Spiritual Sharing January 2005

Mon 01/31/05

* "Seek the Lord
all you, the humble
of the earth,
who obey his commands (...).
In your midst I will leave
a humble and lowly people".

Thank you, my Lord, because the encountering process with You, is so much not about us (what we do, what we fail to do) and so much more about You, what You can achieve in us, what You did, what You do and what You are so much willing to do for us.

The intimacy with You is more a process of letting You do, than a process in which we build everything.

When I want to stand before you deserving your love and acknowledgement, I don't allow You to build within me. What I build to impress You does not impress anyone because what really overwhelms and impresses is You.

When I allow myself to become an instrument of Yours, when I allow You to dwell within me, it is You who builds. I experience the joy and fullness of discovering that those merits are not mine but Yours. That everything is a great gift of Yours. That the only really worthy thing of mine is what is Yours.

Thu 01/27/05. St John of the Cross (Lightless night).

* In the joyful night
in secret, noboby saw me
I was looking nowhere
without any light and guide,
but that which burnt in my heart.

* "En la noche dichosa
en secreto, que nadie me veía,
ni yo miraba cosa
sin otra luz y guía,
sino la que en el corazón ardía".

Mon 01/24/05: Zephaniah 2,3; 3,12-13

* "Seek the Lord all you, the humble of the earth, who obey his commands".

Thu 01/20/05.

* Perfect prayer is not about a great deal of words but the willingness and deep wish inside Jesus' heart.

Sun 01/16/05. Sal 39

* Here I am, my Lord, to do your will.

Fri 01/14/05.

* My eternal King, this is your project in which you want me in: to conquer the world for the cause of right, to conquer the world for the cause of love.

Thu 01/13/05. The contemplation of the humble.

* When I try to decide, I always try to look at the humble, the simple, the unsuccessful, the obscure work that perseveres though it is not acknowledged, the regular people (those who have always been there even if they are not successful or wealthy or appealing). It is the contemplation of these humble, these simple, the simple little things in everyday life those which give me the frame and the environment where I can start thinking and feeling in my heart about the meaning of my own life and what is going to bring happiness in my life.

Wed 01/12/05. The baptism of Jesus

* Contemplation of John the Baptist. Of how he recognizes Jesus, about his reverence to Him: "It is I who need baptism from you". Of how Jesus wants to get baptized.

* My dearest Lord, being often last or after others, makes me so much happier.

Tue 01/11/05. Isaiah 42,1-4, 6-7

"Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom my soul delights.
I have endowed him with my spirit
that he may bring true justice to the nations.
He does not cry out or shout aloud,
nor make his voice heard in the streets.
He does not break the crushed reed,
nor quench the wavering flame.
faithfully he brings true justice;
he will neither waver, nor be crushed
until true justice is established on earth,
for the islands are awaiting his law.
I, the Lord, have called you to serve the cause of right;
I have taken you by the hand and formed you;
I have appointed you as covenant of the people and light of the nations.
To open the eyes of the blind,
to free captives from the dungeon".

Mon 01/10/05

* Feeling a bit low on Monday morning after 5 days of holiday. It's not about laziness but after listening to the news this morning.

* Praying for Axxx, Exxx and thanking my Lord because Cxxx spent somehow happy Christmas days.

* Let my Lord thank Him for everything He has given to me. Let me value it and be thankful.

* "I, the Lord, have called you to serve the cause of right".

Mon 01/04/05

* For prayer to give fruit, it has to come from our own heart and touch God's heart. My dearest God, I think that every prayer spoken from the intimacy of our own heart, always tips gently on Your own heart.

* My Lord, thy will be done.

* My prayer for Axxx and Cxxx.

Sun 01/02/05

* Thank you for the email I sent to Axxx Cxxx with the two poems of Teresa of Ávila.

Thu 12/30/04

* About the blessing for the New Year. About the simplicity of the way in which you made yourself present through it:

Numbers 6:22-27

The Lord spoke to Moses and said, "Say this to Aaron and his sons: 'This is how you are to bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you.

