“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.
My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me.” (John 14:1-3)
So even though You went Your most difficult way without me, You are coming back to pick me up. You know I won’t manage on my own, even though I sometimes tend to think that “perfect” means “self-sufficient”. But You meant perfection otherwise: it’s being in a relation, dependent on others, loving.
So when You take me to be with You – when You help me with this toughest removal in my life – You will ask me with childlike simplicity: “That’s what My place is like. Do you like the room I’ve prepared for you?”
Just please, do watch over me, so that I wouldn’t get lost somewhere on the way.
Małgosia
“Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times” (John 13:38)
Even though He had known in advance Peter’s faults, Jesus did not write him off. Even though He knows our weaknesses – He never writes us off.
In His presence we don’t have to – and we shouldn’t – pretend to be anybody else than we are.
Dosia
I feel knocked to the ground, beaten. Sweat is pouring into my eyes. Life has just crushed me again. Fortunately, the Sunday of Resurrection is soon. A great feast day for everybody, but I’m also expecting this small one to come. The resurrection in my own life.
Before it comes, I’ll have this special meeting with the Lord. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation. He will wipe the sweat from my forehead, He’ll bring back hope, He will heal me with His love. Then I’ll be able to have a great Easter Sunday, and I won’t miss the small one – either.
Michał
„…As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.” (Luke 23:26)
Even though he acted under constraint, we remember him each time we reflect upon the Stations of the Cross. Because whether he liked it or not, he carried the cross – as long as it was needed. His effort became the part of our Lord’s Way of the Cross.
My little son’s weeping in the middle of the night, a sudden phone call with a request for help, illness of a relative or a child’s problem that demands a quick response. Sometimes I am also compelled by the situation to do something urgently, at this very moment. It is most difficult when I’m just “on my way in from the country” – when I’m dead tired and all I dream of is to take a rest.
It is not always easy to make a gift of myself. Sometimes I even have to force myself to manage the task with love. And it doesn’t always feel great to do so. What helps in that case is the consciousness that the gift of myself which costs me much, when I offer it to the Lord, becomes the parable “talent” that He may use as He wishes, thus multiplying its initial value. Doesn’t it please Him – also this effort which I force myself to make – out of love? There are the days when you have the opportunity collect a lot of such “talents” for Him.
Basia
His truth sets me free.
When I tell Him about all wasted opportunities, He refreshes my memory of things that worked out all right.
Where I see the emptiness, He says He has never left me.
Where I see dead seeds, He can see the potential for something new and better to arise.
When I say: I have spoilt this and that, He says: Look how much you’ve learnt.
When I know for sure: This will never work, He encourages: Don’t worry it didn’t work, try again.
When I think: I’ve had enough, He says: I see you’re in pain, tell me about it. I have time.
When I say: I don’t understand, He says: I know, but trust Me.
When I give up and can do no more, He reminds me: I love you. In every situation you may choose to love. One day, when all this is gone, you’ll see together with Me that love was the only thing that mattered.
M
“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)
Jesus offers the truth that liberates.
Every day, from the morning on, I learn to use the gift of freedom. And this is not easy at all, since the impulse to dominate and to fulfill my selfish needs makes me try to subordinate my husband and children and thus abuse this gift.
And yet Jesus wants me to see HIM in the other person, so in my closest family as well. He wants me to renounce myself and to change – not the others, but myself.
Then I’ll really be free.
Dosia
My students told me, if they were to have a heart transplantation, they would pick me as a donor. Because my heart has not been used.
My mum loves me much and she thinks me the best of her sons. Because she has no other son; there are only my two sisters with my brothers-in-law and 6 grandchildren.
I’m a son, a spiritual father, a brother, an uncle, a brother-in-law, a friend, a confidant, a priest, a consecrated person, a lecturer… How many of us are there? Who am I in the end? Which of those words describes me best?
Who or WHO should I turn to in order to look for the source of my „self”? He told Simon: you are Peter, He named Saul: Paul. Only he knows me entirely. Only He knows my true name. Only He has the answers to my questions.
The most wonderful thing in it is that He knows me entirely, because He has loved me to the end. I don’t know who I am going to be at the end, but probably I don’t need to know it now. I know when I reach the end, I’ll find Love. But in order to be able to recognize and embrace that Love one day, I want to love as much as I can today.
Fr Jay
“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life.” (John 5:39)
Not only is studying the Scriptures difficult – as it takes quite some time and effort – but accepting their message is even more demanding. Mere “study” at the level of the intellect is not enough: you have to let the Word touch you and guide you.
Your lifelong love affair with the Bible may start with reading the excerpts selected for everyday Mass. They are God’s personal letter to you, they shed light on your life situation and they give this unusual sense of being united with the members of the Church in the whole world, because we all listen to the same Word.
Reading the Bible is like sitting at the feet of Jesus – close to a Friend, who speaks directly to you. To you and to me. There are times you may not understand a friend of yours, and so it may happen here. If you spend enough time with Him day by day, you’ll eventually find the explanation of things that are beyond grasp today.
Dosia
Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she hasn borne?
Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.
(Isaiah 49:15-16)
When my husband needs to make sure he won’t forget something important, he writes it with the ballpoint pen on his palm. Sometimes, when he comes back from work he asks me: “Look, it’s all blurred, what did I mean?” It might be a phone number, time of the meeting with his employees or a request from me: buy dishwasher tablets.
I like to hear how very important I am. Sometimes I worry when I don’t hear it for a couple of days in a row, because I start to suspect something might have changed. I could ask God about it every day, to make quite sure that He’s carrying me somewhere close to His heart, that He hasn’t taken offense and He’s not keeping me at an arm’s length.
So He wrote it down. He wrote it down with the wounds piercing His palms right through. He let people hurt Him just to convince me that He’s not interested in keeping anybody at a distance.
I may also write down on the palms of my hands: “I am loved.” In order not to forget.
Małgosia
He was despised and rejected by mankind (Isaiah 51:3)
Judgment. Being judged. That is what Jesus experienced when he was numbered wit the transgressors. The sentence: death punishment! Even before He embraced the cross, His heart was crucified – by evil words.
What a disastrous mistake one can make while judging! How easy it is to cast an unjust accusation right in the middle of the other person’s heart!
It amazes me what words can work. The same tongue that may create the realm of love and peace, can also become the instrument of destruction, dealing blows; of making unfair and hurtful judgments.
So now I understand why Jesus so often warned: “Do not judge…” Because we’re so easily swayed by emotions and prone to assuming that the appearance – or the shadow deformed by mere interpretation of things – actually is „the” truth.
While contemplating the First Station of the Cross, I feel how immensely important it is to cultivate the habit of defending my spouse from accusations in my own heart!*
When my heart gains more freedom from judging, I find it easier not to join in the company of accusers whenever I become unintentionally a part of somebody else’s “trial”.
Basia
*One of the follow-up e-learning tasks after the “You and I = We” Program.
