Friday, December 31, 2010

Foto!


Dec 5- Columbian food:)
Columbian dessert: coconut pudding
a Columbian birthday :) LAURA
<3
Dec 8- Festa for Cissa and Juliana
Dec 10- Cissa leaves
Dec 11- just having fun
with Unita Lia
visited the house of Chiara Lubich in Loppiano (her room)
:) we're DORKS
Dec 15- Festa for Isa and Fiamma
Fiamma from Brasil (left Dec 19)
Festa for Isa (left Dec 16)
Festa for Maria (left Dec 25)- I was a British School girl..did a little skit
had to put on a British Accent and speak in English...which was actually so hard
because in my head I was just thinking of italian..losing my english slowly
Dec 26- We visited the Gen 2 Guys house
in their mini PUB!
me and Clara again:)

Sunday, December 19, 2010

SANCTITY.

Our life can't change the world, but SANCTTY can change the world.

...that is BEING A SAINT.
an ordinary girl: Beautified Chiara Luce (my previous blog posts-read!)

her key to being a saint: the love for her SUFFERING.
She lived the will of God in especially her moments of suffering.
And her life is echoing throughout the world; thousands gathered for her beautification.
And more around the world have been touched by her life.

She is really and truly someone I look up to because she lived so profoundly her life on earth.
She lived it to the FULLEST.

but remember she was just an ordinary person just like you and me.

I have the same desire to make this change in the world...
to live like she has.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

everyone has a Story to tell.

Every person has a story, their struggles, their moments of joy, their challenges, their accomplishments, their moments of laughter and love. All these moments through suffering and joy build the person from the inside and out. So every week, one of us here shares their "life story" everything that makes them who they are. Last weekend it was my turn. I spent hours preparing and thinking of all my moments of challenge and glory. All these moments have shaped my character and personality, especially the most difficult. In my story, every moment and story I shared related to how I'm trying to become the person God has shaped me to be. How each moment has really strengthened my faith, it's not in the joyful moments, but it's in the moments of trial that has led me to greater faith and to find a supernatural JOY.

It was so beautiful because usually you share infront of your unit (11 people); but I asked everyone to come, obviously not everyone came to listen. But majority listened to my story, listened with all their heart to my most difficult moments; hopefully one day if I haven't shared it already with you, that I can personally share it also.

A little experience before my sharing was I wanted to use the small theatre with the projector screen to share my story so everyone could see my pictures. Usually everyone uses a computer, but with so many people that would come, I wanted to use the projector screen. But just before my story, one of the girls wanted to watch a movie there along with some others and she told me in an insistent way. Right away, it was a moment to lose my own idea to welcome the other person's need. Even though I really wanted to use the projector screen, I thought right away, maybe it's not the will of God. So I responded, "Sure, you can use it, not a problem." (in italian obviously). But moments later, she told me that there was a problem and she wouldn't be able to watch it. Also she is a person that I haven't really gotten to know much, but in this moment I happily told her if you are free, you can also come to hear my story. After my story, she left a note on  my bed saying sorry and also she thanked me for knowing the "real" Donata now. I was so touched by this because I have tried previously to talk to her, but it has been difficult because she is quite shy. But in the small experience of sharing my story, now a friendship has started. I realized that once you know someone's story and everything that has made them who they are, it helps to know HOW to love the person. How the person wants to be loved and also you can understand the person better. So these past couple of weeks, that has been my desire, to really talk to others one on one (barely anytime for that, gotta MAKE time).

The more I know what has made the person who they are, the more I can love the person in the way they want to be loved. Or else, we will love others in the way we want- in our perspective. The basis of my experience really is to lose my own idea, will or want to serve the OTHER fully in how they want to be loved.

Friday, December 17, 2010

a Change.

It has been quite a while since I've posted...
At the moment I'm in Rome (7:33am) for a congress with the Focolare Movement from young people all around the world. Every moment is one to be treasured because time is flying by. It's almost been 4 months!

On a side note, I shaved my head...not for cancer ...just because.
Shaved...

ok..Only the bottom half of my head; I'll post a picture.
I told my grandma that I shaved my head like my brother (not totally like him) and she just laughed; I told my momma and she said I am so courageous.
I mean you only live once, life is short, so you gotta live it to the FULLEST. and do some crazy things while you're at it.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Word of Life

The word of life for last month, the short phrase from the Gospel that is put into practice, was "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God."


From the Word of Life Reflection (small excerpts):
Purity is the fruit of living the Word, of living all the Words of Jesus which free us from our so-called attachments, which we inevitably fall into if our hearts are not in God and in his teachings. These can be attachments to things, to people, to ourselves. But if our heart is focused on God alone, all the rest falls away.
So, then, the fruit of this constantly re-acquired purity is that we can ‘see’ God, which means we can understand his work in our lives and in history, hear his voice in our hearts, and recognise him where he is: in the poor, in the Eucharist, in his Word, in our communion with others, in the Church.
 It is a foretaste of the presence of God which already begins in this life, as we ‘walk by faith, not by sight’ (2 Cor. 5:7), until the time when, ‘we will see face to face’ (1 Cor. 13:12) forever.



