Giving Thanks

These days I have made a point of looking back on my day and giving thanks for something. It is not always the first thought that comes to my mind but I have always found something. Then, by chance, I also found this poem in my USB… I had got it ages ago and forgotten about it. I hope you like it. It reminds me that nothing that happens to us is a waste. Everything can make us better people. Thanks also to the writer.

I give thanks for the hard times, for they made me strong.
I give thanks for the lean times, for they made a giver.
I give thanks for the loneliness; it taught me to be a friend.
I give thanks for the hunger that taught me to share.
I give thanks for the tears, that taught me to smile.
I am grateful to the darkness for it helped me find the light.
I give thanks for the storm and the pain and the fear
that made me a survivor.

I give thanks for the gift of words;
and as long as there is air to breathe and light to see, and lessons to learn,
to share the blessing, on this day and always, I will write.
Carmen Ruggero ©2007

Give a look to this passage from Romans, 8,28 We are well aware that God works with those who love him, those who have been called in accordance with his purpose, and turns everything to their good.

who are you not to be?

They always say that the greatest "achievement" of XXth century is to have convinced us of being no-one. This poem reminds me that God made us well, that when He saw that everything was good he was right. I hope you like it.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” (Marianne Williamson)

And this is the one who said it first...Genesis, 1, 27-31 God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them... God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good

God Rested

I heard yesterday a priest joking about the fact that Church critics never seem to remember that "holidays" were God's invention. God rested. On the seventh day, after a week of creation, he rested. This idea seems to be following me these last days, maybe because I do not seem to have found the “seventh day” of my weeks.

I read the Bible, where God tells the Israelites to rest. In two lines it says what God does for resting: looks back on what he has done and he approves of it; he blesses it and He makes holy the day of looking back, enjoying and speaking well of his work.

I went to bed yesterday trying to remember what had happened during the day for which I could give thanks because it had been very good. I had been studying all day (got two exams this week) but lunch with the others was a moment of joking and laughing all the time. It was a great moment; after, I rested (and slept) much better. Thus, now I am even more convinced that God’s ways of doing things are much more effective than ours. He rests enjoying what he has done.

Genesis, 1:31-2:3 God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good. ²He rested on the seventh day after all the work he had been doing. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day he rested after all his work of creating.

Simply, Pray

Today I have something different to show you. I received this in the morning. Big truths come in simple ways!

Sometimes we understand a message when it is simply illustrated…

...and you question God - 'why me?'.... always look at the bigger picture....

Thank God for the stuff that didn’t hit you!

Trams, Buses, Cars and People

We all arrive at the same time at Piazza Maggiore.There is a P. Maggiore in each big city of the world. Every rush hour it becomes a mess.

Why am I talking about this? Because the tram that takes me to Uni every day passes through P. Maggiore.

At the beginning it was surprising. I was there, in the safety of the biggest thing on the piazza; and I realized that all the passengers (around 30) that had just got off the tram were running (literally) through the cars in order to catch the bus "number 3" that was arriving. The cars, instead of stopping where just slowing down enough for not killing anyone. The bus, of course, did not stop either. The tram (with me inside) was waiting for the green light in order to join the mess. And off it went!

My greatest surprise is that I have never seen any accident. The chaos seems to have an inner rhythm that everybody knows and follows. Every morning, in P. Maggiore, I am reminded about rhythm. Maybe it is an alternative to order. Maybe we need the capacity to enter into the heart of things instead of wanting things to be our way.

What for us is a mess has an inner rhythm. Not only in P. Maggiore, but also in our lives, what for us is a mess is conducted by a loving hand that takes care of us. This hand loves and knows the inner rhythm of the things that are happening in our lives.

I leave you with Psalm 139, “I will say, 'Let the darkness cover me, and the night wrap itself around me,' even darkness to you is not dark, and night is as clear as the day.

Internet and the Tower of Babel

Was the Babel Tower the first www attempt? Today our teacher spoke about a book, written by T. Friedman, called "The Lexus and The Olive Tree" (click on the title to go to his page) . He writes about globalization and compares Internet with the Tower of Babel. I have to say that it really got me thinking all the way back from university.

For those less informed about Babel: it is a story at the beginning of the Bible (Book of Genesis, 11:1-9). Human beings have grown in number; some of them decide to move east; they arrive to a nice spot and decide to build a tower to reach heaven. God looks at what is happening and decides to "create" the different languages of the world, in order to avoid that.

