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From a homily Pope Francis described hatred as “Satan’s breath”, saying it is very powerful, capable of doing everything excepting loving. “Life,” the Pope explained, “has value only in giving it, in giving it in love, in truth, in giving it to others, in daily life, in the family.” If someone preserves life for himself, guards it like the king in his corruption or the woman with her hatred, or the daughter with her vanity, a little like an adolescent, unknowingly, life dies and withers, becoming useless. The Pope concluded urging all to think about the 4 characters in the Gospel and to open our hearts so that the Lord may speak to us about this.   [link]

Men are not egoists. They are not able to be. Their misfortune is in not being capable of it. God is the only egoist. Man can only approach a certain shadow of love for himself when he knows how to see himself as God’s creature, loved by God, redeemed by God. Otherwise a man cannot love himself. —Simone Weil

Salvation is not for sale “When one loses—not the capacity to love because that is something that can be recuperated—but the capacity to feel loved there is no hope and all is lost” he said. It reminds us, Pope Francis concluded, of the writing on the gate to Dante’s inferno ‘Abandon hope all ye who enter here’—we must think of this and of the Lord who wants His home to be filled: “Let us ask the Lord to save us from losing the ability to feel loved.”   [link]

The more we allow ourselves to be taken up by this love, the more our life will be renewed. We should say with all our being: I am loved, therefore I exist! —Pope Francis

The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck Introduction to the 25th Anniversary Edition Tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time. —Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self Reliance” The most common response I have received to The Road Less Traveled in letters from readers has been one of gratitude for my courage, not for saying anything new, but for writing about the kind of things they had been thinking and feeling all along, but were afraid to talk about. I am not clear about the matter of courage. A certain kind of congenital obliviousness might be a more proper term. A patient of mine during the book’s early days happened to be at a cocktail party where she overheard a conversation between my mother and another elderly woman. Referring to the book, the other woman said, “You certainly must be very proud of your son, Scotty.” To which my mother replied, in the sometimes tart way of the elderly, “Proud? No, not ...

From the homily Jesus repeats the most important commandment of the Old Testament: Love your God with all your heart, and with all your strength, and with all your soul, and your neighbour as yourself. This was not at the heart of what the Doctors of the Law were teaching, he said. They were only worried about details and individual cases, but Jesus shows the true sense of the Law which he came to fulfill.  The Pope noted how Jesus offers many examples to show the commandments in a new light and to prove that love is more generous than the letter of the Law. From ‘Do not kill’ meaning don’t insult or be angry with your brother, to the instructions to give your coat to the person who demands your shirt, or go the extra mile with the person who wants to be accompanied for one mile.  This is not just for the fulfillment of the Law, the Pope said, but it also helps to heal our hearts. In Jesus’ explanations of the commandments, especially in St Matthew’s Gospel, he said, ...

The happiness that everyone desires, for that matter, can be expressed in any number of ways and attained only if we are capable of loving.  This is the way.  It is always a matter of love; there is no other path. From the homily Human nature, wounded by sin, is marked by limitations.  We are familiar with the objections raised, especially nowadays, to a life characterized by serious physical limitations.  It is thought that sick or disabled persons cannot be happy, since they cannot live the lifestyle held up by the culture of pleasure and entertainment.  In an age when care for one’s body has become an obsession and a big business, anything imperfect has to be hidden away, since it threatens the happiness and serenity of the privileged few and endangers the dominant model.  Such persons should best be kept apart, in some “enclosure” – even a gilded one – or in “islands” of pietism or social welfare, so that they do not hold back the pace of a false...

The Spirit guides us in new existential situations with a gaze fixed on Jesus and at the same time, open to events and to the future. He helps us to walk in history,  firmly rooted in the Gospel and with a dynamic fidelity to our traditions and customs. From the angelus But the mystery of the Trinity also speaks to us of ourselves, of our relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In fact, through baptism, the Holy  Spirit has placed us in the prayer and the very life of God, who is a communion of love. God is a “family” of three Persons who love each other so much they form a  single thing. This “divine family” is not closed in on itself, but is open. It communicates itself in creation and in history and has entered into the world of men  to call everyone to form part of it. The trinitarian horizon of communion surrounds all of us and stimulates us to live in love and fraternal sharing, certain that  where there is love, there is God. Our b...

