingness to sacrifice for him and openness to the gift of a new human life ".
Man must tap into that source from which rivers of living water, that "Jesus Christ, from whose heart comes the love of God." "The real novelty of the New Testament lies not in new ideas, but in the figure of Christ" In Jesus Christ, God himself who goes to the lost sheep, the suffering and lost humanity. " And we are drawn in the love of Jesus in the Eucharist which becomes love for others. "Union with Christ is also union with all those to whom he gives himself. I can not possess Christ just for myself - the Pope says - I can belong only in union with all those who have become or will become his. " "So anyone who needs me and I can help that's my neighbor." And the final decision - remember the Pope - will concentrate just on love: Jesus identifies himself with the hungry, thirsty, strangers, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned. In these little "find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God." (Mt.25, 31-46) But the commandment love - continues the pope - affects not only individual Christians but Christians as a community: that is, charity is an integral part of the mission of the Church, as well as the celebration of the sacraments and the proclamation of the Word. The Church thus turns his love in a practical way for all people who are sick and in need. Humanitarian action should not be confused with a pure form of social assistance and must be "independent of parties and ideologies." We listen to Benedict XVI:
3)
"The spectacle of suffering man touches our hearts. But charitable commitment has a meaning that goes well beyond mere philanthropy. It is God himself pushes us in our underwear to relieve the misery. So, ultimately, is God himself that we bring to the suffering world. The more consciously and clearly we carry it as a gift, the more effectively will our love change the world and awaken hope - a hope that goes beyond death. " charitable activity must be driven by the love of Christ and is nourished by constant prayer in a living relationship with God: "It 's time - writes the Pope - to reaffirm the importance of prayer in the face of the activism and the growing secularism of many Christians engaged in charitable work. "
4) "Love - caritas - will always be necessary, even in the most just society. There is no ordering of the State so just that it can eliminate the service of ¼ The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the ' suffering person - every person - needs: namely, loving personal. "
5) The true human love is a love that is the total - body and soul - the human being. " Love of God and love of neighbor, are "inseparable, and they affect each other. Are a single commandment. " "Today, many are ready to help those who suffer - and recorded it with gratitude and satisfaction, but that the faithful may lodge at the idea that charity is not an essential part of the Church's mission."
6) The exercise of charity, insisted the Pope, is instead "an integral part of the heritage of the Savior." The church agencies can not identify with NGOs, should therefore avoid the risk of secularism in this area. "The document expresses - and not just once - that faith gives a dynamic singular commitment to each other. What happens when my neighbor is repugnant to me, as I can not resist the grace of God? "
" the saints are the true bearers of light within history, for they are men and women of faith, hope and love. "
7). the novelty of Christianity has something essential about their understanding of love. In the critique of Christianity that has developed with increasing radicalism from, this new element was seen as something thoroughly negative. Christianity, according to Friedrich Nietzsche, .... with its commandments and prohibitions, we turn to bitterness the most precious thing in life? Perhaps not rising signs prohibiting right there where joy, prepared for us by the Creator offers us a happiness that makes us a foretaste of the Divine? "
8) But is that really so? Did Christianity really destroy eros? We look at the pre-Christian world. The Greeks - not unlike other cultures - considered eros first intoxication, the overpowering of reason by a "divine madness" which tears man away from his finite existence, and being overwhelmed by divine power, to experience supreme happiness. All other powers of the heavens and the earth seem so, of secondary importance: love conquers all - and yield to love. (Virgil, Eclogues) In religions, this attitude found expression in fertility cults, part of which the "sacred prostitution" which flourished in many temples. Eros was thus celebrated as divine power, as fellowship with the Divine.
