The Family Foundation School Catholic Community Bulletin
Pauca Verba (a few words)
Number 27 – June 21. 2009
What is a heart of mercy? It is the heart of him/her who burns with pity for all creation. He looks at the creature and his eyes are filled with tears. His heart is filled with deep compassion and limitless patience. He overflows with tenderness, and cannot bear to see or hear any evil or the least grief suffered by the creature. (Saint Isaac of Syria)
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On May 30, at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI met with 7000 children from the Holy Childhood Association. For the length of the audience the pope answered questions, reflecting upon his own life growing up as a boy in Germany. At the end he added: “A Sunday without Mass isn’t a real Sunday: it lacks heart and therefore the light for the rest of the week.”
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Commonweal is a biweekly review (journal) of Public Affairs, Religion, Literature, and the Arts. Each issue contains a section called “Letters.” The following letter was printed in January of this year.
If those in favor of legal abortion would just think clearly for a moment, we’d hear no more about abortion “rights.” A single fact should end the argument. Search the world and you won’t find one person who would have given his or her mother the right to abort his or her life. (Philip Reed Moran/Augusta, Georgia)
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Father a Kempis (+1471) was a German priest and monk who wrote many spiritual works, including “The Imitation of Christ.”
The Cure for Hardness of Heart
When Jesus is near, all is well and nothing seems difficult. When he is absent, all is hard. When Jesus does not speak within, all other comfort is empty, but if he says only a word, it brings great consolation.
Did not Mary rise at once from her weeping when Martha said to her: “The Master is come, and calls for you”? Happy is the hour when Jesus calls one from tears to joy of spirit.
How dry and hard you are without Jesus! How foolish and vain if you desire anything but him! Is it not a greater loss than losing the whole world? For what, without Jesus, can the world give you? Life without him is a relentless hell, but living with him is a sweet paradise. If Jesus be with you, no enemy can harm you.
He who finds Jesus finds a rare treasure, indeed, a good above every good, whereas he who loses him loses more than the whole world. The man who lives without Jesus is the poorest of the poor, whereas no one is so rich as the man who lives in his grace.
It is a great art to know how to converse with Jesus and great wisdom to know how to keep him. Be humble and peaceful, and Jesus will be with you. Be devout and calm, and he will remain with you. You may quickly drive him away and lose his grace, if you turn your back to outside world. And, if you drive him away and lose him to whom will you go and whom will you then seek as a friend.
You cannot live well without a friend, and if Jesus be not your friend above all else, you will be very sad and desolate. Thus, you are acting foolishly if you trust or rejoice in any other. Choose the opposition of the whole world rather than offend Jesus. Of all those who are dear to you, let him be your special love. Let all things be loved for the sake of Jesus, but Jesus for his own sake.
Jesus Christ must be loved alone with a special love for he alone, of all friends, is good and faithful. For him and in him you must love friends and foes alike, and pray to him that all may know and love him.
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In the days of King Arthur, those who were to become knights at day break would spend the night alone in chapel, in deep prayer. We can echo that prayer the night before graduation. This is an invitation to everyone to gather around the graduates in prayer in our own school chapel. We’ll pray into the night – for hours – thanking God that our paths have crossed, interceding for them, invoking God’s assistance as they set out. They’ll need to be strong and brave. Let’s pray for that. Then we’ll have Mass at mid-night – like at Christmas, by candlelight.
You have to be able to stay awake to undertake this prayer. (You can’t spend the night resting your bum on the seat with your head buried in your arms!) You have to have a real desire to pray and not just be “where the action is.” It is also an alternative to just staying up rehearsing endless stories, many of which don’t bring honor to people and the work and life of our school-community.
