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)