What we are

In a world that despises and attacks us, just feel proud of who and what you are: God´s child and member, by God´s grace, of the Catholic Church.
This video, as the author of the second video author says, "helps you realize what being Catholic.... is   all about".

Following the steps of Jesus

In the path of Hope, I follow each of your steps.
Your wandering steps to the manger in Bethlehem.
Your restless steps in the way to Egypt.
Your fast steps to the house in Nazaret.
Your joyful steps when you go to the Temple with your parents.
Your weary steps during the thirty years of work.
Your obliging steps during the three years announcing the Gospel.
Your painful steps when you went into Jerusalem.
Your lonely steps before the Pretorium.
Your heavy steps under the weight of the cross, in your way to the Calvary.
Your failed steps , dead and buried in a tomb that is not even yours,
stripped of everything,
with no robe, no friend,
abandoned even by the Father,
but always yielding to Him.

Lord, knelt before the tabernacle, I understand:
I couldn´t choose any other way, although there may be others more successful, in appearance.
But You, everlasting friend, the only friend in my life, are not in them.
In You are all heaven with the Trinity, the whole world, all the humankind.


These is part of a prayer written by Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan, who was a bishop in Vietnam when the country fell to the Communists in 1975. He spent the next 13 years in prison, and during that time he was able to write prayers on scraps of paper.
During all those terrible years, alone, taken apart from his congregation, his church, he found comfort in Christ, putting his whole life in His hands.
Let´s learn from him, when we find ourselves in times of trouble, to put our lives in That who is the Allmighty. Let´s follow His steps, they will drive us to the His presence in our last day.


Links suggested:
Only love wins
What does love look like?
The pencil of God

Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan Foundation

Ninety nine balloons

Among the enormous information that we can find in the internet, flashes of God´s grace, that acts among us,  are more frequently found than we expect.
This is the case of the video  that I want to share with you today.
A defense of life, a homage paid for a father to his son, the indelible testimony that the right way leads us to happiness, though we can´t reach it  completely in this world.
The story told in this video has not finished yet. It will end sooner or later and that day it will be perfect happiness for its main characters.
A therapeutic abortion would have ended all this. Nothing of what you are going to watch would have happened. Nor the future hope will exist. Abortion seems the easier way, but it does not bring happiness, that lasts forever.
Life can be hard, but that does not authorize us to do what it is not correct. 
And we always have God´s grace help.

Links suggested:
Only love wins
Ask and you will receive
The reward

Arrows in the quiver (VII): Forgiveness and Gratitude

Write the faults that others commmit  against you in the sand.

Write the favours that others do to you in stone.

So the faults will be erase by the wind of forgiveness and  you will always remember the good deeds that you have received.


Links suggested:
You duped me, o Lord
Stand firm in faith

Arrows in the quiver (VI): Without Your mercy ,we are nothing

Lord I am insolent.
I have looked for you many times and others I have looked for excuses to take delight  in my sin.
When the sunset of my life is near I recognize my "nothingness", I have done few things in spite of having trying, I don´t  consider myself a winner, I haven´t lived the life of a saint, but I remember the words you told to the good thief : "Amen I say to you, you will be today with me in Paradise". 
I would  say that these are the sweetest words of Jesus. He told them to one who was not one of  His disciples, he didn´t even know His name, he probably deserved that punishment more than anybody, but Jesus was good to him, even in those terrible moments in the cross, because he was good to Jesus, in the style our Master wants us: with his repentance.

Jesus remember me  when You come into your kingdom

Links suggested:
The greatest wealth
My will...
The beautiful paths of God

JMJ 2011 Mass - Madrid (Videos)

Here you have some links to the videos corresponding to the music that was performed during the opening and closing  WYD masses. 


The liturgical music was composed by Pedro Alfaro, Carlos Criado and Iñigo Guerrero.


Enjoy these spiritual moments.

