Bits of the Gospel

This is Vocations' week. The Fourth Sunday of Easter this year falls on Sunday, April 29, 2012. It is forty ninth edition. This week coincides with the novena of St. Joseph Cottolengo. What a coincidence! Then the message of Pope Benedict XVI talks of vocation as the gift of the Love of God. That places vocation at the heart of all the mystery of incarnation and the salvation history. The Pope writes: "Every specific vocation is in fact born of the initiative of God; it is a gift of the Love of God! He is the One who takes the “first step”, and not because he has found something good in us, but because of the presence of his own love “poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5).In every age, the source of the divine call is to be found in the initiative of the infinite love of God, who reveals himself fully in Jesus Christ." St. J B Cottolengo too thought that to be "called into the Little House of the Divine Providence is a sign of favor"...

Lord, help us see again! That we may see again the tragic fact of drug addicts, of alcoholics, of workaholics, and other addicts. Open our eyes to see their tears, and our ears to hear their continuous cry. Above all help us to open our hearts and do something to help them. Lord,help us to find out ways to help them. Help us build a rehab for them, a rehab that first of all is found in our hearts and then in buildings. Lord, this group is ignored. Their poverty is overlooked. That already justifies our attention to them but especially because you want them to experience your love. Amen! NB: Sometimes I wonder whether we are not too much interested in doing other things such that we fail to see the addicts right inside our homes, our schools, our parishes and even to see the addicts that we are!