Riflessioni ad alta voce

Poverty and apostolate In order to understand the relationship between poverty and apostolate we should clarify a few points. Jesus tells us to take care of the poor. All through the Gospel we see that Jesus helps the poor and encourages his disciples to do the same. The aim of the apostolate is the total redemption of the person. Apostolate is a community matter. Nowadays all the religious congregations speak about the poor and claim to be at the service of the poor. We have to avoid two temptations: - To remain at a generic idealistic level. We are called to solve the problems of concrete people, problems which very often do not fit in our schemes and ideals. - To use our charity work as an instrument to boast and to increase our prestige. Usually we tend to do those works which can be seen, which will appear in newspapers, which can make us famous and, eventually, will attract donations. We should instead look for those situations which are less visible, less attra...

This is an analysis of how the vow of poverty is lived also at the level of psychological life. To fully understand what is meant by the three levels of human life you have to refer to my previous post on this topic: "Vocation and our capacity to respond to it. Poverty and the three levels of human life We have seen previously that human life is based on three levels: Psycho- physiological Psycho-social Spiritual-intellectual We saw also that love, which is the engine of our life, when acting at these three levels takes the form of Eros, Philia and Agape. Since love is the key for understanding all the vows, we can try to see how the vow of poverty applies to the three levels. Psycho-physiological level. This level regards the relationship of the person with himself, his desires and passions. The desire to possess things serves to cover or satisfy the need of avoiding sufferance, avoiding hard work, and also to avoid the fact that we see ourselves as weak, unsafe, not ...

Danger of a wrong interpretation of the vow of poverty When a religious start doing things against the vow of chastity, soon or late he will leave religious life, people will simply pity him, maybe criticize for a moment but then forget about him. When he fails in the vow of obedience, nobody will bother about it except his superiors. When instead he goes against poverty, he can easily find false reasons to excuse himself and he carries on in the religious life. The problem is that all the people he deals with will really feel angry at him and often scandalized. The damage we do to the kingdom of God is bigger when we act against poverty than when we act against chastity or obedience, and this damage carries on longer. Furthermore for every one religious who falls against chastity there are at least ten who fall against poverty. The person who sins against chastity knows clearly that he is doing something wrong and usually feels guilty about it, when he sins against povert...

Poverty in the Bible. In the Old Testament, there was the idea that richness is the fruit of the blessing of God, while poverty is the fruit of a punishment for something done wrong. Only with the prophets come out the idea that often the rich are so because they exploit the poor. In Amos, but also in Isaiah and Jeremiah we find already the message that the Lord will listen to the cry of the poor and oppressed. In the Psalms we find the invitation not to attach our hearts to material things which are destined to perish. So poverty becomes something acceptable, but surely not a kind of life to be directly chosen. In the New Testament we have a radical change. Phil 2 says that Jesus Christ though he was rich in heaven decided to lower himself and become a servant. For this choice the Father glorifies him. Is in Christ that poverty, humility, weakness are made choices needed to carry on God's plan: the plan of salvation. The life of Jesus Nazareth was the smallest...

THE VOW OF POVERTY: INTRODUCTION In order to understand the vow of poverty we should have a clear idea of what poverty means. First of all we should make a distinction between misery and poverty. By misery we mean the condition in which a person lacks the basic necessities, like clean water, proper and sufficient food, education, safe house, hygiene and medicines. Whenever any of these things is missing, the very life of the person is in danger. Misery is never the plan of God and should never be accepted. By poverty we mean the situation in which all the above necessities are assured, but no much more than that. What is missing are the unnecessary commodities like vehicles, television, telephone, and the access to a higher quality of things (best food, higher education, proper hospitals etc.). Poverty can be of two kinds: Unwanted poverty, where the poor person is not happy about his situation and wants to get out of it. Chosen poverty, where the person could...

Sexuality and vow of chastity Recalling what we have already said we can affirm that: - Man is made for relationship - Love is the language of this relationship Both relationship and love come from God and are a necessary part of human nature. From that we have to deduct that the vow of chastity cannot go against these two points. We can say that: The vow of chastity is in no way against relationships or love, but has a different way of fulfilling them. We do not give up the relationship but simply the physical aspect of it in order to develop better the social and spiritual aspects. We do not give up love, but the erotic aspect of it in order to develop better the agape aspect. So whoever makes the vow of chastity has to be a mature person, able to understand his own impulses and desires, accept them as part of his nature and sublimate them rather than satisfy them.

Problems and deviations in sexuality Before dealing with the problems which can come out of sexuality we must put a clear foundation to our concept. 1- Sexuality comes from God (he is the source and so we should respect the way he made things). It has a purpose. (Goal. We cannot use things for our own purpose) 2- The language of sexuality is LOVE. (Instrument. If we speak a different language then we create misunderstandings). 3- Furthermore we should keep in mind what in the person is: - Gender. (Male or female, as provided by nature and written in the genes). - Orientation. (This is the feeling we prove for other people, whom we are attracted to). - Desire or choices. (The actions we take in our sexual behavior).  The deviations can be divided in groups according to where the problem lies compared to the 6 points above. Of course we have to remember that not all deviations are actual sins. A sin is a purposely made choice of something that is wrong, while many ...