Non nobis, Domine (Patrick Doyle)

Kyrie

Gloria

Sanctus

Agnus Dei

Communion chant: Iesu

WYD Hymn Madrid-2011

Enlaces relacionados:

...to the end of the world

Only love wins

Stand firm in faith

The picture of the soul

A few days ago I was watching the old version of the film "The picture of Dorian Grey".
Many of you could think that this has little or nothing to do with faith or religion, but it takes me to a curious reflexion that I would like to share with you all.
The main character of the picture Dorian Grey sold his soul to the devil so he could always be so handsome and young as he appeared in the protrait that a famous painter had made of him. As time went by it was his portrait the one who got older, it showed the signs of old age, but at the same time it also showed the signs of moral degradation, because in the "sale" Dorian´s soul was transferred to the picture.
This turned so disgusting due to his disolute and immoral way of life that he could hardly stood the vision of it.
He even tried to change his life to see if this had any effect on the protrait, but he got nothing because he didn´t want to do what was neccesary to do.
As I was watching the film I wondered, what if everyone of us could have a portrait of our souls where we could see the degradation produced in it by our sins? What if we can phisically see the effects of sins in our soul?
I think that many of us would want to change our lives, we wanted to be better. Make things different so our soul was as pure and clean as it was the day of our baptism, when we were cleaned of the original sin.
Most of us don´t like to see the ugliness that lies within us, that that only God can see.
But we have the best instrument that anyboudy could wish to fullfil this mission: the sacrament of confession.
Let´s go to it, ask sincerely for pardon to God, so He can see us  pure and  impeccable, to His own Image as He created us.


Links suggested:
Doing things together
What does love look like?

Only love wins

Only love wins, only!
In our life we can win, but if it hasn´t been with love, for love and living and resting in God´s love, we haven´t really won.We have been defeated by Evil.
And although it seems that we have been defeated, although it seems that we are finished, that we have been left stranded, if there is love in our life, we have certainly won. Christ has won in us. 

Pablo Domínguez

How true these words are!  They belong to a young spanish priest, called Pablo Domínguez. He died only a couple of days after addressing them to a group of cloistered nuns in Tulebras, Spain.
Only with and in God´s love we can get through the difficulties we find in our lives, especially in these troublesome times.
Reading these beautiful words I have remembered others by Saint Paul in a letter to the Corinthians: 


Therefore, we are not discouraged; rather, although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.


For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal. 

(2 Corinthians 4,16:18)

Just stay calm and be strong in faith and in love, because if God is in our side, who can be against us?


Links suggested:
A message to the modern world (B. John Paul II)
JMJ 2011 Mass - Musical videos

Stand firm in faith

In these days of the celebration of the WYD, now with His Holiness the Pope Benedict XVI among us, I would like to make a reflection about its deep meaning.
We, christians, are living hard times, we are bullied, insulted and persecuted in many places of the world, just to follow That who is the way, the truth and the life.
That is why it´s so important  and hopeful to see so many young people who aren´t afraid of being catholics, of declaring their faith, who carry inside of them the real happiness, that of God´s children. They are our future and our hope, they show us that a better world is possible, that there are still people who work to bring the Kingdom of God to our poor Earth.
Saint Paul told us in his letter to the Ephesians how we must behave in these times:


Finally, draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power.
Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil.
For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.
Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground.
So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and your feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace.
In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all [the] flaming arrows of the evil one.
And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and supplication, pray at every opportunity in the Spirit. To that end, be watchful with all perseverance and supplication for all the holy ones.

Ephesians 6, 10-18

Links suggested:
The pencil of God
Christian life according to a saint
Ninety nine balloons

Doing things together.

What I do you cannot do; but what you do, I cannot do. The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.

 Mother Teresa of Calcutta 

Just try to do little things with great love and work for a better world for those we love.

Related links:

...To the end of the world.

Arrows in the quiver (V): Christ and the Cross

Lord, I have search for you in the easier way of life, when I am happy,  when I am rested, when I am not cold nor hot.


I have even dared to ask for a cross (as if anyone of us doesn´t have one yet, those true crosses which  are unbereably heavy). But I want a beautiful cross, those which give us a nice, even presumptuous experience.


But you have given me a really heavy cross, that that makes me suffer in the most absolute loneliness, that, which makes me feel so thirsty that no water can quench me, that, which makes me think that I am completely misunderstood, and makes me hate life.


But then I feel relief when I realized that You are with me, that it is You who carry my cross, and only then I learn another lesson in my life.

Don´t look for Christ without the cross

 Saint John of the Cross

Related links:

The beautiful paths of God

What does love look like?

Arrows in the quiver (I)

Sunday Snippets - A Catholic Carnival

To welcome the new friends that want to read my catholic blog, I'd like to tell you that you will find several different articles about our faith. I want to share with you the last ones that I have posted:


- Arrows in the quiver: Brief reflexions on every day faith. This week we talk about how to worship Christ in the Tabernacle.


