sussidio feb 2016

  The Church is a witness to the Mercy of God

From the WORD of GOD

‘But I say this to you who are listening: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly. To anyone who slaps you on one cheek, present the other cheek as well; to anyone who takes your cloak from you, do not refuse your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and do not ask for your property back from someone who takes it. Treat others as you would like people to treat you. Love your enemies and do good to them, and lend without any hope of return. You will have a great reward, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap; because the standard you use will be the standard used for you. ‘(Lk: 6,27-31.35-38)

From the DOCUMENTS of the CHURCH
Mercy is the very foundation of the Church’s life. All of her pastoral activity should be caught up in the tenderness she makes present to believers; nothing in her preaching and in her witness to the world can be lacking in mercy. The Church’s very credibility is seen in how she shows merciful and compassionate love. The Church “has an endless desire to show mercy”(Misericordiae Vultus, n. 10)
The Church is commissioned to announce the mercy of God, the beating heart of the Gospel, which in its own way must penetrate the heart and mind of every person. The Spouse of Christ must pattern her behaviour after the Son of God who went out to everyone without exception. In the present day, as the Church is charged with the task of the new evangelization, the theme of mercy needs to be proposed again and again with new enthusiasm and renewed pastoral action. It is absolutely essential for the Church and for the credibility of her message that she herself live and testify to mercy. Her language and her gestures must transmit mercy, so as to touch the hearts of all people and inspire them once more to find the road that leads to the Father. The Church’s first truth is the love of Christ. The Church makes herself a servant of this love and mediates it to all people: a love that forgives and expresses itself in the gift of oneself. Consequently, wherever the Church is present, the mercy of the Father must be evident. In our parishes, communities, associations and movements, in a word, wherever there are Christians, everyone should find an oasis of mercy.(Misericordiae Vultus n.12)

From the WRITINGS of Blessed A. ROSMINI
There need be no doubt about the characteristic proper to this Institute if its intention is to bring together and bind in one the hearts of those who want to live for charity and from charity. It will be marked by generosity devoid of jealousy; it will praise good wherever it is found and whoever does it. It will go to meet hatred with love, and conquer its enemies through good.You see, charity is not a simple mental concept, nor a sterile affection of the heart, nor any natural inclination. It is not found in words or in a flood of rhetoric but is, as we said, all action, all life, all deed. Let us love, therefore, in charity unfeigned (2 Cor 6: 6) or, as John says: Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. In this we know that we are of the truth (that is, of God) and in his sight shall persuade our hearts (1 Jn 3: 18–19). Even before this, the Master himself had taught us that charity consists in what is done: He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me (Jn 14: 21). This is the true foundation of charity’s endurance and long-suffering perseverance. It is not an empty cry, nor an emotion which dies in the heart, nor the vanity and hypocrisy detested by the Lord. It is most real, loving activity, born from God, which watches and governs everything within us. It judges, rules and sums up everything in itself. Brothers, this is the constancy with which God-charity loves. He has loved all his works ab aeterno, he loves them now, and he will love them forever. He never repents of his gifts. He says to Israel through Jeremiah: Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore have I drawn you, taking pity on you. And I will build you again, and you shall be built, 0 virgin of Israel. You shall again be adorned with your timbrels and shall go forth in the dances that make merry (31: 3–4). His words are addressed even more truly to the Church, of which Israel was only a figure; and to us, too, and to all mankind, provided we do not close our ears to such touching protestations of his most faithful love. This love has never allowed itself to be conquered by human waywardness of any kind. Indeed, Christ appeared on earth, like Jacob, covered with goatskin, that is, dressed in the ignominious cloak of the world’s sin, clothing that was not his own. He paid our infamous debt with his own blood, which allowed the love of God to conquer death itself. (A Society of Love, Fourth Homily, Charity)

LET US PRAY (Wisd 11: 24–27; 12: 1)
You have mercy upon all,
because you can do all things,
and you overlook the sins of men
for the sake of repentance.
For you love all things that are,
and hate none of the things which you have made:
for you did not appoint or make anything, hating it.
And how could anything endure if you will it not,
or be preserved if not called by you.
But you spare all: because they are yours,
0 Lord, you who love souls.
0 how good and sweet is your spirit, 0 Lord, in all things

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

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