9)
The Old Testament is firmly opposed to this form of religion, in contrast, represents a powerful temptation, with faith in God, combating it as a perversion of religiosity. With this, however, in no way rejected eros as such, but declared war on a warped and destructive, since the false glorification of Eros, who here actually strips it of its dignity and dehumanizes it. In fact, over time, prostitutes, who had to bestow this divine intoxication, are not treated as human beings and persons, but simply used as a means of arousing "divine madness": in reality, they are not goddesses, they were human persons being exploited. For this intoxicated and undisciplined eros is not an ascent in "ecstasy" towards the Divine, but a fall, a degradation of man. Evidently, eros needs to be disciplined and purified to give the man not the pleasure of a moment, but a certain foretaste of the pinnacle of existence, of that beatitude for which our whole being yearns.
Two things emerge clearly from this rapid overview of the concept of eros past and present. First between love and the Divine is there any relationship: love promises infinity, eternity - a reality far greater and totally other than our everyday existence. Yet we have also seen that the way to attain this goal is not simply by submitting to instinct. Purification and maturation, which also pass through the path of renunciation. This is not rejection of eros, is not his "poisoning", but his recovery in sight of his true greatness.
This depends primarily on the creation of human beings, which is composed of body and soul. Man is truly himself when his body and soul are intimately units, the challenge of eros can be said to be truly overcome when this unification is achieved. Should he aspire to be pure spirit and to reject the flesh as pertaining to his animal nature alone, then spirit and body would both lose their dignity. And if, on the other hand, should he deny the spirit and consider matter, the body, as the only reality, he would likewise lose his greatness.
10)
The way of exalting the body to which we are witnessing today is deceptive . Eros, reduced to pure 'sex' has become a commodity, a mere 'thing' to be bought and sold, or rather, man himself becomes a commodity. In fact, this is not quite so great "to the body. Instead, he now considers his body and his sexuality as the purely material part of himself to be used and exploited at will. A part, however, that he does not see it as an arena of his liberty, but as something that, in his own way, tries to make both enjoyable and harmless. In fact, we are dealing with a debasement of the human body, which is no longer integrated into all of the freedom of our existence, is no longer a living expression of our whole being, but is relegated to the purely biological sphere. The apparent exaltation of the body can quickly turn into a hatred of corporeality. Christian faith, on the contrary, has always considered man as a being in whom spirit and matter flow into one another just like experimenting a new nobility.
AGAPE, Charity ', in contrast with an indeterminate, "searching", this word expresses the experience of love which involves a real discovery of the other, beyond the selfish character that prevailed earlier. Love now becomes concern and care for each other. No longer seeks itself, a sinking in of happiness, instead it seeks the good of the beloved: it becomes renunciation and it is ready to sacrifice, even looking for him.
11)
(Lk 17, 33), Jesus says: "Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses will save it - a claim that is found in the Gospels (cf. Mt 10, 39, 16, 25, Mk 8, 35, Lk 9, 24, John 12, 25). Jesus portrays his own path, which leads through the Cross to the Resurrection: the path of the grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, and so it bears much fruit. Starting from the center of his personal sacrifice and love that reaches fulfillment therein, he also portrays in these words the essence of love and human existence in general.
The love of God with Israel is, deep down, that he gives her the Torah, thereby opening Israel's eyes to the true nature of man and shows him the path of true humanism. It consists in the fact that man, living in fidelity to God, he experiences himself as one who is loved by God and discovers joy in truth and in righteousness - a joy in God which becomes his essential happiness: " What else have I in heaven? Apart from you I want nothing on you, RRA ... My well is to be near God "(Ps 73 [72] 25. 28).