- Biblical quotes that every catholic should read: about Jeremiah.


- Thoughts, Blessed John Paul II: the eyes of God.


- Prayers: The instrument of peace, by Saint Francis.


- Quotes, Blessed Theresa of Calcutta: The greatest wealth.


Related links:
Catholic Principles
Principios Católicos

Arrows in the quiver (IV) ... To the end of the world.

Jesus is in the closest tabernacle to your home, to your work, to the place where you are now.


He, as a loyal friend, doesn´t leave us, whatever the time is or whatever we are doing.


Let your will turns into a worshipper of his close tabernacle, although your body isn´t there, although the church is closed.


How beautiful it would be if  a whole neighbourhood, a family, a home, unite their wills to pray to Jesus in the tabernacle from their homes, when they get up, when they go to bed or  beginning  their daily tasks.

Guardian Angel , now that I can´t be next to Him, fly there to adore Him

Related links:
Ask and you will receive
The reward
The pencil of God

Thoughts: Blessed John Paul II the Great

There is a message that we must  proclaim to the modern world, especially to those who are less fortunate, the homeless, the poor, the sick, the rejected, those who suffer in the hands of others.

To all of them we must say: Turn your eyes to Christ to see what you really are to the eyes of God.

Blessed John Paul II, the Great

Related links:

The pencil of God

To pray: Instrument of God´s peace

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.


O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.


For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

Saint Francis of Assisi

Related links:
The greatest wealth

Biblical quotes that every catholic should read: Jeremiah

God is stronger in His power of atraction than any disorder, depression or anguish that we could suffer. For those who love the Lord, the fire never puts out although we try to smother it.
This is what the prophet says:

You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped; 
you were too strong for me, and you triumphed. 
All the day I am an object of laughter; 
everyone mocks me.


Whenever I speak, I must cry out, violence and outrage is my message; 
The word of the LORD has brought me derision and reproach all the day.


I say to myself, I will not mention him, 
I will speak in his name no more. 
But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; 
I grow weary holding it in, 
I cannot endure it.

Jeremiah 20:7-9

Arrows in the quiver (III): Love in little things

I must notice Jesus, because He loved perfectly.


Yes, but day in day out, I pay attention to the things I do and I wonder if I do them for love.


I think that my mission as a christian is to do great things,behave bravely,and carry out important tasks.


But Jesus asks something much easier for me,first love TODAY and the rest will come later.


And that is what great saints did.


Love in everyday things, in each little detail, in our daily chores:
When I clear the table after having eaten,
when I photocopy something for someone at the office,
when I give way to someone who is in a hurry, when I am driving,
when I am in a lift and ask the person who is with me what floor he or she is going and I push the button for him or her,
when I don´t gossip when someone invites me to do so,
when I switch on the washing machine at home.

Without love nothing, with love everything.

Love and do what you like

Saint Augustine

Related links:
Arrows (IV):... to the end of the world
The beautiful paths of God
O Lord, you duped me...

The beautiful paths of God

There is no easy path, but with the company of God every path is beautiful.

 Blessed Karl Leisner

These are the words of a german priest, Karl Leisner. His life is an example of what our lives should be. He lived for God´s love and in His love. He became a priest in a prisoner camp, Dachau, during WWII, and he only celebrated the Holy Mass once in his life, because he died almost immediately after being released. He was only thirty.


But his life was so rich, so full of God that our beloved blessed Pope John Paul II, proclaimed him blessed in 1996.


As he said our way in this world never lacks of sufferings, problems, deceptions, doubts, but if we think that God is on our side, that He loves us as if each of us  were the only ones in the world and that He cares and provides for us, how different our lives could be!


Let´s abandon ourselves in His divine hands and our journey will  be really beautiful.


Related links:
Schoenstatt: Karl Leisner
Ask and you will receive.
Jesus, have mercy on me

What does love look like?

What does love look like? 
It has the hands to help others. 
It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. 
It has eyes to see misery and want. 
It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. 
That is what love looks like. 

Saint Augustine 

Ask and you will receive

Most High, glorious God,

enlighten the darkness of my heart 

and give me

true faith, 

certain hope, 

and perfect charity,

sense and knowledge, Lord, 

that I may carry out Your holy and true command. Amen.

