In early May, the CSP held a small event for some supporters in the Milwaukee area. The theme for the evening was “Planting Seeds of Hope.” For this, we prepared a short video that provides a general overview of the different ways that the CSP, together with our friends and supporters, help to plant seeds of hope in the different places and ministries where we work and are present. Here is the link to that video.
http://youtu.be/gZ4WqEXVPhk
We hope our readers may enjoy it as much as those who were present at the event in Wisconsin, last month.
On May 5, the members of the Community of Saint Paul living in Racine organized an Open House for friends, colleagues and benefactors that live in the area. About 300 people stopped by during the afternoon in order to visit the home and office of the Community, as well as to meet other members of the CSP, and to receive news and information on the different projects we are carrying out. Visitors had the opportunity to enjoy some delicious Mexican food – fitting, as it was “Cinco de Mayo”. We were also blessed beautiful weather! We thank all those who came to this event.
Reflection on the Feast of Candlemas
On February 2, the Feast of Candlemas, my parents, who have been married 59 years, usually attend the annual celebration Parents of Alumni of the Marists Brothers’ school in Badalona (Spain). On that day, we commemorate the presentation of Jesus in the temple. It is a special day because in many places spouses also renew their marriage vows, and World Day of Consecrated Life is celebrated. This beautiful feast prompted me to write this reflection.
The presentation of Jesus at the temple by his parents was an act of obedience to the Law of Moses, according to which a child had to be presented at the temple 40 days after his birth. February 2 is, of course, 40 days after Christmas. According to the Law, the first born son of each home belonged to our Lord, and parents had to present the child and pay a ransom for him at the temple.
The presentation of spouses at the temple, to renew their marriage vows with each other and the Lord, is very appropriate for this day. So, too, is the celebration and renewal of vows for those who have consecrated their lives to God. Like the first born of each Jewish family, they also belong to the Lord. This belonging of believers is characterized by fidelity.
Sometimes it seems that fidelity, the “forever” option, is not in style nowadays, except for those who want tattoos. In a time like ours, where options are abundant, with a great range of opportunities and many open doors during the trajectory of one’s life, it has become difficult to choose definitively one road over everything else. Isaac Riera, MSC, wrote about “the weakened will” and claimed that “modern man is full of stimulation, sensations and desires, but lacking in willpower”. Perhaps this explains the lack of perseverance in some marriages and even the decline of vocations to a consecrated life.
Nowadays, fidelity has for some a negative undertone, as if it were a value of bygone days, related to resignation and prohibitions. However, it is actually a free, beautiful and creative exercise. Faithfulness is a choice, a promise, a fundamental option, whether it be as a couple, to children, to a principle or to a profession. It implies coherence with oneself and perseverance to face many obstacles.
Bishop José Grullón, of San Juan de la Maguana in the Dominican Republic, speaking recently about perseverance to a group of couples who were happy with their marriages, posed the following question to them: “What is better, to win someone’s love or to preserve it?” To the response of many that “to preserve” is better, he explained that “to preserve love” is to leave it frozen, paralyzed. On the contrary, “to win someone’s love” is something that must be done every day. The Spanish songwriter Victor Manuel says it in one of his songs: “Day to day I grow within, because I love you. I keep fanning the fire”.
Today, Candlemas, we remember our fundamental option and our fidelity, a creative and renewed fidelity. It is a faithfulness that we pursue day to day, every day, fanning the fire to keep alive the flame. Because our choices and fundamental options, not just our tattoos, are forever.
The CSP was honored with the Vatican II Award for Service to the Missions, given by the Archbishop of Milwaukee
On Tuesday, November 7, 2017, the Community of Saint Paul was honored by Archbishop Jerome Listecki of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee with the Vatican II Award for Service to the Missions. The Vatican II awards were established in 1991 to honor men, women and young adults who exemplify the Catholic Church’s vision set forth in the Second Vatican Council.
The criteria named for receiving the award are that the recipients have promoted Jesus’ mission and witnessed to God’s presence among the diverse people and cultures of the world; have a desire to share the Gospel; and show mutuality in mission (giving and receiving) and a spirit of justice, prayer and joy.
Traditionally, the Vatican II Awards are given to individuals. This is the first time that the award is presented to a collective. There were 14 other individuals and couples who this year also received the Archbishop’s Vatican II Award in different areas for distinguished service and contributions to the Church and society. The Archdiocese of Milwaukee is the Community’s canonical seat, and the CSP has its headquarters there. We are grateful for this honor from Archbishop Listecki and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee
REFLECTIONTHE BREAD OF LIFE DISCOURSE (II)Martí Colom“Is this not Jesus?” Following the meditation published a few days ago, we continue reflecting on the Bread of Life Discourse, which extends itself for most of chapter six of John’s Gospel and we have heard at Sunday Mass during the past few weeks. In verse 6:24 we are told that one of the resistances that Jesus found in those to whom he proclaimed the Good News was based on nothing less than in his closeness to them. He identified himself as bread from heaven and they responded murmuring, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother?” They ask themselves, filled with wonder, how can he bring us something new if he belongs here, if we have always known him, if he is one of us? Beyond these questions (which begin with the mention of Jesus’ name, as if his well-known identity was the strongest argument to discredit his message), there is a deeply rooted tendency not just of those who listened to him 2,000 years ago, but even of many today: the tendency to think that when God manifests Himself in our lives this will necessarily happen by way of extraordinary signs and spectacular events completely foreign to our daily experience. We refuse to accept that God may come to us tip-toeing, through ordinary people, through those we have closest. Yet, this is exactly what happens. Perhaps many of us are more in debt than what we would like to admit to superstitious and magical ways of thinking, out of which we automatically associate God’s presence to the super-natural and everything that is grandiose, foreign and incomprehensible. It seems to us that our daily experience simply cannot be the scenario or the means for God’s action. Jesus, of course, comes to challenge this mentality and to claim back the richness and sanctity of everything ordinary, and to suggest that his own closeness to those he lived with (in short, his humanity) it was not, neither then nor now, an obstacle for him to be living bread for all. If we try to be his followers we must understand that each and every one of us is also called to be bread of life for others: from our simplicity, from our rootedness to our own cultures, from our personalities more or less integrated, even from our many limitations, from our fears and hopes. A careful reading of this passage, finally, will help us to discover God’s footprint in places where we perhaps were not looking: in the father and the grandfather that give me advice, in the children who question my ideas, in the wife whom I love, in the sick person that I visit, in the friend to whom I open my own heart, in the neighbor that helps me, in the coworker I see every day, in the brother with whom I pray together and in the poor person who I perhaps tend to ignore instead of finding, in him as well, my bread of eternal life.