May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace.'

This is how they are to call down my name on the sons of Israel, and I will bless them."

Tue 12/28/04. Numbers 6,22-27

* "May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace. This is how they are to call down my name on the sons of Israel, and I will bless them"

Mon 12/27/04

* About how the music can enhance the encountering process with my Lord.

Fri 12/24/04

* "How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good He has done in me".

Wed 12/22/04

* My dearest Lord, thy will be done. Because you have shown me that your will goes beyond mine and so much more beyond.

Tue 12/21/04

* And to us, a son is given. He will be called the Prince of Peace.

Mon 12/20/04

* "Jesus never contemplates human suffering passively".

Thu 12/16/04.

* My Lord never torments our conscience. He sews our life like a nice costume, with strings of forgiveness.

Wed 12/15/04.

* "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, a name which means 'God is with us' ".

Tue 12/14/04.

* "Joy is a basket made out of love where souls can be collected"

Mon 12/13/04

* May My Lord make me small. So that I can know that it is Him who does everything in me and not me.

* Thank you so much for the trip to Paris. Thank you for the "Stabat Mater" by Pergolesi in the Trinity Church. For inviting the people from my old French parish to write Christmas greeting cards to the Ivory Coast. For the dinner with the people from my old job when I was working in Paris. For the welcome and hospitality of Fxxx who opened his house to me. For the people from my old residence Lanteri (they didn't have place but found one for me). For the dinner with Axxx, of how he is finding his way of life. For our goodbye hug. For the promenade through the park Sceaux with Axxx Vxxx. For the conversation and time with Exxx. For the library where I rested and studied. For the intensity of your presence during these days. Thank you my Lord, thank you very much.

Fri 12/03/04

* "Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. And all mankind shall see the salvation of God".

Thu 12/02/04.

* "Those who determine the changes in the world are not those who, apparently are in the first rows. (...) But the humble, who prepare for many others the future to come".

* Thank you, my Lord, because you gave your life just to tell me that you love me.

Wed 12/01/04. Is 11,1-10

* "The wolf lives with the lamb, the panther lies down with the kid, calf and lion cub feed together with a little boy to lead them.. The cow and the bear make friends, their young lie down together. The lion eats straw like the ox. The infant plays over the cobra's hole, into the viper's lair the young child puts his hand. They do not hurt, no harm, on all my holy mountain, for the country is filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters swell the sea".

Tue 11/30/04

* "Doubt is no more than the other side of faith". My Lord, my doubts become the foundation of my faith. Be with me when I doubt, so that you increase my trust when I doubt.

Fri 11/26/04

* About prayer. Let me pray allowing Jesus live within me. So that his choices might be my choices, and his feelings my feelings. Let me pray looking the same way you look, so that I clearly know that it is not my sight but yours, that they are not my feelings but your feelings. Because I know what I see and what I feel and I know when your eyes see within me and your heart feels inside mine.

Thur 11/25/04

* "So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming. ... Therefore, you too must stand ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect".

* Thank you very much for telling me who you are at any time, in any situation. Let me be ready not to miss the opportunity of encountering you.

* Today it is Thanksgiving Day. Thank you so much for all the good you have done for me.

Wed 11/24/04

* "It's not me who lives, it's Christ who lives in me".

* "I belong to Christ and nothing will detach me from His love".

Tue 11/23/04. Psalm 1.

* Blessed the man who doesn't follow the advice of the wicked, and doesn't join the meeting of the cinical, but his/her task is the Law of God, and thinks about it day and night. It will be like the tree planted at the edge of the river; it gives fruit and its leaves don't corrupt. When he/she starts something, it ends up well.

Sun 11/21/04.

* The liturgical New Year. Thank you, my Lord, because the throne of your kingdom is the cross.

Fri 11/19/04

* "I have given them your word; and he world has hated them because they are not of the world, just us I am not of the world".

* Dearest Lord, I sometimes feel so much that I'm not of the world.

Thu 11/18/04

* "Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come, that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world. He loved them to the extreme".

