Thursday, April 28, 2005

Spiritual Sharing April 2005

Thu 04/28/05. John 14, 14-21

* "I will not leave you orphans; I will come back to you. In a short time the world will no longer see me; but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you willl understand that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them, will be one who loves me; and anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and show myselft to him".

Wed 04/27/05

* "And if it is the will of God that you should suffer, it is better to suffer for doing right than for doing wrong". Dearest Lord, suffering for doing right allows me to keep my internal peace. But bad for me, if ever I suffer for doing wrong. There's no comfort, no peace. Poor of this little servant if I do my own thing apart from your plans. Tell me your plans. Give me the availability to follow.

Tue 04/26/05.

* "Come and hear, all who fear God. I will tell what he did for my soul: Blessed be God who did not reject my prayer, nor withhold his love for me".

Mon 04/25/05

* After the dinner on Saturday, a full box of olive oil broke and spreaded out of the main entrance of the dinner place. I thought of leaving, that was not my duty, I was tired. Thank you, dearest Lord, because I did not leave, but stayed and helped out. I went for a little drink afterwards with them all. I was mainly silent but comfortable with all this people.

* About how pretty Jxxx was. Praying for her so that she may find what she's looking for.

* "The Lord is the living stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him; set yourselves close to him, so that you too may be living stones making a spiritual house."

* "The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. By the Lord has this been done. It is wonderful in our eyes".

Sat 04/23/05. Hch (Acts) 11, 1-18

* Contemplation of how Peter and Bernabe witness how the Holy Spirit is acting through the pagans. Of how unquestionable these works of pagans are inspired by this Holy Spirit. This is the proof for Peter and Bernabe that if the Lord is acting so clearly through these pagans, it might not be necessary that they follow all the Jewish laws and procedures. That's not necessary to receive the Holy Spirit.

* Contemplation of the unquestionable acts of love from those with a different sexual orientation. If the Holy Spirit is acting through them like this, who can say that they are not eligible of God's love and recognition from all society.

Fri 04/22/2005. John 14, 1-12

* "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still, and trust in me. There are many rooms in my Fathers' house; if there were not, I should have told you. I am now going to prepare a place for you, I shall return to take you with me; so that where I am, you may be too"

* My dearest Lord, I trust you. Thank you for having a place for me and for all. I don't care about whether the place is comfortable or honorable. It is simply a place where you are around. Let me find that place, my dearest Lord. Show me that place. Give me certainty about serving you or finding somebody to be with us. Let my enthusiasm for him progressively increase if that's what you planned for me.

* "How can we know the way?. Jesus said: 'I am the Way, the Truth an the Life'.... No one can come to the Father except through me."

Tues 04/19/05

* Thinking about writing that proposal to come out to my Jesuit group for next year. Thank you for the approval of one of the Jesuits.

* About not feeling very confident at work. Trying to add value somehow and looking for quick results. Let me find my place, my Lord, I should have found it already but I may still need longer. Let me never loose the capability of creating a nice atmosphere. That's what You add value for me.

* Thinking about him, I want to think more but it does not happen as often and spontaneously as I would wish. Let me continue being in contact.

Mon 04/18/05

* Thank you, my Lord, for that little prayer time for the vocations in the church. My parents were there too. It was simple but You were there in the middle. Thank you for the welcome of the people of the seminary (where the prayer took place).

* Let me, my dearest, not be deaf to your voice. Let me listen and try to follow. Be the leader. Let me just follow.

* About the proposal to come out in my jesuit group with Sxxx and Exxx. We will propose to do it next year.

Fri 04/15/05

* Dearest Lord, continue leading. Let me try my best to follow. You go ahead of me. Let me follow your path. With doubts and uncertainties. Let me follow. I'm just trying to follow. Let me not get out of your way.

* "I am the good shepherd. The gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out. When He has brought out his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice". Let me know your voice, my dearest Lord.

Tue 04/12/05

* "I am the good shepherd, says the Lord; I know my own sheep and my own know me".

* "I have come so that they may have life and have it to the fullest".

Mon 04/11/05

* My dearest Lord, thank you for having lunch with Exxx and Bxxx (my grandmother and my aunt). Thank you for their availability. It was a very good idea to go to see "Downfall" with my aunt (she goes to the cinema very rarely and she liked the movie very much).

* I keep my prayer for Cxxx Dxxx. May you be with her, may she feel your presence very near.

* May thy will be done, my dearest Lord. For your will makes me happiest.

* I told Ixxx about Jxxx. I did what I thought it was your will. I don't want to hurt him.

* Thank you very much for the wonderful walk around "El Retiro" (Central Park in Madrid). For the bright sun and the fresh air.

Sun 04/10/05.

* "Quédate con nosotros, Señor". Stay with us dearest Lord.

Thu 04/07/05

* I was reading this psalm today. It seemed to me that I was reading what I needed to read. Thank you so much, my dearest Lord for your Providence, thank you for your subtle advice.

