Riflessioni ad alta voce

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...

Danger of a wrong interpretation of the vow of chastity: the double way Today, together with the extraordinary example of so many men and women committed to their consecration, we may find somebody having a wrong interpretation of the vow of chastity. This is possible when we focus only on some aspects of it, while neglecting the global picture and the foundations of the vow itself. This happens when we separate the vow from the consecration and from the fellowship of Christ. The error can be in two different ways. Some may stress too much on the aspect of not getting married. This can become the reason for rejecting every possible relationship (communication) with people of the opposite sex. This attitude hides some serious psychological problems. Some other, instead, considering not to get married, solely a rule to be practiced literally, they avoid marriage but allow themselves secretly everything else. This double life of commitment on the outside and of lust on the ...

Here is an extra reading to help us to reflect on what was the attitude of Jesus while relating with women. EXTRA READING: Jesus and the women. Somebody may say that Jesus was like anyone of his time a close minded misogynist. In fact none of the twelve apostles was a woman. Did Jesus think, like people of his time, that women were useless or inferior? Before answering about Jesus let us have a look at the condition of women in the Jewish society at the time of Jesus. The power of men inside the family was “Absolute”. The girl was under the dominion of the father till the moment she would get married (thing that would happen in her early teenage). After that she would move under the protection of her husband. If ever her father would die before her marriage, her elder brother (not her mother) would assume the power. After marriage she would not be free to enter public places unless fully veiled. A serious man would never entertain a woman in a public place and if ever he...

The vow of Chastity What is actually chastity? It is difficult to give an exhaustive answer in few words. Every man is called to find his fulfilment in God who is pure love. The love of God is a pure one, free from every possible human attachment, but our nature , which craves for such love, is at the same time ruined by sin and so feels also the pressure of other attachments which often at his eyes look look like real love. Chastity is the combination of three elements: The call of making the journey of purification of our love The commitment we undertake to do our best in this journey The much needed grace of God to make this journey possible. So the vow of chastity is much more than celibacy (not getting married), but regards all the ways in which we deal with our relationships. We sin against chastity whenever we try to possess others, we exploit them for our purposes, we put them before God. Whenever, in doing things, we look for human appreciation rather than righ...

Our formula of profession During my life I had many occasions to participate to religious professions of members of different congregations. I had also the chance to take in hand the constitutions of many congregations, especially of sisters. I am not afraid to say that I never saw a formula of profession so deep and complete as ours. I can say that it is the spiritually richest and theologically most meaningful formula I ever saw. This formula condensate in few words the reality of our charism, of our vocation and also of our life. Let us see some points of it. Responding : The call to religious life is not our initiative or something that one day we decide to do for the Lord. It is God's initiative and we respond to it. to the love of God: is a call of love for a life of love. God calls us because he loves us. He loved us from the beginning, each one of us with a particular love, ad particular is the vocation he gives us. So vocation is something beautiful, precio...

OUR SPIRITUALITY Both Charism and Spirituality are properly dealt with in the book “On the footsteps of Don Orione”, and so I invite you to refer to that for a proper formation. But what is the difference between Charism and Spirituality? Our Charism, as we saw above is a free gift from God. From God it comes, God shaped it and entrusted it to us. Now we are called to act upon it to implement it, to make it alive in the Church of today. The way we do so is called Spirituality. We call it spirituality, because it reminds us the word “spirit”. We would think immediately of something outside the world, something opposite to practical or material. This is a wrong way of thinking. The practical and the material are fully involved in it. We speak of spiritual because all our activities have to be “informed”, shaped by the Spirit of God, only then, we can be sure they will be right and “effective”. Just a word about the distinction between “effective” and “efficient”. ...

Vocation: Called by God Every seminarian, when the moment comes to make a decision, when he has to pass from one stage to the next in the formation process, is faced with this question: “What does God want from me?” which in other words could be said: “What is my vocation?” Vocation is a word used a lot in the religious environment. The word comes from the latin “vocare” which means “to call”. God calls us and we should answer to him. But how to discern the will of God? The will of God involves much more than the simple state of life (get married or not), or of a profession (to become a priest, a doctor, or a teacher). Furthermore we should not fall into the temptation of wanting a precise detailed plan as if God would have already decided for us regarding the hundred small things of everyday. Vocation has to be seen in the broader concept of the plan of God. First and foremost we are called to be his children, to share the eternal life, the life of love of the Trinity. Since ...

The need and use of rules. We have been created for freedom. Without freedom there is no love. Without love there is no real life. But aren’t rules a restriction to freedom? They may become so when we put them at the centre, when we focus on them forgetting the real target for which they have been created. Yet the rules are important and maybe the best tool in order to achieve efficacy in our work. Let us give an example. If I write: “life because us God receive love loves we and of his”, most probably you are not able to understand the meaning of my sentence. You may have glimpsed it since the message is short and the topic is well known to you, but imagine that I write a whole book in this way, who would read it, or even buy it? A life run by pure freedom (meant as absence of rules) can be compared to the above sentence. On the other hand what do you think of this sentence: “God (I used the capital letter since we are at the beginning of the sentence) love...

CLUB DELLA GIOIA Requisiti richiesti ai componenti : Una gran voglia di vivere. Quota d'iscrizione : Un sorriso. STATUTO 1- Riconoscere Dio dietro ogni avvenimento e aver fiducia in Lui. 2- Di fronte alle sofferenze pensare a Gesù in croce, che poi è risorto. 3- Ringraziare sempre di quanto ci capita. 4- Essere ottimisti sul futuro. 5- Trovare ogni giorno un motivo nuovo per gioire. 6- Avere fiducia nelle persone. 7- Vedere negli altri gli aspetti positivi. 8- Mai lamentarsi, ma piuttosto aiutare a correggere. 9- Incoraggiare gli altri membri del club qualora fossero in difficoltà. 10- Diffondere queste cose anche tra gli altri. Il sorriso non costa niente a chi lo da, ma arricchisce chi lo riceve. God alone can give faith But you can give your witness. God alone can give hope But you can give others confidence. God alone can give love But you can teach others to love. God alone can give...

Dear Friends, Internet is full of material of every kind. Why to ad more? Who is going to read it anyway? Well Who ever knows? We just throw the seed, then Go will make use of it, if he likes so. My blogs will be nothing scientific, nor the fruit of deep studies but just some reflections which sometimes I shared with others in the form of classes or meditations, sometimes they never came out of my mouth. I hope they may be of some use. May everything be doso so to "INSTAURARE OMNIA IN CHRISTO".