miniZibaldone

With the mainsail of reason adjusted to the breeze of my desire, I launch on the deep with hope of pleasant voyage. When we look into the cause of what annoys us, we find that in every case it comes from not knowing how best to use time. —Dante Alighieri

Going to WYD, do not be in a rush to find an answer to your questions: hurriedness is the sign of the uncertainty that pushes us to want to grab something right away...concern yourselves with making the journey.

In the library: http://bookslibrarycebu.blogspot.com/2016/03/books-sorted-health-and-medicine-library-Nagle-Sacks-Groopman-Whitehouse-Alzheimers-Hematology-neurology-cancer-Cooke-Folkman-Spiro-Mercer-pediatrics.html Vincent Nagle's slim book had and still has such a wide impact on me. It was reading it during my mother's illness and death that helped me "cope" as they say—but for me,  to face,  simply—the reality of a limit that is paradoxically crying for the unlimited. An interview excerpt: What does working with them mean for you? These patients continually remind you of our limitations. Technological medicine cannot accept this limitation, and always seeks to overcome it, but isn’t able to do so. Maybe it can nudge it a bit, but you get to a certain point and you can go no farther. Medicine can’t ignore these patients. It can’t propose death by dehydration as a solution to the problem they pose. It would be absolutely inhuman, and the next step would be r...

Prayer is not a magic wand. It helps to keep faith in God and to entrust ourselves to Him, even when we do not understand His will. In this Jesus Himself – who  prayed so much! – is our example.  From the audience God truly saved Jesus from death giving Him complete victory over it, but the way followed to obtain it passed through death itself! The reference to the  supplication that God heard refers to Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane. Assailed by imminent anguish, Jesus prays to the Father to let the bitter chalice of the Passion  pass from Him, but His prayer is pervaded by trust in the Father and He entrusts Himself to His will without reservations: “Nevertheless – says Jesus – not as I  will, but as Thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39). The object of the prayer passes to the second plane; what matters first of all is His relation with the Father. See what  prayer does: it transforms the desire and moulds it according to God’s will, whatever it is, because one w...

W hereas Jesus was warning his disciples about his coming humiliation and death, they [apostles] were concerned with worldly matters such as who would become the most powerful among them. From the homily Pope Francis reminded of Jesus' warning to his disciples that "if anyone wishes to be first he shall be the last of all and the servant of all."  “Along the path where Jesus shows us to journey, the guiding principle is service. The greatest is the person who serves most, who serves others most, not the person who boasts, who seeks power, money… vanity, pride. No, these people are not the greatest. And this is what happened here with the apostles, even with the mother of John and James, it’s an event that happens every day in the Church, in every community. ‘But which of us is the greatest? Who’s in charge?’ Ambitions: there is always this desire to be a social climber, to have power, in every community, parish or institution.” [...]  “Vanity and power …  and how and...

Amid the grand political promises of candidates for this upcoming general election, it is timely to see what is behind these. In the polemic over federalism, poverty alleviation, vigilante killing, ill-gotten wealth, and even citizenship issues, it is worthy to go back to desire—even in politics—as the motivating factor for engaging reality. We Filipinos desire to be happy; we desire the truth, what is good for life, and what is beautiful. This desire is truly  unshakable . Even in the midst of poverty, corruption, lack of opportunity for personal nourishment (housing, employment, food, water), bitter trials, natural disasters, and limited horizon to judge the events of life, we are still desirous. Observant watchers and foreigners even pointed out that Filipinos are resilient: despite all the hardships and limitations, we still have young faces that smile. In the context of the election time, with this nation’s reality and circumstances side by side our life that longs f...

You, we, all of us together, of different religions, different cultures, but children of the same Father, brothers – and there, those poor people, who buy weapons to wreck fraternity. From the pope's remarks at the Mass of Last Supper Even today, here, there are two gestures: this, of all of us together, Muslims, Hindus, Catholics, Copts, Evangelical [Protestants] brothers and sisters – children of the same God – we want to live in peace, integrated. One gesture. Three days ago, an act of war, of destruction in a European city, by people who do not want to live in peace. Though behind that gesture, as there were behind that of Judas, there were others. Behind Judas there were those who offered money, that Jesus be delivered up to them. Behind that [other] gesture [on Tuesday in Belgium], there are manufacturers, arms dealers who want blood, not peace; they want the war, not fraternity. [...]  Each of us has a story, each of you has a story you carry with you. Many crosses, ...

Let us voice our truest desire: “[Jesus], let me receive my sight!” From a homily Sin also has this effect: it impoverishes and isolates us. [...]  But Jesus is passing by; he is passing by, and he halts: the Gospel tells us that “he stopped” (v. 49). Our hearts race, because we realize that the Light is gazing upon us, that kindly Light which invites us to come out of our dark blindness.  Jesus’ closeness to us makes us see that when we are far from him there is something important missing from our lives. His presence makes us feel in need of salvation, and this begins the healing of our heart. Then, when our desire to be healed becomes more courageous, it leads to prayer, to crying out fervently and persistently for help, as did Bartimaeus: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (v. 47). [...]  Unfortunately, like the “many” in the Gospel, there is always someone who does not want to stop, who does not want to be bothered by someone else crying out in pain, prefe...

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From the angelus This is the desire of the Church: that they find the mercy of Jesus, His love. [...]  The Church has always seen in them the image of the whole of humanity, and with today’s celebration of the feast of the Epiphany, she wishes to indicate respectfully, to every man and woman of this world, the Child that was born for the salvation of all. On Christmas Eve Jesus manifested Himself to the shepherds, humble men held in contempt – some say brigands --; they were the first to bring some warmth to that cold cave of Bethlehem. Now the Magi arrive from distant lands, also attracted mysteriously by that Child. The shepherds and the Magi are very different from one another; however, they have one thing in common: the heavens. [...]  The shepherds and the Magi teach us that to meet Jesus it is necessary to be able to raise one’s gaze to the heavens, not to be withdrawn in oneself, in one’s egoism, but to have the heart and mind open to the horizon of God, who always s...