12)
The encyclical ends with an invocation to the Virgin Mary, model of "pure love not self-seeking but simply benevolent" according to the thoughts of God "to her - said the Pope - we entrust the Church and her mission in the service of love. " We ask her to teach us to know and love Jesus because we can "become capable of true love and be fountains of living water in the midst of a thirsting world". The Pope
roots "social doctrine in faith and in its purifying action of reason." A crucial step in asserting that the encyclical is "task of the Church with her social doctrine, in building a just social order" is to "awaken the spiritual and moral strength.": ENCYCLICAL "SPES SALVI It is presented the 'Encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, "Spe Salvi": "in hope we were saved"
The Pope in 'encyclical titled "Spe Salvi", begins with a passage from the Letter of Paul to the Romans (Rom 8:24): "in hope we were saved" .
summary of the encyclical, curated by Sergio Centofanti:
1) "Redemption, salvation, according to the Christian faith - the Pope says in the introduction - not a simple fact. Redemption is offered during the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present: this, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if this goal we can be sure, if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey. " (1)
Thus, "a distinguishing mark of Christians" is "the fact that they have a future ... know ... that their life will not end in emptiness." who has hope lives differently; it was given a new life. " In the wake of San Paolo, the Pope urges Christians not to grieve "like the others who have no hope" and Saint Peter calls us to respond to anyone who asks us the reason for the hope that is within us. (2) 2)
"To come to know God - the true God-means to receive hope." This included the well the first Christians, like the Ephesians who before encountering Christ had many gods but were living "without hope and without God." The problem for the Christians of long standing - he said - is used to the Gospel: the hope that comes from a real encounter with God ..., almost ceased to notice. " Here the Pope quotes a prime witness of Christian hope: Saint Josephine Bakhita. Born in 1869 in Darfur, Sudan, was kidnapped at age nine and sold into slavery: After terrible trials arrives in Italy where he met the "great hope" and can say: "I am definitively loved and whatever happens - I am awaited by this Love." 3) The Pope recalls that Jesus did not bring "a message of social revolution" like Spartacus, and "was not a fight for political liberation like Barabbas or Bar-Kochba. He brought "something totally different ... the encounter with the living God ... the meeting with a hope stronger than the sufferings of slavery, which therefore transformed life from within and the world," even if the external structures remained the same. " (4)
Christ makes us truly free: "We are not slaves of the universe" and the "laws of matter and of evolution." St. Gregory Nazianzen sees the star guided the Magi "the end of astrology," a concept - the Pope says - "become fashionable once again today:" are not the elements of the universe ... which ultimately govern the world and man, but a personal God governs the stars, that is the universe. " We are free because "heaven is not empty", because the Lord is God "in Jesus has revealed himself as Love." 5)
Christ is the "true philosopher" who "tells us who man truly is and what he must do to be truly human." "He also shows us the way beyond death, only those who are able to do this is a true teacher of life."
6) It gives us a hope that is all there and waiting, because "the fact that this future exists changes the present." In fact, "for faith ... are already present in us", for an initial state, "the things hoped for: the whole, true life." The future is lured "into this" and we can already perceive and "this presence of what is to come also creates certainty," constitutes for us a 'test' of the things that are still unseen. " 7)
This hope is not something but someone : is not based on things that pass and it can be removed, but on God who gives himself for ever: this is a hope that free and allows many Christians to abandon everything "for the love of Christ" as did St. Francis and to address opposing the persecution and martyrdom, "the overbearing power of ideology and its the media," making them capable of renewing the world. (8)
The Pope notes that "perhaps many people reject the faith today simply because their eternal life does not seem a desirable thing. We do not want eternal life, but the present one, and the belief in eternal life seems, for this purpose, rather than an obstacle. "
(10) "The current crisis of faith - he continued - is essentially a crisis of Christian hope." "The restoration of the lost paradise, no longer expected from faith," but from the scientific and technical progress, which - you think - will emerge as "the kingdom of man." Hope thus becomes "faith in progress "founded on two pillars: reason and freedom which" seem to guarantee by themselves, by virtue of their intrinsic goodness, a new and perfect human community. " "The kingdom of reason ... is expected as the new condition of mankind has attained total freedom."
