sussidio march 2016

  HIS MERCY ENDURES FOREVER

From the WORD of GOD
‘When the Son of man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory. All nations will be assembled before him and he will separate people one from another as the shepherd separates sheep from goats. He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right hand, “Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take as your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome,lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me.” Then the upright will say to him in reply, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and make you welcome, lacking clothes and clothe you? When did we find you sick or in prison and go to see you?” And the King will answer, “In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.” Then he will say to those on his left hand, “Go away from me, with your curse upon you, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you never gave me food, I was thirsty and you never gave me anything to drink, I was a stranger and you never made me welcome, lacking clothes and you never clothed me, sick and in prison and you never visited me.” Then it will be their turn to ask, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger or lacking clothes, sick or in prison, and did not come to your help?” Then he will answer, “In truth I tell you, in so far as you neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you neglected to do it to me.”
And they will go away to eternal punishment, and the upright to eternal life.’ (Mt 25,31-46)

From the DOCUMENTS of the CHURCH

God’s mercy transforms human hearts; it enables us, through the experience of a faithful love, to become merciful in turn. In an ever new miracle, divine mercy shines forth in our lives, inspiring each of us to love our neighbour and to devote ourselves to what the Church’s tradition calls the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. These works remind us that faith finds expression in concrete everyday actions meant to help our neighbours in body and spirit: by feeding, visiting, comforting and instructing them. On such things will we be judged. For this reason, I expressed my hope that “the Christian people may reflect on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy; this will be a way to reawaken our conscience, too often grown dull in the face of poverty, and to enter more deeply into the heart of the Gospel where the poor have a special experience of God’s mercy” (Misericordiae Vultus., 15). For in the poor, the flesh of Christ “becomes visible in the flesh of the tortured, the crushed, the scourged, the malnourished, and the exiled… to be acknowledged, touched, and cared for by us” (ibid.). It is the unprecedented and scandalous mystery of the extension in time of the suffering of the Innocent Lamb, the burning bush of gratuitous love. Before this love, we can, like Moses, take off our sandals (cf. Ex 3:5), especially when the poor are our brothers or sisters in Christ who are suffering for their faith. (Message of Pope Francis for Lent 2016)

From the WRITINGS of Blessed A. ROSMINI
One of the principal characteristics of true love is compassion. Indeed, the meaning of the words ‘compassionate love’ is so profound that we can scarcely imagine how many sufferings this love produces. Compassion is the sweet, but painful affection through which we feel in ourselves the sufferings and evils of all our brethren as though they were our own. Through compassion, one person alone suffers all that the others suffer as he amasses in his own heart all the distress of others. And the more perfect the love, the greater the intensity of this kind of suffering: Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalised, and I am not on fire? (2 Cor 11: 29). To form a correct idea of the enormity of the suffering which great, perfect love imposes on a loving soul, we have to mentally imagine all the misery of human life to which men and women, our brothers and sisters, are subject: want, which leads so many to suffer hunger and nakedness; illness, with all its torments and pains; sadness and passion, which can go so far as to obliterate the use of reason; violent death and, worse than death, the ignorance,
error, bloody quarrelling, injustice, tyranny and wickedness
of every kind which covers mankind with ignominy and leads
so much of it to eternal perdition. The compassionate heart of
the person who truly loves his fellows considers this immense
mass of horrible calamities, and sinks endlessly under the
burden of all that it implies. The One who loved more than
anyone else, and possessed so much supernatural love in
himself that he was able to give it to others, is well aware of
this. (A Society of Love, Fifth Homily, Sacrifice)

LET US PRAY (Ps 103)
Bless Yahweh, my soul,
never forget all his acts of kindness.
He forgives all your offences, cures all your diseases,
he redeems your life from the abyss,
crowns you with faithful love and tenderness;
he contents you with good things all your life,
renews your youth like an eagle’s.
Yahweh acts with uprightness,
with justice to all who are oppressed.
Yahweh is tenderness and pity,
slow to anger and rich in faithful love.
As the height of heaven above earth,
so strong is his faithful love for those who fear him.
As the distance of east from west,
so far from us does he put our faults.
Bless Yahweh, my soul.

PASTORAL YEAR 2015 – 2016
ON-GOING FORMATION
INSTITUTE OF CHARITY
ROSMINIAN SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE

37843_bug.jpg