Note to God

Once asked by a monk to pray for him and his companions, Barsanuphius responded as follows, including the citation of this verse in his greeting: “My beloved sons, I embrace you in the Lord, entreating him to protect you from all evil, and to support you as he did Job, to give you grace as he gave to Joseph, gentleness as to Moses and valour in battle as to Joshua, the son of Nun, mastery of thought as to the judges, victory over enemies as to King David and King Solomon, fertile land as to the Israelites.... May he grant you forgiveness of your sins with the healing of the body as he did to the paralytic. May he save you from the waters as he did Peter and snatch you from troubles as he did Paul and the other Apostles. May he protect you from every evil, as his true children, and grant you your heart’s desire, for the advantage of your soul and your body, in his name. Amen” (Barsanuphius and John of Gaza, Epistolario 194: Collana di Testi Patristici, XCIII, Rome, 1991, pp. 235-236)....

It's the walk of Emmaeus 1. Spending time with friends  2. To reveal wounds, our hopes that were dashed. And to tell of the great things! Share joy and frustrations  3.  Friends are to leave the room rejuvenated, hopeful 4. To be loyal to them

The first cross - life sized outside the oratory - An invitation to embrace the cross Custom to venerate the cross outside the oratory More important, to embrace  How? - not to complain, not to highlight our sufferings. Can end up losing the merits of what our Lord intended us to have.  Amen amen, they have had their rewards. When u fast, to do in secret. 

The saints when truly gave themselves to pray for others and the world. St. Theresa benedicta told Jesus, Lord I want to offer myself and my works and sacrifices to pray from the souls in Germany, for their conversion. That's how big they aspired their prayer to be, that's how much they gave themselves, and looked beyond themselves, and not at themselves. 

Our holiness consists, in good measure, in discovering that others are part of our own life. Charity and justice need to be intertwined in a vision of reality governed by a vivid awareness of everything in our life that entails relationships with others. “The justice that can be the stable foundation for peace is the justice of the children of God, justice enlivened by the charity that sees in others brothers and sisters, children of the same heavenly Father.”