 
Saint Francis of Assisi

 This is one of my favourite prayer. When I repeat it, I feel I am asking God for all that is important to my life. 
When I am lost, when I don´t know what to do, I ask God to bring light to my heart.
When I feel that my faith is weak, that I have doubts, I ask Him to grant me a true, strong faith.
When I am sad, dissapointed, and dissilussioned with myself and with the ways the world are taking, I ask God a certain hope.
And when I see how selfish, in all ways, I can be, I ask He, who is allmighty, to give me a perfect charity.
But about all I ask  for that Knowledge that allows me to fulfill all that God is asking me to do.


Related links:
What does love look like?

The greatest wealth

The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved. 

Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home. 

Mother Theresa of Calcutta

In our world, we care a lot about  material wealth. We want better jobs to earn more money  to be able to send our children to the best schools and universities, to have a better house, a better car or to enhance our social relations.
 But we often forget the greatest of wealth, that which none can buy but it´s within our  hand reach: Love.
There is no more powerful force than. love. Everything is possible when you love and are loved.
Nevertheless to love is sometimes difficult, because it means sacrifice,dedication, giving up my own confort to seek out that of the other, to accept the others as they really are, not what we want them to be, and this is not always easy.
 But we are never richer than when we love and feel loved. It is the greatest joy.
 And as Mother Theresa said, let´s begin with those who are closer to us, our own family, those we share our lives with. And from there , the whole humankind will be our limit.

The reward

You will teach to fly, but they will not fly your flight.
you will teach to dream, but they will not dream your dream.
You will teach to live, but they will not live you life.
Nevertheless in each flight, each dream, each life,
the sign of the taught way will last forever.

Mother Theresa of Calcutta.

An interesting  reflection about the mission of parents, teachers and catechists.

In spanish:

Enseñarás a volar, pero no volarán tu vuelo.

Enseñarás a soñar, pero no soñarán tu sueño.

Enseñarás a vivir pero no vivirán tu vida.

Sin embargo, en cada vuelo, en cada sueño,

en cada vida perdurará la huella del camino enseñado.

Arrows in the quiver (I)

Lord, I am weak, I become lost in my fears and weaknesses.


If You don´t hold me, I don´t know what will become of me.I often forget Your Mercy and I think that I can "win" my salvation that I can get it on my own.


But the merit and the mercy are Yours alone, nothing more, nothing less.


I only have to let myself be guided by your Grace,
but I am reluctant to do so, and I don´t even know why.

Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me

Related links:
My will or Your will?
The pencil of God
Arrows (II): My will or Your will?

Christian life according to a saint

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. 

Life is beauty, admire it. 

Life is bliss, taste it.

Life is a dream, realize it. 

Life is a challenge, meet it. 

Life is a duty, complete it. 

Life is a game, play it. 

Life is a promise, fulfill it. 

Life is sorrow, overcome it. 

Life is a song, sing it. 

Life is a struggle, accept it. 

Life is a tragedy, confront it. 

Life is an adventure, dare it.

Life is luck, make it.

Life is too precious, do not destroy it.

Life is life, fight for it.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

I think that there is no better way to say what life must be for a christian and that nobody has said it more beautifully.

Principios Católicos in English

Some of these articles you are reading or are about to read, are translations from those you can find in our blog called "Principios Católicos".
 It is written in Spanish, but if you can get by in it, you can have more information, videos and downloads in that page.
We  hope that we can be of any help to you  in your way to Christ.


Related links:
Principios Católicos, en español
Arrows in the quiver (I): 'My' own salvation
The reward

The pencil of God...

I am like a little pencil in the hand of God. 
That is all. 
He does the thinking. 
He does the writing. 
The pencil has nothing to do with it.
The pencil has only to be allowed to be used.

Mother Theresa of Calcutta

Related links:

Life is ...

The greatest wealth

You will teach...

Arrows in the quiver (II): My will...

My will is to fulfill your word, Lord.
But I can´t often get it right.
I want to do the things as You do, but I don´t trust the way You do them.
I haven´t thought about your plans on me and I should have started there.
I have built my own salvation plan instead.
And, what if is it not exactly what you have planned for me?
Why don´t I let myself be carried away by your will?

Lord, don´t let me do my will but Yours

Related links:

Arrows (I): I am lost

Arrows (III): Loving daily...

Christian life

Tech

NKVW5RPACKA3