Show us, dearest Lord, the path of life

Preserve me, God, I take refuge in you
I say to the Lord: "You are my God.
O Lord, it is you who are my portion and cup;
it is you yourself who are my prize"

I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel,
who even at night directs my heart.
I keep the Lord ever in my sight:
since he is at my right hand, I shall stand firm.

And so my heart rejoices, my soul is glad;
even my body shall rest in safety.
For you will not leave my soul among the dead,
nor let your beloved know decay.

You will show me the path of life,
the fullness of joy in your presence,
at your right hand happiness for ever.

Sun 04/03/05

* About visiting Bxxx and Exxx (my grandmother and my aunt) on Saturday. A simple little thing of those that put together form a great reason to give thanks, a great reason why life is worth living. About realizing that that's not only my feeling but theirs. My father called me on Sunday morning so that my grandmother could talk to me for a few minutes.

* My beloved don't need presents but presence. Let me give them my presence.

Mon 04/04/05

* My dearest Lord. I feel confused. There is something clear though. I want your will to be done. That's what brings me your happiness and peace. Still, I don't know what's your will. What I think, is not useful to me. You have already proved me that my ways are not your ways. That your paths are not mine. I put into question my own will.

* My dearest Lord, let me know your will. Le me be vigilant and ready to listen. Let me know your will. Let me be attentive and wait patiently to figure out what You would do, even though that might not be what I would do or what I fell most like doing.

My dearest Lord, let me know your will.

* "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
my ways are not your ways, says Yahweh.
For as the heavens are above the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts above your thoughts".

Wed 03/30/05

* Happy are those who starve and thirst doing our Lord's will (figuring out our Lord's plan in their lives, asking to have it revealed).

* Happy are those who are persecuted for being trustful to our Lord's plan in our lives.

* "Stay with us", said the disciples of Emmaus to that foreigner. Let me long the presence of that foreigner.

* My prayer for the 93rd birthday of Bxxx (my grandmother).

Sun 03/26/05

* My Lord, forgive me, because there are times in which I don't realize that I can hurt others. I did not want to, but I should have realized. I'm sorry for not having realized.

* Let me not be in as many places and with as many people as to be nowhere and with no one. I cannot see everyone. Maybe it's just fine to be with the very ones I have to be with.

* I pray for a friend. We could not talk much today, but for what the Iittle I heard from him, he was hurt, resentful. May You and your peace be with him.

Fri 03/25/06. Good Friday

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

* My dearest Lord. Make me little, tiny, small, as You, Yourself, You made Yourself tiny, below everyone, as to die for me, die on a cross. Thank you, my Lord, because You chose this very way of giving You to teach me how to love.

Tue 03/22/05

Por toda la hermosura
nunca yo me perderé,
sino por un no sé qué
que se alcanza por ventura.

Sabor de bien que es finito,
lo más que puede llegar,
es cansar el apetito
y estragar el paladar;
y así, por toda dulzura
nunca yo me perderé,
sino por un no sé qué
que se halla por ventura.

For all beauty
I'll never get lost,
but for some I don't know what
that one reaches by fortune.

The taste of finite good,
can at most,
make the apetite tired
and saturate the mouth;
so there for all sweetness
will I never get lost
but for some I don't know what
that one reaches by fortune.

Thu 03/17/05

The Lord God has given me a well trained tongue,

that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them.

Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not rebelled, have not turned back.

I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.

The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.

Fri 03/11/05

* I pray for the 200 victims of the terrorist attacks in Madrid a year ago. For their families and for the terrorists.

* Ezekiel 37, 12-14

"The Lord says this: 'I am now going to open your graves; I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel. An you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. And I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I shall resettle you on your own soil".

* May you, my Lord, raise all the families of the victims. Put your spirit in them and the terrorists, so that they will live and resettle the soil of hope, tolerance and forgiveness.

* "I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord; whoever believes in me will never die".

Wed 03/09/05

* "En la interior bodega
de mi amado bebí, y cuando salía
por toda aquesta vega,
ya cosa no sabía,
y el ganado perdí, que antes seguía.

Allí me dió su pecho
allí me enseñó ciencia muy sabrosa,
y yo le di de hecho
a mí, sin dejar cosa;
allí le prometí de ser su esposa.

Mi alma se ha empleado,
y todo mi caudal en su servicio:
ya no guardo ganado,
ni ya tengo otro oficio;
que ya sólo en amar es mi ejercicio".

(Saint John of the Cross)

In the interior cavern
from my beloved I drank, and when I was leaving
all around this riverside,
nothing I knew already
and the flock I lost, that I followed before.

There, He gave me his breast
there He showed me so tasteful wisdom,
and I gave Him in fact
me, without leaving anything;
there I promised Him to be His wife

My soul has employed itself,
and all my forces to His service:
I don't guard flock,
nor I have other job;
that now only loving is my exercise.

Mon 03/07/05

* Thank you for the wonderful weekend in San Sebastián. Thank you for the hospitality of Pxxx. Thank you for the little conversation with Exxx and Nxxx. Thank you for my family calling to see how I was doing.