* Thank you my Lord, for your unilateral love to the extreme.

* "Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way?. Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Show us the Father. (...) From now on you know Him and you have seen Him".

Wed 11/17/04

* Thanks, my Lord, because my King of the Universe shows his highest splendor when He is hanging on the cross. Thank you, my Lord, because you chose this very way of giving you to teach me how to love.

Mon 11/15/04

* Thank you my Lord, because Exxx found the error in my code. I was feeling anxious that my results were wrong. Exxx found an error in his code and he told me to release my pressure.

* When I did my social service, I tried to work in a drug addict reinsertion program. That didn't work, but you sent me to work with mental and physical handicapped. Finally, that was so much better. Thank you once more for your providence.

* Thank you for the opera group yesterday. I start to feel better and meet the people.

* Let me be the sacrament of your love. So that you may love through my own love.

Thu 11/11/04. Mt 9, 35-38

* "At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity. They were lying prostrate from exhaustion, like sheep without a shepherd. He said to his disciples: "The harvest is good but laborers are scarce. Beg the harvest master to send out laborers to gather his harvest".

Wed 11/10/04

* About some stress at work. Let me think about all the other people feeling insecure and stressed. They may have real reasons to feel like that. As for me, I let me not think I have better reasons.

Mon 11/8/04

* A good criterion to choose. When I decide doing something that I don't feel too much like doing, instead of something else that I feel more comfortable with, because I think that the first would be better for me. Yesterday I invited my family to eat at home. I was pretty tired at the end and I didn't feel like going out. I preferred to stay studying at home and release some stress of my new job. Finally, I went to the gay opera group though I didn't feel too much like going.

Fri 11/5/04.

* "I shall be filled, when I awake, with the sight of your glory". For all those times in which walking by faith (and not by sight) one tries to be faithful,

building your kingdom. I was like sleeping. Let me believe that when I awake, I shall be filled with the sight of your glory as indeed I have seen in the past.

Thu 11/4/04. Thessalonians 2,16-3,5

* "May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who has given us his love and, through his grace, such inexhaustible comfort and such sure hope, comfort you and strengthen you in everything good that you do or say".

Wed 11/3/04.

* Praying for Cxxx.

* About having nothing to write, nothing to say, nothing to tell. Let me be in silence and peace. For sometimes the heart is not eloquent. Nothing happens.

Sun 10/31/04. Bach's cantata

* Gott, du hast es wohl gefüget,
Was uns itzo widerfährt.
Drum lasst uns auf seine Gnade bauen,
Denn er hat uns dies beschert,
Was uns ewig nun vergnüget.

* God, you have well arranged,
what happens to us.
So, let us glorify his grace, because He has given to us,
what makes us ever happy.

Fri 10/29/04. Zacchaeus

* Zacchaeus was anxious to see what kind of man Jesus was. May I have that anxiety to see who You are.

Thu 10/28/04.

* Praying for Carmen Durántez.

* Coloquio de amor

"Si el amor que me tenéis,
Dios mío, es como el que os tengo;
decidme, ¿en qué me detengo?
O Vos, ¿en qué os detenéis?

Alma, ¿qué quieres de mí?
Dios mío, no más que verte.
Y ¿qué temes más de ti?
lo que más temo es perderte.

Un amor que ocupe os pido,
Dios mío, mi alma os tenga,
para hacer un dulce nido
donde más la convenga.

Un alma en Dios escondida,
¿qué tiene que desear?
sino amar y más amar,
y en amor toda encendida
tornarte de nuevo a amar?."

A colloquy of love.

If the love you have for me,
My Lord, is like mine for you;
tell me, why should I stop?
or You, why should You stop?.

Soul, what do you want from me?
My God, only to see you.
And what are you most afraid of?
what I'm most afraid of, is to loose you.

A love that settles I demand from you,
My God, my soul be with you,
onto a sweet nest
where the most convenient be for her.

A soul in God hidden,
what can she desire?
but love even more and more,
and being all in loving fire
turn once more to love?.