miniZibaldone

Impossibility of abstaining and of holding myself in reserve, inability to satisfy myself, to be self-sufficient and to cut myself loose, that is what a first look at my condition reveals to me. That there is constraint and a kind of oppression in my life is not an illusion, then, nor a dialectical game, it is a brute fact of daily experience. At the principle of my acts, in the use and after the exercise of what I call my freedom, I seem to feel all the weight of necessity. Nothing in me escapes it. If I try to evade decisive initiatives, I am enslaved for not having acted. If I go ahead, I am subjugated to what I have done. In practice, no one eludes the problem of practice; and not only does each one raise it, but each, in his own way, inevitably resolves it. It is this very necessity that has to be justified. And what would it mean to justify it, if not to show that it is in conformity with the most intimate aspiration of man? —Maurice Blondel

Time [Read Full Text]

Men and Saints Charles Peguy  GOD SPEAKS : When you love someone, you love him as he is. I alone am perfect. It is probably for that reason That I know what perfection is And that I demand less perfection of those poor people. I know how difficult it is. And how often, when they are struggling in their trials, How often do I wish and am I tempted to put my hand under their stomachs In order to hold them up with my big hand Just like a father teaching his son how to swim In the current of the river And who is divided between two ways of thinking. For on the one hand, if he holds him up all the time and if he holds him too much, The child will depend on this and will never learn how to swim. But if he doesn't hold him up just at the right moment That child is bound to swallow more water than is healthy for him. In the same way, when I teach them how to swim amid their trials I too am divided by two ways of thinking. Because if I ...

Excerpt from “ God is Mercy , ”  notes from a talk by Luigi Giussani The letter said in the beginning, “Feeling that I’m not and never will be guaranteed in the perseverance of my faith [I could say vocation; it’s one and the same] worries me; knowing that my freedom is and always will be able to reject God worries me. At times I reproach myself for this as a residue of rationalism.” Exactly! This is precisely the reason. “Rationalism” means that man can claim to judge his own life and things from his own point of view, that is, man who claims to be the measure of all things. What determines our life is the event of Christ; the event of the covenant is what gives meaning to our life; what has happened to us determines the security, the certainty, of our life. “Yes, but I can always reject what happened.” Will you please understand the error of this objection? Because one must truly reject, and this is a possibility only if one fails to remember, if one does not make memory o...

You can become a neighbor to anyone you meet in need, and you will be so if you have compassion in your heart, that is, if you have that capacity to suffer with the  other. From the general audience And here the parable offers us a first teaching: it is not automatic that one who frequents God’s house and knows His mercy is able to love his neighbor. It is not  automatic! One can know the whole Bible, one can know all the liturgical rubrics, one can know all the theology, but from knowing, loving is not automatic: loving  has another way, intelligence is needed but also something more … The priest and the Levite saw, but ignored; looked but did not provide. Yet true worship does not  exist if it is not translated into service to one’s neighbor. Let us never forget it: in the face of the suffering of so many people destroyed by hunger, by violence  and by injustices, we cannot remain spectators. What does it mean to ignore man’s suffering? It means to ignor...

T he biggest threat to growing up well comes from thinking that no one cares about us - and that is always a sadness - from feeling that we are all alone. The Lord, on the other hand, is always with you and he is happy to be with you. From the homily Dear young friends, at this stage in your lives you have a growing desire to demonstrate and receive affection. The Lord, if you let him teach you, will show you how to make tenderness and affection even more beautiful. He will guide your hearts to “love without being possessive”, to love others without trying to own them but letting them be free. Because love is free! There is no true love that is not free! The freedom that the Lord gives to us is his love for us. He is always close to each one of us. There is always a temptation to let our affections be tainted by an instinctive desire to “have to have” what we find pleasing; this is selfishness. Our consumerist culture reinforces this tendency. Yet when we hold on too tightly to so...

He wants that our freedom is converted from evil to good, and this is possible – you can! – with His grace. From the Angelus Only the woman and Jesus remained there: misery and mercy, facing each other. And this, as often happens to us when we stop in front of the confessional, with shame,  to make seen our misery and ask forgiveness! “Woman, where are they?” (V. 10), Jesus says to her. And just this fact, and His eyes full of mercy, full of love, to  make that person feel – perhaps for the first time – that she has a dignity, that she is not her sin, but has the dignity of a person; that she can change her life,  can exit from her bondage and walk in a new way.  Dear brothers and sisters, this woman represents all of us, that we are sinners, adulterers before God, traitors of His loyalty. And her experience is God’s will for  each of us: not our condemnation, but our salvation through Jesus.   [full text]

God works with us like this: He lets us be free, even to make mistakes, because in creating us, He has given us the great gift of freedom. It is for us to put it to  good use. This gift of freedom that God gives us always amazes me! From the angelus In this parable, you can also take a glimpse at a third child. A third child? ..Where? He’s hidden! And it is, ‘Who, though he was in the form of God,  did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave … (Phil 2: 6-7).’ This Son-Servant is Jesus! He is  ‘the extension of the arms and heart of the Father: He welcomed the prodigal Son and washed his dirty feet; He has prepared the feast for the feast of forgiveness.  He, Jesus, teaches us to be “merciful as the Father.” The figure of the Father in the parable reveals the heart of God. He is the Merciful Father who, in Jesus,  loves us beyond all measure, always awaits our conversion every time we wron...

