Tuesday, September 13, 2011

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

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