Journeying with the Founder Day #149

A stone is a poor reality. Christ is a poor reality: He is a Servant. The whole problem of our poverty is basic; if we do not eliminate—at any cost—our ambitions of self-affirmation, pride, and autonomous control; if we do not try to understand that we have to be a poor stone—really, a poor stone—we will not achieve anything. (The Rock)

Journeying with the Founder Day #149

Journeying with the Founder Day #148

Try to experience the supernatural life; strive to reason less and love more. I say this to you as a father who has some experience by now: we don’t become saints by reasoning much but only by loving much. (The Rock)

Journeying with the Founder Day #148

Journeying with the Founder Day #147

The Mass is the community moment par excellence, the moment when there is a mutual sharing of grace and experience. This personal involvement and explicit coming together even in external form signifies unity in Christ, in His liturgy. (Prayer)

Journeying with the Founder Day #147

Journeying with the Founder Day #146

The intensity, warmth, and efficacy of vocal prayer have as their source a profound interior union and a simple, spontaneous love. We are not to be stingy giving our time to those whom we love; we do not postpone our appointments with the beloved. (Prayer)

Journeying with the Founder Day #146

Journeying with the Founder Day #145

The soul of all Christ’s prayers is that particular attitude toward the Father that is expressed by the word “Abba.” This is the only Aramaic expression that we have in the Gospel, and it makes an almost immediate and photographic image—inexpressible with any other words—of Jesus’ feelings of love for, tenderness toward, confidence in, and abandonment to the Father. It is the same expression that the Spirit repeats in
us “in expressible groans,” to which we must abandon ourselves as we try to imitate Christ in this profound relationship of intimate love with the Father. (Prayer)

Journeying with the Founder Day #145

Journeying with the Founder Day #144

For Jesus, prayer was His constant thought. He spent His nights in continuous dialogue with the Father, even keeping up the intense rhythm throughout His pressing apostolate. (Prayer)

Journeying with the Founder Day #144

Journeying with the Founder Day #143

Through His act of infinite love—by His sufferings and ultimate sacrifice on the cross—Christ has filled all our miseries, all our nights of loss and powerlessness, with His presence. (Prayer)

Journeying with the Founder Day #143

Journeying with the Founder Day #142

Jesus is constantly joined with and serving the Father; the most vibrant cord of His heart is His relationship with the Father. Jesus came to do His Father’s will. Christ’s great mission, the good news that He came to bring to men is that we have a Father Who loves us and Who is waiting for us. (Prayer)

Journeying with the Founder Day #142

Journeying with the Founder Day #141

The Spirit repeats in us “Abba-Father”—the tender, personal expression that Christ used to address His Father during His earthly life. The Father loves Christ within our very soul; the Son repeats His expression of love, “Abba”; the Spirit allows us to insert ourselves into Christ in this dialectic of love. In this way, during our lifetime, each one of us becomes a continuation of Jesus’ voice. (Prayer)

Journeying with the Founder Day #141

Journeying with the Founder Day #140

How do the seasons of Advent and Lent affect me spiritually? At the end of Advent or at the end of Lent, can I say that something new has happened in me? If so, what has changed? During Advent let us consider how we might be configured to the Word Who emptied Himself becoming Man—Jesus’ poverty and Jesus’ humility. During Lent let us consider how we might participate in the theology of Christ’s cross. These are concrete questions from which practical consequences follow. (The Rock)

Journeying with the Founder Day #140

Journeying with the Founder Day #139

It is on the cross that Christ has loved us to the maximum, expressing His love for us in our language. It is on the cross that Christ actualizes the dialectic of the maximum; it is at the foot of the cross that Mary loves us to the maximum and that she actualizes the dialectic of love. And at Pentecost, in the burning fire of the Spirit, the future of the Church opens as a flower of hope. Mary lives in that fire the “tomorrow of hope” and the apostles go out transformed, giving themselves, in hope, to the world. (The Theological Community)

Journeying with the Founder Day #139

Journeying with the Founder Day #138

Perhaps even now the Oblates do not have a clear perception of the importance of the Movement and in that confusion identify the Movement as the apostolate of the Oblates. The Movement, however, goes beyond the Oblates; it goes beyond the three Institutes. It is a reality in which the three Institutes insert themselves to realize it, to live it, and to strengthen and develop it. If we do not realize or develop the Movement, we will not be able to realize our apostolic plans. For this reason I speak of a strengthening and an expansion
of the Movement, of its universality and diversification. Only through the Movement are the three Institutes fused together and able to attain maximum results. These results are not due uniquely to the priests or to the Animators or to the Oblates, but are due to the three animating forces that together contribute their numerous strengths. (The Theological Community)