(17-18) " Two milestones in the political realization of this hope" was the French Revolution (19) and the Marxist. Considering the developments of the French Revolution, "the Europe of the Enlightenment ... had to reflect anew on reason and freedom." The proletarian revolution on the other party has left behind him an appalling destruction. " "The fundamental error of Marx" was this: "He forgot man and he forgot his freedom ... He believed that once the economy put in place everything would be okay. His real error is materialism. " (20-21) "Let us put it very simple - the Pope writes: man needs God, otherwise he remains without hope." (23) "Man can never be redeemed simply" by an external structure. "Anyone who promises the better world that is guaranteed to last for ever making a false promise." So wrong those who believe that man can be redeemed through science. "... Science can also destroy mankind and the world." "It is not science that redeems man. The man is redeemed by love. " unconditional love, absolute: "The real great hope of man, which survives in spite of all disappointments can only be God - the God who loves us and loves us still to the end". (24-26)
8)
Pope identifies four areas of learning and practicing hope. The first is prayer : "If you do not listen to me any more, God still listens to me ... if there is nobody who can help me ... he can help me. " The Pope recalled the experience of Cardinal Van Thuan of Vietnam for 13 years in prison, 9 of which in isolation, "in a situation of seemingly utter hopelessness, listening to God, to speak, became for him an increasing power of hope. " (32-34)
addition to prayer is the act then . "The hope in the Christian sense is always hope for others. And is an active hope, in which we struggle, "so that" the world will become a bit 'brighter and more humane. And only if I know that "my personal life and history as a whole are guarded by the indestructible power of love "me" I can always still hope though ... I have nothing to hope for. " And "despite all the failures," this gives me hope, "the courage to act and to persevere." (35)
The suffering is a place for learning hope . "Certainly we must do everything we can to reduce suffering" but "is not fleeing from suffering that we are healed, but the ability to accept the trial and in its mature, and finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love. " Here the Pope quotes another witness of hope, the Vietnamese martyr Paul Le-Bao-Tinh, who died in 1857. The key issue is then able to suffer with each other and for others. "A society unable to accept the suffering ... it is a cruel and inhuman society." (36-39)
Finally, another setting for learning hope is the Judgement of God "Faith in the Last Judgement is first and foremost hope": "there is a resurrection of the flesh. There is justice. There is a 'withdrawal' of past suffering, a reparation that sets things aright. "
The Pope said he was "convinced that the question of justice constitutes the essential argument in any case the strongest argument in favor of faith in eternal life. " It 's impossible in fact "that the injustice of history should be the last word." "God is justice and creates justice. And 'This is our consolation and our hope. in his justice there is also grace. " "Grace does not cancel out justice ... The evil in the end, the eternal banquet, do not sit at the table beside their victims without distinction, as if nothing had happened." The Pope insists on the existence of the doctrine of purgatory and hell. However, if the Judgement of God "were merely justice, may be for all of us only fear. " Instead, grace, and this is also "allows us all to hope and to go full of confidence to meet the Judge whom we know as our 'lawyer'." (41-47)
In the chapters on Judgement Benedict XVI enters a reflection atheism of the nineteenth and twentieth century: it is "a protest against the injustices of the world" - note - that becomes a "protest against God" . "If we see the suffering of this world will protest against God is understandable, the claim that humanity can and must do what no God actually does or is able to do is both presumptuous and intrinsically false. That from this premise are led to the greatest cruelty and violations of justice is no accident - he adds - but is grounded in the intrinsic falsity of the claim. "(42)
Benedict XVI then reiterates:" Our hope is always essentially also hope for others; only thus is it truly hope for me. As Christians we should never ask: how can I save myself? We should also ask: what can I do so that others may be saved ...? Then I will have done my utmost for my salvation staff. (48)
last chapter addresses his prayer to "Mary, Star of Hope"
"Mother of God, our Mother, teach us to believe, hope and love with you. Show us the way to his Kingdom! Star of the Sea, shine upon us and guide us on our way! "(49-50)
End 19/02/2011 Rome (Some texts of the two encyclicals of Pope Benedict XVI:" Deus Caritas est "and" Spe Salvi " and useful comments for ritiro.P.Claudio Crimi ACSE)
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