So as I reflect upon this month and how I've lived this Word of Life...
This month I would say has been pretty rocky, as I hit some bumps and failed many times to love. With my experience with my roommate whom I struggle to get along with because our personalities are so different. Also other experiences I had with two of my close friends, which again I didn't think before saying unpleasant words. But I think the importance of all these three experiences is that I first asked for forgiveness and then in small ways I tried to act upon it. Small ways such as just asking how was their day, embracing them with a hug, consciously staying more attentive to my words, or helping them with their chores. Blessed are the pure in heart... which for me was in asking for forgiveness because if I didn't start again with all three of them, then I definitely wouldn't be able to start again with them. Then to be able to 'see' God meaning to be able to recognize him where he is...which was in my neighbour, in the three friends that I failed to love. To ask for forgiveness and to act upon it helped me to be able to be renewed and to be able to see them freely with "new eyes and a new heart."


So this month's Word of Life: "Nothing will be impossible for God." (Lk 1:37) (Click on the link to see the full reflection)


If you don't want to read the full reflection, here is small excerpts:
These words open us up to an unlimited confidence in the love of God the Father, because if God exists and his being is Love, what logically follows is that we can have complete trust in him. In his power are all graces: temporal and spiritual, possible and impossible. And he gives them to those who ask and also to those who do not ask because, as the Gospel says, the Father “makes his sun rise on the bad and the good” (Mt 5:45). What he does ask of all of us is to act the way he does, to have the same universal love, supported by faith
How should we put these words into practice? At one time or another we all face difficult, painful situations both in our personal lives and in our relationships with others. We sometimes feel helpless because we realize we have attachments to things and to people that enslave us and from whose chains we would like to be freed. Often too we find ourselves up against walls of indifference and selfishness and we feel discouraged in the face of events that seem to be more than we can handle.
In these moments, the Word of Life can pick us up. Jesus lets us experience our own limitations, not to discourage us, but to help us understand more deeply that “Nothing will be impossible for God,” and to prepare us to experience the extraordinary power of his grace, which is manifested precisely when we see that we cannot manage on our own.



So let's put this into practice that: "NOTHING is impossible for God." (Lk 1:37)

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Love freely

CIAO CIAO :)

adesso, il mio italiano e meglio, pero faccio tanto sbagli. provo sempre parlare in italiano, e un po strano quando parlo inglese perche io ho comminciato pensare in italiano! Ma adesso quando scrivo in italiano, e difficile!!!
Il weekend scorso, Geppina e venuta con noi. Propio BELLISIMO. Basta italiano.

hahah....slowly slowly I almost understand everything now and I speak italian probably 90% of the time :)
Everyday I'm reminded of how fortunate I am here. Everyone keeps reminding me to treasure each moment I have here because this experience is one that will imprint my heart, soul and mind. 

To describe the place where I am in one sentence: I feel as if I'm in heaven on earth. Why?
because I live with almost 50 girls from around the world, we all come from different backgrounds, cultures, and we are so different. But we only try to love one another as we would want to be loved. Where there is love... heaven on earth is possible. 

But obviously I have written before already in my previous experiences, I failed many times to love, but what is important and beautiful is the chance to start again. And I would have to say the person I fail most with is my lovely BROTHER. It's definitely different to see my brother go to university and not being home to always check up on him and of course boss him around sometimes? I've been able to talk to him once in a while to ask him about his school, and life of course. But it's really difficult to see him grow up and I'm not physically there to help him when he's in need. Especially when the way he does things and the choices he makes is not the way I would act in the same situation. And obviously being the sister I am, every time I talk to him I want to just lecture and lecture him; it's more like advise him but you know? 

And a few days I talked to him again and likewise he said something to me that really hurt me to point that I seriously had tears in my eyes, it wasn't something that was directed towards me, but it just showed the way he prioritizes his life is very different from mine. But through this Jesus Forsaken (suffering) in my heart, I embraced it right away, and with joy. I knew that I can always advise him and try to see his life through my own eyes, but this time I wanted to love him for the person he is, and the way he wants to be loved, not the way I want to love him. Something so simple, yet so hard to do. 

Even though I love him so much, so much; I need to let him be free to make his own choices, prioritize his own life, and let him be. I said to him, "Sometimes I don't understand you, and you probably don't understand me, but I am seriously happy for you as long as you are happy too." It took me probably 20 years of life to come to this point. Only reason: I LOVE my brother, don't know how to express it more, but I love him so much I want to let him be free. Usually, I would have felt really down, but this time I loved him in the way he wants to be loved (that is to let him be free), I felt a supernatural peace and joy in my heart. The joy that is only born in suffering as I had mentioned before in my past experiences of Jesus Forsaken (suffering). Can that be the secret to life? 

Credo di si (I think so).