– To love each other and to live in true brotherhood in the company of their Mother. It is necessary today that my priests know each other, that they help each other, that they truly love one another, that they be as brothers brought together by their Mother. There is today too much loneliness, too much abandonment for my priests! I do not want them to be alone: they must help each other, love each other, they must all feel as – and really be – brothers.
Blue Book #m-o
God is love, and our relationship is a love affair between God and us. Making contact with God inevitably must lead to making contact with others. In other words, prayer is for the service of people.
Grace in Every Season (February 14)
In Catholic circles we often hear about evangelization efforts and out reach programs in order to bring more people into the fold, but I think that sometimes we miss the mark when it comes to strengthening ‘the fold’ itself. Or the fold even knowing each other.
Most people are familiar with the long spoons allegory by now, how in both heaven and hell people are handed out long spoons along with the pots of food. In hell everyone is starving, because they are trying to use the long handles to feed themselves but in heaven, where the true answer is known everyone is thriving. Our ‘spoons’ or gifts are to be used for the benefit of our community. We start with our family, then our parish, and extend outward from there. There’s so much physical, emotional and spiritual need within our very own circles.
I think it’s commendable that society… both Christian and non Christian, and the government even, are very focused on the ‘poor’… rightly so, the Bible and much of church teaching leads us to this. But … yes there’s a but… what if we were to support each other a bit more up stream, where the need is first noticed… before it grows out of control. What if we were to help and love each other as the family we truly are. No one better than the other, just with different gifts and needs at alternating times.