Impressions from the WYD 2008

Firstly, I want to apologize if this post is extremely long, but the event itself was great enough to write an entire website of it. LOL

Probably there is no farer place on earth than Oceania (at least seeing it from a perspective of inhabitants of the northern hemisphere)

Despite the distance, there we were nearly 500,000 people from different races, languages, cultures and origins, united for the same cause: hearing the words of hope and love from the Pope Benedict XVI.

What a wonderful place! Sydney is not just literally beautiful in its geographical constitution and location, but it is full of gorgeous and kind people, always willing to help you out.

The atmosphere was awesome! You could feel a great energy all around. I guess many of the Aussies got deeply moved with our fervor and happiness during those few days of the WYD week.

Following, I will try to write down the most striking ideas that I personally liked from the messages of the Holy Father in Sydney:

• “We must allow the love of God to penetrate our hard shell of indifference, of our spiritual dryness, of our blind conformity with the spirit of our time. Only then, we can allow Him to light up our imagination and to engrave our deepest desires. Therefore, prayer is very important: daily private prayer in the tranquility of our hearts and in front of the Most Holy Sacrament and the liturgical prayer in the heart of the Church”.


• “Young people: what will you leave to the next generation? Are you building up your lives on a solid basis? Are you living your lives sparing some space to the Spirit in a world that pretends to forgive God or even to reject Him in the name of a false concept of freedom? How are you using the gifts that had been given to you, the “power” of the Holy Spirit that is to be poured out on all of you?”.


• “A new generation of Christians is called to contribute to the construction of a world where life can be received, respected and cared carefully; not rejected or seeing as a threat and therefore, destroyed. A new era in which love is not eager for selfishness, but a pure, faithful and sincerely free love; open to the others, respectful for its dignity. A love which promotes its wellbeing and which shines with happiness and beauty. A new era in which hope frees us up from superficiality, apathy and selfishness that hurts our souls and poisons the human relationships”.


• “My dear young friends, the Lord is asking you to be His prophets in this new era, messengers of His love; being able to bring all the people to the Father and to construct a future of hope for the entire humanity”.


• “Do not be afraid to say “yes” to Jesus, to find out your happiness in doing His will, giving yourselves completely to reach holiness and using your talents to service
  others!”.


• “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving. Never doubt of the truth of our Lord Jesus’ promises, in which we receive afterwards everything that we give (our creativity, our resources, our people), in abundance”.


• “The real source of freedom is in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Christians believe that He reveals in fullness the human potentiality to grow up in virtue and in
  Good. He frees up from sin and from the darkness”.


• “The authentic love is certainly good. When we love we are fully human. But often it is believed to love someone when in reality they tend to possess or to manipulate the other. Sometimes, other people are treated as objects to satisfy their deepest needs. It is so easy to be deceived by those many voices in our society which sustain a permissive focus of sexuality without paying attention to modesty, self-respect and moral values that confer quality to human relationships”.


• “We can fall into temptation by reducing the life of faith to a mere sentimental issue; therefore, weakening its power of inspiring a coherent vision to the world and a rigorous dialogue with the many visions that compete in the conquest of minds and hearts of our contemporaries”.


• “Walk each day before the Light of Christ, through your fidelity to the personal and liturgical prayer, nurtured by the meditation of the Word, inspired by God. May the daily celebration of the Eucharist be the center of your life!”.


• “The Holy Spirit! His function is this: to accomplish the work of Christ. Enriched with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you will have the strength to go further, farer from the partial visions, from the empty utopia, to offer coherency and certainty to the Christian testimony”.


• “Love has a particular characteristic: its aim is to remain. By nature, Love is lasting. The Holy Spirit offers love to the World; love that dissipates uncertainty, that overcomes the fright to be deceived by eternity itself; the true love that incorporates us to the reality that remains”.


• "Being fully alive is to be transformed from the inside, being open to the power of God’s love. If you receive the power of the Holy Spirit, then you will also be able to transform your families, your communities and the nations. Free up those gifts! May wisdom, intelligence, strength, science and piety be the signs of your greatness!”.


• "Christ offers more; He offers everything. Only Him, who is the Truth, can be the Way and therefore, the Life”.