The Freeman's  Lastimosa: " Kaguliyang sa numero" Naproblema ang pipila nako ka higala nga may magsige og panawag ug text sa ilang mobile phones nga maningil sa utang o mangaway nila. Dihang nireklamo sa mga  kompaniya sa telepono, gipasabot sila nga posibleng ang mga tawag para sa mga kanhi tag-iya sa ilang mga numero. Tungod tingali sa kabarato sa SIM cards, nga mahimo  kang mag-ilis-ilis kada semana, mahimong nahutdan na ang mga telco sa mga numero nga gidestino sa National Telecommunications Commission nila. Dako ang kahigayonan  nga ang karaang mga numero nga wa na gamita maoy ilang gipamaligya ngadto sa bag-ong subscribers.   [kinatibuk-ang lindog] The Inquirer  "The Millenials" In the entirety of their young lives, the millennials have known only of the dysfunctional brand of democracy that has allowed corruption to thrive in the government.  They feel frustration and hopelessness because of the unending voices of discord that expose co...

Philippine Star   If Filipino voters are showing a strong preference for candidates with authoritarian tendencies plus the only son of a dictator, one of the reasons has to be the  perception that democracy is not working for the country.   Those who suffered during the oppressive days of one-man rule can only shake their heads and sigh that people who support politicians with an authoritarian bent don’t  know what monster they are trying to revive. Beyond warning that Filipinos should be careful what they wish for, however, those who want to nurture hard-won freedoms  should address the public frustrations that are giving rise to a longing for discipline and the kind of leadership that gets things done and brings peace and order.   [full text] Sun.Star Cebu  MARCELO Garbo Jr. has gone a long way since his assignment to Central Visayas in 2011 as director of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7, which is based in Cebu City.  Garbo, who is set t...

The heart of a Father that goes beyond our little concept of justice to open us to the limitless horizons of His mercy.  From the homily It is only by responding to it with goodness that evil can be truly defeated. Here, then, is another way of doing justice, which the Bible presents to us as the masterful way to follow. [...]  This is the way to resolve disputes within families, in relations between spouses and between parents and children, where the offended one loves the guilty one and desires to save the relation that links him to the other. Do not cut that relationship, that relation. [...]  And here, in fact, forgiveness and mercy come in. [...] T he Lord offers us His forgiveness constantly and He helps us to receive it and to become aware of our wrongdoing to be able to be free of it, because God’s does not want our condemnation, but our salvation.  [full text]

From the general audience [T]his Year of Mercy is a good occasion to meet again, to embrace and forgive one another and to forget the bad things. [...]  Moses, whom Divine Mercy saved from death in the waters of the Nile when he was newly born, becomes the mediator of that same mercy, enabling the people to be born to freedom, saved from the waters of the Red Sea. And in this Year of Mercy, we can also do the work of being mediators of mercy with works of mercy to come close, to give relief, to create unity. So many good things can be done. [...]  Well, we become so [special possession] for God by receiving His covenant and letting ourselves be saved by Him. The Lord’s mercy renders man precious, as a personal richness that belongs to Him, which He guards and with which He is pleased.   [full text]

H:dStb2, H:cStb2, H:fS2b, H:fS2f, H:aS2f, H:aS3b The Meaning of the Creative Act by Nicolas Berdyaev Dostoevsky by Nicholas Berdyaev The Destiny of Man by Nicolas Berdyaev Rebellious Prophet: A Life of Nicolai Berdyaev by Donald Lowrie Dream and Reality by Nicolas Berdyaev Freedom and the Spirit by Nicolas Berdyaev Slavery and Freedom  by Nicolas Berdyaev gratis Stephen Janos

From the homily God is greater than our sins[...]  Hope is a Christian virtue that is a great gift from God and that allows us see beyond problems, pain, difficulties, beyond our sins. It allows us to see the beauty of God. Human calculations close hearts and shut out freedom, whilst hope gives us levity. [link]

From Bondage to Liberation by Faith Berry The Symphony by Ralph Hill Letters from Freedom by Adam Michnik Listen to This by Alex Ross Popular Music: The Key Concepts by Roy Shuker

A Spiritual Friendship Anonymous Christians in the Face of Injustice by Ricardo Antoncich  The Book of Miracles by Zsolt Aradi  A Doctor at Calvary by Pierre Barbet  The Noonday Devil by Bernard Basset  Frequent Confession by Benedict Baur  The Gospel and Epistle of John by Raymond Brown  The Community of the Beloved Disciple by Raymond Brown  The Churches the Apostles Left Behind by Raymond Brown  The Way to Freedom by Nicolas Caballero  

An idle man resembles an idle bird like that [in a cage]. And it’s often impossible for men to do anything, prisoners in I don’t know what kind of horrible, horrible, very horrible cage. There is also, I know, release, belated release. A reputation ruined rightly or wrongly, poverty, inevitability of circumstances, misfortune; that creates prisoners. You may not always be able to say what it is that confines, that immures, that seems to bury, and yet you feel I know not what bars, I know not what gates — walls. Is all that imaginary, a fantasy? I don’t think so; and then you ask yourself, Dear God, is this for long, is this for ever, is this for eternity? You know, what makes the prison disappear is every deep, serious attachment. To be friends, to be brothers, to love; that opens the prison through sovereign power, through a most powerful spell. But he who doesn’t have that remains in death. But where sympathy springs up again, life springs up again.

The transcript       [read full text]

A ZENIT Interview with Fr. Julián Carrón Complete Text