Charity

Love  

This morning as I was glancing through the writing of Fulton J. Sheen on Charity, I was fascinated by the way he presented about Love. Here I will like to share with you the abstract of the Address delivered on February 4, 1945. Hope you too enjoy and gain some insight by it.  

“If, then, you bear a hatred toward anyone, overcome it by doing that person a favour. You can begin to like classical music only by listening to it, and you can make friends out of your enemies only by practising charity. The reason you love someone else is because that person supplies your lack or fills up your void. You find in the other something you do not have: beauty, wealth, virtue, kindliness, etc.  

But God does not love you because you supply His lack. He finds you lovable not because, of and by yourself, you are lovable, but because He puts some of His love in you. As a mother loves her child because her nature is in and his coloured pattern is in it, so God loves you because His Power or His nature or His Love is in some way in you.  

If, then, God’s love for you makes you lovable, why not put some of your love in other people and make them lovable. Where you do not find love, put it there. Love therefore all things, and all persons in God.  

So long as there are poor, I am poor:
So long as there are prisons, I am a prisoner:
So long as there are sick, I am weak:
So long as there is ignorance, I must learn:
So long as there is hate, I must love.”  

Thank You

Who is the centre of my life?

                                          Who is the centre of my life?

As a student, have you ever experienced moments of boredom, restlessness, disturbance and loneliness? In these situations one may wonder, ‘what is happening to me?’ Some people may try to venture out many things to attain inner joy. Just to focus in one aspect namely: spiritual life. Here, one might be trying hard to experience peace and meaning in life, but all the efforts may go in vain, why? What is actually the problem here? Experiences of decline and negativity make one to focus on self. So, self centeredness is the reason why one is not able to enjoy peace and serenity in prayer. 

     One has to take a U-Turn in relating with God, which means God becomes the centre of my life. Some good resolutions like: I have to pray regularly, I have to meditate, I have to say many prayers, and I have to read Holy Scriptures etc. I I I I I and only I sentences. And when one fails to carry them out one becomes more miserable than before. The U-Turn attitude of spiritual life helps us to see that God loves us first and all that we do is to respond to that love. We find in the scripture where we find God taking the first step in reaching out to us with love: Jn. 15

·         I abide in you

·         I have loved you

·         I have called you friends

·         I chose you

·         I appointed you……..

     In all these phrases, we see the first approach of God, so we can be assured of God’s love. We don’t need to do anything to receive God’s love; it is already there with us. Convinced of the love of God, we respond to His love day by day in loving one another.

You are God’s love

Just respond to that love and all sadness and loneliness will disappear gradually.