Bits of the Gospel

I now remember the witty words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of the Church.[...] Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without repentance; it is baptism without the discipline of community; it is the Lord's supper without confession of sin; it is absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without the living, incarnate Jesus Christ." And without being aware of what we are asking for, we want to obtain what we do not know. Good Friday, for instance, is the event [sic, the experience!] that frees us from thinking about small gains in order to ponder on our own personal fate, about the ultimate meaning of all life. And yet, many abhor the Good Friday, all set to grab the sweet glory of Easter. Easter, in fact, is a big and loud 'No' to cheap grace, if cheap grace were to be understood in terms of separation of the Good Friday experience from the Easter glory!

Easter is a period full of meaning for the believer because besides the many times that we hear the "doubting Thomas" syndrome, we also hear the consoling "they saw and believed". I've been rethinking my choices in these days. Resurrection does not mark the end of suffering. If it does, it also marks the end of suffering for Pilate too! Pilate was not free: conditioned from without and yet from within truth echoing, he suffered. He was troubled. But the Risen Lord gives the Pilates of this world freedom to choose the truth, the voice echoing within. That choice must always involve some suffering. Believe me then, Easter does not mark the end of suffering. Resurrection is the end of the rule of pettiness, the inability to see beyond. The human heart is a courtroom wherein truth can be exposed and embraced or veiled and ignored. The fact is like in every courtroom, if justice is not done, if truth is not embraced, people will fuel hatred. Yes, because justic

We are all longing for peace, inner peace I mean. It can never do any good to fool oneself into ignoring the truth, for in deceiving oneself about the truth of one's own life, one is certainly deceiving oneself about the Truth, God's truth as well. The truth shall make you free. Yes, the Truth shall make you True. The truth shall make you free. And the Truth will sure make you a Son of God. God's truth is God's love, and God's love frees us from ourselves for the other. To be free means nothing except being in love. And being in love means nothing except being in God's truth. If I let this be, I can say like the Lord, "I'm the Way, the Truth and the Life."

Every new morning is a new beginning of our life. Every day is a completed whole. This day, today is the limit of our sorrows and efforts. It is long enough to find God, or to lose Him, to keep faith or to fall into sin and shame. Just as the good old sun rises every morning anew, so is God's eternal mercy new every morning. I will always begin my day with a smile!

My friends, sometimes people can’t express love in the same way as you can and they are often thought of as not loving you. yeah, some of us have chosen not to express love in some of those mundane-carnal ways. Understanding that everyone is different helps you to understand your own capacity to love and not put expectations on someone else to fulfill you. " I'm busy putting expectations for myself and fulfilling them to my satisfaction. I really do not have time to fulfill yours ". Such a statement is a statement of love, not indifference or disrespect. And God has said, " Love them as I have loved you ". It sounds like, love them by obeying Our Father, who speaks through his Spirit deep down your heart!

Anyone who has discovered Christ leads others to Christ. A great joy cannot be kept to oneself. It has to be shared, passed on, and multiplied. Some people tend to live their lives as if with or without God everything would be the same. Yet, the great secret is always the same. There is always a feeling of frustration, a sense of dissatisfaction with everyone and everything. No wonder those who refuse to acknowledge God in their lives become victims of other strange attachments. We who have discovered Christ have a duty to save others from the dreadful feeling of dissatisfaction and hopelessness. Faith shared is faith growing or expanding. Needless to say, faith is nourished by such commitment.

My very Dear brothers and sisters, In these days we've been reflecting on the life of our Founder, St. J B Cottolengo, a man of God chosen to be a priest for the poor. We surely have heard of the singular event of September 2, 1827, when Fr. Cottolengo witnessed the death of Maria Gonnet, a death which was surrounded by so much pain and confusion that we too still need to reflect on it to unveil its impact. We know it is after that fateful day that all the Cottolengo enterprise came to be. My dear loved ones,we follow Christ by following St J B Cottolengo, who chose to follow Christ, the friend of the poor and the smallest. Of the many people who have been fascinated by St. J B Cottolengo is Blessed James Alberione. Blessed James Alberione (4 April 1884 – 26 November 1971)was an Italian priest and publisher, the founder of the Society of St. Paul and the Daughters of St. Paul , besides other orders and institutes of the Pauline Family. He was born on 4 April 1884 in San Lore