31/1/2014 Pope Francis (@Pontifex): No one saves oneself

No one saves oneself. The community is essential.

Pope Francis (@Pontifex)

A Christian can never be sad

Ways

Do not fix your heart on anything that passes away

Do not fix your heart on anything that passes away. Imitate Christ, who became poor for us, and had nowhere to lay his head. Ask him to give you, in the midst of the world, a real detachment, a detachment that has nothing to soften it. (The Forge, 523)

(http://www.opusdei.org.in/sec.php?s=310)

Só a partir do interior

«O homem está chamado a viver no seu interior
e a ser tão dono de si mesmo
como apenas o pode ser a partir do interior;
só a partir do interior
é possível um trato autenticamente humano
mesmo com o mundo;
só a partir do interior
o homem pode encontrar no mundo
o lugar que lhe corresponde.»

Santa Teresa Benedita da Cruz | 1891 – 1942
Ciência da Cruz

Senhor,
sinto-me mais pessoa quanto mais vivo
na Tua presença;
sou mais eu quanto mais faço do despojamento
o impulso que me lança para Ti;
sou mais livre quanto mais me entrego
ao teu amor.
Vivo mais plenamente quando volto o meu olhar
para Ti e Te descubro oculto no interior do meu ser.

Vejo que voltado para fora
o meu ser derrama-se nas coisas
que se apoderam de mim
marcando o ritmo e o tempo da vida,
deixando-me vazio e atordoado
pela sucessão das exigências.

Voltado para Ti
que habitas no interior de mim mesmo
descubro a serenidade de estar sustentado
pela Tua vontade que estabelece os ritmos e os tempos
em perfeita harmonia e paz.

Voltado para Ti
descubro o lugar que me destinaste no mundo
e a missão de cooperar conTigo na criação.
voltado para Ti
experimento a liberdade de estar em Ti
que me faz sentir mais eu mesmo.

Senhor
Ajuda-me a viver no interior de mim mesmo!

(http://orar.carmelitas.pt/)

EVANGELII GAUDIUM (11) - The immense love in the crucified and risen Christ

A renewal of preaching can offer believers, as well as the lukewarm and the non-practising, new joy in the faith and fruitfulness in the work of evangelization. The heart of its message will always be the same: the God who revealed his immense love in the crucified and risen Christ. God constantly renews his faithful ones, whatever their age: “They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not be faint” (Is 40:31). Christ is the “eternal Gospel” (Rev 14:6); he “is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8), yet his riches and beauty are inexhaustible. He is forever young and a constant source of newness. The Church never fails to be amazed at “the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God” (Rom 11:33). Saint John of the Cross says that “the thicket of God’s wisdom and knowledge is so deep and so broad that the soul, however much it has come to know of it, can always penetrate deeper within it”. Or as Saint Irenaeus writes: “By his coming, Christ brought with him all newness”. With this newness he is always able to renew our lives and our communities, and even if the Christian message has known periods of darkness and ecclesial weakness, it will never grow old. Jesus can also break through the dull categories with which we would enclose him and he constantly amazes us by his divine creativity. Whenever we make the effort to return to the source and to recover the original freshness of the Gospel, new avenues arise, new paths of creativity open up, with different forms of expression, more eloquent signs and words with new meaning for today’s world. Every form of authentic evangelization is always “new”.

(http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_en.html)

All I need is Jesus

Serve Our Lord and your fellow men

Every activity - be it of great human importance or not - must become for you a means to serve Our Lord and your fellow men. That is the true measure of its importance. (The Forge, 684)

I am not at all stretching the truth when I tell you that Jesus is still looking for a resting‑place in our heart. We have to ask him to forgive our personal blindness and ingratitude. We must ask him to give us the grace never to close the door of our soul on him again.

Our Lord does not disguise the fact that his wholehearted obedience to God’s will calls for renunciation and self‑sacrifice. Love does not claim rights, it seeks to serve. Jesus has led the way. How did he obey? “Unto death, death on a cross.” You have to get out of yourself; you have to complicate your life, losing it for love of God and souls. “So you wanted to live a quiet life. But God wanted otherwise. Two wills exist: your will should be corrected to become identified with God’s will: you must not bend God’s will to suit yours.”

It has made me very happy to see so many souls spend their lives — like you, Lord, “even unto death” — fulfilling what God was asking of them. They have dedicated all their yearnings and their professional work to the service of the Church, for the good of all men.

Let us learn to obey, let us learn to serve. There is no better leadership than wanting to give yourself freely, to be useful to others. When we feel pride swell up within us, making us think we are supermen, the time has come to say “no”. Our only triumph will be the triumph of humility. In this way we will identify ourselves with Christ on the cross — not unwillingly or restlessly or sullenly, but joyfully. For the joy which comes from forgetting ourselves is the best proof of love. (Christ is passing by, 19)

(http://www.opusdei.org.in/sec.php?s=310)

The Rosary

Pope Francis

The Holy Spirit, Love Guiding Us to Love

When a person, moved by the Holy Spirit, makes his entire life a response to the demands of love, the things God may ask of him are no longer seen as renunciations and sacrifices, but as opportunities to find God and unite himself more closely to him. Christian maturity is attained precisely through the victory of love, which overcomes fear and selfishness.