O ur condition of children of God is fruit of the love of the Father’s heart; it does not depend on our merits or our actions and, therefore, no one can take it away, not even the devil! No one can take away this dignity. From the homily How beautiful is the Father’s tenderness! The Father’s mercy is overflowing, unconditional, and it is manifested before the son speaks. The son certainly knows he  has erred and he acknowledges it: “I have sinned … treat me as one of your hired servants”(v. 19). But these words dissolve in face of the Father’s forgiveness. His  Father’s embrace and kiss make him understand that he was always considered son, despite everything.  This word of Jesus encourages us never to despair. I think of mothers and fathers in apprehension when they see their children distancing themselves, entering  dangerous ways. I think of parish priests and catechists who sometimes wonder if their work was in vain. But I also think of those who are in pris...

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...

Jesus, in fact, is God’s mercy made flesh – a mercy that He expressed, realized and communicated always, in every moment of His earthly life. From the audience All four Gospels attest that, before undertaking His ministry, Jesus wished to receive Baptism from John the Baptist (Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22;  John 1:29-34). This event imprints a decisive orientation to the whole of Christ’s mission. In fact, He did not present Himself to the world in the splendor of the  Temple: He could have done so, He did not have Himself proclaimed by fanfare: He could have done so, He did not even come in the robes of a judge: He could have done  so. Instead, after thirty years of a hidden life at Nazareth, Jesus went to the river Jordan, together with many of His people, and He put Himself in the queue with  sinners. He was not ashamed; He was there with everyone, with sinners, to be baptized. Therefore, from the beginning of His ministry, He manifested Hims...

Thomas was hard-headed. He did not believe. And he found his faith at precisely the moment he touched the wounds of the Lord. A faith that is not able to touch the  Lord’s wounds, is not faith! A faith that cannot be merciful, as the Lord’s wounds were a sign of mercy, is not faith: it is an idea, an ideology. Our faith is  incarnated in a God who was made man, who became sin, who was wounded for us.  From the Mercy Sunday vigil speech How many expressions there are, therefore, of God’s mercy! This mercy comes to us as closeness and tenderness, and because of this, comes also as compassion and  solidarity, as consolation and forgiveness. The more we receive, the more we are called to share it with others; it cannot be kept hidden or kept only for ourselves.  It is something which burns within our hearts, driving us to love, thus recognizing the face of Jesus Christ, above all in those who are most distant, weak, alone,  confused and marginalized. Me...

A History of Philosophy 3 Frederick Copleston  The Mind and Heart of Love by Martin D'Arcy  Philosophy Today 3 by Gill  Human Love by Jean Guitton  Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes  For the Love of Wisdom by Chris John-Terry   Hooked on Philosophy by Robert O'Donnell  The Last Days of Socrates by Plato  Speech and Reality by Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

Let us walk this path, pausing in these days to gaze upon the Crucifix; it is the “royal seat of God”.  I invite you during this week to gaze often upon this “royal  seat of God”, to learn about the humble love which saves and gives life. From the Palm Sunday 2016 homily [W]e cannot love without letting ourselves be loved by him first, without experiencing his surprising tenderness and without accepting that true love consists in  concrete service. [...]  Even as every form of justice is denied to him, Jesus also experiences in his own flesh indifference, since no one wishes to take responsibility for his fate.  And I  think of the many people, so many outcasts, so many asylum seekers, so many refugees, all of those for whose fate no one wishes to take responsibility. [...]  Jesus, however, even here at the height of his annihilation, reveals the true face of God, which is mercy.  He forgives those who are crucifying him, he opens the...

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Turning by Emilie Griffin  Directions for Communication by Willi Lambert  A Marian Retreat by Bernard Lefrois   Listening With the Heart by Taize The Way, Furrow, Forge by Josemaria Escriva Men of God: Men for Others by Peter Kolvenbach Surprised by Truth by Patrick Madrid The Breath of Love by Michel Quoist

Together on the Road by Massimo Camisasca gratis CL The Epiphany of Love by Livio Melina gratis Eerdmans The Story of Taize by J. L. G Balado Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge Loving Jesus by Mother Teresa Authenticity by Thomas Dubay The Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis   That All Men Be One by Chiara Lubich

The Romance of Risk by Lynn Ponton Inside Picture Books by Ellen Spitz Beyond Freedom and Dignity by B. F. Skinner   Memory: Facts and Fallacies by I. M. Hunter Hypnosis: Facts and Fiction by F. L. Marcuse   The Psychology of Loving by Ignace Lepp The Silent Language by Edward Hall Beyond Psychology by Otto Rank

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