The story starts with these words: “The whole world spoke the same language, with the same vocabulary." I had always thought that this was good. Today I started to think that maybe, to be all the same is to destroy human creativity and capacity for craziness. I think that when God created the languages, He was trying to avoid what now is happening: The sameness.

Thanks to the web we all speak the same language, find information in the same place, and develop our social life in the same way. Facebook, twitter, MySpace… are they not words that we all speak and understand? God’s plan has always been unity and diversity. Why do we need to find our unity in sameness? As I was arriving home I started to see this Tower of Babel as a prison; please, let God make us always different!

Catholic differences

As you know I am studying theology. After two years in England I came to Rome to finish the STB. It has really been a change. Now I am with seminarians and sisters from all over the world. It is giving me the opportunity to know the Catholic Church in its catholic aspect (catholic means universal); it could not be more different from one place to another.

We could not think more differently either. I personally think that our lives (as religious people) should be the basis for our words. Others think that our presence is enough, a presence that is noticed. Yesterday I was talking about this with a friend. Some people (religious and no religious) think that it is enough with “being there” for being a witnesses to the Gospel (the conversation had started with the always present question of why I do not wear habit). He (my friend) was saying that with his habit, when people see him they know that he has given his life to God and this is a witness. I agree with that. I also think that there are many ways of making people know about God; you tell them about Him, that’s one, another is to wake up their curiosity with your life until they ask the question of why you are like that. I like better the second one. Show with your life what you want to say with your words. And when someone asks, then, speak! Neither the habit nor the lack of it makes us truthful witnesses to the presence of God among us; only the acts of love, kindness, forgiveness that we do.

Children, our love must be not just words or mere talk, but something active and genuine. This will be the proof that we belong to the truth, and it will convince us in his presence, even if our own feelings condemn us, that God is greater than our feelings and knows all things. (1 John 3:18-20)

Great Thoughts, Small Moments

Last Thursday I went to a live concert in which some people talked of their lives in and out of the Church. One of them, who had always been a “church-goer,” one day, realized that he had to start taking Christ seriously. This simple thought changed his life. It also reminded me that one day, as I was opening the door I told myself that I did not want to get far from God ever again. I remember that I was turning the key as I had this thought. What I only discovered months later is that that moment was the first mark of the greatest “before and after” of my life.

A great moment often comes in normal situations, thoughts… but it is up to us to take them seriously; to make, out of a hidden thought, a life-changing moment.

I leave you with a simple word that Jesus said once to Matthew. One verse in the Bible, the life-changing moment in Matthew’s life: "As Jesus was walking on from there he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, 'Follow me.' And he got up and followed him." (Matthew 9:9)

As Water In A Thirsty Heart

I always read the news. I like to know what happens in the world. I have found, as the side effect of this that it provokes a kind of dryness inside. I do not think that I am the only one. Go around the web and you’ll find that the people who say to know best about “what’s really going on” tend to be cynical about everything, hard hearted.

It is within this context that I was reading this morning the psalm 63 and realized that prayer is as a water for a thirsty heart. As water melts the hardness of the earth prayer melted the hardness provoked in my heart.

And here is when i go poetic (no smiles, please...)

Prayer is like a friend’s call in a bad moment
Prayer is like that unexpected smile
Prayer is like a joke heard in the Tube
As a laugh at the end of a long day
As the embrace given by someone long missed
As finding an old good friend on the street
As a “new message” in an empty inbox

God, you are my God… my heart thirsts for you, my body longs for you, as a land parched, dreary and waterless. (Psalm 63)

Have a good day

Friends and treasures

Who has found a friend has found a treasure. It is one of the biggest truths that can be said. Not only for the value of friendship, but also because (let’s face it) to find it is as difficult as finding a real treasure. Is it because they are something from the past (as old treasure hunting)?

They cannot be, because I have found a few friends in my life. Not many, but enough to make me realize of why friendship is one of the few “old-values” that continues being a value. A friend is a support for who you are, the person that is you friend confirms, with his or her existence that you are worthwhile, that you are someone in this world of numbers, statistics, crowds, globalization…

We only have a few real friends: and this is good because it makes friendship special (and different from “contacts” in the web), it makes us special and different. Someone has chosen us as real friend.

In fact, someone has. Jesus is quite clear about this matter. “I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father. You did not choose me, no, I chose you” John 15:15-16