Journeying with the Founder Day #138

Journeying with the Founder Day #137

St. Joseph 

I am going to tell you something that perhaps many of you already know. I was ordained a priest in 1939. According to the Roman Seminary where I was a seminarian, ordination took place on the feast of Our Lady of Trust, and the first Mass was celebrated the day after. Therefore I was going to be ordained on February 18th and then celebrate my first Mass on the 19th. We had prepared ourselves for ordination with our holy cards already printed, but when we went to Mary, she said to us, “Go to Joseph” (“Ite ad Joseph!”) for
on February 10th, the bishop of Rome Pope Pius IX died, and therefore we Roman seminarians were unable to be ordained. Exactly a month later, it was the Feast of St. Joseph. Thus on the cards that were already printed, we changed by hand the word “February” to “March,” and thus found ourselves before St. Joseph to ask him if he wanted us. And it seemed that he really wanted us. This episode has meant a lot to me because I did not have such a great devotion for St. Joseph before, but after being ordained on his feast day,
I was obliged to love him! From that moment on I have had a particular devotion toward him, and the thought “Go to St. Joseph” has remained constant in me and also in us. Thus this evening I repeat to you and to myself, “Go to St. Joseph.” Let us go to St. Joseph—but why? We turn to him to learn a teaching basic to the Pro Sanctity Movement: ordinary holiness. Of course, if we want to find absolute models of holiness, we must look to Jesus, the Holy One of God, and to Mary, the Immaculate. But in these two unique persons,
we do not have examples of ordinary holiness. Jesus is the Eternal Word of God; Mary is the Immaculate Conception. Joseph, though he is undoubtedly a spiritually gifted man, is on a different plane—his is an ordinary holiness.

It is easy to see this. God speaks to Joseph, but He does not speak to him openly as He did with Mary through the angel. He speaks to St. Joseph in a dream. This is important for us because when we speak of holiness, we are always speaking of ordinary holiness, that is, of love for God and full availability to His will—attitudes that we find in Joseph.

Therefore let us go to St. Joseph not only for protection but also to ask him to teach us this ordinary holiness,
which means intimacy with Jesus and with Mary (Homily, March 19, 1985).

Journeying with the Founder Day #137

Journeying with the Founder Day #136

We need to have natural and supernatural trust—natural trust in man and supernatural trust in the Lord… The Lord has never and will never abandon us; the Lord follows us with a love so maternal that sometimes it enchants and moves us. We must have the courage to abandon ourselves to His love and be sure that He will always lead us. (The Theological Community)

Journeying with the Founder Day #136

Journeying with the Founder Day #135

In order to be on a penitential journey there is a specific support that Christ instituted and that the Church points out to us: it is the sacrament of penance. If we look at it in this way, it is not a heavy burden anymore but a necessity. I called it the “sacramentalization” of the penitential journey. (The Rock)

Journeying with the Founder Day #135

Journeying with the Founder Day #134

We need people to be not just holy, not just living out holiness in all their life’s situations, but people who witness holiness to the maximum in relating with one another. Imagine an office manager who is a saint and who witnesses this spiritual fraternity towards the employees. Think of the employee who witnesses spiritual brotherhood towards all those who come and are bothersome, or have to go here or there, or need to speak with one or the other manager! What a witness of fraternity, charity, goodness, gentleness, and spiritual brotherhood! (The Theological Community)

Journeying with the Founder Day #134

Journeying with the Founder Day #133

I have to be a saint when I am with my family, when I am in Church, in a group, in the parish, at work, and while playing tennis or golf. I have to be a saint every moment of my life in all my personal and social relationships. I have to be a saint whether I am a stockbroker or a laborer, whether I am a bank president or a poor employee or a poor coal miner. I have to be a saint in all my relationships. (The Theological Community)

Journeying with the Founder Day #133

Journeying with the Founder Day #132

What are we striving for? We are striving to establish interpersonal relationships based on spiritual fraternity. Usually we cannot change structures, but we at least have to aim at helping people remember that in relating with one another they are brothers and sisters, children of the same Father, journeying together and that together have to build their home. This is our premise: the utopia of saints. (The Theological Community)

Journeying with the Founder Day #132

Journeying with the Founder Day #131

There cannot be growth in faith and growth in love if there is not growth in hope. (The Theological Community)

Journeying with the Founder Day #131

Journeying with the Founder Day #130

Behold what is essential to us: to be able to find people who commit themselves to love God so much that they will strive for holiness, to find people who love others as Christ has loved them, and to teach them, as their first way of loving others, to invite others to love God. (The Theological Community)