• "We must remain faithful to the yes with which we accepted the offer of friendship from the Lord. We know that He will never abandon us, that he will always maintain us with the gifts of the Spirit.


• "Mary accepted the “proposal” from the Lord on our behalf. Let us go to her and ask her to guide us through the difficulties, so that we may keep loyal to the vital relationship that God established with each one of us”.

It is not just a challenge but also a great responsibility what we acquired there in Australia during that week. I am sure all of us, the attendants, were changed in some way by the Spirit. In a few cases, the changes will be dramatic; as for the rest of us, the changes might be slight, almost imperceptible, but representative because it will imply changing habits or attitudes, for better.

It will be a along way for WYD 2011, but enough time to get ready for another encounter with our Creator through His servant, the Pope. The challenge has been given to us and it’s a challenge of Love. Are you willing to take it?

Striving for Love,
AG

P.S. For further information on WYD 2008, please check: http://www.wyd2008.org/

On inner life

I was wondering what I should write about since a couple of days ago, when I first posted in this personal blog. A good friend of mine suggested “anything and everything”. Probably that’s the right attitude. Unfortunately, I am not really an expert in “everything”… though I would love that! LOL

Recently I had been exploring more about my personal spiritual life. It is such a vast spectrum to deepen into. Probably I should start by defining what spiritual life is. Probably one of the easiest definitions to understand comes from a book called Furrow, from Josemaria Escriva:

“I like to compare the interior life to clothing, to the wedding garment the Gospel speaks about. The cloth is woven from all the habits or acts of piety which, like threads, together give strength to the cloth. And so, just as a torn dress is rejected even though the rest of the material is in good condition, if you pray and work... but are not penitent (or the other way round) your interior life is not (so to speak) complete.” (Furrow, “Interior Life”, P. 649)

And well, if interior life is like a cloth, wouldn’t we prefer to wear beautiful garments? Well, in order to do that, we have to work hard and pray more. Prayer is like a power-maker powder (so as to speak in physical terms), that makes you know yourself better, exploring your possibilities, realizing about your weaknesses and getting to know the almighty, who can make you achieve even the craziest or unreachable dreams you could ever have had.

However, at the end of the day you must be conscious that you don’t do this alone… even the greatest spiritual achievements are not your own successes. Being humble is then the task and the challenge!

So today, I want to encourage you, my dear friend, to keep striving for Love. Love is the best power-maker, the best medicine for any spiritual or emotional wound. Love is the best ingredient to cook the beautiful and majestic cake of life.

So, what is that thing called Love? I’ll get into that at the right time. Right now it’s time to stop and to work!

Striving for love,

AG

First time!

Dear all,

This is my very first time blogging and I say it with a bit of embarrassment, because most of my contemporaries do it since a few years ago and some others are even addicted to it. I wonder what's the "wonder" of it... but certainly it must be amusing and relaxing.

So, here I am, embarking on a new adventure (though, not so adventurous as many of the tales I could relate during my trips). I'm not good at writing, especially when doing it in a foreign language.

I was born and raised in a marvelous North American country well known for its unique culture, spicy food, pretty girls, nice resorts and our Lady of Guadalupe. Probably no other country on earth is as rich in culture, tradition, natural resources and blessings as Mexico.

Fortunately or unfortunately, we have "the Mexican", a very particular object of study, which normally attempts to screw up the beauty and richness of such country! LOL But seriously speaking, nothing is perfect on Earth and something had to balance the marvels of God in that particular place.

Anyway... the important thing is that despite our weaknesses, my people can be noble and kind, full of the love I long for... probably that's why I decided to choose such a title for my blog: "striving for love".

And who doesn't? I mean, we all study, work, have families and relationships, but at the end of the day, what is a life without love? It's really intriguing such topic: L O V E . I wish I could have more time to deepen into its study, but rather than doing it academically, I prefer to choose the experimental part.

I'm sure loving is the first step to receive love, isn't it obvious? It may sound silly, but I think that's a first requirement... and great news: I'm willing to do so!

So, my dear brother or sister who is around: we are all loving beings, in deep need of love, or I should say "The Love", which little by little we'll be able to discover and meet through our lives... probably we won't understand it, but once we are brave enough to face it, we'll enjoy it, that's for sure!

Have fun and receive my blessings! I'll be posting soon...

Striving for Love,

AG