Bishops Javier Echevarría, Prelate of Opus Dei, "Paths to God"

(http://www.opusdei.org.in/)

EVANGELII GAUDIUM (10) - Life grows by being given away

The Gospel offers us the chance to live life on a higher plane, but with no less intensity: “Life grows by being given away, and it weakens in isolation and comfort. Indeed, those who enjoy life most are those who leave security on the shore and become excited by the mission of communicating life to others”. When the Church summons Christians to take up the task of evangelization, she is simply pointing to the source of authentic personal fulfilment. For “here we discover a profound law of reality: that life is attained and matures in the measure that it is offered up in order to give life to others. This is certainly what mission means”. Consequently, an evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral! Let us recover and deepen our enthusiasm, that “delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing, even when it is in tears that we must sow… And may the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the good news not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervour, who have first received the joy of Christ”

(http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_en.html)

EVANGELII GAUDIUM (9) - Goodness always tends to spread

Goodness always tends to spread. Every authentic experience of truth and goodness seeks by its very nature to grow within us, and any person who has experienced a profound liberation becomes more sensitive to the needs of others. As it expands, goodness takes root and develops. If we wish to lead a dignified and fulfilling life, we have to reach out to others and seek their good.

(http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_en.html)

A personal meeting with God

When you receive him, tell him: Lord, I hope in you: I adore you, I love you, increase my faith. Be the support of my weakness: You, who have remained defenseless in the Eucharist so as to be the remedy for the weakness of your creatures. (The Forge, 832)

(http://www.opusdei.org.in/sec.php?s=310)

25/1/2014 Pope Francis (@Pontifex): to learn to give Him thanks

It is easy to ask God for things; we all do it. When will we also learn to give him thanks and to adore him?

Pope Francis (@Pontifex)

Pray more

24/1/2014 Pope Francis (@Pontifex): new creatures, clothed in Christ

We are called to live our baptism every day, as new creatures, clothed in Christ.

Pope Francis (@Pontifex)

23/1/2014 Pope Francis (@Pontifex): may we nurture the light born within us at Christmas

Like Mary, may we nurture the light born within us at Christmas. May we carry it everywhere in our daily lives.

Pope Francis (@Pontifex)

Be cheerful, always cheerful

Nobody is happy on earth until he decides not to be. This is the way the path goes: suffering -- in Christian terms -- the Cross; God's Will, Love; happiness here and, afterwards, eternally. (Furrow, 52)

Servite Domino in laetitia! -- I will serve God cheerfully. With a cheerfulness that is a consequence of my Faith, of my Hope and of my Love -- and that will last for ever. For, as the Apostle assures us, Dominus prope est! -- the Lord follows me closely. I shall walk with Him, therefore, quite confidently, for the Lord is my Father, and with his help I shall fulfill his most lovable Will, even if I find it hard. (Furrow, 53)

A piece of advice on which I have insisted repeatedly: be cheerful, always cheerful. It is for those to be sad who do not consider themselves to be sons of God. (Furrow, 54) 

(http://www.opusdei.org.in/sec.php?s=310)

Que eu possa ser um instrumento do Teu amor no mundo

«Somos feitos somente para Deus;
devemos pois deixarmo-nos a nós mesmos
para nos ocuparmos d’Ele somente.
E n’Ele veremos muito melhor o que nos faz falta
do que o veríamos em nós,
por meio de todas as reflexões,
e só pode ser um resto de amor próprio
o que, sob a aparência da nossa perfeição,
nos prende ainda a nós mesmos
e nos impede de nos elevarmos até Deus.»

Frei Lourenço da Ressurreição | 1614 – 1691
A prática da presença de Deus IV, 2
Senhor,
eu sei que ages em mim,
apesar e tantas vezes me esquecer.
Desejas que eu possa ser
um instrumento do Teu amor no mundo,
que possa ser como que um “embaixador” do Teu amor,
da Tua generosidade e bondade e misericórdia.
Desejas que seja outro “Tu mesmo”.
Como estou longe, Senhor,
mas quanto o desejo,
por Teu amor e por amor aos meus irmãos!
Senhor, ajuda-me a conhecer-me sempre mais,
à luz da Tua misericórdia sobre mim,
do amor infinito com que me amas.
Então poderei derramar o Teu amor
ajudando a fazer o Céu sobre a terra.
Esse Céu é muito mais belo do que posso imaginar,
mas Tu me guiarás.
Ajuda-me, Senhor!

(http://orar.carmelitas.pt/)