From attraction to intimacy When a person reaches the teenage, he experiences a strong attraction for people of the other sex. This is natural and has the important task to push him towards relationship. Usually this attraction is strongly "erotic". The person feels the desire of seeing, touching etc. ... At the beginning the attraction is generic (for all girls), but little by little it gets oriented towards one of them which more than the others fulfills what he unconsciously feels he lacks. At this stage he is fully into eros. Usually he is afraid to talk to her for fear of being rejected or made fun of. This first stage is called attraction . When we have the courage to talk to the girl, we start discovering even more things which are attractive. Furthermore we discover that she is available, she somehow likes me. At this point the emotions go full speed, while the intelligence seems unable to work. The girl is seen as whole perfect, she becomes the centre of ...

Love and sexuality. Love is the most used and misunderstood word. Everybody likes to speak about love, but what they all mean is different. To love cricket means to enjoy, to love a girl means to feel attraction, to "make love" means to have a sexual relationship, to love our parents means respect and veneration, to love children means care and protection, to love your country means dedication, to love the enemy means to be like God. Are there different kinds of love? Pope Benedict XVI wrote an encyclical letter called “Deus Charitas est” (God is love). In this letter he says that there are not different kinds of love, but different stages. Love is the nature of God. We human beings participate to the nature of God, (we are at his image), but we are also ruined by sin and by nature we are limited. So the more we grow in the image of God, the more our love is perfect. The more distant we are from God, the worst our love is. The three stages of Love. EROS: it means ba...

Extra readings: some lessons on Sexuality These readings are not to be done after the lessons on chastity as a separate topic, but together with them as a complement. They are put here as an appendix so they can be used with freedom. Reading them will help us to understand better the concepts developed above. Genesis 1:26-27 has: "Let us create Human being at our image.... Male and female he created them". In this passage we see that both male and female are image of God so are equal. Sexuality is the fruit of the creation of God, so everything that belongs to sexuality is good. What is sin is the wrong use of sexuality. When we use sexuality only for our pleasure and against the plan of God, then we commit sin. The fact of being man and woman means also that the two of them are called to live as community (family) so much united through love that they become one. This means that human beings are made by nature, for relationship and must live by love. The con...

Biblical passages on Chastity -) The intimacy with the Lord: Hos 2,16-25; Hos 11, 1-4 -) God’s love: 1 Jn 3,1-3; 1 Jn 4,7-21 -) chastity and apostolate: 1 Cor 7 33-35 -) chastity: anticipation of the kingdom of heaven (Mt 23,30) Questions for reflection Who are the people I can say I really love? How do I express my love for them? Who are the people I feel attraction for? What is attractive in them? Am I happy with myself, my sex, my family, my body, my companions? What are the things in myself, my sex, my family, my body, my companions which I do not like? Am I a busy person or do I have a lot of empty time? Am I happy with the things which I do? When there is any fall do I have the courage to confess it to the priest? While confessing it do I use generic words hoping the priest will not understand? Is there anything in my past life I feel guilty about, I find difficult to talk about, to think about?

From the writings of Don Orione Chastity Modesty and religious mortification are the safeguard of the beautiful virtue. Mortification and piety are the basis of morality of life. The more you pray, the more you keep on the right path. Why do we sometimes hear people say: That priest... is he like that? Because he does not pray! A soul without prayer is like a barren land, one that is not watered by the life-giving dew. If a person leaves prayer behind she will leave her vocation! .............. Woe to the person who thinks that he is safe and neglects to take precautions! We have to fight all the time in order to win, right up to the end; our life is a continuous battle, and the one who perseveres wins. I really cannot commend this beautiful virtue enough to you! Blessed are the pure: beati mundo corde! Blessed are those who have a pure heart! ............... There will never be any lack of occasions for falling, whether you are here or whether you go to other house...

The vow of chastity in our Constitutions Art. 18 of our Constitutions say that Chastity is first of all a gift given by God. Chastity is something that does not come naturally, and sometimes asks us to act against the desire of our human nature. To follow it is possible and good because we are not merely human but also “divine” through the grace coming to us from the Cross of Jesus. It is to this divine aspect that the vow of chastity refers to, and it is in the name of the fulfilment of this aspect that we are called to sacrifice some aspects of the human nature. We are called to be in intimate communion with the Trinity, communion which is love, and chastity is the way of reaching the highest level of love. As children of God with a special vocation, we are called to witness this divine reality present in us. (Art. 19). If wedding is a covenant among two people to live and love each other in the name of God, chastity is a covenant with God himself, to live and love h...

Chastity and apostolate By definition apostolate is the bringing of the message of salvation to all mankind. Apostolate can be said a true one if is lived in chastity, not in the sense that the apostle should not be married, but in the sense that we need to approach people with purity of intentions, without trying to manipulate them to get what we want. As a matter of fact apostolate is the place where religious are more exposed and where many fall. The fact is that in itself apostolate requires love and if we are not mature in our way of loving it is easy to fall from Agape to Philia and from it to Eros. If our love, due to our weak nature, is not real “agape”, we may expect satisfaction when we help others. People may reject our help or may not be grateful. We get discouraged and give up our work. Some other may be grateful and we get addicted to that satisfaction, and want more and more. We enter into a relationship of friendship, which is good and necessary, but friendship c...