Journeying with the Founder Day #130

Journeying with the Founder Day #129

Again and again we have to say to this world led by injustice, selfishness, greed, and gluttony, “Love one another.” Moreover we must say, “Love God because He loved us first.” Thus if we truly love God, we will be able to love one another. We must have the courage to say these words not only to others, but to say them among ourselves and to repeat them to ourselves. Let us love God because He loved us first! (The Theological Community)

Journeying with the Founder Day #129

Journeying with the Founder Day #128

Let us teach people that the only reality that saves is love.
There is not any other reality that can save but love. (The Theological Community)

Journeying with the Founder Day #128

Journeying with the Founder Day #127

This work is a matter of constantly refining; it is a constant work that we cannot stop because in the spiritual life there is no room for a finished product. St. Paul used to say to the one who is standing, pay attention not to fall. Therefore, we all have to continue in this work of transformation in Christ—the poor, rejected one; in Christ refined—the rejected stone, a stone worked through suffering. As I have said previously, it is a matter of work essential to our spiritual life, so we must always do it, or we force the Lord to do it directly. (The Rock)

Journeying with the Founder Day #127

Journeying with the Founder Day #126

Do I experience the sacrament of Confession as a burden to be postponed? The more I postpone it, the better it is for me because I can say that, after all, it is not my fault that it is so difficult. Priests are not available; it is their fault. And so …have I acquired a habit of postponing the sacrament of Reconciliation?
Or do I experience it and love it as strength and source of life in my penitential journey? (The Rock)

Journeying with the Founder Day #126

Journeying with the Founder Day #125

We know that the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and we recognize that the Holy Spirit gives us grace. Yes, this is undoubtedly true, but St. Paul underlines another aspect: the Holy Spirit gives us love. Therefore love is the first gift, the first charism, the universal one. (The Theological Community)

Journeying with the Founder Day #125

Journeying with the Founder Day #124

Having understood God’s love for humanity and His desire to be loved in return, we wish to respond by helping people grow in love for the Lord. Let us notice that in this expression there is an exact description of our aims and our apostolate. We have understood that God wants to be loved; we want to help humanity love God. (The Theological Community)

Journeying with the Founder Day #124

Journeying with the Founder Day #123

Jesus has truly lived charity on a level we must call radical and which we express as the dialectic of the maximum. Christ has lived this dialectic of the maximum towards His Father and towards us, His brothers and sisters. He has taught us through His Gospel that we, too, have to follow this dialectic of the maximum towards God and towards our brothers and sisters. (The Theological Community)

Journeying with the Founder Day #123

Journeying with the Founder Day #122

God, Who creates, wants love. God, Who creates man, wants a conscious love. God, Who elevates man to the maximum through His Hypostatic union—true God, true man—wants the maximum of love, and therefore, Christ is the maximum expression of this correspondence of mankind’s love toward the Trinity. (The Theological Community)

Journeying with the Founder Day #122

Journeying with the Founder Day #121

The Lord created the sun, the stars—St. Francis would say the stars full of light—for love and with love; therefore all of creation, from the stars to the plants, from the water to man, within themselves have this component of love. We are the bearers, created reality is the bearer of this component of love that is the life of God. This, as we know, has particular significance in relation to man in whom God has realized
the maximum of His plan of love. (The Theological Community)

Journeying with the Founder Day #121

Happy Feast Day of Our Lady of Trust!

Happy Feast Day of Our Lady of Trust!

Journeying with the Founder Day #120

Mary accepts what seems humanly absurd – indeed it is so! - with faith, serenity, and trust, and she abandons herself to the Lord. The mystery of God Who empties Himself; of His love for humanity that moves Him to choose a strange, humanly unimaginable way, strikes Mary who meditates, tries to go deeper, and trusts. Exactly because of her abandonment and openness, Mary accepts all always, even when times are difficult, even when people do not accept her Son. Where does Mary find her trust and where do we find our trust, our serenity, and our certainty? By being fully open to what the Lord asks from us: the root of our serenity lies in this openness, in this acceptance.

May Our Lady of Trust—Our Lady who is poor, trusting, open, and ready to accept—teach us this secret of acceptance by teaching us how to abandon ourselves wholly to the mystery of God’s love. (Feast of Our Lady of Trust, February 20, 1977)

Journeying with the Founder Day #120

Journeying with the Founder Day #119

Mary has towards us—as well as toward Jesus, toward God—a love that started in time but that has never ended. Just as she was our mother then, so too today she is our mother who continually assists us. This is why we have so much trust in her, and we invoke her and call her mother, because in reality she is our mother who has given us birth spiritually…Through the centuries she exercises her motherhood. (Charity)

Journeying with the Founder Day #119