114 years - old: CONSOLATA MISSIONARIES...

"...we cordially approve this new work to be known as the:

 

 

Consolata Institute for Foreign Missions

(Istituto della Consolata per le Missioni Estere)".

 

 

Today is a day of thanksgiving!

Teoria do Perdão e Reconciliação

ELEMENTOS BÁSICOS DA TEORIA DO PERDÃO E DA RECONCILIAÇÃO

Por Pe. Leonel Narváez Gómez, imc

10 de Abril de 2006

PRÓLOGO

A Fundação para a Reconciliação desenvolve seus projetos de intervenção social e investigação na Colômbia, contribuindo assim com os esforços que cidadãos e cidadãs realizam para o advento da paz no mundo. Hoje a Colômbia partilha com a República irmã do Brasil planos metodológicos e linhas de investigação, e avança-se na organização de uma rede latino-americana de informação e cooperação no campo do Perdão e da Reconciliação interpessoal, comunitário e social.

Em Bogotá (Colômbia), populariza-se uma experiência de Perdão e Reconciliação interpessoal denominada ESPERE (Escolas de Perdão e Reconciliação), como uma contribuição importante em favor da construção da Paz na Colômbia. A violência social e a violência armada semearam raivas e rancores na vida dos colombianos, rancores que devem ser compreendidos e tratados pelos diferentes conhecimentos que procuram imaginar mundos possíveis de amizade e solidariedade, de justiça e paz, mundos em que a vida cotidiana possa ser vivida sem duelos.

A novidade da Fundação para a Reconciliação consiste na introdução de um método de trabalho referente ao Perdão e à Reconciliação interpessoal, que reforça poderosamente os planos de mediação, arbitragem e conciliação, trabalhando de forma direta ódios, rancores e desejos de vingança que, quando não tratados, chegam a converter-se em sementes de novos e mais graves conflitos.

Speaking Our Minds...

4th Sunday Ord. Time - Year B.

Speaking Our Minds...

Most people do not hesitate to speak their minds when the occasion calls for it. Parents, for instance unhesitatingly correct their children. Husbands and wives peak out whenever the welfare of the other is concerned. Friends do the same. Of course it is easy, and still, much good can come from doing so, to speak our minds. We take such daily "speaking out" in stride.  However, this is not the case when it comes to speaking out in God's name; we almost forget our prophetic calling which we received during baptism. This Sunday's readings remind us of this solemn heritage. How do you feel about "speaking your mind"? As a prophet, what makes you exercise your heritage?

Thought of the Day...

“There are five balls we juggle in life: family, friends, health, work and spiritual life. Remember, of these five, only work is made of rubber. The rest are made of glass. Don’t drop any of them. They are fragile. Handle with care.”

CHRISTIAN MORALITY AND CONSCIENCE.

Introduction.

Gal. 3, 10-11: For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.”

1. Who are we?

2. Who is a Christian?

3. What is moral and morality?

4. What is conscience?

5. What is the foundation of morality and conscience? etc...

To talk of Christian morality and conscience should be clear from the beginning that we are investigating or talking of a theme in Christian perspective. We take for granted a world where someone other than ourselves knows the final word, who in revealing his own intimate secrets makes us known to ourselves. This Divine revelation by no means dispenses us from personal reflection and quest. However we would not assume the terms involved. Definition of them helps us to understand better the matter: Christian, morality, and conscience:

LOVE: ISN'T BLIND, NO FEAR AND NOT POSSESSIVE...!

LOVE: ISN'T BLIND, NO FEAR AND NOT POSSESSIVE...!

1 John 4, 16-18: God is love.

Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

This is how love is made complete among us so

that we will have confidence on the Day of Judgment:

In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love.

But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.

The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

 

        

 

Mostly people confuse love with possession. It's easy to see why; it's built into the fundamental assumptions of our culture. "You're mine," says the popular song, "and we belong together." Hardly anyone stops to question the sentiment.  As soon as we feel love, we immediately attempt to possess. We speak confidently of my boyfriend, my wife, my child, my parent. We feel justified in holding expectations about those people. We consider that perfectly reasonable. Why? Because all our concepts of love ultimately derive from romantic love and romantic love is furiously, frantically possessive. We want to be with our lover, to have them to ourselves, to feel their eyes on us, to consume their minds and bodies...to possess them.

            So strongly do we equate love with possession that we may even feel if someone doesn't want to possess us, they don't really love us. Yet I would argue that what we call romantic love is not love at all. It's a kind of emotional storm, an overpowering, thrilling attraction - but it isn't love.  Because real love isn't possessive. It can't be. We'd all agree that love involves giving, not taking. Yet the desire to possess actually springs from the lover's own need — the need for approval from the beloved, for support from a parent, for straight A's from a child, for status, for financial security - for something.

            A possessive lover is overly focused on what he's getting, not what he's giving. The lover may dignify his dependency with the name love, but it's a lie. How can you really love somebody when you're dependent on them for things you need? That isn't love, that's just manipulation to keep the needed stuff coming your way. Robert Palmer sings about being "addicted to love," but nobody really is. People are addicted to their needs. And love isn't the same as need. It just isn't.  

            Of course, a loving relationship will produce interdependencies. But all too often, the pleasure of freely giving changes to a fear of possibly not getting. It's just that this person - your husband, your girlfriend, and your child is suddenly so important to you. You worry about what's going to happen. What they're going to do. And at that moment, love stops. People sometimes wonder if they're feeling real love. These same people never wonder if they're sexually aroused, or sad. Then what's the problem about recognizing love? Most often, because they're sensing a conflict: they're feeling the depth of their need, not the heights of their love.  

            There are ways to know real love. It feels calm. It's steady, and it can easily last a lifetime. It's nourishing people grow under its influence. They become who they really are, and now what someone expects them to be. Real love isn't blind; on the contrary, people feel understood, accepted for who they really are. It's healing. People recover. So whenever you hear that love is blind, or love can't last, or love is destructive, you can be sure that you're hearing a description of lust, or desire, or need. And it's an accurate description, because needs really are transient and destructive.

            But love is something else entirely. An emotion of deep caring that asks nothing in return, an emotion that is fulfilling without any expectation at all, is so rare that most people in our society can't imagine it. They can't imagine feeling it, or receiving it. They may even come to believe it doesn't exist. But it does.  And it's the best thing there is. And as Paul puts it in 1st Corinthians 13:4-8 - Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres.

ALLAMANO - A FATHER IN THE FAITH OF INNUMERABLE CHRISTIANS

BLESSED JOSEPH ALLAMANO FOUNDER OF THE CONSOLATA FATHERS, BROTHERS AND SISTERS.     A short biography and some aspects of the spiritual doctrine of Blessed Joseph Allamano     PRESENTATION I am happy to have a chance to present this small book on the life and spirituality of Bd. Joseph Allamano, whom many of us Kenya Christians rightly consider as our Father in the Faith. When Bd. Joseph Allamano founded the Consolata Missionaries, he wanted them to continue the missionary activity of Card. Massaia (a Capuchin, born in the same area as Bd. J. Allamano) in Ethiopia. However, for various reasons (political, etc.), his desire could not be fulfilled. As a consequence, we, people of Kenya, especially those living in the Central part of our Country, benefited. His missionaries came to Murang'a, Nyeri, and later went also to Meru, Embu, and Marsabit. They were the first to preach our Faith in these areas, so that their Founder and Father can rightly be considered as the Father in the Faith of the people living there.