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Commetary on the Word of Life: Behold, I come to do your will(Heb 10:9) These words are actually taken from a verse of Psalm 40, and the author of the Letter to the Hebrews has put them in the mouth of the Son of God in his dialogue with the Father. In doing so the author would like to emphasize the love that the Son of God had when he became man in order to fulfill the work of redemption in obedience to the will of the Father. These words are part of a passage through which the author wants to demonstrate the infinite superiority of Jesus’ sacrifice compared to the sacrifices made according to the old Law. Those sacrifices offered to God were animals or things external to the human being, but what Jesus did was different. His intense love led him during his life on earth to offer the Father his very own will, all of himself. Behold, I come to do your will These words provide the key

This is the era of the Mystical Body, as Pope Pius XII has said.Therefore, if this era’s characteristic were really put into effect, the impact on society would soon be unmistakable.And one of these effects would be a mutual esteem among countries and peoples. This is not usual. In fact, it is much more common to find strongly enforced borders between one people and another, to fear the might of the other or, at best, to forge alliances for each nation’s own advantage.But it is difficult to think of acting solely out of love for another nation; popular morality has not reached such heights.When, however, the life of the Mystical Body among individuals has been developed to the point that all truly love their neighbours — be they black or white, red or yellow —as themselves, it will be easy to transplant this law to the relationship among nations.And something new will happen. For love brings us to find similarities or to make them. Each nation will learn the best of

Rome, 1978 When someone passes by us during the day, at work or at school, our only task is to always love. But we must love as Jesus. To do this, we must always listen to his voice speaking within us, so that we do not make mistakes by exaggeration or by default. The Gospel warns us, for example, not to give holy things to dogs, and even though we can and should always consider ourselves inferior to everyone else, since God alone knows the graces he has given us and which we have not made enough use of, we must be very careful not to speak of 'holy things' in surroundings which have not been prepared to receive them. Otherwise they will be despised, 'trampled on', and we will be ridiculed, 'torn to pieces', as the Gospel puts it.At the same time, we must remember that the Gospel itself also teaches us to love our neighbour as ourselves and, therefore, to share the spiritual goods we may have, the light

Commetary on the Word of Life: Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Mt 26:41) These are words that Jesus addressed to Peter, James and John when he found them overcome by sleep during his agony in Gethsemane. He took these three apostles with him — the same three that had witnessed his transfiguration on Mount Tabor — to have them close to him during that extremely difficult time. This was their opportunity to prepare themselves through prayer together with Jesus, because the events about to take place would be a terrible trial for them as well. Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak In order to understand these words, we should keep in mind the circumstances in which they were said. What Jesus was giving his disciples was more than words of advice. We should see these words as reflecting his state of mind, that is,

It is wise to spend the time we have by living God's will to the full in the present moment. Sometimes, however, we worry about the past or the future. We are concerned about situations or people for whom we cannot do anything at the moment. This is when it becomes difficult to steer the ship of our lives. It takes great effort to keep to the course that God wishes us to have in that particular moment. At such times we need strong willpower, determination, and especially trust in God, sometimes to a heroic degree.Can I do nothing to resolve a certain complex situation or for a dear person who is sick or in danger? Then I will concentrate on doing well what God wants from me in the present: study, homemaking, prayer, taking care of the children ... God will take care of the rest. He will comfort the suffering and show a way out of that entangled situation. This way the task is being done by two in

We often make resolutions. We are not always successful at keeping them. But in some rare cases you realize it is not you making them. It is Another who is calling you sweetly, but decisively, from within. It then seems you cannot but keep those resolutions. We have to thank God for these divine moments in which he calls us to Another life that lives inside of us, where every note is in harmony, every darkness is enlightened, every distortion is straightened, every emptiness is filled with him. And this can happen at any moment of the day. We feel there are two of us: he in me and I in him. Yet we are one: I, water From this source, a flower from this divine seed, the witness of his reality that fills my being. This indeed is living. God alone knows how to shape himself in us. We know only how to ruin it. from Essential Writings (La dottrina spirituale, Mondadori 2001)