Fri 03/04/05

* "As Jesus went along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, for him to have been born blind?'. 'Neither he nor his parents sinned', Jesus answered 'he was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him'.

* Let me, my Lord, understand how the unexplained and unjustified wrong and nonsense is your preferred means to display the works of your hands.

Thu 03/03/05

* "No quieras despreciarme,
que si color moreno en mí hallaste,
a bien puedes mirarme,
después que me miraste,
que gracia y hermosura en mí dejaste" (S. John of the Cross).

* Don't reject me (my Lord),
that if brown color (sin) you found within me,
You can still well look at me,
cause after You looked at me,
You left grace and beuty in me.

* The encountering process with You is so much not about me, and so much more about You, what You did, what You do and what You are so much willing to do for me.

Mon 02/28/05

* I pray for Jxxx. For the operation she has just had. For her quick recovery. The operation is a lip suction. For what that means of lack of acceptance of her own figure, the underlying problem of being unable of finding a husband. I pray for her so that You may be with her, so that I may bring your presence to her.

Wed 02/23/05.

* There's somebody in my job that knows more than me. According to our age and experience we should be at the same level (or I could be even higher). However, he is supervising my work and I acknowledge that he is a good supervisor, that he has more experience than me in this field. I could have a competitive attitude and not accept his supervision to prove that I can do by myself and try to be more than him. However, I prefer to be less, and work well and take out of him his best and show the best out of me.

* Thank you, my dearest Lord, because you made me small, tiny and little. Because you don't want me to be the best but simply to do my best. Thank you so much for showing me to be humble. It makes me so much happier. Let me not have competitors to eliminate but friends to join and share with.

Tue 02/22/05. John 4,5-12. The samaritan woman.

* "Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will workship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know; for salvation comes from the Jews. But the hour will come when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth: that is the kind of worshipper the Father wants".

* "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete his work".

Fri 02/18/05

* Dearest Lord, the contemplation of somebody in a difficult situation does not satisfy me. Even if the person deserves it for being so selfish, for thinking that he/she is so on top of the world. Even if the person who is now in a difficult situation has done as much as possible to undermine me or my beloved. The contemplation of somebody in a difficult situation does not satisfy me. This does not mean that the person should not be in that precise difficult situation (one gets eventually what one deserves). It's simply the fact that the contemplation of somebody in a difficult situation does not satisfy me.

* Dearest Lord, it satisfies me so much more the contemplation of somebody who was in a difficult situation but realized how unhappy he/she was. It recreates my sight the contemplation of somebody who gives small steps towards the end of a difficult situation, because he/she has realized that being on top of the world leads nowhere. This last contemplation indeed satisfies me.

* Thank you, my Lord, because this satisfaction is the work of Your hands.

Tue 02/15/05.

* Thank you once more for the joint welcome group meeting last Friday. I had prepared some material which really moved my heart. When I prepared the meeting with a person of the other group, he suggested not to include my material at first. Finally I included it as "additional material". I did not insist to use that material as principal because I preferred to give preference to the other person's views and materials. We didn't read it, not even mention it when the meeting started. It was later when this person suggested in the middle of the meeting to read it.

* Thank you, my Lord, because that was the right time to read that material and not when I had originally planned. Thank you for not willing to have my material included, because you chose the very right time and person to read it.

* Thank you for the dinner afterwards and how Axxx captivated us with her neighbourhood stories.

Mon 02/14/05. We all need.

* Thank you for bringing your presence on last Friday joint meeting of our welcome group.

Mon 02/07/05. Mathew 5,13-16

* "You are the salt of the earth. But if salt becomes tasteless, what can make it salty again?".

* Don't allow me to let myself become tasteless. Let my little light shine to others and never keep it for myself.

Fri 02/04/2005.

* What do I have, my Lord, that You my friendship search? (Lope de Vega).

Thu 02/03/2005. Corinthians 2, 1-5

"As for me, brothers, when I came to you, it was not with any show of oratory of philosophy, but simply to tell you what God had guaranteed. During my stay with you, the only knowledge I claimed to have was about Jesus, and only about him as the crucified Christ. Far from relying on any power of my own, I came among you in great "fear and trembling" and in my speeches and the sermons that I gave, there were none of the arguments that belong to philosophy; only a demonstration of the power of the Spirit. And I did this so that your faith should not depend on human philosophy but on the power of God".

Wed 02/02/2005. Is 58, 7-10

Thus says the Lord:
Share your bread with the hungry,
and shelter the homeless poor,
clothe the man you see to be naked
and turn not from your own kin.
Then will your light shine like the dawn
and your wound be quickly healed over.
Your integrity will go before you
and the glory of the Lord behind you.
Cry, and the Lord will answer;
call, and he will say, "I am here".
If you do away with the yoke,
the clenched fist, the wicked word,
if you give your bread to the hungry,
and relief to the oppressed,
your light will rise in the darkness,
and your shadows become like noon.